Digitalization in hotel industry
Digitalization has changed the hotel industry significantly in a few decades. I first started to work in the hotel reception in 2009 and have seen many changes throughout the years. One of the biggest changes have been the decrease of actual paperwork on daily basis. When I started my career almost all the reporting was done by printable papers and most of the reservations also came by email, even fax, and were needed to be made to reservation systems manually. Nowadays reservations and most of the reporting is done through a different systems and applications and there a very few reasons to print anything anymore. Regarding sustainability this has been a huge improvement over the years.
Digitalization has also changed and improved the communication between the customers and hotel partners dramatically. Booking has been made much easier to customers as they are nowadays able to make reservations in real-time through different booking channels. Customers do not have to rely anymore on hotel customer service and travel agents to make a booking which saves a lot of time. Digitalization has created new kind of applications, extranets, and communication channels where contact and service are made easier and faster for all parties. The check-in and check-out process in the hotels are already improved drastically as more self-service options are available for customers. Hotels can also reach a larger customer base when booking can be made easily online from all over the world at any time. In the future I am sure the communication will improve even further.
GDPR – responsibilities and opportunities
The General Data Protection Regulation, or better known as GDPR, first became familiar to me through my work in 2018. In hotel industry there were a lot of aspects that needed to be taken into consideration, especially in the reception work where there is a lot of customer data being handled every single day. Training, which was mandatory for all employees, became an important part in understanding the new regulations and the responsibilities that came with GDPR. Trainings included topics like secure data collection and storing, guests’ rights for their own data and how to act in case of suspecting a data breach.
The new GDPR requirements affected the hotels and other companies by forcing them to improve and renew their security processes and how personal data is being handled regarding the new standards. This naturally created additional costs for the companies. However, I feel there are much more positive effects and benefits than negatives. GDPR gives customers a feeling of security when they can trust that their personal data has been handled with care, and they can decide how the data is being used. The company also benefits from this as it can use the data received from customers to personalize bookings and meet customer preferences more effectively.
In my free time I don’t find myself thinking that much about GDPR related matters. I believe this is mostly because I do believe companies handle my personal data safely. However, as there are also unreliable sources and security threats, I do pay attention to where I share my personal data and want to avoid sharing any unnecessary information if possible.
ChatGPT questions
I asked ChatGPT two questions regarding hotel industry.
Question 1: What services do hotels provide?
With this question ChatGPT provided me with 15 different services, including accommodation, housekeeping, reception, concierge, parking, business, spa and wellness services to mention a few. You can see that AI offered many different possibilities and even acknowledged in the end that the services vary regarding the hotel type and star rating. The answer was however missing on-site restaurant and bar services as AI only mentioned room service and breakfast.
Question 2: What are the main tasks for hotel receptionist?
AI was able to list all the main tasks of a hotel receptionist, covering everything from operational-level tasks, like managing reservations and payments, to different aspects of customer service and ensuring guest satisfaction. The answer also appropriately acknowledges the importance of communication and security in the receptionist’s role.
As a conclusion, ChatGPT provided versatile and accurate answers to the questions. Even though the answers had many relevant points they were not perfect and were missing some important aspects as we can see in the first question. This shows that although AI can be very useful it’s important to be critical of the answers.
Self-evaluation
Digitalization has had a significant positive impact on the hotel and tourism industry. With new communication methods and the automation of daily reporting, companies can reach their customers more effectively, allowing them to focus even more on customer interaction and experience. The time that was once spent on administrative tasks can now be redirected to better serving customers and concentrating on the customer experience. Digitalization also allows companies to reach larger global audience and opportunities to improve their brand image and advertise services in more innovative way.
GDPR on the other hand brings both opportunities and responsibilities for companies. GDPR forces companies to improve their data security procedures and at the same time opportunities to create feeling of security for their customers. It also allows companies to offer more personalized services to their customers based on the data collected. However, in the future, companies need to acknowledge new threats, and security will need to be managed even more effectively to face these new challenges. Since my current role in human resources also requires a wide understanding of data security, this is a topic where I want to continue developing my skills even further.
I also believe that AI will play a huge role when it becomes changing the work as we know it. It can be a valuable tool in the workplace and can be applied in areas such as automation of routine tasks, reporting and analytics as well as customer support. I still feel it is important to be critical with the information generated by AI and not rely solely on it. AI can be a great assistant in a workplace, but it cannot replace the human decision-making and customer service in general.
Here are the blogs I visited and commented on: