Our research studies covering a range of topics that will help hospitality and gaming managers make better decisions are highlighted in the first webcast of the third session in the SAS/Cornell webcast series “Insights and Innovations for Hospitality and Gaming.”  The title of the today's webcast is “Tackling the Biggest Challenges in Hospitality and Gaming.”

I am (completely unbiased, of course) particularly excited about this session, because I get to present some new research I worked on with Breffni Noone, from the Penn State Hotel School.  We have been thinking about how revenue managers can incorporate social media into their analyses, and -- in particular -- want to understand how user-generated content impacts the purchase decision.

Our research shows that, while consumers clearly prefer to pay a lower price (and who doesn’t!), discounting won’t overcome the negative impact of bad reviews.  The major takeaway from this study is that reviews and ratings matter. So, when revenue managers make decisions about distribution channel pricing strategy, they need to pay as much attention to the competitors reviews as they do to competitor pricing. There are other interesting results, but you’ll have to watch the webcast to hear about them!

You’ll also hear about three other timely research projects in this webcast:

1. Mike McCall continues his research into Customer Loyalty Programs, providing advice about improving segmentation strategies.  This will help hotel and casino managers ensure that they are rewarding their most profitable customers, while fostering loyalty among the entire customer base.
2. Now that hotels and casinos have made significant investments in revenue management, distribution and marketing technologies to manage demand, Bill Carroll discusses a methodology for developing business processes that synchronize these efforts to ensure that you take maximum advantage of your investments.
3. Sherri Kimes presents her work on consumer perceptions of daily deals in the restaurant industry.  Daily deals are clearly popular among consumers, but businesses struggle to understand whether participating is a good decision.  Sherri’s research sheds some light on how consumers use these daily deals that will help managers evaluate whether and how they want to participate.

This year SAS and the CHR are doing something new. We’ll still host three webcasts, but we’re also planning a jointly produced blog series that provides timely answers to burning questions.  Keep an eye out for the first topic in January.  We’ll be covering strategies to profitably leverage all of the third party distribution channels available within the industry today, including the latest research from the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research on flash sales, OTA sites and social buying.  We’ll also discuss some analytic techniques that can support distribution strategy, and get best practice advice from industry practitioners.   And January’s just the beginning….