Self-Service Technology in the Hospitality and Tourism Settings: A Critical Review of the Literature

Self-service technology (SST) and its applications are changing the way the hospitality and tourism industry provides products and services to their customers. Although the use of SST is a remarkable change for service providers because its use can meet customers' pursuit of an efficient life, research provides a sufficient overview of how the usage of SST influences customers' service experience in the tourism and hospitality settings remains lacking. Thus, this study aims to provide an understanding of previous SST research and a basis for exploring the influential factors regarding SST adoption. To achieve this purpose, SST papers in leading hospitality and tourism academic journals were reviewed. Although the number of articles is limited, content analysis allows the authors to understand a phenomenon and identify research topics and methods in SST studies. Also, this study contributes to existing SST literature by providing future research guidelines.

Automated summary

Self-service technology (SST) is transforming the hospitality and tourism industry by meeting customers' demand for efficiency, yet there is still limited research on how SST affects customer service experience in this context. This study reviewed SST papers in top academic journals to identify research topics and methods, providing future research guidelines and laying a foundation for exploring influential factors in SST adoption.