Hotel Operations Management Answers | Assessment Answer

In the current economic situation, hospitality industry has undergone several changes and rapid expansions. The application of technology in the hospitality industry is widely committed to handle the day to day running operations of the hotels. Nowadays, people around the world are increasingly becoming facilitated by the technological transactions. The technological development in the hotel industry enhances its operations and thereby maintains customers' service and loyalty. Most of the hotels have adopted different information technology based facilities in order to reduce costs and improves its quality of services through enhancing efficiency in their operational activities (Kumar & Chandrasekar, 2013). Through the use of technology in the business, financial return and profit margin of the company also increases. Thus, investment in the technology to deliver services in the hotel industry benefits both the customer and firm because it facilitates the customer to experience better services and thereby also assists the hotel staff to serve their customers based on their tastes and preferences (López, Pérez, Zalama, & Gómez-García-Bermejo, 2013). Generally, hotel industry is considered as information intensive. Along with the industrial revolution and technological development, hotel industry took a new shape and the purpose of fulfilling customer services has shifted from social to commercial benefits. Regardless of the business, hotel industry relies heavily on providing an excellent service to its customers. The implementation of technology in the hotel service delivery provides basic information to the customers. To maintain its operation, hotels opt for the incorporation of technology and thus reduces workforce in many departments (Bilgihan & Nejad, 2015).

Discussion

Strategic Analysis and Competitive Advantage of Implementing Technology in Hotel Industry

In the world of digital technology, different technological devices are constituted in everyday life of many people. The technology determines the working and communication behavior of the consumers in many aspects. The effective development and implementation of innovative technology in the hotel industry enables the managerial capabilities to understand the impact of the business performance within the policies of an industry. The lower service cost in the form of robot technology has been specifically designed for the hotel industry in order to deliver the customer’s requested orders timely. This kind of service technology consumes less time to perform any task and thus also includes no error. In the world of modern technology, services based on robot technology are supporting many people in various avenues of the hospitality industry. However, the usage of robot technology in the hotel delivery services was first introduced in California. The dynamic changes in the hotel industry influences creativeness and trends among public at a large (Law & Jogaratnam, 2005).

The hotel industry is an important element of another related sector in the economy as it significantly contributes in the development of national and international business. With an early attempt of implementing innovative technology, hotel industry aims to improve its leveraging relationships and practices in the business activities (O'Connor & Murphy, 2004). In addition, implementation of advance technology benefits the industry in several key aspects including reduction the service cost, greater capability of marketing which in turn results into high segmentation of value based customers, combination of technology with different information system and also enhances the emerging customer service through greater knowledge and less responses time. The change in the process of organizational function continues to challenge the competitive business environment. The service quality offered by hotel industry directly effects the customer satisfactions and their loyalty towards the industry. However, robot technology is typically argued to drastically change its channel of distribution and thereby alter its interaction among consumers which further impacts on the relationship between hotel and its competitors (Koutroumanis, 2011).  

Application of Information Technology in the view of Customer Relation

System of Information technology is rapidly expanding in every field of business. Traditionally, hotel staff used to greet the guest in a hotel but, with the implementation of robotic technology in the hotel service delivery, robots will tend to greet the customers or guests at the reception. In the recent years, research in this application has improved to provide other related hospitality services to its customers. Development in the electronic distribution of services also reflects advancement in the country's performance level as it enhances its productivity among the nation. It explores the latest trends and advancement in the technology at a faster pace. These trends in the industry saves huge service cost and time for the companies within the hospitality industry while, these changes affects planning for the  structure of management and staffing requirements in a company within hotel industry (Mohammed & Rashid, 2012). Some of the major technological advancement in the hotel industries is smart room keys, integrated and seamless experiences, entertainment on the tap, robots, and infrared innovative sensors, digital facility including Wi-Fi infrastructure. With the help of smart room keys, hotels allows their guests to access the system through simply unlock doors of the room with a single phone swipe across the pad with no keys (Osarenkhoe, Byarugaba, Birungi, Okoe, & Bennani, 2014). This facility increases the level of convenience to their customers along with the easy delivery access of various facilities. The productivity of the hotel also enhances with the implementation of the technology as the cost efficiency improves (Law, Leung, & Buhalis, 2009). Besides being a tool, robotic technology enables the hotel industry to maximize the utilization of resources and thereby also manage to serve consumers' demand in the most effective and appropriate manner. The superior quality of services offered by an industry is one of the crucial factors in recognizing the success of an organization. It enhances the customer loyalty and capacity of an organization to serve better services to their customers (Barker, Kandampully, & Lee, 2003).

Negative Impact of Implementing Robotic Technology in the Hotel Industry

The increasing use of technology has definitely helped in making the life easy. But, another point that cannot be ignored is that it has given rise to many other issues. Unemployment is one such issue if workers are taken into consideration. A process done by a machine is automated and hence can finish the work done by ten people on its own. No doubt hotel industry is one of the most evolving industry making top job makers in the world. But if machines are being used, it may result in less demand of people and hence an increase in the number of unemployed people. The hospitality is completely about the interaction between employee and the customer, a face-to-face communication with each other is the most important factor of hotel industry. If there is no interaction, the translations could be lost and wrong interpretations may occur among customers and hotel service delivery system (Miller & Atkinson, 2013).  

On the other hand, from point of view of customers, it won't be a great experience. The reason to travel and go out to different places is because interaction with new people is what most of the customers like else they could simply spend their time in house. Going to some hotel and get greeted by a machine as one walks in is not at all fun. Therefore, customers' still need employees and should not rely on machines for all the work to be done. Another issue that occurs while using a technology is its failure. While using these technologies, many people start relying on them for their everyday existence. There might be a case where these machines breaks or stops working. In such a case, humans are almost disabled till the issues are resolved. This makes a human less-reliant and puts him at a disadvantage (Zhechev & Todorov, 2010). 

Conclusion

The innovative technology used in the hotel industry serves better service quality to their customers and thereby facilitates them with greater experience. However, this report comprises of several opinions and arguments with regard to the implementation of technology in the hotel industry. Throughout the report, implementation of technology has been strategically analyzed and thereby its competitive advantage over other sectors has been examined. However, it has been observed that with the implementation of innovative technology, an organization improves its efficiency and quality of services towards its customers. In addition to this argument, positive and negative application of the information technology in the perspective of the customers has also been viewed in the report. In the context of customer views, they find it convenient and easy to access different activities within the hotel. Moreover, the negative impact of this robotic technology in the hotel industry has also been argued in order to have a positive and negative implication of technology in the report. Installation of machines in an industry increases the rate of unemployment. To experience personalized services is one of the vital factors which many consumers wish to have in the hotel industry. This results into a negative impact of installing innovative technology in the hotel industry. Also failure in the technology greatly hampers the industry to service their customers effectively and efficiently. However, the size and the market sector of the hospitality industry are expanding day by day as it helps to increase in the development and growth of the economy. But, overall throughout the report it can be said that the implementation of robotic technology in the hospitality industry enhances the customer experience and thereby also improves the productivity of the company. 

References

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Koutroumanis, D. A. (2011). Technology’s Effect on Hotels and Restaurants: Building a Strategic Competitive Advantage . Journal of Applied Business and Economics, 12(1), 72-80.

Kumar, K. S., & Chandrasekar, K. S. (2013). Hospitaility industry technology: Trends and its implications. South Asian Academic Research Journals, 3(11), 70-77. Retrieved 2016, from https://www.indianjournals.com/ijor.aspx?target=ijor:sajmmr&volume=3&issue=11&article=004

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López, J., Pérez, D., Zalama, E., & Gómez-García-Bermejo, J. (2013). BellBot - A Hotel Assistant System Using Mobile Robots. International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, 10(40), 1-11. doi:10.5772/54954

Miller, B., & Atkinson, R. D. (2013, September). Are Robots Taking Our Jobs, or Making Them? Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, pp. 1-36. Retrieved 2016

Mohammed, A. A., & Rashid, B. b. (2012). Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in Hotel Industry: A Framework Proposal on the Relationship among CRM Dimensions, Marketing Capabilities and Hotel Performance. International Review of Management and Marketing, 2(4), 220-230. Retrieved from https://econjournals.com/index.php/irmm/article/viewFile/297/pdf

O'Connor, P., & Murphy, J. (2004). Research on information technology in the hospitality industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 23(5), 473-484. Retrieved 2016

Osarenkhoe, A., Byarugaba, J. M., Birungi, M. K., Okoe, A. F., & Bennani, A.-E. (2014). Technology-Based Service Encounter-A Study of the Use of E-Mail as a Booking Toolin Hotels. Journal of Service Science and Management, 7(6), 419-429. doi:10.4236/jssm.2014.76039

Zhechev, V. S., & Todorov, A. (2010). The Impact of Overbooking on Hotels’ Operation Management. SSRN Electronic Journal, 1-18. doi:https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1698103