Leveraging digital technology to improve hotel performance: a systematic literature review

Digital transformation has become a central theme in hotel research; however, empirical evidence on how digital technologies influence hotel performance remains fragmented and inconclusive. Addressing this gap, this study synthesises existing academic research on digital transformation and hotel performance by identifying dominant research streams, methodological approaches, and critical gaps that warrant further investigation. A combined bibliometric and systematic literature review was conducted using the Web of Science and Scopus databases, yielding 44 studies published between 2018 and 2025. The bibliometric analysis provides a preliminary and exploratory overview of this research area by examining publication patterns, influential authors, publication hotspots, methodological and theoretical orientations, and a set of emergent thematic groupings identified in the dataset. Complementing these findings, the content analysis highlights four additional insights. First, it develops a mechanism-based taxonomy of digital technologies and maps their prominence in hospitality research. Second, it categorises these technologies and relates each category to specific performance dimensions. Third, it analyses co-occurrence patterns among technologies, identifying recurring combinations of adoption and implementation within the reviewed studies. Fourth, it synthesises reported performance effects, suggesting predominantly positive but context-dependent associations with operational efficiency, financial outcomes, and customer satisfaction, alongside emerging but still limited evidence regarding environmental performance. Overall, this study provides a structured and analytically grounded synthesis of the relationship between digital transformation and hotel performance and outlines directions for future research. It also offers practical implications for hotel managers seeking to prioritise and combine digital technologies to enhance competitiveness.