An analysis of the gap in the perceptions of hotel marketing managers and business travelers regarding information technology facilities in hotel guestrooms in Hong Kong

Abstract

This article reports on an analysis of the perceptions of business travelers and hotel marketing managers regarding in-room information technology (IT) facilities in hotels. Usable data were analyzed for 650 business travelers and 40 hotel marketing managers in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (China). One-Way ANOVA and independent t-tests were employed to examine significant differences between preferences and demographic variables and to examine whether there was a significant difference between the way business travelers and the managers rated the importance of in-room IT facilities. This study found that "adequate jacks and plugs," "satellite/cable TV," and "high-speed Internet access" were ranked by business travelers as the top three in-room IT facilities, whereas hotel marketing managers perceived "high-speed Internet access" to be the most important IT facility to business travelers, followed by "adequate jacks and plugs" and "satellite/cable TV in room." Both business travelers and hotel marketing managers indicated there was a strong demand for hotels to provide assistance to guests who make use of IT devices in their room. However, over 50% of hotel marketing managers stated that their hotels had encountered difficulties in providing some of the IT services because of limited budgets and fast-changing technology.