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Forecasting is a vital part of hospitality operations because it allows businesses to make imperative decisions, such as pricing, promotions, distribution, scheduling, and arranging facilities, based on the predicted demand and supply. This chapter covers three main concepts related to forecasting: it provides an understanding of hospitality demand and supply, it introduces several forecasting methods for practical application, and it explains yield management as a function of forecasting. In the first section, characteristics of hospitality demand and supply are described and several techniques for managing demand and supply are addressed. In the second section, several forecasting methods for practical application are explored. In the third section, yield management is covered. Additionally, examples of yield management applications from airlines, hotels, and restaurants are presented.

The purpose of this chapter is to present the key issues and main aspects of financial management, which also constitute the main concerns of a prospective entrepreneur.

This chapter takes a perspective of the small business/prospective entrepreneur and analyses how the methods, tools and techniques of financial management can be helpful in operating the business venture. Literature review was conducted on main issues and aspects of financial management.

This chapter builds on extant bibliography to discuss the key issues and main methods of financial management. For any business, irrespective of size, to carry on its operations and achieve its objectives, financial resources are required, and such resources must be managed efficiently and effectively.

This study is explorative in nature because the discussion is mostly based on a literature review. It takes more entrepreneurial/practical than academic approach.

To contribute to the successful and sustainable operation of a tourism venture, this chapter outlines the key financial issues and presents in a practical way the main methods and techniques used when making operational and investment decisions.

This chapter attempts to equip a prospective entrepreneur with the background knowledge (main competencies), as well as the principal methods and techniques (skills) for managing the financial resources of a venture.

This chapter analyzes the pricing policy of hybrid P2P lodgings versus traditional hotels in relation to seasonality. A quantitative comparative analysis of room prices in Airbnb and hotel lodgings in the city of Barcelona was conducted across four different pairs or dates (peak versus low season) in one year. Overall, the study shows that Airbnb prices are significantly lower than those of hotels and that the former’s prices fluctuate very little, whereas hotels use yield or revenue management techniques to adjust prices in high and low seasons. This implies that relevant purchase behavioral changes may occur in terms of customers waiting until the last minute to book.

Increasing operational costs and narrowing profit margins are forcing many Hong Kong travel agencies out of business. Studies have demonstrated the strategic importance of revenue management (RM) implementation for travel agencies that wish to remain competitive. Hong Kong travel agencies should learn from these examples and modify their existing practices. As travel agencies have many of the characteristics of traditional and non-traditional RM industries, they should be able to adopt the RM operational strategies that have been successful in other industries. This study’s methodology is qualitative; in-depth interviews are conducted with 10 industrial professionals. The results provide valuable insights into RM implementation in Hong Kong travel agencies. The implementation strategies discussed here include the use of perishable inventories, predictable demand, segmentation, reservations made in advance, limited capacity and appropriate cost and pricing structures, all of which aid in profit optimisation. The results indicate that RM can improve travel agencies’ competitive stance and enhance profit maximisation. RM practitioners need to fully understand the concept and techniques and have the determination to develop and promote the system among personnel at every level of the travel agency.

This study examines how firms’ use of competitor-focused accounting information, specifically competitor monitoring information, impacts their pricing, demand, and overall revenue performance. The monitoring activities examined are the scope of monitoring, monitoring above and below one’s own hotel class (i.e., market segment), and the extent of reciprocity of monitoring. Competitor analysis is a central element in strategic management accounting (SMA), yet little empirical research has been done since companies do not disclose competitor monitoring activities. Proving the value of competitive monitoring provides strong support for SMA. Archival, proprietary monitoring information regarding pricing, demand, and revenue were obtained from one of the largest hotel markets in the United States. Using regression, we modeled the relationships between performance measures (pricing, demand, and revenue) and monitoring behaviors, while controlling for quality (hotel characteristics and management skill), competitive intensity, hotel class, geographic location, and ownership type. Our results indicate that two aspects of competitor monitoring impact hotel pricing that, in turn, impacts hotel demand and revenue performance. Specifically, a hotel monitoring more competitors (what we refer to as Scope) achieves higher prices with unchanged demand, resulting in higher revenue performance. Most hotels monitor within their class. However, deviating from one’s class has profound outcomes: looking at lower (higher) quality hotels results in a hotel setting lower (higher) prices, resulting in higher (unchanged) demand and lower (higher) revenue performance. Surprisingly, we did not find support for the reciprocity of monitoring. That is, whether the competitors monitored by a hotel, in turn follow the target, has no impact on hotel revenue performance outcomes. While the SMA literature notes the importance of competitor monitoring, this study fills a gap in an important, under-researched area by documenting the link between competitor monitoring behaviors and organizational revenue performance. This may help promote greater diffusion of SMA practices.

This paper includes an examination of two key issues on price decisions: (1) how should price decisions be made (the strategic and normative issue) within market contexts, and (2) how are price decisions actually made (the execution and implementation of price decisions). The paper closes with some observations useful for applied research and strategies for making effective pricing decisions. The propositions and literature review show that one pricing strategy does not fit a brand in all market contexts that brand executives experience annually in managing brands. Setting specific price points requires continuing deliberate management responses to dynamic market contexts. This paper provides useful sense-making conjunctive steps to accomplish such deliberate thinking effectively relevant for different market contexts.

Social studies of price-setting are generally focused on the production of prices in the markets. This chapter is about the different types of prices and the exploitation of one price type for commercial purposes. The twofold nature of prices (technical and rhetorical), consolidated here in a recommendation algorithm, is defined, through an ethnographic case study of start-up company in France, from 2014 to 2015. The price is thus considered as a good in itself, which not only has to be produced but sold (and not always by honest means), opening the way to an anthropological critique of the “reality of prices.”

This chapter uses stated tourist preferences as a proxy of visitor yield measures, in order to analyse and understand the yield potential of different markets’ preferences. A literature review revealed that there is much progress to be made in terms of discussion, consensus and stability of methodology for the measurement of visitor yield. The aim of the visitor yield analysis, in the current chapter, is also to bring another dimension into yield analysis and discussion, contributing with a new form of measuring yield potential. Since the objective is to identify yield patterns based on tourist preferences over a period of time, dynamics may be captured from the fluctuation patterns, or expressed as volatility of visitor yield and length of stay throughout the years. Destination management organisations and tourist companies may potentially adopt this visitor yield matrix in order to support future strategic decisions.