Look but don’t touch

: contactless solutions to enhance the customer journey in hotels

Abstract

As the hotel industry recovers from the severe consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, further emphasis must be placed on implementing contactless hospitality solutions in order to regain trust and ensure a safe experience for the hotel guest. This dissertation explores the customer's perspective on contactless solutions in hotels in the (post)-viral world, focusing on the period between check-in and check-out. To this end, 16 semi-structured interviews were conducted with hotel guests and further analysed with the qualitative analysis software MAXQDA 2022. Results indicate commonalities in customers' perceived benefits of contactless technologies, such as time and process efficiencies and the simplification of the traditional process for the hotel guest. Furthermore, contactless hospitality solutions improve the customer experience throughout the stay and allow the customer to execute the process independently. Moreover, a customer journey map was developed based on interview results to visualize the contactless customer journey during the defined period. Overall, customers show a positive attitude towards using contactless technologies at the front desk and in the guestroom but show aversion towards proposed contactless solutions in the restaurant. This study contributes to the literature by providing a detailed insight into the customer journey along various contactless touch points. Moreover, it provides hotel practitioners with a profound understanding of the demand side and serves as a basis for decision-making when considering investments in contactless hotel technologies.

Date of Award	30 Jun 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Helena Rodrigues (Supervisor)