Abstract
This summary presents a few highlights of an intensive study made of the consumer habits of former guests of twenty-four selected hotels within the continental United States. The researchers believe that the complete survey report indicates the opinions and travel habits of a sizable cross section of the former guests of the properties involved and of ones similar to them. The complete 72-page report may be ordered from this magazine for $10 plus 50 cents postage.
Studies of this nature give the hospitality industry a chance to examine and to measure the changes taking place in many critical areas of consumer behavior. The strong, continuing con cern of the industry is to increase profitability while holding related operational costs stable through better marketing and improved operational procedures. Toward that end, every hotel operator must be concerned with the rapid directional changes in the basic marketplace. Recent pressures related to the economy's decline, pushed by rising energy costs and related problems, have eroded the established base of clientele.
It is the hope of the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University that this study will provide some guidelines for the entire industry as to potential market research. One important outcome of this study has been the development of a sophisticated "software" program for com puter applications and for the examination of data for further research. Thus a hotel, or a group of hotels, desiring similar analyses of former guests may have relatively quick service in obtain ing the report. In addition, comparisons can be made with the information compiled for the survey reported below. Additional analyses beyond those of this report can also be readily pro duced.—Malcolm A. Noden, Research Associate.
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