When Chatbots Create Doubt: Unpacking AI-Driven Risks and Consumer Skepticism in the Hospitality Sector
Abstract
This study examines how perceived risks shape consumer skepticism and booking intention toward AI chatbots in hotel services. Drawing on Perceived Risk Theory, we analyzed survey data from 309 hotel customers in Vietnam using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings show that misinformation, data privacy, expectation, and anthropomorphic risks significantly increase consumer skepticism, whereas interaction risk does not. Skepticism, in turn, significantly reduces booking intention and mediates the effects of most risk dimensions. By identifying skepticism as a key psychological mechanism in AI-enabled hotel booking, this study extends chatbot adoption research and offers practical guidance for improving transparency, information accuracy, privacy communication, and chatbot design.
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Trust and skepticism toward AI are domain-specific, shaping adoption differently across hospitality, financial services, healthcare, and food and meal recommendations.
“Consistent with this, a growing body of recent work documents that trust and skepticism toward AI are domain-specific, shaping adoption differently across hospitality (Nguyen & Phan, 2026), financial services (Phan et al., 2025), healthcare (Phan & Bui, 2025), and food and meal recommendations (Phan et al., 2025).”
From Marketing to the Machine: Rethinking Global Marketing for the AI Era (2026) · cites this paper as Nguyen & Phan, 2026
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References 63 · Cited by 10
- Authors
- Nguyen, M. K., & Phan, T. A.
- Affiliations
- Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (CN)
- Eastern International University (VN)
- Corresponding author
- Phan, The Anh
- ORCID
- Phan, The Anh
- Venue
- International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2026-03-17
- Pages
- 1-31
- ISSN
- 1525-6480 (ISSN-L)
- 1525-6499
- OpenAlex
- W7138457386
- Cited by
- 10
- References
- 63
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10
- FWCI
- 33.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › AI in Service Interactions
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Technology Adoption and User Behaviour
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Customer Service Quality and Loyalty
- Keywords
- AI chatbots, consumer skepticism, risk perception, hotel booking, booking intention, misinformation risk, data privacy risks, chatbot adoption, hospitality industry, chatbot design, transparency
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