The Implementation of Integrated Multichannel Services in the Hospitality Sector in Vietnam

Abstract

The research streams on multichannel integration (MCI) in the hospitality sector recently caught the attention of academics and practitioners. However, knowledge and understanding of integrated multichannel services are still unfamiliar to enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and enterprises in developing countries like Vietnam. Since this topic is limitedly exploited in the hospitality industry, the paper explores the opportunities and challenges for implementing integrated multichannel services in the hospitality sector in Vietnam based on the service science perspective. In the context of emerging digital technology and changing consumer behaviour today, an exploratory study on integrated multichannel services of hotels was conducted on eight hotel managers, eight online travel agencies (OTA), and sixteen domestic tourists. The results show the variety of channels of hotels can reach customers thanks to integrated multichannel services. However, the current situation of channel integration (between the direct and the indirect channel of the hotel through online travel intermediaries) is currently inconsistent. For this reason, challenges related to integrated services, promotion and price, and information access in the channel integration of the selected hotels have been explored. Since then, several solutions are suggested to accelerate MCI in the hospitality sector to stimulate demand for domestic tourism.