Attitudes of hotel customers towards the use of service robots in hospitality service encounters

• Published in: Technology in society 2022-08, Vol.70, p.101995, Article 101995
• Main Authors: Ayyildiz, Ahu Yazici, Baykal, Muhammed, Koc, Erdogan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Artificial intelligence; Digitalisation; Hotel guests' attitudes; Hotels; Service robots; Technology
• ISSN: 0160-791X; 1879-3274
• DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2022.101995

This study aims to identify whether hotel guests' attitudes towards robots serving at hotels show differences according to their gender, level of education, generation, and the continent they are from. The data for the study were collected from 1078 hotel guests who lived on four continents through an online survey. The analysis of the results shows that while the hotel guests are uncertain about their attitudes towards the presence of robots in daily life, in general, they tend to have more positive attitudes towards services delivered by service robots. The study shows that there is no significant difference in the attitudes of guests towards service robots in terms of the continent they are from. Generation X guests tended to be less interested in experiencing service encounters with service robots compared with Generation Y and Generation Z guests, as guests from Generation X believed that service robots offered more disadvantages. The study is original as previous research has not studied hotel guests’ attitudes towards services delivered by service robots according to their gender, level of education, generation, and the continent they are from. •As service robots are fairly recent research on service robots is inconclusive.•Overall tourists are positive towards the use of service robots at hotels.· However, they still prefer services delivered by human service personnel.•Males, in general, tend to be more interested in technology.•However, this study found that females were more interested in services delivered by service robots.