APA格式assignment范文：IT in hospitality

IT in hospitalityIT在酒店业

1.0 Introduction简介

本研究首先介绍了信息技术的定义和特点。然后，它提出了信息技术应用的理论基础，随后是信息技术在酒店业中的应用实证研究。最后，它为未来的研究提出了方向。

This study first of all introduces the definition and characteristics of information technology. Then, it presents the theoretical basis of the use of information technology, followed by the empirical research of use of information technology in hospitality. Finally, it brings forward directions for future research.

2.0 Definition and characteristics of IT IT的定义和特征

信息技术（IT）是主要用于信息管理和处理的技术的总称，主要包括传感器技术，计算机技术和智能技术，通信和控制技术（Chen，Murphy和Knecht，2016）。

IT的发展对社会进步产生了巨大的影响，这种强大的影响取决于其特点，具体表现为数字化：数字信息处理具有高保真，大存储容量，快速传输速度等特点（王，李， Li和Zhang，2016），IT的使用使得各种形式的信息，如文本，符号，图形，声音，视频数字，为统一处理和传输信息提供了基础（王，李，李和张，2016）;网络：IT通过电信线路和相关设备将许多计算机系统连接在一起，以共享资源（Melián-González和Bulchand-Gidumal，2016）;虚拟化：人们可以利用计算机生成的虚拟现实模拟环境来感知客观世界并获得相关技能（Guttentag，2010）;智能化：它利用计算机来模拟，扩展和扩展人类智能，使机器具有人类思维和逻辑判断力，智能信息系统可以提供强大的推理，搜索和学习功能，为人们提供了大量便捷的自助服务（Rianthong， Dumrongsiri和Kohda，2016）。

总而言之，IT具有数字化，网络化，智能化，虚拟化的优势，IT的使用可以为酒店带来诸多好处，例如提高管理效率，降低成本，提高客户满意度等等。

Information technology (IT) is a general term of technology used mainly for management and processing of information, mainly including sensor technology, computer technology and intelligent technology, communication and control technology (Chen, Murphy and Knecht, 2016).

Development of IT has a huge impact on social progress, such a powerful effect is determined by its characteristics, which is specifically performed as digitization: digital information processing has high fidelity, large memory capacity, fast transmission speed and other characteristics(Wang, Li, Li and Zhang, 2016), the use of IT makes a variety of forms of information, such as text, symbols, graphics, sound, video digital, providing a basis for a unified processing and transmitting of information (Wang, Li, Li and Zhang, 2016); networking: IT links a number of computer systems together by telecommunication lines and associated equipment, in order to share resources (Melián-González and Bulchand-Gidumal, 2016); virtualization: people can make use of a computer-generated virtual reality simulation context to perceive the objective world and have an access to relevant skills (Guttentag, 2010) ; intelligentization: it uses computers to simulate, extend and expand human intelligence, making machine has a human thinking and logical judgment, intelligent information systems can provide strong reasoning, searching and learning functions to provide people with a lot of convenient self-service (Rianthong, Dumrongsiri and Kohda, 2016).

All in all, IT has digital, networked, intelligent, virtualized advantages, the use of IT can bring hotels many benefits, such as improving management efficiency, reducing costs, improving customer satisfaction, and so on.

3.0 Theoretical basis of the use of IT

Maslow's Hierarchy of Need Theory divides needs into physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging, esteem and self-actualization; it is based on order of priority and from a lower level to a higher level. In general, when needs of a level are met, people will have needs of a high level, the pursuit of needs of a higher level become power of driving behavior (Maslow, 1943).Strong interaction, fast information transmission speed and large information storage capacity of IT makes the use of IT in hotels can not only satisfy low-level consumer demand, but also better meet consumer demand of high-level, so as to effectively improve customer satisfaction (Oltean, Gabor and Conţiu, 2014).

Customer relationship management (CRM) is defined as the process that in order to improve core competitiveness, enterprises make use of appropriate information technology and Internet technology to coordinate the interaction between companies and customers in sales, marketing and services, so as to enhance their management mode to provide customers with innovative, personalized style of communication and service (Šebjan, Bobek and Tominc, 2014). The ultimate goal is to attract new customers and retain old customers and convert existing customers to loyal customers to increase market share (Oh, Jeong and Baloglu, 2013). Hotels use IT, such as CRM system can effectively manage and maintain long-term relationship between hotels and customers to improve customer loyalty (Hua, Morosan and DeFranco, 2015).

Contingency theory was brought forward in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Contingency theory suggests that internal factors and external environmental conditions of each organization are different, and therefore there is no principle and method which can be applied to any scenario of management activities, in management practice, enterprises should be based on changes and development in their environment and internal conditions to carry out management resourcefully (Šebjan, Bobek and Tominc, 2014). To meet the individual needs of the guests, hotels should have more flexibility in management system, to take only standardized management and service system is not enough. Therefore, in accordance with contingency theory to implement management is necessary, but this will increase the burden of hotel staff and bring difficulty to hotel management. The use of IT can coordinate cooperation between the various departments of a hotel, while facilitating communication between employees and consumers, making hotel management in accordance with contingency theory turn into reality (Manoharan, Gross and Sardeshmukh, 2014).

In short, for a hotel, whether it can meet high levels of consumer demand, whether it can maintain a good long-term relationship with consumers, whether it can well implement management measures based on contingency theory is very important and the use of IT can help a hotel to successfully complete the above-mentioned three goals.

4.0 IT and customer service

4.1 Meet personalized needs

By using customer relationship management system and data mining technology, hotels can record each guest’s habits and preferences, when the guest checks in again, the room layout, room personnel service, restaurant food and service will fully comply with the guest’s habits, so that the guest will truly appreciate the warmth of home (Dursun and Caber, 2016). For example, business people want to handle relevant matters and have normal communication and exchange with their friends or families at a hotel, if the hotel offers broadband access, it will fully meet the needs of business guests in this regard, so that business travelers will on the one hand enjoy the hotel’s high quality services, at the same time, they can handle their own affairs, which will enhance customer satisfaction (Lai and Choi, 2015).

4.2 Bring new experience

WEBGIS takes GIS technology processing spatial information as the support, in addition to information management functions that traditional MIS has, the most significant is the addition of spatial analysis functions. It takes full consideration of what guests need to provide one-stop service for guests (Gkatzoflias, Mellios and Samaras, 2013), such as helping guests to have a shortest access to find the nearest relevant service facilities. It makes use of the method of road network analysis to find the shortest distance between departure and destination, as well as a variety of travel modes for guests to facilitate guests’ travelling to play the role of smart guide (Yang, Tang, Luo and Law, 2015).

In the era when hotel reservation using the Internet has been popular, hotels can make use of Virtual Reality (VR) technology in the network to provide realistic impression of hotel rooms, restaurants, and even external environment around hotel, which can visually display the full range of hotel features (Nomura and Sawada, 1999), customers can browse virtual realistic pictures of hotels through the network, which can bring customers immersive experience and attract customers to get a good reputation (Woksepp and Olofsson, 2008). Guests can makes use of VR technology to have a comprehensive understanding of all types of hotel rooms, as well as conditions of restaurants, clubs and other sites of hotels, guests do not need to trouble in shuttle from a room to another room to confirm and select rooms of a hotel, like what they have done in the past, thus it saves time and improves efficiency of checking in (Guttentag, 2010).

4.3 Reduce disturbing customer 

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) appeared in the 1990s, it is through the use of a radio frequency signal, through space coupling to achieve non-contact transmission of information and technology and through the information passed by to achieve the purpose of identification. Currently RFID has also been widely used in hotel management (Lin, Chen and Hsu, 2011).#p#分页标题#e#

If a customer carries a card embedded with RFID microchip, as long as the consumer is close to any reader device in a hotel, he will be identified to confirm his identity, relevant information of the customer will be stored in the chip and spread to database of the hotel for processing (Ngai, Suk and Lo, 2008). When the guest enters the hotel next time, the hotel's computer system will immediately recognize his identity, based on the existing customer information to know his preferences and habits to arrange a room for the guest in the shortest period of time. When guests come to the door of the room, the computer system will quickly confirm the identity and automatically open the door, starting air conditioning and lights. When the guest purchases, has supper and enjoys the SPA in the hotel, he does not need to worry about billing issues, the costs will be automatically calculated in the total costs that he pays in the hotel (Öztayşi, Baysan and Akpinar, 2009).

In summary, the use of IT can better meet individual needs of consumers to bring new consumer experience and reduce disturbing consumers. Thus, from the perspective of Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, the use of IT can better meet high-level consumer demand, such as a sense of belonging, respect and so on. .

5.0 IT and hotel marketing

5.1 Market segmentation

Use customer management system can analyze and process a large number of consumption information stored in customer database, the large number of customers can be divided into different classes. By using data to find consumption preferences, habits, needs and other information of different types of customers, and then hotels can provide targeted marketing products and services to improve customer satisfaction of customers of different categories to get the maximum profit (Wu and Chen, 2012).

5.2 Retain customers

In an increasingly competitive and intense market environment, costs for attracting a new customer will be increasing, so keeping existing customers has become very important (Kaushik, Agrawal and Rahman, 2015). CRM system is used to process and analyze large amounts of data in customer database to identify, analyze and evaluate the risk of customer churn, analyzing why there is customer churn, how to retain high profitability customers to take targeted measures to retain customers and prevent the economic loss arising from customers churn for hotels (Daghfous and Barkhi, 2009). 

5.3 Find valuable customers

Analysis of customer profitability is the key to marketing success, failing to evaluate customer profitability will not be able to maximize customer profitability (Kaushik, Agrawal and Rahman, 2015). Customer relationship management system is used to discover the characteristics of the behavior of customers from customers’ some transaction records to take advantage of these features to analyze customer profitability and predict the most likely customer behavior patterns in future, thus remaining valuable customers in the process of marketing and prompting those little value customers to change into valuable customers (Dursun and Caber, 2016).

5.3 Cross-selling

Cross-selling is the process of enterprises’ selling existing customers new products and services. Cross-selling is built on a win-win basis, customers profit because of getting more and better services to meet their needs, companies also benefit by sales growth (Dursun and Caber, 2016). Hotels can use customer relationship management to better discover and explore customers’ potential demand to meet their demand to achieve the purpose of increasing product and service sales (Wu and Lu, 2012).

In summary, the use of IT to CRM in a hotel will help the hotel to develop correct hotel market segmentation strategy, retain customers, find valuable customers and carry out cross-selling. Use of IT has a positive significance for successful marketing strategy of a hotel.

6.0 IT and staff management

6.1 Coordinate work of various departments

Hotel service product must be jointly provided by different employees in different departments, showing comprehensive features. Thus provision of hotel products is not only related to various departments of a hotel, but also determined by highly close coordination of various departments and employees. In actual hotel operation and management process, failure in coordination of various departments will make guests I feel that what the hotel serves fails to achieve the desired objectives (Kim, Hlee and Joun, 2016). For example, if a guest reserves a meeting room with the marketing department of a hotel and describes his specific requirements for the meeting room and diet, lack of communication between the marketing department and the food and beverage department makes the food and beverage department fails to meet what the guest requires. With the advances in information technology, the popularity of computer and the development of network technology, various departments within a hotel begin to use computers as a routine management tool, which lays foundation for coordinating management of various departments. With the use of information technology, all customer information and all data are stored in a system, all the information is real-time and unified, management can inquire relevant information and data anytime, anywhere, which provides great support and help for management staff to make decisions (Wu and Li, 2011). While application of some of analysis techniques can help managers to analyze hotel business conditions to expand revenue sources while reduce costs of everyday business, thereby enhancing their operating profits (Nieves and Segarra-Ciprés, 2015).

6.2 Facilitate communication with customers

A key to meet the individual needs of guests is maintaining effective and instant communication with customers, which has brought a great challenge and difficulty to the work of staff. However, the use of information technology is a good solution of the problem of communication between employees and customers, ensuring that what customers need can be effectively met, and it also reduces the difficulty of the work of employees (Šebjan, Bobek and Tominc, 2014). Taking wireless dish-order system for example, customer demand information can be quickly transferred between customers, waiters, cooks, which not only improves the efficiency of information communication, but also reduces staff’s workload (Kaushik, Agrawal and Rahman, 2015).

As stated above, the use of IT can help to coordinate the work of various departments of a hotel to facilitate communication between hotel staff and consumers to improve management efficiency, reduce the burden on the staff to help the hotel to better implement management measures based on contingency theory.

7.0 Further research

Current study about use of IT in hospitality is more focused on staff management, service and marketing, there is not lots of research on application of IT in hotel asset management, procurement management, cost management, while asset management, procurement management, cost also has important significance for successful management of a hotel. Therefore, in future studies, it is possible to strengthen research in this area. In addition, the development of IT is changing, many new generations of IT are more powerful, such as integration of three networks, Internet of things, cloud computing, etc., application of these technologies to hotel management is very useful, but there is still less research currently, it can further strengthen research in this area in the future.

8.0 Conclusion

Because of its advantages of digitization, networking, virtualization, intelligence, IT has been widely applied to hotel marketing, management, service and other aspects. IT is characterized by high interaction, fast information transmission speed, large information storage capacity, etc., making the use of IT in hospitality to better meet high-level consumer demand possible, so as to effectively improve customer satisfaction. Use of IT, such as CRM system can effectively manage and maintain long-term relationship between hotels and customers to improve customer loyalty. Use of IT can better coordinate relationship between various departments of a hotel, while facilitating communication between employees and consumers, making hotel management in accordance with contingency theory turn into a reality.

 

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