Robots have entered the tourism and hospitality industry as hotels are employing robots as staff to manage the operational work and bring a new twist to the hospitality sector. While robots start performing humans’ job in the area of guests’ service, there has been limited discussion about ethical aspects and moral perspectives within the hospitality context. Therefore, this thesis project examines the social phenomenon of non-human staff in the hotels. The goal of the study is to explore the hoteliers’ perspectives on robots in the hospitality industry.

The empirical data was collected through semi-structured interviews among twenty hotel workers in Sweden and Indonesia. The analysis shows that there are several ethical and moral adjustments for robots to be suitably working in the hotel and successfully executing specific tasks. The needs of possessing humans’ attributes and hospitality manner are also required for more personalized human-robot interaction. Therefore, this thesis project contributes to timely and significant discussions in tourism studies, and provides valuable foundation to both academics and business practitioners for future development of hospitable robots.