Cornell Report Shows How Hotel Operators Can Profit from Customer Data

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. October 14, 2008

ITHACA, NY, June 5, 2006. The internet has brought hotel operators almost too much of a good thing, as guests offer a blizzard of information about themselves when they make inquiries and reservations. Sorting out which pieces of information are useful is the key to improving a hotel's profits. To that end, a new report from Cornell University provides a specific mechanism for winnowing the data.

The report, "The Strategic Value of Information: A Manager's Guide to Profiting from Information Systems," is written by Cornell Professor Gabriele Piccoli and Paolo Torchio, vice president, E-site Marketing. It is available at no charge from The Center for Hospitality Research, www.chr.cornell.edu.

"We suggest that you begin by making an inventory of all the data that are available from your transaction-processing systems," said Piccoli. "Then imagine what you'd like to learn from all those data, and you have a set of potential data-driven initiatives."

The system, which was developed by Piccoli and Torchio, submits the list of potential initiatives to a triage-in which the manager can perform a cost-benefit assessment to determine which project is worth pursuing.

The potential initiatives can be put in one of the following four categories, according to the availability of data and the potential of the project:

1. Imperatives - initiatives that have considerable upside potential and rely on readily available data.

2. Quick wins - those that have readily available data, but do not have overwhelming upside potential.

3. Trade-offs - initiatives with great potential but no readily available data, " possibly worth pursuing in the future. "

4. Losing causes - those that offer neither upside potential nor readily available information.

"Information is powerful, but you have to know how to use it," Torchio concludes. "We believe that this straightforward approach provides a relatively quick way to determine how to profit from the flow of data flowing from the internet."

All CHR Reports and Tools are available from the Center's web site, www.chr.cornell.edu. Thanks to the support of the partners listed below, all CHR Reports and Tools are made available free of charge.

About The Center for Hospitality Research

A unit of the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, The Center for Hospitality Research (CHR) sponsors research designed to improve practices in the hospitality industry. Under the lead of the Center's 47 corporate affiliates, experienced scholars work closely with business executives to discover new insights into strategic, managerial and operating practices. The Center also publishes the award-winning hospitality journal, the Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly. To learn more about CHR and its projects, visit www.chr.cornell.edu.

CHR Partners and sponsors: AIG Global Real Estate Investment, Cendant Corporation, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, HVS International, JohnsonDiversey, Inc., Kohinoor Group, Marsh's Hospitality Practice, Nestl'e, Smith Travel Research, Southern Wine and Spirits of America, Inc., SynXis (a Sabre Holdings Corporation), Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, Thayer Group of Companies, and Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo.

CHR friends: ARAMARK o DK Shifflet & Associates o ehotelier.com o Estrela Marketing Solutions o Fireman's Fund o Gerencia de Hoteles & Restaurantes o Global Hospitality Resources o Hospitality Confections o Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) o hospitalityInside.com o hospitalitynet.org o Hotel Asia Pacific o Hotel China o HotelExecutive.com o Hotel Interactive o Hotel Resource o International CHRIE o International Hotel and Restaurant Association o International Hotel Conference o iPerceptions o KPMG Japan/Global Management Directions o Lodging Hospitality o Lodging Magazine o PKF Hospitality Research o Resort+Recreation o The Resort Trades o RestaurantEdge.com o Shibata Publishing Co. o The Lodging Conference o Taste & Travel o TravelCLICK o UniFocus o WageWatch, Inc. o WiredHotelier.com