  (abridged) Context. The origin of hot exozodiacal dust and its connection
with outer dust reservoirs remains unclear. Aims. We aim to explore the
possible connection between hot exozodiacal dust and warm dust reservoirs (>
100 K) in asteroid belts. Methods. We use precision near-infrared
interferometry with VLTI/PIONIER to search for resolved emission at H band
around a selected sample of nearby stars. Results. Our observations reveal the
presence of resolved near-infrared emission around 17 out of 52 stars, four of
which are shown to be due to a previously unknown stellar companion. The 13
other H-band excesses are thought to originate from the thermal emission of hot
dust grains. Taking into account earlier PIONIER observations, and after
reevaluating the warm dust content of all our PIONIER targets through spectral
energy distribution modeling, we find a detection rate of 17.1(+8.1)(-4.6)% for
H-band excess around main sequence stars hosting warm dust belts, which is
statistically compatible with the occurrence rate of 14.6(+4.3)(-2.8)% found
around stars showing no signs of warm dust. After correcting for the
sensitivity loss due to partly unresolved hot disks, under the assumption that
they are arranged in a thin ring around their sublimation radius, we however
find tentative evidence at the 3{\sigma} level that H-band excesses around
stars with outer dust reservoirs (warm or cold) could be statistically larger
than H-band excesses around stars with no detectable outer dust. Conclusions.
Our observations do not suggest a direct connection between warm and hot dust
populations, at the sensitivity level of the considered instruments, although
they bring to light a possible correlation between the level of H-band excesses
and the presence of outer dust reservoirs in general.
