Evaluation of Hotel Information Technologies and EDI Adoption: The Perspective of Hotel IT Managers in Hong Kong

This study examines information technology (IT) applications, the adoption of electronic data interchange (EDI) among hotel systems, and management support for IT departments in a sample of Hong Kong hotels. The empirical results indicate that most hotels have not installed decision support or strategic management tools. In addition, the ratio of EDI implementation between hotel systems and web applications is relatively low. The rate of adoption of automated credit card authorization, which can enhance the security of customer data, is only 6 percent for the property management system (PMS) and 17 percent for point of sale (POS) applications. In keeping with the increased importance of hotel IT systems, the background of hotel IT managers has changed dramatically in the past decade. Many more have IT-related qualifications, with almost 70 percent holding a bachelor's degree or higher. Because of the low adoption of EDI, the authors propose a revised EDI adoption model. The original model includes perceived benefits, external pressure, and organizational readiness. Within organizational readiness are financial resources and IT competence, and to those two factors the new model adds IT managers' attitude toward and awareness of EDI.