Keywords

1 Introduction and Background of Research

Hospitality sector is facing a significant period of change [1, 2]. Smart technology has become a trend among industry professionals and consumers [3]. Smart hotel technology is cost-effective and provides revenue opportunities across operations, guest experience, marketing and enabling hotel operators to achieve new levels of profitability and enhance guest experience immensely [4,5,6]. Major hotel chains around the world are competing others to set new standards of how sophisticated technologies may help deliver the height of luxury for their esteemed clients. Hotels are always looking for solutions to enhance visitors’ experience as well [7]. In the past, hospitality businesses spent a lot of effort developing a wide range of new amenities for visitors to enjoy. Nowadays, hotels are turning to smart technology to increase earnings [8]. It has been estimated that Gen Y and Z and people who currently use smart home technology are aware of smart technology, which is becoming more prevalent than ever before and are more willing to book a hotel that offers this technology [9]. Nevertheless, along with the increasing demand for smart technology, hotels guests’ concerns about security have also increased [7]. Furthermore, concerns about privacy have been raised, which has forced many hotels to seek for solutions to overcome these issues and prevent data leaks [10, 11]. It is very important and great responsibility from hotels’ aspect to protect their guests’ private information. Regarding Greece, hoteliers who want to advance operations and improve the visitor experiences that they provide have concluded that they will need to incorporate smart solutions and digital technologies into their businesses. There are many studies that are related with this trend and benefits. Furthermore, studies about the impact of using smart technology in hotels have been conducted in countries such as the United States, demonstrating how in recent years, guest expectations for smart technology have increased [12, 13]. However, few studies examined the security concerns of guests in Greek hotels, especially in Athens. In this paper, hotels operating in Athens are examined. This research aims to fill this research gap, as Athens has adopted smart technology solutions for increasing the levels of city cleanliness and accessibility, a practice that has also been adopted by hotels in Athens [14]. Moreover, this city enhanced its operations by utilizing these breakthroughs. In addition, the city has even created smartphone apps for services like public parking and begun integrating sensor networks [15]. Several hotels in Athens have adopted smart technology and address to tourists who are technologically intelligent. This study examines the hotels and the tourism industry in Greece, especially in Athens, which has become a quite popular tourist destination.

2 Literature Review

Smart technology is a type of technology that uses machine intelligence, machine learning and big data analysis to provide knowledge and understanding to previously inanimate objects [16]. In recent years, smart technology aims to simplify everyday lifestyles and companies from all around the world are profiting from the idea that smart technology is necessary. Smart technology offers more than just methods for reducing costs and boosting productivity. It is gradually taking on vital importance in both consumers’ and business executives’ daily lives. People are increasingly encircled by technological devices today, with technology practically becoming a necessary element of everyday lives. Whether they are traveling for business or pleasure, today’s travelers have learned to anticipate a few new tech essentials from their hotels, such as cutting-edge fitness centers, and smart key card entry systems [17]. Hence, it is not surprising that the hotel industry has been impacted by most current technological breakthroughs. In order to make the guest experience more comfortable and secure, digital keys are offered and large television screens are installed throughout the hotels, such as at the reception, that give visitors access to a variety of information and keep them informed of the most recent hotel promotions and activities [18, 19]. Energy conservation is achieved with motion-sensitive smart light detectors and smart devices in rooms provide an array of services, from ordering room service menu to a complete pairing functionality for cellphones [20, 21]. It is worth noting that major technology companies have already stated that they are collaborating on the production and adaptation process with well-known hotel brands. Moreover, many hotels use trademarked mobile applications for check-in, while their payment options are contactless [22]. One of the major technological advancements, the smart hotel room, which extends levels of management and monitoring increasingly common in consumer homes to provide new capabilities for guests and operators, is a crucial step in the development of the guest’s experience [23]. Although the penetration of smart rooms is still very limited, they have a lot of room to grow. While the idea of a smart hotel room has long been promoted in high-end hotel rooms, familiarity with smart home devices and new requirements placed on hoteliers are now driving investment in lower-cost hotel room categories [24]. The benefits of incorporating smart technology in hotels have been significant. As [25] illustrates, the concept of a smart hotel room has been used as a marketing tool to allow a hotel to differentiate itself from more traditional hotels and resorts. Furthermore, this new type of technology allows guests to personalize their stay and increases the level of attention they receive. This can be considered significant because guests are open to shelling out supplementary room charges if they receive such a guest—centered approach, making them more likely to return as guests in the future [26]. Businesses, including hotels, have also amassed financial benefits and are able to fulfill changing customer expectations while simultaneously lowering costs and lessening their environmental footprint, in a period where the need for sustainability and corporate governance adoption is prevalent [21, 27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35]. Security is one of the major concerns that modern hotel guests have on their mind. It is believed that hoteliers have a duty to safeguard both their guests’ and the hotel’s personally identifiable information and avoid direct incorporation of susceptible hotel software solutions into large natural language processing platforms as there is a chance that they may expose sensitive, proprietary hotel information such as guest profiles, operational practices, or guest communications [36,37,38]. Concerns about the security of the technology used in hotels today have been heightened by numerous cases of data theft and hacking as well [39]. Over the past years, technology has played a critical role in the growth of Greek hotels and the Greek tourism sector in general. Reference [40], reports that to improve the hospitality experience, a large percentage of hotel owners have focused on offering smart technology luxuries to their guests. As illustrated by Kapiki [25] there are a few hotels in Athens that have adopted some form of smart technology.

3 Research Methodology

The data for this research was carried out using a structured questionnaire between April and July 2023. Key variables for this study are the travel behavior of hotel guests, their awareness of smart devices as well as their attitudes and concerns regarding the security of smart technology that is used in hotels. Also, hotel guests’ feelings about the affection of this technology were examined in the tourism industry. The convenient sample was defined as people who stayed in a hotel in Athens during the last three years. Questionnaires were distributed online by a shared link with Google Forms. Finally, 303 valid questionnaires were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Regarding the questionnaire, a mix of original 5-point Likert scale questions and questions used in the existing literature were used. After a small pilot-study, the final questionnaire contained 41 questions, which was designed to cover a range of topics related to smart technology, from the participant’s knowledge about this technology, its security and privacy policy.

4 Research Results and Discussion

4.1 Sample Demographics

The results showed that most of the respondents (69%) were females, while 31% were males. Three age categories were established, with 77.7% of the population ranged from 25 to 44 years old range, 15.5% of people are older than 45 years old and 6.8% of people ranged from 18 to 24 years old.

4.2 Perceptions on Security and Privacy of Smart Technology Applications in Hotels

According to the results, respondents know about smart technology and 45.6% of them noticed that the hotels they have visited adopted smart technology. However, 23% of the respondents revealed that smart technology was not used in the visited hotels. Moreover, most of the participants (68.9%) appreciate the convenience of smart technology for their accommodation in hotels. The vast majority (74.7%) expect to be able to use smart technology during travelling. Concerning the aspect of security in smart technology, the participants believe that privacy is one the most important issues (74.8%). The notion of a hotel guest’s privacy and the opinion about the efficacy of smart technologies highlighted that people are still concerned about the ethical issues of smart technology (47.6%). The results show that 37.9% of the respondents are not particularly worried about hotels’ practices of gathering personal data. However, 38.9% of the respondents seem to be worried about these practices. It is worth noting that almost everyone (97.1%) would like to know from the hotel facilities about the smart utilized technologies. Additionally, the respondents will appreciate the choice to reject smart features if they believe that their privacy is at risk, which is consistent with the opinion of most respondents (92.3%) who desire the absolute control of the provided technology. Regarding with security precautions, a large majority of the respondents (87.4%) believe that investing in hotel’s security through extra levels of data protection could be a viable strategy for a hotel.

5 Conclusions

Smart technology has become an essential part of daily lives and it is expected to be used in hotel industry. These technological advancements have not only been incorporated into hotels but have also been received by hotel guests. Nevertheless, there are aspects of smart technology, such as data collection by hotels for which people are still concerned. Although, hotel guests feel much safer in the presence of a human employee and are still apprehensive about smart technology. Privacy and confidentiality are of vital importance to the guests, who consider that hotels must invest in “safe” smart technology. After ten years, they are moving into a new stage of development as connected applications are used to give real-time information to consumers and providers [41]. Also, hotels should take additional steps to ensure that their guests’ data is safe. Hotels are now better equipped to implement a comprehensive information security strategy that includes the necessary practices, processes, and personnel to improve cybersecurity if they have a thorough understanding of the main data security risks and some practices for mitigating these risks. After all, hotels need to use modern technology to stay safe and secure. Hoteliers should take note of the trends around the city, interact with local communities, and promote ethical behavior by connecting to smart cities, which can have positive benefits for a hotel [42, 43]. Also, most of the respondents believe that privacy should be protected at all costs and hotel should make investments to ensure this issue. Greece has been steadily embracing the latest technological solutions and adapting them to the tourism sector but there is a gap in knowledge regarding how these changes have been received by the public. Moreover, this research has attempted to illustrate and examine security concerns from the viewpoint of hotel guests. It has deliberately omitted the feedback from the managers, and it would be beneficial if in a future research, technological security concern from the viewpoint of hotel managers or hotel employees was examined.