مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد عملکرد بودجه هتل – الزویر 2019

While distribution channels substantially influence revenue management for hotels, previous studies have rarely provided empirical evidence for the impact of different use of distribution channels on hotel performance. This study investigates the current practice of distribution management in the budget hotel industry in China. Using a data set from the operation of budget hotels in multiple cities in China and two-stage least square regression analysis, the results demonstrate the impact of different distribution channels and their combinations on RevPAR. This study provides insights for distribution management in budget hotel market.

Introduction

Budget hotels have been identified as an important and distinctive segment in the travel and hospitality industry since mid of 1990s (Fiorentino, 1995). With a unique market position of offering good service quality and value for money, the importance of the budget hotel sector has successfully captured a different customer segment (i.e., value-conscious travelers) (Gilbert and Arnold, 1989), and is still growing rapidly in three major areas in the world – U.S., Europe, and Asia (Ruetz and Marvel, 2011). It is expected that the increase in the number of travelers that prefer to stay at accommodations with lower prices will continue to support growth in the budget hotel segment, especially in developing economies wherein middle-class population and service sectors are expanding (Canadean Ltd, 2017; Ruetz and Marvel, 2011). In the line of research on hotel revenue management, scholars have emphasized the impact of distribution channels on hotel performance (Guillet and Mohammed, 2015; Scaglione et al., 2018). Due to the perishable nature of lodging products, having the right mix of distribution channels is particularly helpful for hoteliers to recruit customers and maximize revenue opportunities (Choi and Kimes, 2002; O’Connor and Frew, 2002; Toh et al., 2011a). Thus, scholars have highlighted the importance for hotel management to “evaluate the effects of distribution-channel management on their current revenuemanagement practices and determine how to benefit from it” (Choi and Kimes, 2002, p. 23). However, while previous studies mainly focus on investigating pricing strategies across different channels, limited empirical studies have been conducted to understand the impact of different use of distribution channels on budget hotel performance (Guillet and Mohammed, 2015).