Is High‐Touch Enough? Personalization‐Supporting Technology in Hotel Service: A Data‐Driven Approach

ABSTRACT The paper examines personalization‐supporting technologies (PST) in hotel service, differentiating between high‐touch (personal) and high‐tech (digital) technologies. It reveals that in the sampled hotel industry, high‐touch technologies are the preferred choice. Digital transformation reached all industries and keeping up with the technological advancements in the ever‐changing hotel industry is critical in enhancing guest experiences. Research on technology‐mediated personalization, focusing on customer interactions and service offerings through ICT, highlighted the difference between personalization by service representatives and ICT and proposed a potential connection between the two. By considering and building on the high‐touch, high‐tech scale, this study explores the technological readiness of hotels in providing and delivering personalized services to meet individual guest needs. The development of measurement systems to assess the level of service personalization has been a research focus, but evaluating personalization through the service provider's perspective specifically—a company's capabilities and willingness to provide services, rather than from the guest's or employee's perspective—proposes greater challenges, as service quality is inherently subjective to the receiver. Furthermore, measuring the capability to deliver personalized services across the entire customer journey, rather than focusing on isolated aspects of guest interactions, remains underexplored. Given the industry's peculiarities, it is impossible to have human‐only encounter in the age of digitalization; however, the human aspect cannot be completely taken out from the guest journey. Technology supports personalization in the service encounter points in waring degree. The research investigates the integration of technology and hotel service, focusing on personalization‐supporting technology (PST) in hotel services, aiming to bridge the gap between high‐touch human interactions and high‐tech solutions, as the entire guest journey cannot be personalized without human employee encounters. Drawing from existing literature and employing rigorous scale development procedures, a comprehensive measurement tool for PST levels in hotel services was developed and validated. Through a combination of both qualitative and quantitative research methods, including the collection of indicators from literature, 21 expert interviews, a set of 26 indicators was identified to measure the level of PST in hotel services. Using a novel data‐driven approach (bi‐clustering), the study differentiates leagues of hotels based on their technological readiness to provide personalized services. Simultaneously, the data‐driven approach differentiates groups of the PST indicators, ranging from high‐touch to high‐tech, into leagues based on how well hotels implement them. The analysis identified areas of strength and weakness within the industry, highlighting the prevalence of high‐touch technologies in enhancing guest experiences. Additionally, the study underscores the importance of strategic planning and data utilization in implementing PSTs. Overall, the studies' academic contribution is that it proposes a novel conceptual framework for measuring technology in service personalization in hotels through the service providers perspective, addressing gaps in existing research. Additionally, it incorporates advanced clustering algorithms, offering a fresh perspective on grouping methodologies. This research provides a deeper understanding of technology readiness in delivering personalized services in the hotel sector and shows where growth opportunities are. It introduces a new approach analyzing the current use of ICT in service and demonstrates that high‐touch is more prevalent than high‐tech solutions.