Cornell Center's Relevance Award Winners Focus on Hotel Marketing
Two research reports from Cornell's Center for Hospitality Research are winners of the 2009 Industry Relevance Award. The two reports were selected by the center's website registrants and members of the center's Advisory Board. Both are targeted at improving hotels' marketing efforts.
Two research reports from Cornell's Center for Hospitality Research are winners of the 2009 Industry Relevance Award. The two reports were selected by the center's website registrants and members of the center's Advisory Board. Both are targeted at improving hotels' marketing efforts.
The winners are
- "Setting Room Rates on Priceline: How to Optimize Expected Hotel Revenue,"
by Chris K. Anderson, and - "Unlocking the Secrets of Customers' Choices,"
by Rohit Verma.
As is the case with all center reports and tools, these reports are available for download at no charge www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/chr/pubs/. For a list of past Industry Relevance Award winners, please visit
Anderson's report explains how to use the information provided by Priceline to set rates that will optimize sales. Although hotel operators cannot directly see the bids made by would-be guests, an analysis of Priceline's reports provides the information needed to develop the best possible offer. Anderson also provided a spreadsheet-based tool, available at
In his report, Verma presents an explanation of discrete-choice analysis, which allows marketers to analyze customers' preferences for products and services. Instead of simply asking customers what they would like, discrete-choice analysis compares customers' ratings of packages of product attributes. By varying the attributes in each test, marketers can determine which products and services are actually customer favorites.
The award winners were chosen from the most popular reports in the prior year, based on the number of downloads from the center's website. The five most useful of those heavily downloaded reports were determined by a poll of 2,000 frequent users of the Center for Hospitality Research website, all of whom had themselves downloaded more than ten reports or tools. Members of the center's Advisory Board then voted to select the two winners out of the top five finalists.
Thanks to the support of the Center for Hospitality Research partners listed below, all publications posted on the center's website are available free of charge, at
About the Center for Hospitality Research
The purpose of the Center for Hospitality Research is to enable and conduct research of significance to the global hospitality and related service industries. CHR also works to improve the connections between academe and industry, continuing the School of Hotel Administration's long-standing tradition of service to the hospitality industry. Founded in 1992, CHR remains the industry's foremost creator and distributor of timely research, all of which is posted at no charge for all to use. In addition to its industry advisory board, CHR convenes several industry roundtables each year for the purpose of identifying new issues affecting the hospitality industry.
Center Members: Accenture • Access Point Financial, Inc. • Barclaycard US • Cvent • Davis & Gilbert LLP • Deloitte & Touche USA LLP • DerbySoft • Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts • Fox Rothschild LLP • Hilton Worldwide • Host Hotels & Resorts • Hyatt Hotels Corporation • IDeaS Revenue Solutions • InterContinental Hotels Group • Jumeirah Group • Marriott International • NTT DATA • Preferred Hotels & Resorts • priceline.com • PwC • The Rainmaker Group • RateGain • ReviewPro • Revinate • Sabre Hospitality Solutions • STR • Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces • Tata Consultancy Services • Wipro EcoEnergy • Wyndham Hotel Group