Do Guests Prefer Human or Robot Service in Hotels? Survey Insights

The hospitality industry is evolving rapidly, and one of the most intriguing changes is the rise of service robots in hotels. From robot concierges that guide guests through check-in to delivery bots that bring food and amenities straight to the room, automation is no longer just a futuristic concept—it’s becoming part of everyday guest experiences. 

But this raises an important question: do hotel guests truly prefer the efficiency of robots, or do they still value the warmth and empathy of human staff? Recent surveys and case studies shed light on this debate, comparing the strengths and weaknesses of both approaches in shaping the modern guest experience.

In this article, let's explore the data of surveys, case studies, and the perception of guests in a bid to compare human and robot service in hospitality. 

Guest Perceptions: Human vs. Robotic Efficiency.

Human Service:

Merits

• Empathy & Emotional Intelligence: The guests experience that they are understood and appreciated, particularly when it comes to dealing with complaints or individual requests. (2021 research on hotel assistants)

• Adaptability and Flexibility: Have the ability to deal with ambiguous or unforeseen circumstances that are difficult to the robots.

• Service Recovery Strength: The presence of human intervention when service failures occur is more convincing to the guest.

• Luxury & Tradition: most of the travelers, particularly older and high-end guests, would demand the comfort of personal attention.

  
  

Demerits

• Inconsistency: Service quality may be affected by mood, training or workload of staff.

• Greater Expenses: Human employees are more expensive to keep due to higher salaries, benefits, and turnover.

• Poor Availability: Not able to serve 24/7 continuously as robots.

• Morale Pressure: In case of the introduction of robots, part of the staff feels that they are replaced or that their job is less important. (ScienceDirect)

2. Robot Service

Merits

• Efficiency & Speed: Ideal when dealing with routine and predictable routines such as the delivery of rooms, transportation of luggage, or cleaning of corridors.

• Stability: Robots work with the same quality- their fatigue, mood swings, etc., are nonexistent.

• Hygiene & Safety: The guests will be assured of cleanliness because of contactless delivery and autonomous cleaning.

• Novelty Factor: There are guests (mostly younger, technologically advanced ones) who like to communicate with the robots.

• Operational Data: The AI robot based systems (such as HelloGard Intelligence) have the potential to streamline the work processes and offer analytics.

  
  

Demerits

• Absence of Emotional Bonding: Unable to duplicate empathy, humor, and human warmth- all important in hospitality.

• Rigidity: robot temi do not work when the requests are vague, detailed, and not in established rules.

• Loss of Control: Glitches, communication breakdown, or bad directions exasperate guests.

• Guest Resistance: Guests who are older or luxury-oriented might feel that the robot service is impersonal.

• Initial Costs: Intensive installation of hardware, integration, and maintenance.

  
  

Applications of robots in hotels: What roles are best played by robots?

Robot Class / Role	Purpose in Hotel / Hospitality.	Examples / Models (HelloGard.com)	Key Features / Notes
Interactive / Concierge Robots.	Reception of Guests and Interaction with Guests- welcome guests, guide them, help with check-in.	temi V3	Voice recognition, multilinguistic, touchscreen, guest guiding, robot concierge.
Delivery Robots	Bring food, beverages, towels, supplies, packages to guest rooms or the general area.	Keenon W3, Keenon T10, temi Run, Ottobot,	Some of them support outdoor routing, autonomous point-to-point delivery, contactless service, secure compartments.

Survey Insights & Trends

Win Robots: Daily shipments, housekeeping, navigation, parcels.

Humans Win: Customer complaints, emotional support, upselling, check-in luxury/lifestyle hotels.

Diversity is the Best Strategy: robotic vacuum cleaner in the background, and humans in the high-empathy touchpoints are the most satisfactory.

Balancing Robots & Humans – Quick Tips

• Go Hybrid:

Robots means routinely, back-of-house tasks (cleaning, deliveries, logistics).

Humans means high-empathy, guest-facing positions (complaints, concierge, personalized service).

Maintains a high level of efficiency and employee morale.

• Be Transparent:

Make the guests aware of the reason why robots are employed. 

Make use of obvious signage or brief intro during check-in.

Trust should be established with human backup always.

• Plan for Failures:

Robots may give incorrect orders or hang. 

There must be an overlay between human intervention.

More than the baseline performance of the robot, how you deal with failures is more.

Conclusion

Visitors continue to appreciate human service, both in empathy, flexibility, and social understanding, as most of the travelers would demand the comfort of personal attention.Yet are becoming willing to use robots in tasks that are predictable and routine robotic vacuum cleaner, such as Temi robots, and Knightscope K5 security bots, are suitable in hotel operations. 

Whereas AI robot platforms shape the human and the robot role connection.  Thoughtful integration, not replacement, is key to enhancing guest experience. Explore HelloGard for more details.