Hotel Managers’ Perceptions towards the Use of Robots: A Mixed-Methods Approach

Abstract

Adopting a supply-side perspective, the present paper analyses Bulgarian hotel managers’ perceptions of service robots using a convergent mixed methods design. Structured quantitative data was collected from 79 hotel managers through a questionnaire, while interviews were used for the collection of qualitative data from 20 hotel managers. The findings indicate that repetitive, dirty, dull, and dangerous tasks in hotels would be more appropriate for robots, while hotel managers would rather use human employees for tasks that require social skills and emotional intelligence. The demographic characteristics of respondents and the characteristics of the hotels they currently worked in played little role in their perceptions of service robots. The managers considered that robots would decrease the quality of the service and were generally not ready to use robots. Additionally, the interviewees indicated that skilled and well trained human employees were more valuable than robots and more adequate for the hospitality and tourism industry. Theoretical, methodological, and managerial implications are provided as well.