岸芷汀蘭

Would you return to a hotel if its self-service check-in kiosk malfunctions?

When hotel guests have a problem checking into their hotel using a self-service kiosk, they're less willing to return and less willing to pay top dollar for rooms, a new Cornell University study summarized in Hotels magazine says.

The study, by Cornell's Center for Hospitality Research, comes as more hotel chains install self-service kiosks in hotel lobbies to cut costs and possibly increase customer satisfaction for those guests who prefer to check in themselves.

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Hyatt's Hyatt Place chain, for instance, feature check-in kiosks in hotel lobbies, along with a staffer who directs guests to the kiosks and shows first-time guests how to use them. InterContinental Hotels Group's Crowne Plaza chain - in the midst of a revamp - is testing kiosks as a possibly chainwide addition.

(Here's Cornell's link to the report.)

When the kiosks work smoothly, however, they can boost customer satisfaction - and the hotel's bottom line, the Cornell report says.

The study's authors compiled statistics from 163 hotels belonging to two hotel chains to determine the ratio of automated check-ins and the ratio of failed check-ins using kiosks. They then matched the results with financial performance from Smith Travel Research.

The self-service kiosks improve a hotel's bottom line, although hotels the financial lift showed a lag time, according to the study. But due to the potential risk of alienating travelers when they encounter problems with the kiosks, the authors urge hoteliers to excercise caution when rolling out machines.

That point is underscored by Hotel Check-In reader kfnNH's comments from a year ago, when I asked you about whether you love or hate kiosks in hotel lobbies... 

"If you are on the road a lot, you come to think of your hotel as 'coming home' at the end of a long and grueling day," the reader wrote. "Who wants to come home to be greeted by a machine? Unless there was a HUGE line (like at some casino hotels in Vegas) I doubt the kiosks will ever be that popular." (Link to my old post.)

Interestingly, the study found that the addition of kiosks did notincrease guests' perceptions of service speed; the reasons why were not conclusive.

Readers: Have you ever tried using a self-service kiosks in a hotel? How did it go? Please identify the hotel in your reply.