The right endorser for the right stay: How human and AI endorsers shape accommodation booking

This research examines how endorser presence and endorser type influence consumers’ accommodation booking intention. Drawing on Embodied Cognition Theory, it shows that endorsers shape booking intention by activating embodied mental simulation. It further examines two hospitality-specific factors, booking purpose and service mode, that influence when human and AI-generated endorsers are more effective. Across five experimental studies, we demonstrate that endorser presence increases booking intention via embodied mental simulation. Human endorsers generally produce stronger embodied mental simulation and booking intention than AI-generated endorsers. However, this pattern reverses in high-privacy booking and self-service environments, where AI-generated endorsers are better aligned with the accommodation experiences consumers are imagining. This research extends Embodied Cognition Theory by showing that the effectiveness of embodied cues depends on the match between endorser type and the accommodation experience consumers mentally construct. It also offer practical guidance for hospitality marketers seeking to align endorser strategies with different booking contexts.