Hotels and restaurants—are the risks rewarded? Evidence from Norway

The purpose of this paper is to apply accounting-based risk measures to describe and compare the risk involved in accommodation and restaurants to three other industries. It is found that the variation in earnings is particularly high in construction, but also significant in accommodation and restaurants. The volatility in construction is caused by variance in sales. Construction companies experience low profits when the economy is depressed, while earnings boom when the economy progresses. On the other hand, earnings in retail are stable. It appears that retailing provides low risk and steady profits.The sales variance in accommodation and restaurants is fairly low. The high variability in earnings is mainly caused by operational and financial leverage. Despite the high total risk, hotels and restaurants earn less profit than the other industries examined. Apparently, the market does not reward self-inflicted risk induced by high leverage. Perhaps Norwegian accommodation providers and restaurant keepers have concerns other than maximising profit and minimising risk, and owners’ lifestyles are reflected in the financial accounts. An alternative explanation might be that the accommodation/catering sector has had unrealistic expectations in the period covered by the research.     

Branding destinations versus branding hotels in a gaming destination—Examining the nature and significance of co-branding effects in the case study of Macao

This paper considers destinations and hotels operating within a gaming destination as co-branded experiential choice products. Specifically, it examines the overall and individual effects of visitors’ perceived brand equity of a gaming destination and their perceived brand equity of various hotels, including ‘flagship’ or branded hotels, in terms of influencing their reaction to a hypothetical brand loyalty scenario in which their intended and preferred hotel was unable to provide accommodation thus forcing them to either: (1) choose an alternate hotel in the destination and continue with the visit, (2) cancel the trip and choose another destination to visit, or (3) insist on staying at the preferred hotel but postpone the trip at another period. The study's expectation is that visitors’ response to such a hypothetical scenario is moderated by the relative influence of their perceived brand equity for the destination and for hotels. The emergent gaming destination of Macao is used as a case study for this purpose. The study's findings indicate that visitors’ overall destination brand equity perceptions—rather than hotel brand equity perceptions—is robustly significant when it comes to influencing visitors’ response to the brand loyalty scenario. Results of the study indicate several relevant implications for destination management organizations (DMOs) seeking to enhance their destination-branding efforts and for hotel operators, especially internationally branded hotel chains.     

Innovation activity in the hotel industry: Evidence from Balearic Islands

The paper provides empirical evidence on technological activity in the Spanish service sector, in particular for the tourist accommodation in the Balearics. The study wants to fulfil the lack of analyses in the field of tourism. Commonly, the study of innovation activity has been carried out from a manufacture perspective, for that reason the paper discusses the precise definition of innovation in accommodation services. The data refer to a large representative sample of hotels in Balearic Islands (Spain), providing a homogeneous set of information. The results show as higher-categories hotels are more innovative than lower-categories hotels; an aggregated measure of technological innovation presents a rate over the average for hotels that belong to a chain, and that for hotels under management contract. Half of innovative companies adjust the human capital skills and abilities. The hotel industry is a supplier-driven sector that innovates introducing R&D embodied technology rather than undertaking internal R&D activities.     

Risk return and cost of equity of small and large casual-dining restaurants

Although the financial performance of US casual-dining restaurants has been better than returns in other restaurant segments, it is not known how large and small casual-dining restaurant companies perform when their stock returns are adjusted for risk. The present study uses traditional and contemporary risk-adjusted performance and cost of equity models to fill the void in this area of research. The results indicate that large casual-dining restaurants outperformed their smaller counterparts on a risk-adjusted basis, and had a lower cost of equity for the 1998–2002 period. In addition, the findings demonstrate that the cost of equity estimates pose some serious challenges when sub-periods before and after September 11 events are included in the analysis.     

酒店及餐饮类上市公司企业价值与财务业绩的实证研究

文章以目前我国证券市场上市的10家酒店及餐饮类公司为研究对象,应用面板数据模型,发现此类上市公司财务业绩与企业价值之间存在着显著的关联性,并且部分财务指标对企业价值具有显著影响。这一研究结果对酒店、餐饮企业的财务及经营管理,对投资者的投资决策,以及对我国证券市场的建设与发展具有一定的参考价值。     

Cooperation and competition between online travel agencies and hotels

With the advent of O2O (online to offline) mode, Online Travel Agency (OTA) websites help to introduce new customers to hotels. However, since OTAs charge a hefty commission, hotel managers hope returning customers can book future visits from hotel websites instead of OTA websites. The study is to investigate how OTAs and hotels cooperate and compete with each other at the same time in the multichannel environments. The results show that OTAs can attract new and returning customers by website service quality while hotels can attract returning customers by perceived value. On the other hand, OTA website service quality has a negative effect on intention to rebook via hotel websites and the intention to rebook via OTA and hotel websites indeed have a negative relationship. Thus, the two channels compete with each other for customers' future visits.     

Human resource management and performance in the Barbados hotel industry

This article measures the effect of human resource management (HRM) on performance in the hotel industry in Barbados. It used a quantitative survey covering 46 hotels out of a population of 75 hotels. The respondents were hotel's management, being either a general manager, human resource (HR) manager or line manager. Similar to Hoque's study of UK hotels, the impact of internal and external fit and the universal relevance of HRM were tested. The findings showed no major support for external fit, universal relevance and internal fit in the Barbados hotel industry. All the hotels perceived themselves as performing well, given the focus on quality and targeting high spending tourists. A quest for high service pushes the industry more towards best-practice ‘HRM’ rather than best fit.     

Guest Satisfaction Barometer and Benchmarking

Abstract

An increasing number of companies use customer satisfaction data for improvement programs, strategic decision making, and compensation schemes. Typically, single companies carry out satisfaction measurement for their own purposes. As a consequence, results are not comparable with other companies. Thus, valuable information on competition is not available and benchmarking is not possible. Moreover, in order to use satisfaction data for decision-making, it should be measured continuously and systematically. In practice, however, many firms do not have the required resources or competencies to carry out these research activities on their own. As a result, there is a lack of reliable data. The implementation of a customer satisfaction barometer seems to be a promising approach. It facilitates competitive benchmarking and delivers valuable information for quality improvement. provide participating hotels with information on overall satisfaction, attribute satisfaction, price satisfaction, complaining behavior, loyalty, word-of-mouth, etc.; (3) to identify strengths and weaknesses, as well as improving opportunities; and (4) to provide participating hotels with data for competitive benchmarking. Thirty-seven hotels participated in the pilot phase and data from more than 3,500 guests were collected. In order to illustrate the ideas of the guest satisfaction barometer and the benefits for the participating hotels, the authors first describe the basic ideas and guiding principles of the barometer and report some empirical findings to demonstrate how benchmarks can be used to improve quality and satisfaction. The paper closes with a summary of the experiences and some recommendations for future applications.     

A comparison of destinations’ impacts on hotel rates

The impact of destinations’ attributes on hotel rates in different locations has been insufficiently compared the existing literature. This study sought to apply the hedonic pricing method to measure and compare how room prices are affected by factors that are both external and inherent to hotel companies. After collecting nearly all the data regarding hotel features that consumers can use to make choices about accommodations on the TripAdvisor website, different models were developed for each city and season. The results suggest that hotels in Barcelona are more dependent on external conditions than hotels in Madrid are. In addition, hotels in both cities are more affected by external conditions during the high season. This paper discusses these and other results, as well as their implications.     

Hotel characteristics and occupancy trends: Yorkshire and Humberside hotels, UK, April 1982–March 1984

This study extends the analysis of hotel occupancy in Yorkshire and Humberside, UK, hotels reported in the March 1985 issue of this journal, and confirms the ‘stability’ of the three previously identified dimensions of occupancy performance which reflect differences in overall occupancy levels, intensity of seasonal fluctuations, and length of season. The focus shifts to the identification and interpretation of longer term trends in occupancy performance. The results of a questionnaire survey of hotels are used in a stepwise regression model to relate occupancy trends to a range of ‘predictor’ variables measuring different aspects of the hotels and their management.     

Yugoslavia: tourism in a socialist federal state

This article presents an overall assessment of Yugoslavia's tourist industry and its evolution since the mid-1960s, including its impact on the Adriatic coast. The developing economic significance of the tourist trade for Yugoslavia is reviewed with particular reference to foreign exchange earnings. Data are presented to illustrate the origin, expenditure and accommodation of foreign tourists; and they highlight contemporary problems associated with the emergence of a largescale tourist infrastructure. Yugoslavia's tourist industry had matured by the mid-1980s—not without causing some problems of environmental deterioration. At the same time the population of the Dalmatian coast islands has declined despite the development of tourist facilities.     

Hotel controllers in the 21st century—a Hong Kong perspective on desired attributes

This empirical study carried out in Hong Kong set out to discover how aware are practicing on-property hotel controllers (OPHCs) and hospitality management graduates of desired attributes for the job of a hotel financial controller. It identified profiles of 21st century OPHCs ‘painted’ by practising OPHCs (practitioners) and graduates and matched these with profiles from recruitment specialists (recruiters) and studies reported in the literature on unit controllers in business generally and hotels specifically. The approach to the research, consisted of a quantitative analysis of secondary data that identified interviewees (practitioners, graduates and recruiters) and themes that were then investigated in primary data collection by qualitative methods (content analysis of discourse). The study found that graduates needed to better inform themselves of desired attributes (qualifications, skills and personality). However, practitioners and recruiters formed a consensus on profiles, both perceiving a distinction in profile between OPHCs in ‘international’ type hotels and ‘other’ types of hotel. Perceived attributes of OPHCs in ‘international’ hotels showed many similarities with their counterparts in business generally.     

Do ISO 9001-certified hotels get a higher customer rating than non-certified ones?

This article analyzes whether customers of hotels that are certified for quality management are more satisfied than the customers of non-certified hotels of similar category and location. An empirical study was carried out with a total sample of 186,769 guest ratings of 828 Spanish and Italian hotels. The findings show that quality certified hotels do not receive a statistically significantly better evaluation or rating from their customers. Indeed, the statistical analysis carried out confirms that certified hotels have a statistically significantly lower rating in terms of value for money than non-certified hotels. The implications for managers, customers and other stakeholders are discussed. The article also discusses the potential dangers in inferring directly that quality certification in the hospitality industry leads to superior customer satisfaction as is frequently suggested in both the practitioner and the scholarly literature in the field.     

Do socially responsible activities help hotels and casinos achieve their financial goals?

While the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gained much attention and is currently practiced by many companies, it has yet to be empirically examined in the context of hotels and casinos, especially in regard to the potential effects of CSR on firm value and performance. As the findings on the relationship between CSR and financial performance have been inconclusive and this relationship has been found to differ among industries, this study examines the relationship between CSR and firm value and profitability for hotels and casinos. Results of the Durbin–Wu–Hausman (DWH) test and a subsequent two-stage least square (2SLS) method show that hotel companies’ CSR has a simultaneous and positive relationship with financial performance. For casino companies, however, results show that CSR has no simultaneous or particular effect on financial performance. Findings suggest that hotel companies can confidently and strategically increase CSR investment to enhance both short-term (profitability) and long-term performance (firm value). Casino companies need to carefully examine the effects of CSR on financial performance, when making CSR-related decisions.     

Managing human capital in a privately owned public hotel chain

This study analyses human capital (HC) management practices in a small privately owned public hotel group, in the context of intellectual capital. Previous studies have highlighted how firms measure and report HC; however, few studies have examined the HC management practices of firms. This study analyses these practices using multiple data methods—namely, observation, interaction with staff, examination of internal financial and management reports, and semi-structured case study interviews—on a continuous basis over a 1-year period. The results of this study indicate that, through HC management practices, this group of hotels engaged in value extraction rather than value creation as a way of maximizing the value of the firm. The study identifies several possible reasons for this and presents a number of ways of encouraging value creation.     

Strategic alignment leverage between hotels and companies: The buyer–supplier relationship perspective

Hoteliers are seeking ways to increase their revenue by working with travel agencies to costeffectively expand sales. In addition, they are simultaneously turning to hotel bookings to bolster their revenue in the face of decreasing airline commissions. The research objectives of the present study included determining how the strategic decisions of cooperating contract companies and travel agencies of the hotels are influenced by the service vision and standard service communication. Data were obtained via a mailed questionnaire survey from a sample of travel agencies and contract companies in Taiwan. Of the 300 questionnaires sent, 201 responses (67%) were received, yielding a usable response of 192 fully completed questionnaires. The use of the structural equation model to test the theoretical model of collaboration relationship could lead to a greater understanding of the nature and determinants of choice and decisions related to cooperation between firms. From the perspective of buyer–supplier relationships, hotels are seeking ways to develop long-term relationships and to increase their revenue by collaborating with travel agencies and contract companies, and through the firm's service vision and service-standard communication, hotels can develop services to align with their needs. Moreover, service trends affecting hoteliers may include adapting customer demands, increased expectations of value and quality, and an increasingly highly competitive environment. Hotels would therefore need to be able to make these changes in order to continue this alignment relationship, with substitution possibly being an option for these firms when hotels cannot do this. That is, hotels generally face fierce competition, and to be able to compete they must make continuous efforts to maintain product and service quality; they also need to be innovative to be the leading performers.     

Financing behaviors of hotel companies

To understand financing behaviors in the hotel industry, this study used canonical correlation analyses by examining the interrelationships between cross-balance-sheet accounts of hotel companies. The study confirmed that hotel companies followed the four common practices about the cross-balance-sheet interdependencies identified in the other industries. This study also discovered a few unique financing features of the hotel industry: (1) maturity mismatching between property, plant, and equipment (PPE) and short-term liabilities; (2) adjusting the funding sources of inventories according to the internal and external environments; and (3) high dependency of operating assets on stockholder's equity. This study also explains different financing features across three periods during 1990–2004. The findings are expected to contribute to developing knowledge about the financing behaviors of hotel companies as related to their asset structures.     

Cost structure and productivity growth of the Taiwanese international tourist hotels

This study investigates the cost structure and economic implications of the Taiwanese international tourist hotel industry. A multi-product translog cost function with three inputs and three outputs is estimated using seemingly unrelated regression estimation and three-stage least squares. A balanced panel dataset consisting of 47 international tourist hotels in Taiwan over the period 1997–2001 was obtained from Taiwanese Tourism Bureau and used to estimate the cost function. The results show that both scale and scope economies exist in the Taiwanese international tourist hotel industry. In addition, productivity growth is positive over the study period. Managerial and policy implications for the Taiwanese international tourist hotel industry are also discussed.     

Measuring the economic contribution of the international association conference market: An Irish case study

Conferences and meetings are a prerequisite in the modern global economy and can contribute substantially to national income and foreign exchange earnings. This study assesses the economic contribution of the international association conference market to Ireland and highlights key sectors that demonstrate strong multiplier effects. Primary conference expenditure estimates are combined with sector multipliers to determine direct, indirect and induced effects across a range of monetary aggregates in Ireland in 2007. Total direct conference spending of €131.1 million generated €235.8 million in output, €45.4 million in income, €101.6 million in value added, €52.0 million in imports and €9.3 million in product taxes. Key conference sectors are highlighted including hotels and restaurants, renting services of machinery and equipment, air transport and retail shopping. Findings also indicate the varying nature of derived economic effects over discrete time periods, particularly in the post conference period. Overall, the results demonstrate that the conference market contributed substantially to economic aggregates in Ireland in 2007.