Strategic implementation and IT: gaining competitive advantage from the hotel reservations process

Reviews the development of approaches to reservations management in the hotel industry alongside models of the stages of development in information technology (IT). Suggests that strategic success and operational implementation have been built on the prevailing IT “era”. Explores the future strategic potential of reservations management. Hotel operators need to understand how technology changes the “rules of the game” and identify alternative strategies for gaining competitive advantage. In reality, strategic implementation is either “service‐led” or “IT‐led”.