It is essential to accurately capture traveler preferences for developing sustainable operating strategies with demand-responsive transit (DRT) services. Considering the unmatured practice of DRT and limited public awareness in China, the loss aversion psychology exhibited by travelers when faced with complex and uncertain travel scenarios is focused. Integrating socioeconomic attributes, travel characteristics, and modal attributes, a mode choice model based on the hybrid utility and regret model is developed and calibrated through a dataset comprising 15 012 observations from Beijing. The results indicate travelers aged 60 and above show the most pronounced preference towards adopting the DRT. Factors such as female, age 25 and above, educational attainment at the associate degree level or higher, monthly disposable income exceeding 1 000 yuan, and household sizes of two or more individuals have a positive influence on the adoption of the DRT. Furthermore, under the travel distance within 10 kilometers, the fare for DRT is suggested to not exceed 10 yuan, and the vehicular detour time is suggested to be limited within one-fourth of the total travel time to fully utilize DRT′s potential in augmenting the modal share of sustainable transportation.