Technology
is everywhere! We are using it at home, at the work place, during our journeys
and even without knowing. On this statement, hotel industry decided to follow
this path and started applying gadgets and softwares to help with customer
management.
During my 4day trip to London, I had the chance to visit a
five-star hotel that came to amaze me. One of the things that fascinated me was
the fact that they no longer have a reception and replaced the imposing desk
with an iPad. In reports by the Pew Research Centre (2013, 2014), a third of
American adults owned a tablet in 2013, including a majority of those in higher
income households. The number increased to 42 per cent by January 2014. Same as
this hotel’s new approach, more hotels are embracing the benefits of technology
and give their customers the opportunity to have their check-in online or even
use their phone as the key’s room. “The general benefits for customers when
using hotel apps include convenient access to hotel and destination information
and services, entertaining content and empowerment to arrange for hotel
services (e.g. ordering room service, check-out and scheduling wake-up calls)” (Kim, 2016, p.
1535-1553).
Basically, customers feel more comfortable managing their holiday through their
screens than through face to face interaction. A few previous studies
empirically examined the consumer’s smartphone app usage intention in
hospitality settings such as restaurants and air travel (Okumus and Bilgihan,
2014; Morosan, 2014).
Behind
the desk and the data that the customer uses, there is a bigger, more complex
approach that uses technology to manage the hotel’s rooms. One of the first hotel
brands that introduced technology into their benefit was Marriott
International, which had implemented MARSHA. “Marriott’s Automated Reservation
System for Hotel Accommodations (MARSHA) is a reservation network and demand
management tool.” (Enz, 2010, p. 176) and it is
connected to the global distribution systems operated by airlines and travel
organisations. In 2005, MARSHA handled 70 million reservations and US $22
billion in gross room revenue.
Reference
list
Enz,
C. (2010). Hospitality strategic management. 1st ed. Hoboken, N.J.: John
Wiley & Sons.
Kim,
J (2016), 'An extended technology acceptance model in behavioral intention
toward hotel tablet apps with moderating effects of gender and age',
International Journal Of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28, 8, pp.
1535-1553, Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 13 November 2016.
Morosan,
C. (2014), “Toward an integrated model of adoption of mobile phones for
purchasing ancillary services in air travel”, International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. 246-271.
Okumus,
B. and Bilgihan, A. (2014), “Proposing a model to test smartphone users’
intention to use smart applications when ordering food in restaurants”, Journal
of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 31-49.
www.sinch.com/opinion/technology-transforming-hospitality
www.traveldailynews.asia/news/article/51504/pioneering-mobility-technology-gives-guests
