Automated decision-making: Hoteliers’ perceptions

Abstract

The paper investigates the attitudes of hoteliers towards the use of artificial intelligence in the decision-making process in various departments within hotels. It evaluates the preferences towards four decision-making approaches (‘human only’, ‘human-in-the-loop’, ‘human-on-the-loop’ and ‘human-out-of-the-loop’) applied to 23 decisions in 8 hotel departments. The sample includes 130 respondents from the Bulgarian hotel industry. Two clusters of managers are identified based on their attitudes towards AI technologies, with the majority having a positive view of the technology and a minority being sceptical of such technology for hotel decision-making. Hoteliers show a preference to delegate decisions to AI for decisions that do not require much emotional intelligence or interactions with customers/employees. The personal characteristics of the managers (biological sex, age, education, work experience and job position) and the characteristics of the properties they manage (size, category and location) play no role in shaping managers' preferences towards the AI decision-making approach. The findings also indicate that general attitudes towards AI are the best indicator of whether an individual prefers the use of AI for a particular type of decision.