Algorithmic management is transforming traditional face-to-face service sectors like hospitality. To understand this phenomenon, we conducted an interview study in a unionized, mid-sized urban hotel on the West Coast of the USA. Through this work, we examine how an algorithmic management (AM) platform mediates work in a housekeeping department. Our analysis highlights the effects of AM on social processes, revealing that despite careful configuration, the tool's implementation still challenges traditional communication and coordination. This study contributes empirical evidence on AM impacts in a collaborative service environment, emphasizing the importance of organizational dynamics in AM design and implementation. We offer design opportunities for flexible workplace technologies that support, rather than frustrate, the relational aspects of service work.

As food delivery robots are spreading onto streets and college campuses worldwide, users' views of these robots will depend on their direct and indirect interactions with the robots and their conversations with other people, such as those with whom they are ordering food via a robot. We examined if being in a group of 2 to 3 people affects the acceptance and trust of the robot compared to being an individual user. First-time users of the food delivery robot service (N = 60) ordered food either as an Individual or in a Group. We measured the acceptance and trust of the robots after three Exposures (pre-exposure, after ordering food on the app, and after the robots delivered the food). Results indicated that Individual users had more acceptance and trust compared to Group users. Further, as hypothesized, groups had more variation in acceptance and trust compared to individual users, consistent with patterns of group polarization i.e., group members influencing each other's perceptions to become more positive or negative. Further analysis demonstrated that group members were highly influenced by their groupmates. Designers and restaurant operators should consider how to enhance group members' experience of delivery robots.

Labor shortages have shaped many industries over the past several years, with hospitality experiencing one of the largest rates of attrition. Workers are leaving their jobs for a variety of reasons, ranging from burnout and work intensification to a lack of meaningful employment. While some literature maintains that labor-replacing automation is poised to bridge the shortages, we argue there is an opportunity for technology design to instead improve job quality and retention. Drawing on interviews with unionized guest room attendants, we report on workers’ perceptions of a widely-used algorithmic room assignment system. We then present worker-generated design ideas that adapt this system toward supporting three key facets of wellbeing: self-efficacy, transparency, and workload. We argue for the need to consider these facets of wellbeing through design across the service landscape, particularly as HCI attends to the impacts of AI and automation on frontline work.

Recent investments in automation and AI are reshaping the hospitality sector. Driven by social and economic forces affecting service delivery, these new technologies have transformed the labor that acts as the backbone to the industry-namely frontline service work performed by housekeepers, front desk staff, line cooks and others. We describe the context for recent technological adoption, with particular emphasis on algorithmic management applications. Through this work, we identify gaps in existing literature and highlight areas in need of further research in the domains of worker-centered technology development. Our analysis highlights how technologies such as algorithmic management shape roles and tasks in the high-touch service sector. We outline how harms produced through automation are often due to a lack of attention to non-management stakeholders. We then describe an opportunity space for researchers and practitioners to elicit worker participation at all stages of technology adoption, and offer methods for centering workers, increasing transparency, and accounting for the context of use through holistic implementation and training strategies.

In "Web Scraping for Hospitality Research: Overview, Opportunities, and Implications," Han and Anderson present the tools and methods for collecting online data through data scraping. Although the article describes in detail the processes for gathering data, and presented recent court rulings that allow data scraping in the United States, it did not adequately address the ethical collection of online data. The internet has opened up new opportunities to research interesting questions and to collect data much faster than has been possible in the past. The emergence of online databases and social media sites enables new lines of research while at the same time introducing new ethical questions for both researchers and institutional research boards (IRBs). Using web-based data for research is not new. However, as Han and Anderson point out, a 2019 ruling (HiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn Corporation, appeal from the United States District Court) has redefined what is legal in online data collection. In the following, we highlight some of the key legal and ethical issues around the use of scraped data for academic research with the intent of ensuring researchers, reviewers, and editors are cognizant of some of these (evolving) issues.

As robots are becoming more prevalent and entering hospitality settings, understanding how different configurations of individuals and groups interact with them becomes increasingly important for catering to various people. This is especially important because group dynamics can affect people’s perceptions of situations and behavior in them. We present research examining how individuals and groups interact with and accept a humanoid robot greeter at a real-world café (Study 1) and in an online study (Study 2). In each study, we separately examine interactions of individuals, groups that participants formed after they arrived at the café (new-formed groups), and groups that participants arrived with at the café (pre-formed groups). Results support prior findings that groups are more likely to interact with a public robot than individuals (Study 1). We also report novel findings that new-formed groups interacted more with the robot than pre-formed groups (Study 1). We link this with groups perceiving the robot as more positive and easier to use (Study 2). Future research should examine perceptions of the robot immediately after interaction and in different hospitality contexts.

This chapter provides an introduction to the key players in the hospitality industry, worldwide. Key people and organizations instrumental in the development of the travel and tourism, food and beverage, and hotel and accommodation industries are highlighted. The chapter also provides a snapshot of many of the key organizations in restaurants and foodservice, and the hotel and accommodations industries today. Finally, the chapter discusses predictions for the hospitality industry moving forward.

The hospitality industry is very diverse with many structures and organizations. This chapter outlines the various organizational structures in the hotel and restaurant industries. Management strategies impacting the structure and organization are discussed. The chapter describes international factors that influence organizational structure and explores trends on the horizon that may impact the industry.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how well hotel website load time performance compared against customer expectation benchmarks. In a competitive market, service interactions are important. As customers move to mobile devices, the time to load a website is a critical part of the service delivery. Long load times can lead to poor service experiences, customer frustration and lost business. Hotel website load times on both mobile and desktop devices were examined and compared to service expectations. Design/methodology/approach The study used an online service to assess and compare website load performance using both desktop and mobile devices for 259 international hotel company and sub-brand websites. Findings The time to load hotel websites was significantly slower on mobile devices compared to desktops. Load times on both platforms exceeded 3 s, which is considered best practice. Long load times represent a service gap and can cause dissatisfaction resulting in a potential customer abandoning the website for a competitor’s site, thus affecting sales. Research limitations/implications While the population for the study was robust in size and contained most of the major hotel companies worldwide, it was not exhaustive. Data also represent a snapshot and will change over time. Load times vary based on test location, access device and network traffic. Additionally, web page load times and customer expectations will change as technology evolves. Originality/value Increased use of mobile devices for hotel reservations increases the importance of mobile service delivery. This is the first known study to measure hotel website load times for mobile devices, and to examine both mobile and desktop performance against best practice. The results of this study highlight a service gap, which can lead to loss of business. Given the consistency of the results, the authors suspect that this is an issue that has not been recognized within the industry. This study is valuable because it exposes an issue of website design not generally addressed in the hospitality industry, even though tools are available to monitor site performance.

This study compares the load time for hotel and hotel company websites with the load times for online travel agencies, aggregators and peer to peer accommodation websites.A traveler's first impression of a hotel company is likely to be their first visit to the website on either their computer or mobile device.Prior research has shown that a slow loading website leads to user frustration and can cause consumers to abandon a website in favor of faster loading sites.Sites with a slower load time are at a competitive disadvantage.This study compares load times for 261 hotel and hotel company websites, 91 online travel agencies, 26 aggregators, and 40 peer to peer accommodation websites on both mobile and desktop platforms.The study found significant differences between website types for desktop load times.The management implications are discussed.

User generated travel reviews are becoming a prominent information source for travelers making hotel purchase decisions. This study examines 60,648 user generated travel reviews for 4,987 hotels, across hotel segments determining word use patterns and frequencies. The intent of this study was to determine areas where a hotel could take action and thereby improve their rating, varied by segment. The study found that travelers' use of words and word patterns in comments accompanying online ratings had some differences across different hotel segments. Travelers assigning ratings to the lower priced segments were concerned about cleanliness of the hotel and the bathroom, while travelers assigning ratings to the higher priced segments, mentioned words related to the bed, and the service or the staff more frequently. Travelers also frequently mentioned breakfast and a hotel's convenience to area amenities.

PurposeConsumers as well as hotel web sites are evolving, changing the requirements and expectations for online hotel room reservations. Building on previous research, the purpose of this paper is to explore hotel web site design's influence on site appeal and likelihood to purchase.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology incorporates both qualitative and quantitative methods. College‐age participants visited hotel web sites detailing their impressions. Using a grounded theory‐based approach and regression analysis, web design factors are identified and assessed.FindingsThe paper finds a preference for enhanced graphical web site design. This finding contradicts prior studies. The paper also finds continued importance in: ease of use, brand loyalty site content, and site aesthetics.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative data. The coding of qualitative data can be affected by researcher bias. This paper also suffers from an age and geographic population bias. While this paper suggests that certain factors influence the likelihood to purchase, more extensive definition of these factors is needed. In addition, several factors, which were important in previous studies, have incongruous findings in this paper and need further examination.Practical implicationsThe results give direction to the design of effective hotel web sites.Originality/valueRapidly evolving internet technologies and consumer behavior generate a need for ongoing research to consumer behavior. A study with valid insight and information completed previously may not accurately reflect today's internet hotel market. The findings are significant: they suggest there has been a shift in consumer preferences.

This study evaluates 60,648 consumer ratings and comments from an online distribution site to explore what factors drive consumer ratings of hotels. Ratings assigned by travelers were combined with words used in their comments to bring to light the most frequent commendations and concerns mentioned when rating hotels. Specifically, the study yields information as to the most frequently used words, as well as the pattern of word usage with either high or low guest ratings. It also explores word choices of guests scoring hotels at lower ratings versus higher ratings. Implications of the differences in word choice are discussed. The results of this study will help hotel management in allocating resources to improve ratings and guest comments.

The growth of Internet travel sites has increased the importance of the traveler reviews provided on those sites. These reviews play an important role in travelers' hotel selection. Expedia allows travelers to rate hotels not only on overall satisfaction, but also on four important aspects of their hotel stay (Hotel Service, Hotel Condition, Room Cleanliness, and Room Comfort), and their willingness to recommend the hotel to other travelers. This study looked at over 60,000 traveler ratings. The majority of all four quality ratings and overall satisfaction rating were positive. Additionally, nearly 75% of responses indicated willingness to recommend the hotel. All four quality ratings were found to have similarly strong associations with travelers' overall rating and willingness to recommend. Partial correlations differed, with hotel service and room comfort being highest, followed by hotel condition then room cleanliness.

User generated travel reviews are becoming a prominent information source for travelers making hotel purchase decisions. This study examines 60,648 user generated travel reviews for 4,853 hotels, across hotel segments determining word use patterns and frequencies. The intent of this study was to determine if actionable words: those that would suggest areas where a hotel could take action and thereby improve their customer satisfaction varied by segment. The study found that travelers’ use of words and word patterns in comments accompanying online ratings had some differences across different hotel segments.

This study sought information from key executives involved in shaping the timeshare and vacation ownership industry in conducting a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis for the industry. The vacation ownership and timeshare industry has emerged as a sector of the travel industry with significant opportunities for growth and development. The findings of this study indicate that there are opportunities in many markets, segments and product offerings. The vacation ownership industry must overcome weaknesses in marketing processes, taxation concerns and amenities. It faces threats in the availability of human and capital resources, natural disasters and legal and taxation concerns.

This study evaluated resort amenities of the timeshare and vacation ownership resorts in North and South Carolina and compared the amenities with the amenities of hotels throughout the United States (US), resort hotels in the US and resort hotels in the South Atlantic region of the US The results of this study assist timeshare and vacation ownership resort management to compare their amenity offerings to hotels, provide resort operators and developers a closer look at amenities of existing vacation ownership resorts and hotels, and assist suppliers in providing amenities to and servicing existing amenities for resorts.

Data collection is always a challenge. Researchers in the hospitality and tourism industry can benefit from the extensive amount of industry related data that are publicly available on the Internet. The issue holding most researchers back is how to efficiently collect such data. This article provides a solution: automated data collection using Web spiders. The coding logic needed to implement a custom Web spider is outlined. Also addressed are the ethical and operational issues associated with Web spiders.

The increasing availability of consumer feedback on the web provides a wealth of information that organizations can use for product and service improvement. Many consumer feedback sites allow users to enter both a quantitative rating and a qualitative critique. Previous research has used this information disjunctively. This work proposes an innovative approach that integrates the two types of information to identify words that are related to positive or negative consumer ratings. A case study shows that this approach does raise some issues not identified using existing analytical approaches.

The travel industry increasingly uses Web marketing to reach its customers, both actual and potential. This is not surprising given that more than 63 million people used the Web to make their travel plans in 2004. Although considerable attention has been paid to website rankings and effectiveness, researchers know comparatively little about the contexts of how sites were created, nor how they continue to evolve, and the successes and challenges involved in travel-related website creation and maintenance. This article reviews the literature concerning destination management organizations (DMOs) and Web marketing on the international scale. It reviews the evolution of Web development through three CVBs in the US-Greater Pittsburgh Convention and Visitors Bureau, Chattanooga Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau-that have demonstrated innovation in using the Web as a powerful and successful marketing tool. By using this evolutionary lens as the article's comparative framework, practitioners and researchers may better anticipate technological innovation in Web marketing for destination management organizations. These organizations serve as models for sales, revenues, and site development, respectively. The case studies offer "lessons learned," providing possibilities for adoption and point the way to further research.