Hospitality technology progress towards intelligent buildings: a perspective article

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to review the past technology in hotel and forecast the future direction of technology adoption in hotels. Design/methodology/approach Academic papers not only from hospitality journals but also from technology-related journals were collected and reviewed to propose the future hospitality technology development trends. Findings The hospitality software application has moved from local-based to server-based to Web-based to cloud-based platforms. Business data analysis methods have also undergone an evolution from descriptive analysis using historical data to predictive analysis by mining big data collected from the sensors and web-crawlers, which consolidates both commercial data and macro-environment data. Future hotel buildings could provide ambient management that responses to external environments automatically to provide an eco-friendly and cosy environment to hotel guests. Responsive building envelopes, façade systems and autonomous furniture will allow hotel managers to customised the function space layout according to customers’ needs and maximise unoccupied space utilisation. Originality/value Reviewed 75 years of IT evolution and forecast future hotel intelligent building with ambient intelligence to provide customizable, eco-friendly and cosy environment for hotel guests.