Security, Privacy and Ethical Concerns of IoT Implementations in Hospitality Domain

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been on the rise in the last decade as it finds applications in various domains. Hospitality is one of the pioneer sectors that has adopted this technology to create novel services such as smart hotel rooms, personalized services etc. Hotels, restaurants, theme parks, and cruise ships are some specific application areas to improve customer satisfaction by creating an intense interactive environment and data collection with the use of appropriate sensors and actuators. However, applying IoT solutions in the hospitality environment has some unique challenges such as easy physical access to devices. In addition, due to the very nature of these domains, the customers are at the epicenter of these IoT technologies that result in a massive amount of data collection from them. Such data and its management along with business purposes also raises new concerns regarding privacy and ethical considerations. Therefore, this paper surveys and analyzes security, privacy and ethical issues regarding the utilization of IoT devices by focusing on the hospitality industry specifically. We explore some exemplary uses, cases, potential problems and solutions in order to contribute to better understanding and guiding the business operators in this sector.

I. Introduction

The Internet of Things (IoT) provides great opportunities to improve hospitality businesses in numerous ways, mainly by increasing operational efficiency and customer satisfaction with a vast amount of data collection[1]. It brings new revenue streams by adding value to services via IoT, which facilitates integration of the physical and virtual world. Smart room is a well known example implemented by hoteliers that provides great comfort to guest in controlling items in the room remotely. Smart-lock enables a guest to check-in without a receptionist. Context-aware and personalized services are main characteristics of IoT-based service, which necessitates the collection of personal data [2]. In a typical IoT system, data is collected from the user and transmitted using various protocols to a cloud server, which processes the data to generate an action [3]. Moreover, the devices could be integrated with the rest of the system to provide real-time information to automate and monitor the operations. A guest within the perimeters of a hotel, theme park, cruiseship is tracked using a wearable device, and he is offered promotional activities, meals based on his preferences while the crowd is managed smoothly.