Hotel Self-Service Kiosks: History and Thesis

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Reduced overhead is good news for cash-conscious consumers, but bad news for hotel staff, although some former front desk employees may be promoted 'laterally' to other parts of a company.

However, subsequent IT security and maintenance demands may offset some of these cost savings. "Self-serve applications such as the Fairmont's kiosk are different from desk applications because they have to run 24/7. Once deployed, there are no ways to intervene. The kiosk can't be automatically restarted, so it needs to be a rock-solid, robust device" (Lombardi 2005). The security system must be constantly monitored for possible infringement: "The kiosks are sitting on a secure network, and we're also running WEP security, a wireless encryption protocol. That's not 100 per cent bullet proof, so there's another server-based layer of security which authenticates transactions as well as providing another level of encryption" says the Fairmont (Lombardi 2009).

Kiosks can be tailored to the need of the individual hotel or chain. They can potentially reduce overhead and costs for budget hotels and chains, provided the technology is well-maintained and secure. At high-end hotels, customers used to a technologically-focused, expedited world can have the same services he or she enjoys at the airport. "Marriott International is also considering other services for its kiosks, such as ordering room service, setting up a wake-up call, making restaurant reservations, booking a car or printing a map to the guest's next destination.

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Kiosks also provide some of the services once only provided by concierges. They also make it easier to "locate amenities around a hotel property, such as identifying the best route to a guest room, pool, hotel restaurant or other services" (Rose 2008).

However, some consumers are still not comfortable with kiosks. Consumers must be confident with technology, or the potential downsides of kiosks can be numerous -- if a guest books the wrong type of room, for example, there may be no staff members around late at night to rectify his or her error. Kiosks systems can be less than 'user friendly' for unseasoned travelers. That is why "Hotels have been introducing self-service check-in in large, urban areas that cater to business travelers, already comfortable with the convenience of express checkout…the business traveler is an earlier adapter of self-service," than the average traveler (Chakravorty 2005). But as kiosks become a fact of life when obtaining everything from digital photos to mobile phones, even leisure-time travelers may come to prefer self-service.

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