Meaningful experience, positive emotions, and happiness in smart hotel contexts: a study on psychological mechanisms based on positive psychology.

Introduction: Smart hotels are reshaping the landscape of consumers' accommodation experiences. Services such as self-check-in and smart locks are associated with changes in consumers' psychological perceptions of lodging life. However, previous studies have often overlooked consumers' sense of meaning, positive emotions, and subjective happiness. Based on positive psychology and service experience theory, this study explores the psychological mechanisms and associations connecting meaningful experiences with consumer happiness. Methods: A quantitative research design was employed, analyzing data from consumers who had experienced smart hotel services (N = 618). Correlation analysis, multiple regression, and path estimation were utilized to examine the relationships among meaningful experience, perceived control, service trust, positive emotions, and happiness. Results: Respondents generally held moderately positive evaluations of the smart hotel experience, with mean scores for meaningful experience, positive emotions, and happiness at 3.837, 3.822, and 3.698, respectively. Meaningful experience was significantly and positively correlated with positive emotions (r = 0.634) and happiness (r = 0.613); the correlation between positive emotion and happiness was also significant (r = 0.603, Discussion: From the perspective of positive psychology, smart hotel features are associated with a sequential pattern of psychological responses related to consumer happiness. The findings support research on the psychological mechanisms connecting meaningful experiences with happiness and offer insights for service design in the hospitality industry.