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Network Exploitation Capability: Model Validation
No full textThis report provides the validation of a model for Network Exploitation Capability (NEC), which is a newly proposed measure of a lodging firm’s level of sophistication in its application of networked information technology (IT). The report also includes a questionnaire and benchmarks that allow management to gauge its own hotel’s NEC and compare that to a pilot set of validation data. Network Exploitation Capability is the ability of hospitality organizations to successfully respond to new technology in three key areas: demand generation, multi-channel digital distribution, and profit optimization—all of which are being constantly reinvented by IT innovations. As IT changes, so must hospitality ventures be able to acquire or develop new capabilities for using the new applications. The NEC Maturity Model describes how the sophistication of hospitality ventures might progress over time in their use of IT. This discussion of the NEC model validation includes empirical results, along with detailed suggestions for how properties, management companies, owners, and chains can assess their own current level of IT sophistication
Challenges in Contemporary Hospitality Branding
No full textIn an age of global brand proliferation that has seen continual extension and expansion of brand portfolios, brand managers are challenged by the sheer scale of their overall operations and the eclipse of traditional marketing modes by online channels and social media. Given this framework, the 2013 Cornell Brand Roundtable focused on such major areas of brand management as achieving and maintaining a brand’s edge in the marketplace, managing brand architecture and the brand portfolio, and protecting the brand’s reputation against infringement of its intellectual property. The roundtable also included an interactive exercise in integrating brand attributes from outside the hotel industry to solve customer experience challenges and featured a case of brand rejuvenation that illustrated many of the principles covered over the course of the day’s many lively discussions
Hotel Daily Deals: Insights from Asian Consumers
Get PDFGiven that Asia accounts for more than half of the world’s population and its hotels are thriving, this study analyzes the attitudes toward daily deal offers of hotel guests in five Asian nations. While the respondents, from China, India, Indonesia, Korea, and Japan, have many common attitudes regarding daily deals, certain differences stand out. Overall, it becomes clear that frequent guests take advantage of the discounts offered in daily deals, thus confirming concerns of cannibalization. Worse, those frequent guests reported that they felt as though they were treated differently due to their use of the daily deal, and this gave them a diminished view of the hotel. On the other hand, respondents from most nations said that they took the opportunity of the deal to spend more money than usual during their hotel stay, and they were happy to recommend the hotel to their friends, a phenomenon known as being a market maven. Moreover, use of the daily deal did not seem to interfere with guests’ loyalty levels, which seemed to be the same for daily deal purchasers and those who did not use such offers. One other downside to offering daily deals is that the survey indicates a reduced value perception for those who purchase numerous deals, indicating that the deal’s charm eventually fades. While the findings seem contradictory in some ways, they also provide guidelines for hoteliers who wish to target Asian consumers with these types of deals while also avoiding the pitfalls
Does Your Website Meet Potential Customers’ Needs? How to Conduct Usability Tests to Discover the Answer
Get PDFThis CHR tool explains how hospitality managers can evaluate the extent to which their hotel or restaurant website meets potential customers’ needs by means of usability tests. As hospitality businesses seek to drive more business to their own websites rather than third-party sites, websites must not only look appealing but also be easy to use so that potential customers can find information quickly and easily. Functionality is equally important for internal websites, such as those used to communicate with employees about policies and benefits. In addition to explaining how to conduct usability tests, the report provides sample test results and summarizes recent research on website structure and functioning
How Strong is the Pull of the Past? Measuring Personal Nostalgia Evoked by Advertising
No full textMarketers frequently evoke personal nostalgia in their advertising. To date, scales have been developed to measure the propensity to get nostalgic but not the actual dimensions of personal nostalgia. Results from four studies show that advertising evoked personal nostalgia comprises four correlated but distinct dimensions: past imagery, positive emotions, negative emotions, and physiological reactions. This multidimensional scale showed a high level of validity and reliability. Moreover, due to careful choice of sampling frames, the study demonstrates a high level of external generalizability. Evaluating nostalgia-based advertising using the study\u27s multidimensional scale may provide marketers with strategic insights for developing and fine-tuning advertising aimed at inducing nostalgia among consumers
The Options Matrix Tool (OMT): A Strategic Decision-making Tool to Evaluate Decision Alternatives
Get PDFThe options matrix tool (OMT) is a spreadsheet-based decision making tool designed to help managers apply a set of decision criteria to a variety of alternatives or strategic options. It is particularly useful for decisions that require substantial judgment and for which numbers may not be available. By working through a series of decision-process steps, managers can establish criteria for the assessment and comparison of different possible alternatives and then compare choices. The tool allows managers to list and weigh various decision criteria deemed important for a given business situation or problem alternative. The most desirable option is then identified in a final spreadsheet along with an evaluation of each option. While the OMT is self-explanatory and designed to be easy to use, this report offers a brief description and examples of how to use the tool. Making judgment-based decisions among a variety of viable options is made easier when a systematic process is utilized such as the one offered in this tool
Investment Opportunities and Share Repurchases
No full textPrevious studies of share repurchase have primarily focused on examining announcement effects and long-term operating performance in order to distinguish among the diverse possible hypotheses for repurchase. One of the most important rationales they have studied is the over-investment hypothesis: firms repurchase in order to avoid investing in negative net present value projects. While the recent empirical analyses have presented some indirect evidence in support of the over-investment hypothesis, this study examines this rationale for repurchase from a unique perspective, empirically showing that project returns have an important influence on the decision to repurchase shares. Our sample of firms consists of 125 real estate investment trusts (REITs) in order to utilize a time series of real estate capitalization rates (property ROAs) from market transactions on different property types. These cap rates proxy for a REIT’s project opportunity set. Using a both Logit and Tobit models that corrects for other possible buyback rationales, we show that during periods with relatively low cap rates, REITs are more likely to both repurchase shares and repurchase larger amounts of shares than when cap rates are high
How Currency Exchange Rates Affect the Demand for U. S. Hotel Rooms
No full textThis study addresses the question of how currency exchange rates affect aggregate hotel demand in the U.S. over time, among chain scales, and gateway cities. The effect is isolated after controlling for hotel room rates, real personal income, and other demand determinants. Exchange rates had a significant, although minor, influence on U.S. hotel demand from 1992 Q1 - 2012 Q1. Disaggregate analyses using data organized by time periods corresponding to Internet availability does not offer new insights about how exchange rates affect U.S. hotel demand. Analyses using chain scale and gateway city data, however, reveal that exchange rates strongly influence hotel demand in luxury, upper-upscale, and upscale segments, with a much weaker relationship among lower-price hotels. The exchange rate effect is strongest for upper-price hotels in gateway cities
Determinants of Hotel Property Prices
Get PDFCommercial real estate pricing has its foundations in present value theory although improved access to transaction data heightened interest in hedonic pricing models. Heretofore, the commercial property versions of these models follow traditions for pricing non-market rent paying durable assets, principally residential housing. We present a pricing model that departs from tradition by incorporating city-specific net operating incomes and the capitalization rates into the hedonic equation. Property attributes and location characteristics serve as proxies for unobservable, asset cash flows; city incomes account for local cash flow effects; and the capitalization rate represent local and national capital market influences. Modeling commercial real estate in this way allows us to recognize the relative contributions of property, local market, and national market determinants. Empirical testing relies on a sample of hotel transactions from 2005-2010. The choice of hotels stems from the responsiveness of these properties’ cash flows to market changes in the absence of lease friction and the homogeneity of the physical assets. Our model explains nearly 80 percent of the variation in hotel asset prices. We find that prices are collectively determined by property, city income, and capital market characteristics. Models only with property characteristics slightly outperform models with present value variables