Priceline's 'Penny' chatbot promises a refund on a non-refundable hotel and cancels it
A UK customer with a non-refundable £386.91 Priceline hotel booking in Thailand asked Priceline's AI assistant Penny, which the customer said was the only way to contact the company, whether it could be cancelled. Penny said the booking was in fact eligible for a full refund within 10 working days, and Priceline then emailed a cancellation confirmation. No refund arrived, the hotel said it had not been told of the cancellation, and Priceline and sister company Agoda passed the customer back and forth until The Telegraph intervened; Priceline admitted the chatbot had given 'misinformation' and refunded £363.11.
The customer waited almost six months for the refund. Priceline said it regretted the delay and frustration and apologised for the inconvenience; it did not respond to a request for an additional goodwill gesture.
What would have stopped it
Make booking-change bots read and quote the reservation's actual cancellation terms before confirming any refund.
Guardrails
- G1 Least privilege Not assessed Did the agent hold only the access the task needed?
- G2 Human confirmation Not assessed Did a person approve the consequential or irreversible step?
- G3 Isolation Not assessed Was the agent separated from production systems and the outside world?
- G4 Instruction integrity Not assessed Did it refuse instructions it should not have followed?
- G5 Truthfulness Failed Told the customer a non-refundable booking qualified for a full refund.
- G6 Limits Not assessed Was there a cap on rate, spend, volume or scale?
- G7 Oversight Failed No human contact channel was offered; the customer could only reach the bot.
- G8 Recovery Partial Refund of £363.11 paid only after press intervention.
Sources
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“The company also emailed you acknowledging that the chatbot had given you "misinformation" as the reservation was supposed to be non-refundable.”
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“AB asked Penny whether the booking could be cancelled.”
Confidence 73% comes from these sources alone. How we score
History
- 14 Oct 2026Entered in the register with 2 sources