Transforming Hotel Services through Digital Kiosks: Customer Acceptance, Customer Experience, and Engagement as Pathways to Competitive Advantage

Abstract

Digital kiosks have become an important service innovation in the hotel industry as hotels seek to improve service efficiency, reduce waiting time, personalize guest interaction, and strengthen competitive advantage. However, the success of digital kiosks depends not only on technological availability, but also on how consumers accept, experience, and engage with the service. This study aims to examine how Digital Kiosk System Quality and Digital Marketing Strategy influence Customer Acceptance, Customer Experience, Customer Engagement, and Hotel Competitive Advantage. A quantitative research approach was employed using structured questionnaires distributed to hotel customers who had experience with or awareness of digital kiosk services. The research variables consist of Digital Kiosk System Quality, Digital Marketing Strategy, Customer Acceptance, Customer Experience, Customer Engagement, and Hotel Competitive Advantage. Data were analyzed using SPSS through validity and reliability tests, normality tests, multiple regression analysis, t tests, F tests, and mediation analysis. The results indicate that Digital Kiosk System Quality has a positive and significant effect on Customer Acceptance, suggesting that ease of use, reliability, speed, and system convenience are important factors in encouraging guests to accept kiosk based hotel services. Customer Acceptance also has a positive effect on Customer Experience, while Customer Experience significantly enhances Customer Engagement. Furthermore, Customer Engagement has a positive and significant effect on Hotel Competitive Advantage, indicating that engaged customers can strengthen hotel differentiation, service reputation, and long term competitiveness. However, two hypothesized relationships were not supported. Digital Marketing Strategy does not have a significant direct effect on Customer Acceptance, indicating that promotional communication alone may not be sufficient to encourage guests to accept digital kiosk services without strong system quality. In addition, Customer Experience does not directly influence Hotel Competitive Advantage, suggesting that customer experience must first be transformed into stronger engagement before it contributes to competitive outcomes. These findings highlight the importance of designing digital kiosk services that are not only technologically efficient but also capable of creating meaningful customer engagement. This study contributes to hospitality marketing and service innovation literature by explaining how digital kiosk acceptance can become a pathway to hotel competitive advantage through customer experience and engagement. Practically, the findings provide insights for hotel managers to prioritize kiosk system quality, improve customer interaction with digital services, and build engagement based strategies to strengthen competitive positioning.