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The purpose of this paper is to understand several key issues regarding technology strategies for the lodging industry, including the use and impact of technology, technology adoption and implementation, the role of organization technology environment in technology use, channel management strategies, as well as future trends of technology development.

Qualitative interviews are conducted with hotel practitioners to gain knowledge in order to help explore issues and generate hypotheses for future research regarding information and communications technology (ICT) applications in the lodging industry.

The research finds that technology will continue to impact guest service and customer relationship management in the lodging industry, and that companies vary in their implementation and use of the technology applications.

Using qualitative research limited the number of hotels that could be interviewed; as a result, the findings cannot be generalized to every hotel.

Hotel owners and managers can look at the various trends and determine which can help their guest service, focusing on providing added value to guests.

The paper provides insight from the viewpoints of practitioners rather than just from technology experts.

This paper presents an analysis of the impact of current technologies on customer experiences in upscale hotels and assesses the potential of the latest technologies for enhancing customers’ stay.

A two-step approach was applied in this study. The qualitative phase included an examination of upscale hotel websites, interviews with hotel managers and an internet search regarding the latest technological innovations in hotels. In the quantitative stage, a questionnaire was developed for hotel guests, generating a sample of 310 valid completed questionnaires.

The results reveal that hotel guests value digital involvement in their hotel experience. Moreover, business travellers and younger generations give greater importance to latest technologies.

This study analyses the most innovative technologies, providing guidance for hoteliers wishing to upgrade or implement new technologies. Based on the findings, hoteliers can achieve greater differentiation by offering the most important and latest technology to guests, enhancing their experience and attracting new customers, which can potentially lead to increased revenues. The study’s results are also important because they include the perceptions of both managers and customers.

This study aims to analyze the importance and performance of customer-facing technologies in luxury hotels. The study also assessed differences between and within the four generations in the importance-performance analysis (IPA).

Data were collected using a Qualtrics panel of recent luxury hotel customers in the USA belonging to all four generations. The cross-generational IPA was conducted using t-tests and (ANAOVA).

The IPA matrix concentrated most technology items in either low importance – low performance or high importance – high performance quadrants. One-way ANOVA revealed significant differences between generations on the importance ratings of all technology items except wireless charging power solutions and on the performance ratings of all technology items. Furthermore, post hoc tests indicated that millennials rated luxury technology most favorably among the four cohorts, followed by generations Z, X and Baby Boomers. In addition, significant differences between the importance and performance of many technology items within each generational cohort were observed. Overall, Wi-Fi was unanimously ranked across generations as the most important technology among luxury guests, but it was the only one that scored lower in performance than importance.

The findings of this study contribute to hospitality scholarship in two primary ways: the importance and performance of technology and generational differences. The results advance the understanding of the impact of generational factors on customer-facing technological adoptions in the luxury hotel sector.

Technologies that are pervasive in the home also become vital offerings for hotels. The more pervasive technology, the more a luxury hotel must work to ensure that it performs at optimal levels. Additionally, which technologies are most important to targeted generations are provided so practitioners may budget for their implementation.

This research is a pivotal step forward in unraveling the intricate interplay between generational factors and technological evaluations, providing a foundation for future research and practical applications in a rapidly evolving technological landscape in the hospitality industry.

This study aims to examine hotel guests’ acceptance of technology agency – the extent to which they would let artificial intelligence (AI)-based systems make decisions for them when staying in hotels. The examination was conducted through the prism of several antecedents of acceptance of technology agency, including perceived ethics, benefits, risks and convenience orientation.

A thorough literature review provided the foundation of the structural model, which was tested using confirmatory factor analysis, followed by structural equation modeling. Data were collected from 400 US hotel guests.

The most important determinant of acceptance of technology agency was perceived ethics, followed by benefits. Risks of using AI-based systems to make decisions for consumers had a negative impact on acceptance of technology agency. In addition, perceived loss of competence and unpredictability had relatively strong impacts on risks.

The results provide a conceptual foundation for research on systems that make decisions for consumers. As AI is increasingly incorporated in the business models of hotel companies to make decisions, ensuring that the decisions are perceived as ethical and beneficial for consumers is critical to increase the utilization of such systems.

Most research on AI in hospitality is either conceptual or focuses on consumers’ intentions to stay in hotels that may be equipped with AI technologies. Occupying a unique position within the literature, this study discusses the first time AI-based systems that make decisions for consumers. The value of this study stems from the examination of the main concept of technology agency, which was never examined in hospitality.

Because of the COVID-19, the digital transformation of global hospitality and tourism speeds up. This paper aims to provide comprehensive frame of the digital transformation for further hospitality and tourism research.

Through conducting a critical review of the impact of COVID-19, the current situation about the application of digital technology and digital transformation in hospitality and travel, this study used a qualitative approach to present the viewpoints.

This research presents a theoretical research framework for the hospitality and tourism about digital transformation, including possible directions, contexts and methods. It highlights the importance of digital transformation, and further proposing specific research topics.

This research brings valuable implications and guidance for future research from the aspects of key research streams, research context and methodological approaches in hospitality and tourism about digital transformation.

This paper supplies existing critical reviewed research through paying attention to the digital transformation approach in hospitality and tourism, providing research guidance technically to the industry of hotels and travel.

While there was heightened awareness on the technologies of the fourth industrial revolution (IR 4.0) prior to COVID-19, studies have shown that the adoption of these advanced technologies (e.g. Big Data, robotics, Internet of Things, etc.) continues to remain low across global industries. This qualitative study sought to explore the reasons for the low rate of adoption of these technologies and appropriate measures to enhance their adoption at hotels, through the lens of hotel executives.

Based on interpretivist's ideals, this study follows a case study design and adopts a qualitative method of enquiry. The heterogenous purposive sampling technique was employed to gather data for the study, using semi-structured interviews.

Grounded on the technology-organisation-environment (TOE) framework, the thematic analysis revealed technology, organisation and environment-related reasons for the low rate of IR 4.0 technologies adoption at hotels in Malaysia. Also, the study uncovered some interesting measures that will enhance the adoption of these advanced technologies at hotels.

This study unearths technology, organisation and environment-related reasons for low adoption, and measures to enhance the adoption of IR 4.0 technologies in hotels. This study also enlightens hotel owners and technology providers about practical issues that will ensure the successful adoption of such technologies to enhance hotel business. In line with SDG 9, this study also seeks to promote sustainable innovation in the hospitality industry. Practical and theoretical implications have also been discussed in this study.

This study aims to explore the propensity of adoption of ICT‐based facilities by hotels in the hospitality sector.

The factors that influence a hotel's propensity to adopt ICTs are broadly divided into location‐related and firm‐related. The relative impact of the factors on the ICT adoption propensity was analyzed through a survey amongst 95 hotels from seven locations in Thailand.

The findings give valuable insights for the marketers of ICTs who wish to gain entry into the hotel sector, and help them in better focusing their sales and marketing efforts.

The study provides researchers and suppliers of ICT‐based facilities with a framework for predicting the adoption propensity of potential customers.

This study examined the antecedents of technostressors as well as how customers' perceived convenience and technostressors of using a check-in/out kiosk influence their behavioral intention in a full-service hotel setting.

Using survey data collected from 630 hotel customers, hypotheses were tested via structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis.

The results showed that perceived usefulness of a check-in/out kiosk had direct effects on both technostressors (i.e. work overload and role ambiguity), and that perceived ease-of-use had indirect effects on the technostressors, via perceived usefulness. The findings showed that both role ambiguity and perceived convenience significantly influenced intention to use a check-in/out kiosk. Intention to use was positively associated with intention to revisit a hotel providing the kiosk. These findings were equivalent across the younger and older groups.

Based on the findings, hotels can implement effective strategies to reduce technostressors associated with a check-in/out kiosk and focus on enhancing the factors that influence customer acceptance of the system. This is especially important given the increased emphasis on self-service technology since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This research contributed to the relevant literature by developing a check-in/out kiosk acceptance model using a multi-theoretical approach, and empirically testing it within the full-service hotel domain. It fills the knowledge gap regarding the antecedents and outcomes of technostressors in the hospitality research literature by providing empirical evidence.

The study aims to provide a comparative analysis of diverse challenges faced by different categories of hotels during the adoption of technological innovation. It also examines the role of technological innovations in enhancing the customer experience from a practitioner’s perspective.

Qualitative research is used to better understand the prevailing trends and execution challenges, using the interview method of collecting data. The sample includes owners and senior managers responsible for managing the property.

Indian hotels have lagged behind in technology adoption compared with their western counterparts, though the situation is now changing. The paper highlights the positive impact of technological innovation on customer experience and also identifies constraints in adopting technological innovations.

All hotels participating in this study were selected from a single region of India. Hence, the results may not be a true representation of comparable hotels nationwide.

Findings of this study enable hotel managers and owners to appreciate the role of technological innovation as a differentiator and to understand a variety of nuances associated with technological innovation. Understanding of these dimensions will enable them to take cautious decisions about allocating resources for technological innovation and also to ensure that their customers are being offered maximum value-for-money.

The study was conducted in a developing economy where technological innovation is at a relatively early stage. This study explores its objectives from a practitioner’s perspective.

This research aims at understanding techno-based strategies deployed by the hospitality industry by exploring the emerging technological product and process innovations that are actively being used in the hospitality space to deliver enhanced guest experiences. It also aims at gaining perspective about the challenges of technology adoption faced by the Indian luxury hotels that have traditionally been driven by high-touch, unscripted and personalised service.

This paper adopted a two-pronged methodology for data collection – in-depth semi-structured interviews with General Managers of Luxury Hotels in India and literature-based innovation output (LBIO). NVivo12 software was used to carry out a qualitative thematic analysis of the data. The primary data collected was then triangulated with secondary data gathered through literature review of academic papers, industry reports and studies on the use of technology for enhancing and co-creating customer experience in luxury hotels.

The research brings in to focus the importance of technology and high-tech, state-of-the-art tools in facilitating the co-creation and delivery of experiences in the context of luxury hospitality. However, it also emphasises that the high-touch dimension is the core of hospitality in luxury and premium hotels and should remain the primary driver of this segment. Luxury hotels will have to fine-tune and tailor their services and provide the right mix of high-tech and high-touch, depending on the micro-niche segments to which they cater.

Practitioners, researchers and educationists in the hospitality industry would find the implications of this study useful in context of the evolving technology imperative and the present customer-centric business environment where hotels are constantly striving to meet the exponentially rising bar of guest expectations.

This study is the one of the few empirical explorations of the techno-based strategies adopted by luxury hotels for co-creating enhanced and high-value experiences leading to critical implications for both hospitality and tourism theory and practice.