“Her Name Was Chloe and She Delivers Stuff to Your Room”

Abstract

Service robots are becoming more common in the hotel industry for enhancing guest experience. However, as with all new technologies, there are both threats and opportunities. We analyze these positive and negative aspects in 1,289 user-generated reviews of six hotels on Trip Advisor. Our analysis provides insights into the use of robots in hotels, helping with room service, check-in, luggage handling, and food serving and preparation. The findings point out mostly positive aspects of having robots in hotels (92% positive, 5% negative, and 3% neutral reviews), and through the 68 negative reviews, pinpoints some cues for improvement. Most of the positive aspects seem to arise from the novelty of robots. The observed service failures stress the importance of backup planning. Human back-up is needed for variety of reasons (e.g., physical failures, psychological need for human encounters).