New Research Program Focuses on Guests' Technology Preferences in Hotels and Resorts
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New Research Program Focuses on Guests' Technology Preferences in Hotels and Resorts
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Category: Worldwide -
This is a press release selected by our editorial committee and published online for free on 2009-07-15
Center Executive Director Rohit Verma invites hotel and resort operators to participate in a new research program that will identify which technology-based service innovations are most important to their customers. Verma introduced his research initiative at the June 2009 HITEC conference. The study is an extension of a study on restaurant technology, which he conducted with Cornell Professor Sheryl Kimes and doctoral candidate Michael Dixon (Customer Preferences for Restaurant Technology Innovations, http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/chr/pubs/reports/abstract-15027.html). As Verma explained at HITEC, the new study is an attempt to find and close any gap between management's perceptions and customers' actual preferences for technology. The study will identify differences between business and leisure guests with regard to service technology and quantify guests' willingness to pay for technological innovations.
The study will use a tool known as the Technology Readiness Scale, which measures customers' willingness to embrace and use technology, based on the following four factors: optimism, innovativeness, discomfort, and insecurity. By knowing how their guests react to technology, hotel and resort managers can determine how best to apply technology in their operations. To conduct the study, Verma will use Experimental Choice Analysis, which presents customers with "packages" of benefits and asks them to choose which package they would prefer, including what they would be willing to pay.
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