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One of the important characteristics of the hotel business is uncertainty of lodging demand, which can jeopardize hotel operation and ultimately even threaten a hotel’s survival during an economic recession. The purpose of this paper is to propose an approach to determine optimal hotel investment issues under uncertain lodging demand.

Uncertainty of lodging demand is classified into two types: the impact of unexpected economic recession and the temporary imbalance between supply of hotel rooms and lodging demand. A jump-diffusion real option approach is proposed to analyze how these two types affect optimal investment timing and the potential value of new hotel projects. The case of hotel investment in Macao is used to illustrate the jump-diffusion real option approach.

The results of numerical analysis show that the uncertainty induced by temporary imbalance between supply of hotel rooms and lodging demand increases the threshold of investment and hotel value, while the uncertainty induced by unexpected economic recession has ambiguous effects on the value and optimal investment timing of new hotel projects.

The jump-diffusion real option approach increases managerial flexibility for managers when making investment decisions on new hotel projects, allowing greater value to be generated than is possible with the conventional discounted cash flow method.

The approach separates the impact of unexpected economic recession on lodging demand from that of “normal” fluctuations in lodging demand, and it considers the impact of both types of uncertainty on hotel investment.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors affecting capital structure decisions of Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) lodging companies.

A model based on the trade‐off and pecking order theories is specified and implications of both theories are empirically tested. The model is estimated using a dynamic panel data approach for five ISE companies for the period of 1994‐2006.

The findings suggest that effective tax rates, tangibility of assets, and return on assets are related negatively to the debt ratio, while free cash flow, non‐debt tax shields, growth opportunities, net commercial credit position, and firm size do not appear to be related to the debt ratio. Although the findings partially support the pecking order theory, neither the trade‐off nor the pecking order theory exactly seem to explain the capital structure of Turkish lodging companies.

The data used in this paper are limited to five companies traded in the ISE, since the data on other companies are not available. A more detailed analysis would use data for other companies in the industry.

The findings of the study clearly demonstrate the importance of capital structure decisions for financial sources.

Although the capital structure theory is extensively examined in the finance literature, there are fewer studies covering the tourism industry, particularly Turkey. The paper establishes the determinants of the capital structure of Turkish lodging companies. The research findings should help managers to make optimal capital structure decisions.

Drawing on protection motivation theory (PMT) and expectancy theory, this study aims to investigate consumers’ lodging consumption intentions during a pandemic crisis.

The research survey was conducted during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic (August, 2020) in the USA to investigate consumers’ lodging intentions amidst the pandemic crisis. PLS-SEM and multiple regression were conducted to explore answers to proposed research questions.

The research finds that, during the pandemic crisis, consumers’ lodging consumption intentions are subject to both their internal protection motivation evaluations and the external prevention practices implemented by the lodging facilities regardless of property types and travel purposes. Notably, the research finds that consumers are willing to make efforts and pay extra for a safe stay at lodging facilities.

This research contributes to the literature regarding the applications of PMT and expectancy theory from a crisis management perspective, and it provides implications and guidelines to the crisis management practices in the lodging industry.

The current research examines the specific protection motivation appraisal factors and prevention practices significantly impacting consumers’ decisions in terms of willingness to stay at various lodging facilities (hotels and non-hotel homestay/short-term rental properties) for different purposes (business and leisure) and to pay premiums for a safe stay.

This research examines the lodging experience in the context of environmentally friendly hotels by discovering the underlying guest segments. A mixed-method approach is deployed, which first reveals three lodging experience dimensions entailing, functionality, hedonism and social responsibility via in-depth interviews. Subsequently, a questionnaire survey is conducted which gathers responses from 326 guests staying at seven certified green hotels. A cluster analysis based on green lodging experiences is performed that evokes three distinct guest segments labeled as (1) spontaneous guests, (2) active guests, and (3) devoted guests. The study notes that social responsibility is the most important lodging experience across the three resultant segments. The study also finds about 31% of respondents tend not to pay much attention to green lodging operations. It leads to a suggestion that the implementation of green operations may be accomplished in a way not notably compromising certain service expectations by those not profusely aspiring of the notion of green operations. Even though meeting the needs of core customers is a vital task.

Centres on measuring lodging operator compliance with regard to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The intent was to measure current level of physical compliance with the ADA; future plans in meeting or exceeding ADA requirements; and barriers which impeded complete compliance. The participants in this study were selected from a list of hotels and motels contained in the 1994 version of the Hotel and Travel Index. The lodging operations were represented by full service, limited service and economy properties which varied from 25 to 615 guest rooms per property, restaurant, and meeting facilities. The findings of this study suggested that total compliance has not been achieved in certain areas, vagueness of the legislation is not necessarily a barrier in compliance, and financial constraints are a barrier in non‐compliance. Implies that lodging operators must properly position their products and services, otherwise the disabled travellers’ needs will not be totally met, and that lodging operators need to continue their civic respon‐ sibility for meeting the needs of the disabled travellers’ needs.

This paper aims to examine the relationship among guests’ lodging recovery experience, work-related rumination, guest satisfaction and well-being, within the context of hotels and bed and breakfasts (B&Bs).

The sample included 823 Taiwanese full-time workers. The proposed relationships were tested using partial least square structural equation modeling, and the moderating effects of accommodation types were tested using multi-group analysis.

The research findings indicate that staying at a hotel or B&B provides a respite from work and reduces negative, repetitive thoughts about work issues (work-related rumination). These recovery effects then contribute to customer satisfaction and hedonic and eudaimonic well-being.

The findings indicate that practitioners need to develop products that could reduce customers’ negative emotional attachments to work and enhance the well-being of customers in a stressful society, which could ultimately contribute to promoting the public health of full-time workers.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the stress-recovery aspect of lodging experiences and their impacts on customer satisfaction and well-being. Further insights are demonstrated with the inclusion of work-related rumination.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the history of the Fairweather Lodge Program, its utility, the development of one program in a small Midwestern city, the role of psychology, and the importance of disseminating information about the program to combat homelessness.

This paper takes a short case study approach to describing the evolution of a peer support-based housing program for individuals with serious mental illness and a history of homelessness.

The Fairweather Lodge facilitates peer support, community engagement, stable housing, and work engagement in those struggling with mental illness and homelessness.

The Fairweather Lodge Program is a program intended to support the mental health and employment needs of individuals with severe mental illness who are at increased risk of homelessness. Housing alone often does not address the complex needs of chronically homeless individuals.

The purpose of the paper is to provoke thought and perhaps response to a new form of identity assurance and security in the lodging industry. For a fact, biometric technology is quickly becoming a principal method of identification in today's fast‐paced networked and security‐conscious society. Increasingly, more and more organizations are adopting this form of technology to enhance security, improve business processes and increase productivity. The paper highlights the fundamentals of biometric technology, and its application in the lodging industry. The paper also addresses factors that should be considered to ensure successful deployment in the lodging industry.

This paper reviews the fundamentals of biometric technology at the discursive level and provides insights on its practical applications in the lodging industry.

Biometric technology offers the lodging industry new possibilities in the areas of identity assurance and authentication. These relatively new technologies hold promise for practical implementation for both employee‐ and guest‐related processes. The major advantage to using this form of technology over other forms is that users do not have to carry anything around such as magnetic keycards, which can be lost, compromised or stolen. However, there are several legal, social and cost‐related challenges that must be overcome before the technology can be universally accepted and implemented in the industry.

The paper suggests that the use of biometric technology will continue to increase, and prudent hospitality executives should pay close attention to this trend so that they can adopt the technology into their operations and enjoy the benefits it offers. The paper provides insights about the technology and offers implementation guidelines for lodging technology officers. In addition, it is hoped that this paper will generate future research in the areas of adoption strategies and appropriate types of biometric technologies that are appropriate for lodging operations.

Both practitioners and educators will benefit from the information presented in this paper, as it provides insights about a relatively new form of technology. Further, the paper reviews the fundamentals of biometric technologies at the discursive level with the intent of generating future research on their application in the lodging industry.

The purpose of this paper is to test for the presence of bubbles in the US lodging/hotel real estate investment trust (REIT) subsector from 1994 to 2016. It also compares the profitability of a buy-and-hold strategy with several technical trading rules when applied to lodging REITs.

To investigate speculative bubbles, the sequential right-sided unit root tests of Phillips, Shi and Yu (2015a, b) are used.

The results confirm the possibility of the existence of multiple bubbles and explosive behavior in prices and the price-dividend ratio. One of the detected bubbles coincides with the financial economic crisis of 2008 using both measures. In addition, several technical rules are found to be superior to a naïve buy-and-hold strategy even after adjusting for risk.

These findings will be of interest to policy makers, who can use such models as an early alert to take anticipative action to avoid bursting of bubbles and consequent negative effects on the economy. The findings also provide important information to investors attempting to devise trading rules that utilize the signals from bubble detection, as well as to hotel executives devising policies aimed at reducing risk and creating more firm value to maximize shareholder wealth. Moreover, valuation and bubbles are important to lenders and creditors who use assets as collaterals for financing hotel REITs.

Hotels are a unique hybrid of retail and housing that combine operating business with real estate. This paper is the first to investigate speculative bubbles in lodging REITs.

Undergraduate.

This case deals with a Zambian entrepreneur named Frank Ngambi who had developed several lodges in Ndola and Lusaka, Zambia. His original intention had been to build lodges that would provide inexpensive lodging for domestic travelers. That strategy had succeeded, and the lodges had been so successful that Frank had been able to increase the size of his lodges in both cities. However, by the summer of 2015, Frank had decided to seek the patronage of international travelers. He knew that this change in strategy would be difficult to achieve. After analyzing one of his competitors, the Intercontinental Hotel in Lusaka, he realized that he needed to increase his product offerings and also offer outstanding customer service. One problem in attaining that goal was the fact that there was very little training for human resources involved in the hospitality industry in Ndola where two of his lodges were located. Another problem he faced was figuring out how to market his lodges to international travelers, as he had never sought that segment of the market before.

At the conclusion of the case discussion, the student should be able to apply Michael Porter’s General Business-Level Strategy to the present and anticipated strategies for the FATMOLS Lodges; to identify tactics that would apply to a low cost leadership strategy; to identify tactics that would apply to a differentiation strategy; to discuss reasons tourism has increased in Zambia in the twenty-first century; to analyze the financial strategy used in developing the FATMOLS Lodges; and to develop a plan for moving a company from a low-cost leadership strategy to one of differentiation.

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CSS 11: Strategy.