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A Quick and Easy Approach to Financial Fraud Detection
No full text[Excerpt] Financial fraud is a significant cost in the hospitality industry. According to the Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse, the typical organization loses 5 percent of its annual revenues to fraud. Hotels in particular are estimated to lose 5 to 6 percent of revenues to fraud on average, while the National Restaurant Association estimates that restaurants on average lose 4 percent of revenues to fraud. These are losses as a percentage of top-line revenues, not profits, meaning that their magnitudes represent a significant risk to hospitality methodology for detecting financial irregularities that may signal fraud based on a mathematical principle known as Benford’s Law. The analysis presented here can firms, given the industry’s relatively thin net margins. This study presents a simple be applied by hospitality industry managers at all levels, from individual units or departments to entire regions or companies. The Cornell Hospitality Tool accompanying this report provides an easy-to-use spreadsheet-based application that can be used to quickly analyze any set of financial values (for example, guest checks, receivables, payables, or reimbursements) to quickly detect suspicious activities
You Need to Be in Williamsburg: A Case Study of RedSky Capital\u27s RedBridge Development
Full text linkBy the spring of 2012, the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn had already seen a dramatic transformation from an historically industrial riverfront district to one of the trendiest residential areas in New York’s five boroughs. The lingering effects of the Great Recession continued to stymie retailer confidence on a broad basis, but sophisticated retailers were once again beginning to plan expansions. RedSky Capital’s Ben Bernstein and Ben Stokes had been talking with the owner of a portfolio of contiguous storefronts encompassing an entire block along Bedford Avenue for five years, forming a strategy to redevelop the properties. RedSky’s dream for the site wouldn’t have come to fruition without a bold vision to bring the first Apple store to Brooklyn or negotiations with Apple’s high-power corporate real estate team in Cupertino, California
Employee Perceptions of the Work Environment and Customer Perceptions of Service Quality
No full textWhile research has shown there is a significant relationship between strong human resource (HR) practices and enhanced firm performance (e.g., Tracey, 2014), there is much to be learned about the processes by which this relationship is established and sustained over time. In the hospitality industry, one of the most important indicators of firm performance is customer perceptions and reactions to their service experiences. And while there is some evidence which shows that employee perceptions are significantly related to customer perceptions (e.g., Schneider and Bowen, 1995; Schneider, White, and Paul, 1998), additional inquiry is needed to examine the specific types of employee perceptions that may be most relevant to customer perceptions of their service experiences. Based on the research that has examined “high performance work systems” (e.g., Huselid, 1995; Tracey, 2014), I considered five specific types of employee perceptions that may have particular relevance in hospitality work settings: firm culture, work life balance, pay and benefits, job security and advancement, and management. Based on a sample of N=(197) from five major cities in the U.S., the results from an analysis of data gathered from two social media sites - Indeed.com for employee perceptions, and Expedia.com for customer perceptions - showed that firm culture was consistently and significantly related to customer perceptions of service quality. I also found that some of the other employee perception dimensions appeared to be relevant in some markets but not others. The results demonstrate the need to consider specific types of work-related influences, especially for prioritizing opportunities for improvement. In addition, the findings suggest that some types of employee perceptions may be more generally relevant (e.g., organizational culture), where other types of employee perceptions may be more locally relevant (e.g., pay and benefits)
Should Cookie Monster Adopt a Healthy Lifestyle or Continue to Indulge? Insights into Brand Icons
Full text linkDeveloping a brand icon has been a way for marketers to humanize and forge relationships with consumers. Icon development takes time. During this time, marketers have to face how much they stay true and consistent with their icons and how much they allow their icons to adapt to cultural changes in the marketplace. Little is known about how consumers respond to changing icons, and even less is known about whether there may be certain consumer groups that are more or less receptive to such changes. Four experiments and qualitative interviews were undertaken to gain insights into these issues. People who have a low need to belong were most impacted by changes in the icon, with effects most evident among consumers with a fearful attachment style. Feelings of rejection were found to amplify these effects. These findings have implications both for theory and practice
Indexing Hotel Brand Reputation
No full textUsing monthly online reputation data from 2016 through to the first quarter of 2018, we index major hotel brands in the United States. This analysis of online reputation for branded properties yields three major conclusions: (1) the variation in reputation across brands is four times larger than the variation across chain scales; (2) online reputation is mainly a function of brand and sub brand rather than segment or hotel location; and (3) variability in reputation across hotels within a brand is greater than the variability in reputation in hotels across brands. These three points indicate the changing impact of brand upon hotel choice, considering that the variance in reputation within a brand and online reputation scores—as presented at OTAs or meta-reputation sites like TripAdvisor or Google—may outweigh the traditional quality signals provided by brands
Match Made in Heaven: Investment Benefits of Coworking Spaces in Historic Sacred Places
Full text linkCoworking has experienced exponential growth and established a global identity in the short period of a single decade. While the terms “coworking” and “shared work space” existed prior to the market collapse in 2008, their presence as an asset class and worldwide network had not developed fully. Philadelphia has seen firsthand the rapid expansion of coworking spaces with companies like WeWork and Benjamin’s Desk (1776) opening multiple locations with thousands of square feet in the space of a few years. These and other coworking companies continue to see growth with some seeking to expand into more suburban areas once a CBD flagship has been established. With growing membership and a need to be near members (either directly or through transit), where are the locations in Philadelphia where coworking companies should consider investing? As coworking demand increases, Philadelphia also has an increasing inventory of vacant historic sacred places—currently at thirty-nine buildings equaling approximately 500,000 square feet (Partners for Sacred Places, 2017). This paper will first define coworking and the coworker, give statistics on coworking growth, identify key real estate needs, and finally propose historic sacred places as an alternative for coworking expansion
Sleepless Seattle Innovation: Demonstrating Recent Changes in Real Estate
No full textNew ideas and untraditional perspectives can provide opportunity in unlikely places. This statement was in the Baker Program’s latest trip to the Seattle/ Tacoma area. The intent of the trip was to explore how technology merged with real estate can bring value to the world while disrupting traditional expectations. The site visits began with a visit to the NewCold storage facility
Perceptions of MOOC Utility: How Expectations Affect Perceived Outcomes of Massive Online Open Courses
Full text linkMassive open online courses (MOOCs) offer a novel learning context in which participants have complete discretion regarding their engagement with the course content. Consequently, some of the participants’ individual characteristics, notably, pre-course motivation, have a considerable effect on their perceptions of the value of the course. This study finds that two contingencies—intentions regarding earning a certificate and industry experience—seem to have a negative impact on the relationships of pre-course interest and motivation with post-course utility reactions. Using survey data gathered from 593 individuals who completed “Introduction to Global Hospitality Management,” a MOOC offered by the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, the results from a series of regression analyses demonstrated a small but statistically significant positive relationship between pre-course interest and motivation with post-course utility reactions. However, the results also found that industry experience or the desire for a certificate did, indeed, slightly diminish the participants’ assessment of the course. The findings highlight the relative importance of individual differences for achieving desired training outcomes, and demonstrate the need for a contingency perspective that comprehensively accounts for the degree of choice individuals may have regarding engaging in the course
Summary of CQ’s 2017 Submissions and Editorial Decisions
Full text link[Excerpt] In 2017, the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly (CQ) received 262 new submissions with 258 receiving editorial decisions within the year. Thirty-eight manuscripts were accepted for publication last year. Some of the new submission are still under invited revision and some of the acceptances were of manuscripts originally submitted in 2016, so dividing 38 by 258 to get an acceptance rate is not fully appropriate, but it does provide a reasonable approximation of the journal’s acceptance rate. By that calculation, CQ’s acceptance rate was 15% last year. Sixty percent of new submissions were desk-rejected last year—usually within 2 days of submission. Of those new submissions sent out for review, the average time until initial editorial decisions was 30 days. Only one or two revisions were sent back out for review last year, so the average time until an editorial decision on R&Rs was less than 3 days. More details about last year’s submissions and editorial decisions are provided in Tables 1 and 2
First Quarter 2018: Introducing Our Gateway Cities Index
Full text linkHotels in gateway cities have outperformed hotels in non-gateway cities, with hotels in gateway locations rising 10 percent in the past year, compared to 6 percent for those in non-gateway cities. Hotel operating performance scaled by price is still in the black based on economic value analysis (EVA), with returns continuing to exceed borrowing costs (for debt). Transaction volume strengthened both on a quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year basis. While our various pricing metrics point to continued positive price momentum for larger hotels at the expense of smaller hotels, we are concerned whether rising interest rates will put a damper on this momentum. A reading of our tea leaves suggests prices will continue to increase, but at a decelerating rate. This is report number 26 of the index series.
Supplemental File: Hotel Valuation Model (HOTVAL) We provide this user friendly hotel valuation model in an excel spreadsheet entitled HOTVAL Toolkit as a complement to this report which is available for download from http://scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/creftools/1