Guests want to know hotels’ rate rules, says Cornell study

January 22, 2010 |

Hotel revenue management techniques cause hotels to adjust their rates in response to demand and occupancy patterns. But if guests don't know what those rate-changing rules are, they tend to think of them as being unfair.

A new Center for Hospitality Research (CHR) study found that hotel guests are more likely to think a rate setting practice is fair when they know how the rules work.

The hotel revenue management study involved showing one of eight distinct scenarios to 815 U.S. respondents, and asking whether the hotel was acting fairly in that particular scenario. Taylor, who is a marketing analyst for the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino, conducted this study for his senior thesis at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, where Kimes is the Singapore Tourism Board Distinguished Professor in Asian Hospitality Management.

"We know that hotel customers accept the idea that hotel rates will change, but we don't know when guests will think of those rate changes as being fair," said Kimes. "We tested three factors that we thought would influence guests' perceptions of fairness

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