Before you deploy a robot on your hotel floor, it helps to understand how guests will actually feel about it. This paper takes a deep look at the psychology behind guest responses to service robots — drawing on dozens of experimental studies to map the emotional and cognitive processes that shape whether a robot encounter leaves a guest delighted, neutral, or uncomfortable.
The central insight is one that technology vendors rarely highlight: guest reactions to robots are not primarily rational. They are emotional. When a robot rolls up to deliver a guest's towels or present the evening turndown, several psychological processes kick in simultaneously. Anthropomorphism — the human tendency to attribute human-like qualities to machines — is one of the strongest. Guests who perceive the robot as having personality (even a simple one) tend to respond more warmly and give higher satisfaction scores. Robots with names, expressive displays, and predictable conversational patterns outperform utilitarian machines on guest experience metrics, even when both complete the same task identically.
Perceived risk is the flip side. Some guests feel anxious around robots — particularly older travelers, those who didn't choose the hotel for its tech, and guests in already stressful situations (delayed check-in, lost luggage, a complaint). For this segment, a robot arrival doesn't solve the problem; it adds to the stress. The paper recommends giving guests a visible, easy opt-out — a button to request human assistance — and training staff to read the room and redirect robot-related interactions when tension is present.
Novelty is a double-edged variable. In the short term, robots generate curiosity and excitement that translates into positive reviews and social sharing. Over time, as robots become more common, this novelty effect diminishes. Hotels relying on robots purely as a wow factor should plan for this. The properties that sustain positive guest response are those that integrate robots into service delivery in ways that are consistently faster, more accurate, or more convenient — not just more memorable.
For operations teams, the paper reinforces the importance of robot design decisions that are often treated as afterthoughts: naming conventions, animation style, voice and language, and the physical behaviors robots exhibit when idle or in transition. All of these send signals to guests that affect their perception of the hotel's professionalism and care.
For marketers, the research clarifies what to communicate. Guests respond best when they know in advance that robots are part of the property experience — surprise encounters in hallways produce more anxiety than planned interactions at designated service points. Pre-stay messaging that frames robots as convenient and optional (rather than as a replacement for human staff) significantly improves first impressions.
The underlying message for hospitality leaders: you can buy the best robot hardware on the market, but guest satisfaction outcomes will be driven by how well you manage the psychological experience around it. Emotion design — how the robot makes guests feel — is as important as functional design — what the robot can do. Teams that recognize this and build it into their deployment process consistently outperform those that don't.