Linchi Kwok, Ph.D.

Hotels have been working hard to win more travelers to " book direct " on their companies' websites,  but are consumers listening? In fact, hotels are not alone. All service providers in the hospitality and tourism industry want their customers to make purchases directly on their websites, but consumers want to search and compare various options before making a decision. So, to convince customers to purchase directly on the service providers' websites, companies must understand where their customers "hang out" in the cyber marketplace before they make the purchasing decision, as well as where they end up buying their services. The white paper " Understanding the Travel Consumer's Path to Purchase " by Eye for Travel provides some business intelligence in that regard. The report combined a large panel consumer data of online transactions and surveys into the analysis, revealing the following results: The places where customers purchas...

As a substitute for the traditional lodging facilities, including hotels,  hostels  and short-term rentals, the increasing supply of Airbnb properties is no doubt making  an impact on hotels' bottom lines . So, can hotels stop the growth of Airbnb?  Hotels' strategies for fighting against Airbnb #Airbnb #Hotels #Competition - http://bit.ly/kwok051117  Hotels are working hard to fight against the competition from Airbnb, other room-sharing websites and online travel agents (OTAs). For example: H otels are encouraging travelers to search and make reservations directly on the hotels' websites by offering special discounts if they book directly, even though this strategy might possibly push Airbnb and OTAs  to work closely together against hotels . Hotels are  reinventing loyalty programs  to win more new travelers and, at the same time, keep their repeat customers. More hotels are  adding local flavors to lure travelers .  If t...

We have seen more  robots and machines are replacing humans  in the service sector.  This trend is irreversible, but the good news is there are  ways to cope with such changes  at work. What if these changes also take place in the macro level? Then, what can businesses do to embrace this wave of innovations? Indeed, the cities where we live have also become "smarter" than ever.  According to The Wall Street Journal , more cities are now using different types of data to make people's living safer and healthier and the cities' operations more efficient. The rise of smart cities Boston The city works with Waze, a navigation app from Google, to improve traffic conditions. Officials are able to respond to traffic problems, such as a double-parked truck or a fender-bender more quickly. Chicago The Department of Innovation and Technology developed an algorithm to predict the risk of a restaurant for spreading food-borne illnesses. The algo...