Hotel service robot–human interaction: when consumers simultaneously admire and fear robotic hospitality

Purpose Service robots are increasingly deployed in hospitality, yet existing research has largely emphasised adoption. This study aims to examine how consumers construct meaning around hotel service robots by identifying recurrent themes in online discourse and the emotional valence associated with these themes. Design/methodology/approach The study applies bidirectional encoder representations from transformers-based topic modelling to consumer-generated online content to uncover salient discussion themes, complemented by sentiment analysis to assess the emotional valence linked to each theme. Findings Six overarching themes emerged: service performance and reliability, hygiene, safety and risk apprehensions, affective interaction and robotic persona, technological appraisal and legitimacy, social presence and emotional comfort within unmanned environments and societal and ethical ramifications of automation. The findings indicate that consumers can simultaneously endorse technological progress whilst experiencing discomfort and anxiety, particularly in contexts where human presence is minimal. Originality/value By moving beyond adoption-focused research, this study advances understanding of consumer sense-making towards hotel service robots through a combined topic modelling and sentiment analysis approach. It introduces two mechanisms, namely, perceived accountability, linking staffing configuration to consumer evaluation, and legitimacy decoupling, the gap between macro-level approval of automation and micro-level service unease, that explain how positive appraisals of robotic hospitality can coexist with discomfort in unmanned service environments.