Service robots in hotels: understanding the service quality perceptions of human-robot interaction

TLDR

The hotel industry has begun adopting service robots as a future workforce, yet the dimensionality of their service quality remains unexplored. This paper aims to understand the influence of human–robot interaction from the viewpoint of hoteliers and guests. The authors conducted two studies: a focus‑group interview with hotel managers to identify themes of guest–robot interaction, followed by an experiment comparing guests’ perceptions of service quality delivered by humans, robots, and their combination. Guests rated human staff higher than robots on interaction quality and physical service environment, but there was no significant difference in outcome quality.

Abstract

Hotel industry started to adopt service robots, which are considered a future workforce. However, no attempt was conducted to examine the dimensionality of service quality of service robots. This paper aims to understand the influence of human–robot interaction from the viewpoint of hoteliers and guests. Two studies are conducted in this respect. Study 1 organizes focus-group interviews with hotel managers from various departments to elicit themes related to guest–robot interaction and robot-delivered services. Based on the findings in Study 1, Study 2 conducts an experiment to examine and compare hotel guests' perceptions about the quality of services provided by human staff and service robots, as well as their joint services. Human staff services are perceived higher than the services of service robots in terms of interaction quality and physical service environment. However, no significant difference in outcome quality is noted.