IMPACT OF IN-ROOM TECHNOLOGIES ON GUEST SATISFACTION AMONG FOUR AND FIVE HOTELS IN KUALA LUMPUR CITY CENTRE

Luxury hotels increasingly deploy interactive, in-room digital systems to align with heightened technological expectation of contemporary travelers. Specifically, this study focuses on the implementation of smart room technologies within four- and five-star hotels in Kuala Lumpur City Centre. This study aims to examine the impact of hotel technology on guest satisfaction by evaluating the specific roles of confirmation, perceived usefulness, and innovativeness using the Expectation-Confirmation Model (ECM). Data were gathered through an online questionnaire from a target population of hotel guests with prior experience using in-room technology, utilizing a cluster sampling method. The analysis was conducted using SPSS and the Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS 4.0, yielding 119 usable responses out of the 172 originally collected. The results of the study prove that in the context of smart room technology, both perceived usefulness and innovativeness have a significantly positive impact on guest satisfaction. However, confirmation does not have a significant impact on guest satisfaction. Practically, the findings suggest that smart hotels must maintain dedicated on-site support teams to handle guest inquiries and ensure a consistently high level of service 8. Academically, this study expands the traditional ECM framework by highlighting the critical role of innovativeness in shaping guest preferences and experiences.