Social Media and the Hospitality Industry: Holding the Tiger by the Tail

Hospitality industry executives and managers have been scrambling to work through the ever-shifting maze of social media, with a goal of staying in greater touch with customers, strengthening brands, and improving sales. Presentations and panel discussions at the 2010 Cornell Hospitality Research Summit, held at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, made clear both the remarkable potential of a well-drawn social media strategy and the hazards of ill-considered tactics. Without doubt, a customer relationship management strategy calls for hospitality firms to be active in social media, but the question remains regarding exactly what activity is appropriate, and what will offend consumers. In particular, hospitality operators must integrate their marketing efforts with social media—a process which will require new approaches to marketing

Toward Sustainable Hotel and Restaurant Operations

The world tourism industry has moved forward on improving operational sustainability and on reporting the results of those efforts. However, the overall picture is complex, given the difficulty in determining what to report, which benchmarks to apply, and how consumers respond to sustainability reports. Many operators have compiled sustainability statistics up and down their supply chain—given that customers have espoused a broad interest in the industry’s carbon footprint. Carbon is one of the areas that is reported by many operators, as is water conservation. Continuing research will help the industry clarify and report on the industry’s sustainability status, but this remains a work in progress

Moving the Hospitality Industry Forward with Social Media and Technology

In a concentrated two-day period, the Cornell Hospitality Research Summit 2012 presented over 80 presentations on a wide variety of hospitality-related subjects, all focused on the key issues to advance the hospitality industry. A solid set of presentation track addressed the industry’s current status and strategies relating to social media, one of the fastest-moving areas of industry concern. Given the industry’s many moving parts, specialized disciplines, and parallel enterprises, the overall message from the CHRS is the need to engage all stakeholders in the critical elements that create success for hospitality enterprises: providing service and facilities that satisfy customers, giving operators the tools to expand revenues, and controlling costs to provide a reasonable return for investors. In the process, hospitality executives and academic researchers presented their research on the many disciplines and issues that come to bear on the contemporary hospitality industry, including customer service, distribution, hotel investment and value, human resources, internet analytics, pricing and revenue management, restaurant service and operations, social media, sustainability, and technology. This proceedings summarizes the presentations covering social media and technology

Critical Issues for Industry and Educators

In a concentrated two-day period, the Cornell Hospitality Research Summit 2012 produced over 80 presentations on a wide variety of hospitality-related subjects, all focused on critical issues for the hospitality industry. The conference was highlighted by two keynote panels, which are summarized in this report. On day one, five CEOs examined the top issues for the hospitality industry. Opening day two, five hospitality education deans analyzed how the industry’s rapid change affects college curricula. Given the industry’s many moving parts, specialized disciplines, and parallel enterprises, the overall message emerging from the CHRS is the need to engage all stakeholders in the necessary elements that create success for hospitality enterprises: providing service and facilities that satisfy customers, giving operators the tools to expand revenues, and controlling costs to provide a reasonable return for investors. In the process, hospitality executives and academic researchers presented their research on the many disciplines and issues that come to bear on the contemporary hospitality industry, including customer service, distribution, hotel investment and value, human resources, internet analytics, pricing and revenue management, restaurant service and operations, social media, sustainability, and technology

Building Service Excellence for Customer Satisfaction

The 2012 Cornell Hospitality Research Summit offered a substantial menu of presentations on service excellence and revenue management. Several presenters emphasized the value of satisfied customers in the form of higher occupancy that supports firmer room rates. The presentations focused heavily on strategies for building customer satisfaction and for developing integrated, data-driven revenue management approaches. Most critically, presenters suggested that the hotel industry should integrate technology into customer satisfaction strategies, since technology provides the information that is critical to service excellence. Integrating revenue management more tightly with the hotel’s management strategies will help improve room rates and distribution. In its own right, distribution has become a critical aspect of hotel management

Brave New World: Online Hotel Distribution

In a keynote address at the 2010 Cornell Hospitality Research Summit, STR co-founder Randell Smith highlighted the hotel industry’s distribution dilemma. On one hand, the online travel agents (OTAs) have provided a critical outlet for rooms that otherwise might go unsold, particularly in the recent recession. On the other hand, the OTAs are heavily focused on price transparency, raising a concern that the hotel industry would lose its pricing power. Smith’s comments came against the background of gradual recovery from the recession, but the hotel industry continues to feel the effects of economic malaise. At the depth of that recession, it seemed that almost any business was welcome at almost any price

Hotel and Restaurant Strategy: Key Elements for Success

Strategy is the key to success for any hotel or restaurant company, but developing and implementing a strategy is sometimes an elusive goal. A series of presentations at the 2012 Cornell Hospitality Research Summit focused on how to develop and apply strategies in the hotel industry, restaurant industry, and the hospitality industry generally. Perhaps the most important aspect of strategic management is finding an appropriate way to measure whether a particular strategy is successful. Also critical is aligning all stakeholders in a hospitality operation

Tipping and Its Alternatives: Business Considerations and Directions for Research

Purpose – To outline the business issues surrounding tipping and its alternatives, to summarize what we know about those issues, and to identify questions in need of further research. Design – Objectives are achieved via conceptual analysis and review of relevant literature. Findings – Voluntary tipping, service charges, and service-inclusive pricing offer different sets of costs and benefits, so that no one policy is always the best. The principal benefits to service firms of voluntary tipping are that it lowers nominal prices, increases profits through price discrimination, motivates up-selling and service, attracts talented workers, and lowers FICA tax payments. However, tipping also motivates discrimination in service delivery, gives servers surplus income that could go the firms’ bottom line, increases the risk of income tax audits, and opens firms up to adverse impact lawsuits. Practical implications – No one tipping policy is always the best. Service industry executives and managers should carefully weigh each of eight different issues (outlined together for the first time here) to identify the best tipping policy for their circumstances. Originality/value – Tipping has received little attention in service marketing. Furthermore, there is no good, published source of guidance to help service industry executives and managers make decisions about tipping policies. This paper addresses these voids by providing and discussing a comprehensive list of the pros and cons of tipping and its alternatives from a business perspective

Evaluation of a Differentially Settled Tank

The paper discusses studies undertaken to identify the cause(s) for differential settlements experienced by a large floating roof tank. The studies included an evaluation of existing subsurface and tank performance data, additional subsurface exploration and laboratory test programs, a monitoring program during the restricted use of the tank and recommended remedial measures to allow full use of the tank. It is concluded that the affected portion of the tank was sited over a thicker and more compressible soil layer than the remaining portions and that releveling by mudjacking would allow unrestricted future use of the tank