THE ROLE OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY IN ENHANCING SAFETY AND SECURITY IN ASTORIA PLAZA HOTEL

Abstract

The hospitality industry, essential to global tourism and economic growth, must balance guest expectations with evolving safety and security demands. Traditional measures are no longer sufficient, prompting the adoption of advanced technologies such as AI, biometric authentication, IoT devices, and smart surveillance systems. This research explores how these innovations are transforming hotel security by applying Everett Rogers’ Innovation Diffusion Theory to analyze the adoption of technologies like smart locks, biometric access, and surveillance systems. It examines the stages of adoption, namely awareness, persuasion, decision, implementation, and confirmation, and key factors such as relative advantage, compatibility, and social influence. The study highlights the impact of these technologies on hotel safety, guest privacy, and the future of the hospitality industry. This chapter describes the techniques and approaches used by the researchers to complete the study. It includes the research design, respondents, sampling technique, instrument used, validation of the instrument, administration and retrieval of the instrument, and statistical treatment of the data. Astoria Plaza Hotel faces key challenges in integrating modern technologies into its safety and security systems. Major concerns include protecting guest data, preventing unauthorized transactions, and improving the reliability and usability of tech systems, especially mobile apps (mean score: 1.12). Additional issues involve authentication, payment efficiency, and fraud prevention. While pricing and dispute resolution were noted, they are less critical. Addressing these concerns is vital to ensure secure and user-friendly guest experiences. Guests at Astoria Plaza Hotel strongly approve of modern technology’s role in enhancing safety and security, with a composite mean score. The highest approval was for security measures and threat response, followed by cybersecurity efforts. While technology's impact on comfort was recognized, it ranked lower than security features. Keyless entry via smartphones or wearables received a score of 3.12, indicating it is valued but less significant compared to other technologies. Overall, guests prioritize security and safety over comfort. This chapter presents the discussion, summary, conclusions, and recommendations formulated based on the findings in response to the problems raised in Chapter 1.