The industry responded by moving services to where the roads moved, when it was possible during the interstate movement, as well as by implementing ergonomic changes to meet forever fickle consumer demands. (Goode, 2000, p. 10) Now, they have become innovators in SST on the internet, as they offer purchase and confirmation technologies at the click of a button to consumers that wish to do their own booking. Traditionally, bars, nightclubs, lounges, and taverns are the most longstanding entities of the service industry, and they have adapted and been innovators as well, providing SST that is both internal to the consumer experience and a convenience for the consumer, such as ATMs and high speed wireless internet, a location of SST that has grown foundationally as more and more people have become comfortable with internet and SST transactions on it. (Davis, Bagozzi & Warshaw, 1989, pp. 982-1001) Each entity, has changed with the demands of cultural change and even laws, especially in the case of prohibition in the U.S. To stay afloat businesses that served alcohol had to reinvent themselves to meet the demands of the new laws, to do so they created a market for other beverages and even helped create the beverages themselves. Root beer and Sarsaparilla are the prime examples but there are others, adapted from soda fountain creations to better meet the need of a beer or liquor crowd. (Gershman, 1990, p. 3) SST beverage technology has become almost universal in convenience locations, hotels, restaurants and other locations to meet the demand for faster service. While a customer waits for his or her food, he or she can reduce the workload on the service employee by vending his or her own beverage, or in the case of a hotel he or she can vend his or her needs so that he or she will not have to leave the establishment but can continue to spend money at the primary location. It also must be made clear that specific to many hospitality industries, primarily hotels personal service delivery still very much influences consumer satisfaction, and to some degree SST has improved the ability of some staff to provide additional personal services as they are freed up to do so by the task need reduction of SST offered services. (Beatson, Coote & Rudd, 2006, pp. 853-880) Some examples in a hotel would be the opportunity of the clerk to provide personal morning services due to the fact that the wake up call service has become self-driven technologies in many locations, either through automated phone systems, integrated television technology or even a simple alarm clock. Though most will still offer the service personally the need to do so is lessoned and one staff member is not tied up for hours making sure the wake up call services are met for each guest on a daily basis. Another example would be messaging services, which have gone from the front desk taking personal messages when the room phone is not answered and delivering a paper form of that message to the guest. Now the guest can see from the room phone that there are messages and listen to those messages at their own leisure. This frees up clerks to provide other personal services or job share for other tasks that need to be done.
Modern SST Trends in Hospitality
Though an analysis of future trends in the hospitality industry may seem like conjecture the ideas synthesized in this work are clearly grounded in a general understanding of the market trends as well as literature associated with market changes in the industry. It is likely that the hospitality industry will grow, and therefore prosper, and in so doing it will have to answer for market change as well as technology demands of consumers and industry. Some would have us believe that there is only a limited number of ways to make and serve a hamburger, rent a hotel room or host a special event, but this is simply not the case and slightly more than 100 years of hospitality industry innovation should prove just that.
The communications technology of the modern era has significantly impacted the hotel industry, as the industry embraces new and emerging technology systems to keep their businesses full and healthy, even innovating niche systems that are specifically used by them to grow guest numbers. (Boudreaux & Sloboda, 1999, p. 2) Even the international market of hotels can be accessed through innovative internet technology. The industry also accepts and demands innovative service technology, such as laundry facilities...
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