At the end of the day, much of the way to deal with this issue is to study and practice change management, in general. Many of the barriers discussed in this article can be addressed through change management study.

While we examine universal barriers to change, the author asserts that we need to understand barriers specific to the hospitality industry.

Rogers: barriers occur during initiation and during implementation.

Pare and Trudel: resistance to change influenced by lack of understanding the connection between the proposed change and the benefits to the organization

Matthews and Linski: fear of change is a natural, human issue, yet un-managed resistance to adopting new technologies typically results in the failure of the change initiative.

change management in the lodging industry include communication, training, participation, planning

Barriers in phase 1 (pre-implementation) from lack of understanding ROI of proposed technology. Predicting ROI is challenging, especially since it may take a while for a firm to experience ROI. Will a significant enough ROI result before the proposed technology is outdated?

Barriers during implementation result from mis-managed processes and communications - (e.g., vendor to client, management to staff, poor integration of processes).

Sometimes the integration of new technologies do not interface with existing systems well, making the implementation process more difficult as adjustments must be made throughout the entire work flow. This is an issue that must be considered prior to implementation and addressed early to maintain any positive change processes.

The challenge may not be to the technology, itself, but results from morale and organizational culture regarding change and, especially, how to deal with change. This is not an issue that should be addressed ONLY during a change process but should occur all the time - creating a stronger corporate culture.

I have heard the printed menu referred to as "the restaurant in print"

While the "principle duty is to direct the patron's attention to those items that the operator desires to sell...", the printed menu, when used, must also reflect the atmosphere the operator decides to convey. For many concepts, the tablet menu would certainly enhance that element but I am not sure that this technology would do anything other than distract from the intended atmosphere.

One very positive facet of e-tablet menus: the ability to make changes to prices and images much more quickly than would the printed menus. However, when (not if) "glitches" occur, an establishment might be left without menus to provide the guests or printed menus with outdated information. In the end, it may be necessary to maintain up to date physical menus to have for backup at all times.

I wonder if the use of etablets decreases the expectations that servers maintain this knowledge to provide excellent service. The dynamic between guest and server changes but I am not certain it would change for the better.

Certainly, this is a very important detail. Baby Boomers and older Generation Xers involved in this study prefer this technology over traditional menus; these are generations usually not associated with embracing newer technology - while Millennials tend to embrace technology more readily.

Although I have significant concerns that this kind of technology could decrease the dynamic of the relationship between the live server and the guest, data in this study convinces me that there is a time and a place to use this technology to "enhance" the guest experience. I do not see this as a cost savings (rather, it may be more costly to use this technology) but as a revenue generator. The danger is in allowing serving staff members to get lazy and rely on the tablet rather than their own skills.

The CRS is still in use today but, from my experience, it is accessed less by travel agents than by the end user (the traveler) directly.

One of the smart things about the evolution of the GDS is that designers keep the end user (the traveler) in mind and continue to make sure the systems are user friendly and provide assurances to the traveler. This is significant to remember because there are several GDSs out there performing similar functions so, designing customer friendly systems become competitive advantage.

A big benefit for organizations that have strong GDSs: This is an excellent opportunity to collect traveler/guest data. GDSs can be used as an amazing marketing tool in providing information to users in real time and collecting data to help learn how to "speak" more effectively with the users

Perhaps one of the strongest reasons GDSs remain popular in the lodging industry is that these systems are built to be incredibly flexible, reflecting variations in seasonal rates for rooms and for different room types.

The reason I was attracted to this article was that the authors provide an interesting history lesson about the role of the travel agent before the advent of modern-day GDSs, including online travel websites, including Travelocity and Expedia.

Important to note that although this article is specifically written about the airline industry, the entire concept relates directly to the GDS of the lodging industry.

These systems tend to attract younger users - is this a missed opportunity to attract older users or are businesses intentionally ignoring older travelers who may still depend on more traditional travel agent services?

Costs to use these systems are high but the ROI may be higher than traditional methods because, used correctly, these systems market and sell themselves.

This section describes how the lodging industry started to incorporate GDSs into their own businesses.