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Purpose: This paper presents a review of the current state and potential capabilities for application of robots, artificial intelligence and automated services (RAISA) in hotel companies.

Design/methodology/approach: A two-step approach was applied in this study. First, the authors make a theoretical overview of the robots, artificial intelligence and service automation (RAISA) in hotels. Second, the authors make a detailed overview of various case studies from global hotel practice.

Findings: The application of RAISA in hotel companies is examined in connection with the impact that technology has on guest experience during each of the five stages of the guest cycle: pre-arrival, arrival, stay, departure, assessment.

Research implications: Its implications can be searched with respect to future research. It deals with topics such as how different generations (guests and employees) perceive RAISA in the hotel industry and what is the attitude of guests in different categories of hotels (luxury and economy) towards the use of RAISA. It also shows what is the attitude of different types of tourists (holiday, business, health, cultural, etc.) and what kinds of robots (androids or machines) are more appropriate for different types of hotel operations.

Practical implications: The implications are related to the improvement of operations and operational management, marketing and sales, enhancement of customer experience and service innovation, training and management.

Originality/value: This book chapter complements and expands research on the role of RAISA in the hotel industry and makes some projections about the use of technologies in the future.

This study aims to investigate the effects of hotel customers’ perceived utilitarian and hedonic values on their intention to use service robots. In addition, the influences of innovativeness, ease of use and compatibility on hotel customers’ perceived utilitarian and hedonic values were examined.

The data of the current study was collected from 11 countries including the USA, UK, Turkey, Spain, Romania, Japan, Israel, India, Greece, Canada and Brazil. A structural equation modeling was used to test the study hypotheses.

The results indicated that hotel customers’ intention to use service robots was positively influenced by their utilitarian and hedonic value perceptions. In addition, customers’ perceptions of robots’ ease of use and compatibility had a positive impact on their perceived utilitarian and hedonic values.

The findings of the current study provide unique contributions in the context of hospitality robotics technology adoption literature. In addition, this study provides valuable insights and novel opportunities for hospitality decision-makers to capitalize on, as they strive to strategize the integration of robot-based services into their operations.

本研究调查了酒店顾客感知功能性价值和享乐性价值对服务机器人使用意向的影响。此外, 本研究考察了创新性、易用性和兼容性对酒店顾客感知功能性价值和享乐性价值的影响。

本研究的数据来自美国、英国、土耳其、西班牙、罗马尼亚、日本、以色列、印度、希腊、加拿大和巴西等十一个国家, 采用结构方程模型（SEM）对研究假设进行测试。

结果表明, 酒店顾客使用服务机器人的意向受到他们对功能性价值和享乐性价值的感知的积极影响。此外, 机器人易用性和兼容性对功能性价值和享乐性价值有积极影响。

本研究的发现对酒店行业机器人技术应用文献提供了独特的贡献。此外, 本研究为酒店业的决策者提供了宝贵的见解和新机遇, 使他们能够在将机器人服务的优势整合到酒店运营中。

The hospitality industry has witnessed numerous changes to enhance the stay experience of guests. To offer a memorable stay experience, the industry has started deploying intelligent robots. Therefore, this case study aims to examine and explore artificial intelligence (AI) enabled robots in hospitality industry in order to enhance guest experience in a smart city.

Semistructured interviews have been conducted at Novotel Ambassador Seoul Dongdaemun Hotels and Residences, Seoul, South Korea, to understand the stay experience of guests regarding services offered by AI enabled robots. The authors have selected employees for interviews since employees listen and witness the guest experience directly. Out of 214 employees in the hotel with varied experience and background, 26 interviews are conducted.

Through a systematic approach of coding, the authors have identified that deploying AI enabled robots facilitates the automation, information gathering, personalization and seamless service in the hospitality industry of a smart city. Further, with a back-and-forth mapping mechanism based on epistemological principles, the authors made four propositions that lead to the development of a research framework.

The practicing managers of hospitality industry can employ AI enabled robots within the scope of improving and automating the processes that can also offer increased personalization to enhance the stay experience, which is expected in a smart city.

The study offers a unique contribution to literature, since it is a live case study, and the information is from the practicing employees of a well-known organization in a hospitality sector from a smart city (Novotel Ambassador Seoul Dongdaemun Hotels and Residences, Seoul, South Korea).

The hotel industry has witnessed an increasing number of service automation through service robots such as robot concierges. However, few studies have documented how to identify how hotel guests perceive a robot concierge for their service encounter. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the effects of robot concierges on hotel guests’ attitudes and adoption intentions of robot concierges.

This study investigated the effects of robot concierges’ morphology and their level of interactivity with guests at different levels of hotel service on guests’ attitudes and their intentions to adopt robot concierges. To achieve the study’s objectives, this study conducted a 3 × 2 × 3 between-subjects factorial design experiment. Moreover, the survey asked questions about subjects’ preferences of their service encounters (e.g. human employees, robot concierges and/or no preference) and reasons for their selected preference.

The results demonstrated that the robot’s morphology significantly influenced guests’ attitudes toward robot concierges. In particular, the caricatured robot was the most preferred morphology of robot concierges. The findings showed that even if guests had favorable attitudes toward robot concierges, they preferred human employees to robot concierges because of humans’ sincere and genuine interactions.

This study contributes to the literature by investigating the causal impacts of the morphology of robot concierges, level of interactivity and level of hotel service on guests’ attitudes toward robot concierges. The thematic analysis of service encounter preference provides an overview of the factors that guests expect for their service encounters in a hotel setting.

This study investigates human behavior, specifically attitude and anxiety, toward humanoid service robots in a hotel business environment.

The researcher adopted direct observations and interviews to complete the study. Visitors of Henn-na Hotel were observed and their spatial distance from the robots, along with verbal and non-verbal behavior, was recorded. The researcher then invited the observed hotel guests to participate in a short interview.

Most visitors showed a positive attitude towards the robot. More than half of the visitors offered compliments when they first saw the robot receptionists although they hesitated and maintained a distance from them. Hotel guests were also disappointed with the low human–robot interaction (HRI). As the role of robots in hotels currently remains at the presentation level, a comprehensive assessment of their interactive ability is lacking.

This study contributes to the HRI theory by confirming that people may treat robots as human strangers when they first see them. When a robot's face is more realistic, people expect it to behave like an actual human being. However, as the sample size of this study was small and all visitors were Asian, the researcher cannot generalize the results to the wider population.

Current robot receptionist has limited interaction ability. Hotel practitioners could learn about hotel guests' behavior and expectation towards android robots to enhance satisfaction and reduce disappointment.

Prior robot research has used questionnaires to investigate perceptions and usage intention, but this study collected on-site data and directly observed people's attitude toward robot staff in an actual business environment.

This paper aims to analyze if and to what extent mechanical artificial intelligence (AI)-embedded in hotel service robots-influences customers’ evaluation of AI-enabled hotel service interactions. This study deploys online reviews (ORs) analytics to understand if the presence of mechanical AI-related text in ORs influences customers’ OR valence across 19 leading international hotels that have integrated mechanical AI – in the guise of service robots – into their operations.

First, the authors identified the 19 leading hotels across three continents that have pioneered the adoption of service robots. Second, by deploying big data techniques, the authors gathered the entire population of ORs hosted on TripAdvisor (almost 50,000 ORs) and generated OR analytics. Subsequently, the authors used ordered logistic regressions analyses to understand if and to what extent AI-enabled hospitality service interactions are evaluated by service customers.

The presence of mechanical AI-related text (text related to service robots) in ORs influences positively electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) valence. Hotel guests writing ORs explicitly mentioning their interactions with the service robots are more prone to associate high online ratings to their ORs. The presence of the robot’s proper name (e.g., Alina, Wally) in the OR moderates positively the positive effect of mechanical AI-related text on ORs ratings.

Hospitality practitioners should evaluate the possibility to introduce service robots into their operations and develop tailored strategies to name their robots (such as using human-like and short names). Moreover, hotel managers should communicate more explicitly their initiatives and investments in AI, monitor AI-related e-WOM and invest in educating their non-tech-savvy customers to understand and appreciate AI technology. Platform developers might create a robotic tag to be attached to ORs mentioning service robots to signal the presence of this specific element and might design and develop an additional service attribute that might be tentatively named “service robots.”

The current study represents the first attempt to understand if and to what extent mechanical AI in the guise of hotel service robots influences customers’ evaluation of AI-enabled hospitality service interactions.

This study aims to investigate the consumer acceptance of robots in hotels before and after COVID-19, with a specific emphasis on whether COVID-19 had a significant effect on the acceptance of robots by hotel guests and whether guests had higher levels of acceptance of hotel robots since the initial COVID-19 outbreak was brought under control in China.

The sample for this research included Chinese hotel guests before and after COVID-19, with 247 responses obtained before its outbreak and a further 601 responses gathered after. Several hypotheses were developed and tested in a pseudo-experimental design.

The results showed that COVID-19 increased hotel guest acceptance of robots. After COVID-19, the perceived importance of the usefulness, social influence, attitude and value of robots increased, while the perceived importance of the ease of use and anthropomorphism of robots decreased. As a contactless service, the usefulness of robots was more valued by customers. This led customers to lower their requirements for the ease of use of robots. In addition, people were more concerned about the social influences on robot use.

Hotel guest attitudes and behavioral intentions toward robots and the services they can provide are changing. However, whether this change is purely ephemeral and motivated by a pragmatic stance triggered by COVID-19 remains to be established.

The hospitality industry is encouraged to create a new profile of guests in terms of their favorable or unfavorable disposition toward being served by robots. Hotels should consider the deployment of robots according to the demographic characteristics of customers (e.g. according to guest age levels).

This research demonstrated that major crises affect customer attitudes and behaviors toward new technologies. COVID-19 resulted in guests paying more attention to the advantages of services offered by hotel robots as a means of reducing the probability of contagion.

疫情前后酒店机器人非接触式服务的技术接受度对比研究

摘要

本研究调查了新冠疫情爆发前后酒店顾客对机器人接受程度的变化, 重点研究了新冠疫情是否对机器人的潜在接受程度有显著影响, 以及自疫情在中国得到控制以来, 顾客对酒店机器人的接受程度是否有所提高。

本研究的样本主要是新冠疫情爆发前后的中国酒店顾客, 在疫情爆发前收集了217份样本, 在疫情爆发后收集了601份样本。研究提出了若干假设, 并采用伪实验设计进行了检验。

结果显示, 新冠疫情的爆发提高了酒店顾客对机器人的潜在接受度。新冠疫情后, 机器人的有用性, 社会影响, 态度和价值的影响增加了, 而机器人的易用性和拟人化的影响降低了。由于机器人的无接触服务, 使得顾客更加关注有用性。这导致顾客对易用性的关注降低。此外, 顾客更加关注使用机器人的社会影响。

酒店顾客对机器人服务的态度和行为意图正在发生变化。然而, 这一变化是否是短暂的, 只是由新冠疫情驱动的, 仍有待确定。

我们鼓励酒店业根据客人对机器人的接受/不接受程度来创建一个新的客户档案。酒店也可以根据顾客的人口统计学特征（比如年龄）来部署机器人。

这项研究表明, 重大灾难会影响顾客对新技术的态度和行为。 COVID-19的爆发导致客人更加关注酒店机器人的服务优势（降低传染概率）。

Aceptación de la tecnología antes y después de la pandemia del COVID-19: Servicios ofrecidos por robots en hoteles

Resumen

Esta investigación analiza la aceptación por parte de clientes del uso de robots en hoteles antes y después del comienzo de la pandemia del COVID-19, prestando una atención especial a si dicha pandemia ha tenido un efecto significativo sobre los niveles de aceptación de robots por parte de clientes en hoteles en China a raíz de la pandemia del COVID-19.

La muestra de este estudio incluye clientes de hoteles en China encuestados antes y después del brote de COVID-19, con 247 cuestionarios recogidos antes del brote y otros 601 después del mismo. Este estudio incluye una serie de hipótesis puestas a prueba adoptando un diseño de investigación de carácter pseudo-experimental.

Los resultados de este estudio apuntan a que el brote de COVID en China conllevó un incremento en la proporción de los clientes de hoteles propensos a aceptar el uso de robots en este contexto. Después de la pandemia, hubo un incremento en la percepción de la importancia de su utilidad, influencia social, actitud y valor de los robots en este contexto, mientras que descendió la percepción de la importancia de la facilidad del use de robots y antropomorfismo descendió. Como servicio sin necesidad de contacto físico, la utilidad de los robots en hoteles fue más valorada por los clientes Esto produjo una disminución en los requisitos de los usuarios en lo referente a la facilidad del uso de robots en hoteles. Además, los participantes en esta encuesta se mostraron más propensos a valorar la influencia sobre la sociedad del uso de robots.

La actitud de clientes de hoteles y su aceptación del uso de robots en este contexto, así como los servicios que éstos proveen están cambiando rápidamente. No obstante, aún no se sabe con certeza hasta que punto estos cambios son meramente efímeros y motivados por una actitud pragmática hacia la crisis creada por la pandemia del COVID-19.

El sector de la hostelería debería intentar desarrollar un perfil de clientes nuevo en lo referente a su grado de aceptación de los robots como parte de los servicios ofrecidos. Los hoteles deberían considerar el uso de robots en los servicios ofrecidos dependiendo de las características demográficas de sus clientes (ejem. Nivel de estudios y formación).

Este estudio demuestra que las crisis de gran magnitud, como lo es la pandemia actual de COVID-19, pueden afectar las actitudes y comportamientos del consumidor en lo referente al uso de nuevas tecnologías. La pandemia del COVID-19 ha llevado a muchos clientes de hoteles a prestar una mayor atención a las ventajas de los servicios ofrecidos por robots como forma de reducir las posibilidades de contagio.

Robots, as the crystallization of new artificial intelligence, are being applied in various fields, especially the hotel industry. They are seizing the opportunities, using technology to improve the overall quality and comprehensive competitiveness. However, they also cause many problems due to practical limitations. The purpose of this paper is to study customers' recognition and acceptance of hotel service robots to guide the successful promotion of this technology.

This paper proposed a comprehensive model based on the theory of planned behavior, the technology acceptance model and then the perceived value-based acceptance model. Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, grouped regression analysis and path analysis was adopted to validate the impacts of each variable to obtain the final reliable model using data collected from hotel guests using a self-designed questionnaire.

The empirical research based on the theoretical model shows that the constructed conceptual model can thoroughly explain the influencing factors of hotel robot acceptance, enrich the acceptance theory and provide academic support for the use and popularization of hotel service robots. Among all variables, attitude, usefulness and perceived value are the factors that have the greatest impact on acceptance. They have significant differences in the effects of adjustment variables such as gender, educational level, whether hotel robots have been used, and whether other robot services have been experienced on different paths in the model.

This paper explored the customer acceptance of service robots in hotels, helped to understand the process of decision-making on service robot selection and contributed to the theoretical extension of the hospitality industry. The work guides hotel management to promote better-personalized products and services of robot technology in the hospitality industries.

The acceptance study on hotel service robots provides insight into the hotel industry to understand customers' attitudes and acceptance of emerging technology.

The purpose of this paper is to consider three factors, namely, intra-week demand fluctuations, interrelationship between the number of robots and order scheduling and conflicting objectives (i.e. cost minimization and customer satisfaction maximization), to optimize the robot logistics system.

The number of robots and the sequence of delivery orders are first optimized using the heuristic algorithm NSGACoDEM, which is designed using genetic algorithm and composite difference evolution. The superiority of this method is then confirmed by a case study of a four-star grade hotel in South Korea and several comparative experiments.

Two performance metrics reveal the superior performance of the proposed approach compared to other baseline approaches. Results of comparative experiments found that the consideration of three influencing factors in the operation design of a robot logistic system can effectively balance cost and customer satisfaction over the course of a week in hotel operation and optimize robot scheduling flexibility.

The results of this study reveal that numerous factors (e.g. intra-week demand fluctuations) can optimize the performance efficiency of robots. The proposed algorithm can be used by hotels to overcome the influence of intra-week demand fluctuations on robot scheduling flexibility effectively and thereby enhance work efficiency.

The design of a novel algorithm in this study entails enhancing the current robot logistics system. This algorithm can successfully manage cost and customer satisfaction during off-seasons and peak seasons in the hotel industry while offering diversified schemes to various types of hotels.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of service robots on hotel visitors' behaviour and to verify the role of anthropomorphism(human likeness) in customer satisfaction with robots.

An online survey of 381 respondents was conducted, divided into three types of robots according to the level of anthropomorphism. The research model was thoroughly tested using the PLS-SEM method. Research model was tested thoroughly using the PLS-SEM method.

This study found that user satisfaction with service robots in a hotel had a positive impact on user satisfaction, attitude towards the hotel and room purchase intention. Moreover, our results showed that users were most likely to accept medium-human likeness robots and least likely to accept high–human likeness robots.

This study proposes influencing factors to be considered when researching hotel service robots, as well as practical suggestions for any hotel intending to use or currently using a service robot.