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An Investigation of Hotel Room Reservation: What Are the Diverse Pricing Strategies Among Competing Hotels?

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Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2015

Abstract

In the age of e-tourism, the Internet makes hotel room rates more transparent to customers. It is widely known that hotel room rates fluctuate frequently. However, no prior study has been conducted to investigate the pricing strategies of competing hotels. To address this deficiency, the current study examined this issue. Findings indicate that hotel room rates are low and steady during early reservation period (e.g., 2.5 months). However, during the last 10 days before the check-in date, hotel room rates fluctuate the most, indicating that hotels are currently adopting diverse pricing strategies. Results also show that the best reservation time period to obtain the best available rate is 30–20 days of advance purchase. Moreover, last-minute offers rarely exist among the investigated hotels. These findings can provide hotel managers with insights about effective pricing strategies and strategic management, enabling them to inform the customers about the best reservation time period to obtain optimal room rates.

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Acknowledgements

The work described in this paper was supported by a grant funded by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (GRF Project Number: 15503814, B-Q45Y). This study was also supported by research grants funded by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (G-UB22 and G-YK91).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China

    Sunny Sun, Rob Law & Markus Schuckert

  2. University of Macau, Macau, China

    Lawrence Hoc Nang Fong

Authors
  1. Sunny Sun
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  2. Rob Law
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  3. Markus Schuckert
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  4. Lawrence Hoc Nang Fong
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sunny Sun .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Hospitality Business Management, Carson College of Business, Washington State University, Vancouver, Washington, USA

    Iis Tussyadiah

  2. Faculty of Management, Bournemouth University, Poole, Dorset, United Kingdom

    Alessandro Inversini

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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Sun, S., Law, R., Schuckert, M., Fong, L.H.N. (2015). An Investigation of Hotel Room Reservation: What Are the Diverse Pricing Strategies Among Competing Hotels?. In: Tussyadiah, I., Inversini, A. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2015. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14343-9_52

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