6 Feb 2018arXiv:1709.00105v2Technology in Hospitality Industry: Prospects and Challenges Prasanna Kansakar, Arslan Munir, and Neda ShabaniAbstract—The leisure and hospitality industry is one of the driving forces of the global economy. The widespread adoption of new technologies in this industry over recent years has fundamentally reshaped the way in which services are provided and received. In this paper, we explore some of the state-of-the-art technologies currently employed in the hospitality industry and how they are improving guest experiences and changing the hospitality service platform. We also envision some potential future hospitality services we can expect as the Internet of things (IoT) technology keeps growing. We recognize that the technological backbone of many hospitality establishments needs to be overhauled in order to facilitate the changing landscape of technology in the modern world. We discuss some fundamental challenges that need to be overcome to institute a lasting future-proof solution for the hospitality industry. We also touch upon the problems these challenges pose for guests and hospitality service providers (HSP).I. INTRODUCTION AND MOTIVATION Domestic and international tourism has seen several years of steady growth. The revenue generated from accommodation, food and beverage, and other services provided to this large flux of travelers, has propelled the leisure and hospitality industry to become a key driver of the global economy. For sustained growth of this industry, experts in the field argue for major improvements in the type and quality of hospitality services to adapt to the changing consumption and travel behaviors of the evolving customer base. Specifically, these improvements are targeted towards attracting the new generation of technophile individuals traveling on a tight budget [1]. Implementation of these improvements compounds to a complete makeover of the service packages and the underlying technological framework currently used by hospitality service providers (HSP). The goal of these improvements should be: personalization of experiences and digitalization of services [1]. Personalization of experiences is necessary to market services to individuals traveling on a limited budget. Personalization creates individualized guest experiences by incorporating flexibility and customizability to the offered service packages [1]. Most of the current packages marketed by HSP offer rigid and tailored experiences. These packages bundle different combinations of popular services in different price brackets with little to no means of negotiating adjustments. This leaves travelers to choose between all or nothing and they usually end up opting for the latter choice. If HSP have more flexible service package offerings, then guests can plan their experience according to their desires and their budgets. Crafting personalized value propositions for each guest requires a massive effort on both the guests’ and the service providers’ parts. This process can be simplifiedsignificantly by using an effective technological platform to manage the interaction between guests and service providers. Digitalization of services is imperative to appeal to technophile guests. The goal of digitalization of services is to transition to a digital business model by pushing hospitality services to guests’ touch-point [2]. A digital service platform affords guests the ability to browse, plan and pick activities at their own convenience thus facilitating seamless integration of technology into their travel experience. Booking and reservation services, location-based services and personalized communication, and social media integration are a few examples of digital services that entice technophile guests. There are a host of third party applications providing these services which guests are familiar with and rely upon. Revenue erosion to these third party applications and services is a growing concern to HSP [3]. In order to compete with these third party applications, HSP must develop their own applications which provide better on-property and off-property services to guests. Through special incentives such as loyalty points, coupons and bonuses, guests can be encouraged to use in-house applications over third party applications. Providing digital services with the same quality as third party application services requires a sound technological infrastructure base with specialized computation and communication capabilities. This warrants the overhaul of current technological framework used by HSP. The future of hospitality management industry is being shaped by the current boom in the Internet of things (IoT) technology. HSP must stay on the leading edge of IoT technology to maintain a competitive edge in the market. The IoT is the interconnection of everyday physical devices like sensors, actuators, identification tags, mobile devices, etc., such that they can communicate directly or indirectly with each other via local communication networks or over the Internet [4]. The incorporation of IoT technology in the hospitality industry qualifies hotels as smart buildings which are important facets of smart cities [5]. The IoT paradigm offers HSP a nuanced means of interacting with guests and collecting their real-time data. This opens up new avenues for immediate, personalized and localized services as HSP can gauge guest behaviors and preferences with higher accuracy. The IoT also enables HSP to increase back-end efficiency of multiple departments [6] (e.g. front desk, housekeeping, sales and marketing, etc.) as well as enact cost-saving policies like smart energy management [7] [8]. The IoT technology is already spreading through the hospitality industry with public terminals, in-room technologies and mobile applications [2] and some of the promising future IoT applications, such as body area sensor networks, environment monitoring and
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