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In 1999, Shoemaker and Lewis declared customer loyalty as “the future of hospitality marketing”. This paper aims to evaluate the state of research and practice in hotel loyalty and reward programs in the subsequent 15 years to determine if the tenets set forth have occurred. The loyalty circle provides a conceptual framework within which to evaluate progress and trends in hotel loyalty marketing.

Three approaches were used: a comprehensive review of hotel loyalty and reward program literature from 2000 to 2015, a classification and analysis of program benefits for major hotel companies and in-depth interviews with industry professionals.

The literature shows a progression from process-focused research to a greater emphasis on brand relationships. Communication is neglected compared to the other loyalty circle components. Reward programs still depend largely on financial benefits but have added greater flexibility and customization of rewards.

The literature search was limited to hotels and did not consider other hospitality segments. The sample of interviews was small and may not represent the opinions of all loyalty professionals.

The findings have practical implications for developing more effective loyalty programs and theoretical implications for expanding research horizons.

Shoemaker and Lewis (1999) was a landmark article that led to a period of prolific research on hospitality loyalty. During that time, loyalty programs were progressing and permeating the industry. This study applies the loyalty circle to provide a framework within which to evaluate both research and practice in hotel loyalty marketing.

Hoteliers are often frustrated by the significant fees charged for bookings by Online Travel Agents (OTAs), and they try to encourage more direct bookings that circumvent the OTA system. However, there are billions of dollars of room revenues generated by OTAs every year; and many companies in other industries sell their products through multiple channels. The purpose of this study is to investigate how hotel revenue managers can collaborate successfully with OTAs.

Qualitative methods are applied in this study, specifically focus groups and in-person interviews with market managers of a leading OTA. Content analysis is performed, using ATLASti 5, to discover emerging themes and categories from the transcripts.

This study highlights several OTA value propositions and how hotels can benefit from them. Additionally, the findings of this study reveal that effective two-way communication between OTAs and revenue managers is the key to success. An “optimization loop” is established, which specifies that partnership and collaboration between OTAs and hotels must occur in a circular sequence of communication, engagement, collaboration and strategy.

A major limitation for this study is that interviews were conducted only with market managers, limiting the perspective to that of OTAs.

There is a paucity of research and dialogue discussing productive relationships between OTAs and hotel firms. Through in-depth in-person interviews with a diverse set of market managers from a leading OTA, this study brings to light an array of perspectives of what is required to optimize the OTA/hotelier relationship.

酒店经营者常常受到在线旅行社（OTA）收取高额预订费用的困扰。酒店试图鼓励客人直接预订房间，绕过OTA程序。然而，每年OTA贡献仍有数以十亿计美金的订房收入; 其他行业的很多公司采用多渠道销售产品。本论文研究目的在于探索酒店经理人们如何能够成功地与OTA合作。

本论文采用定性研究方法，主要以小组讨论和个人访谈的形式，与一家行业领先的OTA市场经理们进行深度访谈。本论文借用ATLASti 5 内容分析工具进行样本分析，总结出主题和分类。

本论坛提出了多个OTA价值组成，以及酒店如何从中盈利。此外，本论文还指出了OTA和财务经理的有效双向交流的重要性。其中，需要建立“循环展开”（Optimization Loop），即OTA和酒店之间的合作交流需要建立在循环、有序、通畅、以及战略的基础上。

本论文一个主要的理论限制就是只采访了OTA的市场经理。

理论上，关于OTA和酒店之间的战略合作的讨论，我们知之甚少。本论文采用与一家行业领先的OTA市场经理们的深入访谈，将这一合作关系进行积极讨论分析，提供一系列优化战略合作的方案和见解。

在线旅行社（OTA），酒店订房收入，合作关系，Expedia，市场经理，收入优化

This study aims to propose that there may be a marketable segment of guests who are willing to pay a premium for guestrooms that are cleaned using enhanced disinfection techniques beyond the normal room cleaning procedures. Room cleanliness is important to hotel guests. Some hotel brands currently offer allergy-free rooms, charging a premium for this service. However, no hotel brands currently serve the market that is willing to pay more for enhanced disinfection. This exploratory study investigates whether there is such a segment and, if so, what price premium these customers are willing to pay for enhanced disinfection.

Survey methods were used to determine the consumer’s perceptions of hotel guestroom cleanliness; the effectiveness of traditional and enhanced cleaning methods; and willingness to pay for enhanced guestroom disinfection.

Younger travelers and female travelers of all ages may be willing to pay a significant price premium for enhanced disinfection of a hotel guestroom.

The survey instrument was administered via the Internet, limiting the sample. The study participants were not asked about hotel brand; thus, the results could not be analyzed by brand or service level.

Past research focuses only on traditional cleaning methods. This article provides a template for the hotel industry to explore the feasibility of offering enhanced cleanliness as a revenue-generating amenity.

This paper aims to demonstrate how activity‐based pricing can be applied in a restaurant setting by combining the use of price sensitivity measurement with activity‐based costing.

Data are collected at a Hong Kong buffet restaurant, based on guests' price perceptions and the establishment's detailed cost structure. These data are analyzed by using price sensitivity measurement techniques and activity‐based costing methods, separately, and then combined to create an activity‐based pricing analysis of the restaurant's menu.

The use of activity‐based pricing techniques reveals that, although the guests are relatively price‐insensitive, drastic measures were needed to reduce costs for the restaurant to become profitable. Without the benefit of this study, the restaurant's management would not have been able to see clearly the nature of the challenges that they faced, since a single pricing study, or cost study, would have missed the combined cost and pricing effects that were captured by activity‐based pricing.

Activity‐based pricing is shown to be a powerful technique that can be applied effectively in a restaurant. Utilizing this method allows a restaurant truly to understand both its operating cost structure and the price perceptions of it guests. Since this study involved only a single buffet restaurant, further research should be conducted to confirm that activity‐based pricing can also be applied in other restaurant and hospitality industry settings.

The findings from this study suggest that activity‐based pricing may be a viable way for restaurant managers to gain a better understanding of both their guests' price perceptions and the true cost structure of their restaurants. Use of activity‐based pricing allows restaurant managers to set price levels that cover all operating costs and profits, while still meeting guests' expectations of value.

This study is the first of its kind in the hospitality literature, since no prior research has applied activity‐based pricing in a hospitality research setting. This study represents an important new addition to the existing body of hospitality cost and pricing literature.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the extant research around the non‐pathological gaming customer and then propose research for future study of this customer.

Academic literature combined with the results of primary research is used to examine the incidence of gambling and non‐problem gaming research trends in the hospitality industry.

The overview of the publicly available research on the casino gaming consumer leads to a host of suggestions for future research.

The practical implications include recent developments in gaming consumer profiles, as well as suggested for future research to further understand the non‐problem gaming consumer.

The paper examines existing literature and is valuable for anyone who wishes to begin studying the gaming consumer. This paper provides direction for future study.

Slot machines and other machine gaming generate between 65 percent and 90 percent of a US casino's revenue. This article aims to examine the motivations, behaviors, and preferences of slot machine customers, and to develop market segments.

The study's objectives include: understanding the demographic, gambling motivation, and gambling behavioral characteristics of slot machine players; identifying important reasons for choosing one slot machine game over another; examining player attitudes and behaviors pertaining to progressive machines; and investigating player desire for theme‐based games. This was accomplished through an online survey of slot machine players.

Profiles of slot machine players are developed and the slot players are segmented into four clusters that explain motivations and game preferences.

This article fills in some of the gaps in understanding the gambling behavior of slot players. This study can help gaming machine manufacturers design new products and features to serve existing machine gaming customers and to attract new customers. Casino and other gaming operators can use this information not only to select the right types of machines to provide on‐site, but also to develop advertising and promotions to attract and retain new and existing customers for slot machines and other types of gaming machines.

This is the first published study that segments slot machine players from a marketing perspective and identifies their preferences, behaviors, and demographic groupings.

This paper reviews brand equity and customer satisfaction as they relate to customer loyalty and relationship marketing in an effort to understand and mitigate some of the challenges facing quick‐service restaurants (QSRs) today.

The authors reviewed over 30 articles on the subjects of brand equity, customer equity, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, communal relationships, relationship marketing, and pseudo‐relationship marketing, as well as researched and evaluated current marketing techniques used by selected QSRs.

It is concluded by the authors that customer satisfaction, brand equity, and loyalty are invaluable to the formation of customer loyalty, as is the understanding that customers' relationships with companies need to be treated with the same respect as personal relationships.

Customer loyalty has been shown to be beneficial to a company, both tangibly and intangibly. Companies are cautioned in their use of relationship marketing techniques used to foster customer loyalty and encouraged to use methods that benefit both themselves and their customers.

This paper analyzes many different factors that affect customer loyalty, as well as discusses how relationship marketing techniques can be utilized by the QSR industry.

This paper analyzes the impact of menu descriptions on the selection of menu items. Furthermore, this paper examines the relationship between menu descriptions and the perceived value of the item.

This study uses the different components of prospect theory (e.g. anchoring effects and framing effects). An experimental research design using mock menus was used to investigate the impact of item presentation, item selections, and menu descriptions on consumer judgments of consumer choice and price value.

The results found that detailed menu descriptions negated the impact of the price increases on the menu items.

The implications of this study are valuable to restaurateurs because it shows that menu descriptions have the potential to increase revenue while also increasing the value perception. The study can also be applied to similar competing restaurants. Restaurants can be successful when magnifying the differences with detailed descriptions.

The implications of this study can aid restaurateurs that are either developing new menus or increasing their prices. Restaurateurs are encouraged to provide a more detailed menu description in order to increase the perceived value by the guest.