Investigation of the influences of emotional–cognitive–social responses of service robot on consumers’ hotel stay intention in Japan

Purpose Along with the rapid development of the robotic technology, various service robots, such as service delivery robots, have been gradually applied in hospitality. Although previous studies have examined the advantages or future trends of service robots, the use of robotic technologies in different hotel departments or the effects of hotel robot adoption on the stay intention of consumers, limited studies investigated the emotional complexity, cognitive–analytical and emotional–social responses of service robots from the perspective of consumers, as well as their influences on consumers’ intention to stay at robot hotels. Hence, this study aims to examine emotional–cognitive–social responses of diverse service robots on consumers’ intention to stay at robot hotels. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted a mixed approach of qualitative (i.e. 18 in-depth interviews conducted with hotel technology managers) and quantitative (i.e. 449 questionnaire surveys collected among the young generation) research methods on the basis of the cognitive behavioral model. In the initial stage, descriptive statistics were presented. Thereafter, structural equation modeling was used for data analysis. Findings Findings indicated that compared with the ability in completing cognitive–analytical and emotional–social tasks, hotel service robots are more able to complete services that require high emotional complexity. Moreover, results illustrated that artificial intelligence (AI) robots significantly affect the intention of consumers to stay at robot hotels. Practical implications Hospitality practitioners can consider adopting AI robots (e.g. artificial intelligent robot for simple entertainment or communication) as their future strategic plans to enhance the intention of consumers to stay at robot hotels. Originality/value This study examined the extent to which hotel robots can overcome the shortage of robot service requiring high emotional complexity, evaluated the effectiveness of hotel robots in performing cognitive–analytical and emotional–social tasks and investigated how emotional–social-related hotel robots influence consumers’ intention to stay at robot hotels.