Introduction
Initially, hotels used to depend on paperwork and cards at the customer care desk to communicate with their current and potential customers. They relied on those customers who would physically visit their information desk. However, with information technology advancement, those inconveniences are long gone.
Use of Information technology has fully transformed hospitality industry where different hospitality industry services can now be offered online. According to Varol and Tarcan (2009), information technology is a strategic tool that can be used in the hotel industry to improve quality of the services offered (p.115).
Customers do not need to visit hotels physically as they used to do some years ago to seek more information about services offered.
Technology in hospitality industry
Billing
One of the areas in hospitality industry that have benefited from advancement in information technology is billing. Traditionally, hotels utilized paper-based bookkeeping. This system was inefficient and time consuming and the owners of the hotels could not easily know the position of the business.
Advanced technology brought modern bookkeeping, which has enabled hotel owners to follow the records of the business so easily. Hotel owners are now in a position to know what they need, what the businesses have and the costs of each transaction undertaken in the process of business.
Advanced software for accounting, which is made to suite the specific hospitality industry needs have made it easy for hotel owners to manage their businesses effectively.
Law, Leung & Buhalis (2009) note, information technology will help to reduce operational costs in the hospitality industry (p.599). Through this modern system, products and services that are not performing well in the market are removed and the quantity of those performing well increased.
Booking
Some years in the past, hotel booking and reservations were done over the phone where customers would place their order through the booking office. Information technology advancement has enabled hotel booking to go beyond that level.
Nowadays, hotels are working with travel and booking agencies, which offer online booking services. Online travel agencies help hotels to advertise their services to people who need them without wasting money to advertise to the people who are not interested.
Information management is enabling hotels to maximize their bookings since online advertisement can reach more potential customers who are far from the physical location of the hotel.
This information is also used to show the trend of the business assisting managers to plan when they can undertake strategic plans such as renovation.
Wireless Internet
Many hotels nowadays have installed wireless internet servers to help their customers to keep in touch with their families, friends, and even their businesses when spending in the hotel.
Some customers would like to continue working while in the hotel or even to keep in touch with the progress of their businesses and information technology advancement has made this possible nowadays.
Wireless internet has also made it possible to network all the systems in hotels. Door locks, security cameras, and other security devices are easily monitored thus improving safety in hotels.
Conclusion
Advancement in information technology has transformed hospitality industry in many ways. Services such as booking, billing, and wireless internet have taken hospitality industry into another new level, which has also improved the safety of the hotels making customers more comfortable.
Moreover, the future of this industry is promising as hotel owners adopt new advanced techniques to improve their services.
References
Law, R., Leung, R., & Buhalis, D. (2009). Information technology applications in hospitality and tourism: a review of publications from 2005 to 2007. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 26 (6), 599-623.
Varol, E.S., & Tarcan, E. (2009). An empirical study on the user acceptance of hotel information systems. Tourism journal, 57(2), 115-133.