Purpose

The advent of technology has played a crucial role in changing the landscape of the hospitality sector. One such technology is the adoption and installation of kiosks in hotels. While some of the hotels have adopted and installed kiosks for self-services, the other hotels are still not very comfortable with the idea of self-service. This paper aims to explore the possibilities, challenges and issues that hoteliers face while dealing with self-service kiosks, it further investigates the customer’s perspective and its benefits to the end-user.

Design/methodology/approach

This study has assimilated data from hotel managers and executives that have deployed kiosks. This study involved the collection of primary data through structured interviews. Eight different hotels from the UK and India have been compared and analyzed to formulate subcategories to answer the research questions. A total of 200 customers from both the countries were approached to get the primary data; the customers were from the same hotel where the hotel executives and managers were interviewed.

Findings

The customers accepted Kiosks as easy to use, fast to run, fun to operate, but, lacking human interaction and counter language issues were simultaneously discussed. Kiosks have been emerging as self-service technologies in hotels and play a key role in reducing bottlenecks in hotel operations. The technology anxiety and counter service argument is merely a transition phase that will fade away gradually. However, the financial feasibility and the level of adoption depend upon the level of operations and the demographic characteristics of customers.

Research limitations/implications

The dependence of data from the person interviewed and their biases for answers, along with the trust and credibility of the data available online remain the biggest challenge. Increasing the sample size and more participation from different hotels would have made the study even more useful.

Originality/value

The research seeks to eliminate the gap in research by studying both the hotels' and the customers' perspective toward kiosks deployment in hotels. The results of the study would highlight the potential challenges being faced by hotel operations and opportunities they perceive in kiosks installation, therefore the results are very useful for hotels, hoteliers, academicians and students pursuing a career in the hospitality sector.

中文翻译：

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作为酒店自助服务技术的自助服务终端：机遇与挑战

目的

技术的出现在改变酒店业的格局方面发挥了至关重要的作用。其中一项技术是在酒店采用和安装信息亭。虽然一些酒店已经采用并安装了自助服务亭，但其他酒店对自助服务的想法仍然不太满意。本文旨在探讨酒店经营者在处理自助服务亭时面临的可能性、挑战和问题，进一步调查客户的观点及其对最终用户的好处。

设计/方法/方法

这项研究吸收了来自已部署自助服务终端的酒店经理和高管的数据。本研究涉及通过结构化访谈收集原始数据。对来自英国和印度的八家不同酒店进行了比较和分析，以制定子类别来回答研究问题。与来自这两个国家的 200 名客户进行了接触以获取原始数据；客户来自与酒店高管和经理接受采访的同一家酒店。

发现

客户认为 Kiosk 易于使用、运行快速、操作有趣，但同时讨论了缺乏人机交互和反语言问题。自助服务终端已成为酒店的自助服务技术，并在减少酒店运营瓶颈方面发挥着关键作用。技术焦虑和反服务争论只是一个逐渐消失的过渡阶段。但是，财务可行性和采用程度取决于运营水平和客户的人口统计特征。

研究限制/影响

对受访者数据的依赖性和他们对答案的偏见，以及在线可用数据的信任度和可信度仍然是最大的挑战。增加样本量和来自不同酒店的更多参与将使这项研究更加有用。

原创性/价值

该研究旨在通过研究酒店和客户对酒店自助服务亭部署的看法来消除研究空白。研究结果将突出酒店运营面临的潜在挑战以及他们在自助服务亭安装中感受到的机会，因此研究结果对酒店、酒店经营者、学者和在酒店行业寻求职业的学生非常有用。