Telehospitality

This essay explores computer profiling and surveillance systems developed by the hospitality industry in the 1960s and 1970s. Hotels and motels partnered with computer corporations and were among the first industries to create computer networks and management systems, using them for practical applications like reservations as well as to police guests and monitor hotel labor. However, there is no sustained history of the hospitality industry's role in computer research and design. Drawing on archival documents, trade journals, architectural literature, and hotel ephemera, this article shows how hospitality venues made computer profiling and surveillance seem welcoming, convenient, and user-friendly. The computer systems developed for hotels helped acclimate publics to the networked environments of contemporary everyday life, where digital devices and services ambiguously care for and surveil consumers, even in their own homes.