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Customer Acceptance of Keenon T5 Mobile Robot for Dish Collection in Restaurants: A Field Study

In: Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2026

Author

Listed:
  • Aarni Tuomi

    (Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences
    Wakayama University)

  • Pasi Tuominen

    (Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences)

  • Alexander Lennart Schmidt

    (Hotelschool the Hague)

  • Joel Pakalén

    (Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences)

  • Mário Passos Ascenção

    (Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences)

Abstract

An increasing amount of hospitality and tourism businesses have started to make use of robots. Given the manually intensive nature of many hospitality tasks, e.g. food delivery or room service, mobile service robots in particular hold great operational promise for hospitality operations management. While much prior work has been dedicated to exploring customer and employee attitudes towards and acceptance of service robots in hospitality and tourism settings, there is a limited amount of field studies focusing on robot integration to real-world settings from an operational efficiency and customer acceptance point of view. To that end, this study focuses on the feasibility of a specific mobile robot, Keenon T5, for dish collection in a real restaurant setting. During a three-month continuous period, the T5 robot was operated for 36 days, collecting dishes from 1413 guests. During this time, structured interviews (n = 46) were conducted with customers to understand the key costs and benefits, as well as boundary conditions, influencing the acceptance of using a T5 robot for this purpose, in this type of environment. Contributing at the intersection of technology acceptance, human–robot interaction, operational efficiency and implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Aarni Tuomi & Pasi Tuominen & Alexander Lennart Schmidt & Joel Pakalén & Mário Passos Ascenção, 2026. "Customer Acceptance of Keenon T5 Mobile Robot for Dish Collection in Restaurants: A Field Study," Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, in: Peter O'Connor & Mattia Rainoldi & Julia Neidhardt (ed.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2026, chapter 23, pages 337-349, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:prbchp:978-3-032-23925-9_23
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-23925-9_23
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