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Academic ResearchJune 12, 2026Systems (MDPI), Vol. 14, Issue 6, Article 676

The AI Sentinel: Leveraging Big Data Analytics and Predictive Systems to Mitigate Negative e-WOM and Enhance Service Recovery in Hospitality

Presents AI Sentinel, a closed-loop system that combines topic modeling, natural language processing and machine learning to monitor negative hotel reviews and route service recovery. Across 85,178 reviews of 80 European hotels, a Gradient Boosting model flagged high-risk reviews (AUC = 0.919), and cleanliness, staff behavior and room quality accounted for 47.0% of negative comments. The authors outline portfolio-level risk prioritization, segment- and nationality-based recovery thresholds, and governance aligned with GDPR and the EU AI Act.

Authors

Thowayeb H. Hassan, Amany E. Salem, Muhannad Mohammed Alfehaid, Mahmoud I. Saleh

Article content

The paper presents AI Sentinel, a closed-loop socio-technical approach to monitoring, analyzing, and responding to negative hotel reviews through a combination of big data analytics, natural language processing, and machine learning predictive modeling.

A total of 85,178 reviews were analyzed for 80 European hotel properties, with 5665 (mean = 6.54) classified as negative and 79,513 (mean = 9.22) classified as positive. Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) was used to discover topics; Gradient Boosting was used to classify high-risk reviews (AUC = 0.919); and a rule-based engine was employed for routing recovery/delivery of service.

This analysis identified ten major complaint areas in guest reviews, with Cleanliness, staff behavior, and room quality accounting for 47.0% of negative comments about hotels and forming the Critical tier of intervention.

There are three key theoretical contributions made by this study: (1) establishing operationalization of joint socio-technical optimization in AI-augmented service management; (2) introducing algorithmic service sensing as a time-compression mechanism for recovery workflow; and (3) demonstrating that the integration of unsupervised topic modeling with supervised risk classifications can provide a compounded analytical approach.

Managerial consequences include risk prioritization at the portfolio level, the design of specific services to target certain traveler segments, nationality-based recovery threshold levels, and an appropriate governance structure that meets the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation and the new European Union Artificial Intelligence Act.

Tags

Artificial IntelligenceReviews & SentimentGuest ExperienceOperations

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