Radio frequency identification (RFID) in hospitality

The number of radio frequency identification (RFID) applications in different industries increases continuously. Cumulative sales of RFID tags up to the beginning of 2006 reached 2.4 billion. In 2005 alone, 600 million tags were sold, which presents the trend in RFID allocation. While the initial RFID application areas were generally industrial, applications like retail sector, supply chain management, warehouse management, logistics, manufacturing, military applications, and service sector also present a potential for RFID applications. The aim of this paper is to investigate the possibility of utilizing RFID in hospitality industry as a tool for improving service quality, customer satisfaction, market share, and profitability. In this manner, first a service quality literature will be visited and important quality dimensions will be selected for further analysis. After a brief review on RFID technology, applications, future threats, and opportunities are given. Finally a hypothetical case study is defined and a scenario is illustrated based on the common attributes of hotel management operations. Via the analysis of the case study, changes in business process are exposed and the contributions of RFID-based solutions are discussed according to the selected service quality dimensions.