Technological Advancement in Hospitality
Identify a recent technological adaptations in the hospitality and tourism management industry. Is it proving to be successful? How is it transforming the industry?
Re-opening after the Covid-19 lock down in 2020 required the hospitality industry to rethink their procedures in order to help guests feel safe enough to visit the various establishments. The use of modern technology was vital to this industry-wide transformation. One major change that we saw was the increased availability of kiosks in restaurants, hotels, event venues and more. Implementing the use of kiosks has helped to reduce contact between the guests and the staff. We see self-checkout kiosks in McDonald’s, Chili’s, hotels; they are everywhere. There are even kiosks placed at the entrance of events and airports to check-in or scan your tickets. In addition to reducing physical contact, kiosks have helped reduce the amount of paper money exchanging hands. Cash has long been known to transfer germs, so going cashless was vital to reducing the spread of the virus.
The implementation of kiosks has proven to be very effective in the hospitality industry. These kiosks can improve wait time, now that many are familiar with the technology. They can help a business improve productivity, because team members can be reassigned to positions that truly require a human touch. Kiosks assist with social distancing which helps people feel safer to visit a business. Also, when you use a kiosk to place your food order, you can see for yourself that the order is correct. This helps to reduce errors, customer service complaints, food loss, etc. Lastly, they provide an opportunity to up-sell without the guest feeling pressured or awkward. A well placed advertisement could have significant affect on sales numbers.
Overall, the mass implementation of the kiosk system has been of great value to the hospitality industry. There have been other technological advancements, but I believe this is the one that has made the largest impact, at least out of the forward-facing advancements.