Barriers to adopting mobile access solutions in hospitality organizations.

Abstract: This study aims to investigate factors that affect the attitudes towards mobile access control solutions among decision-making units (DMUs) in hospitality organizations in Finland to identify perceived benefits and barriers to adoption of mobile solutions. The first mobile access control solution was introduced in the early 2000s and is used successfully in, for example, public transport and in offices. Within the hospitality industry, these solutions are used to a much lesser extent and the reasons behind them have not been investigated. A mixed method is used to get as rich and nuanced a picture of the topic as possible and to get a good overall view based on the limited number of interviews that are carried out at decisionmaking units in both hotels and hostels. The quantitative and qualitative results complement each other, and the study aims to identify and explain the perceived benefits and barriers to adoption that the decision-making units state. The results show that the most important barriers to adoption are related to high cost, an insufficient solution, the requirement to have to download an app, that the solution will not bring more customers, monitoring and security problems, a fear of losing direct customer contact and the risk that especially foreign travelers and older people will not want to use the solution. The greatest possible benefits of the solution are that visitors do not have to queue at check-in to their hotel room and that the hotels no longer need a reception but at the same time offer 24/7 accessibility. The biggest differences between the decision-making units who favored the solution in comparison to those who did not perceive any benefits were that they wanted or could imagine not having a night reception in their reception, that there was no need to let the customers get in on at night and that they do not consider direct customer interaction as critical. Furthermore, the study shows that individuals who are more interested in information and communication technology have more payment applications on their smart device and are on average more likely to adopt the solution. The study indicates that decision makers in the hospitality industry are beginning to understand the benefits of mobile access control solutions and that the marketing of these solutions that has been going on for almost a decade may now yield results. The results of the study contribute partly to an increased understanding of the underlying reasons for decisionmaking units’ attitude towards mobile access control solutions in the hospitality industry, and partly to an increased knowledge of how companies selling mobile access control solutions can identify potential customers for their products.