Author: Ahlea M Isabella

“The Six Touchstones” A Model for Hospitality Students

By Christopher Muller and Michael Oshins Hospitality management education requires many different perspectives to be considered, given the broad array of pedagogies used throughout a four-year curriculum. With some planning—and, sometimes, with a bit of serendipity—simple ideas may resonate with students well beyond the time they spend in a classroom. In previous Boston Hospitality Review […]

A (Diamond) Cut Above the Rest: Improving Hotel Operations Based on TripAdvisor Rating Attributes

By Suzanne Bagnera While TripAdvisor has been in operation since 2000 (TripAdvisor, 2012), the adoption of the website by hospitality industry professionals was rather delayed. However, in more recent years, hotel operators and other hospitality institutions have acknowledged the benefits that this service can provide and have embraced it more fully. With the advanced review […]

A Place for Everything and Everything in Its Place: The Application of Feng Shui to Hotels

  By Ingrid Lin “You wouldn’t build anything in most parts of Asia without having feng shui consultants come in and help you.” – Neil Jacobs, the president of global hotel operations for Starwood Capital. Feng Shui:  real, phony, or magic? The western world might consider feng shui to be a mystical and mysterious art, […]

The hotel industry’s Achilles Heel? Quantifying the negative impacts of Airbnb on Boston’s hotel performance

By Tarik Dogru, PhD, Makarand Mody, PhD, Courtney Suess, PhD Airbnb is the largest firm in the sharing economy marketplace, with about 3 million listings, including entire homes, shared rooms, and private rooms—more than the world’s largest three hotel chains combined (IHG, Marriott, Hilton, 2.58 M listings). It has hosted about 50 million guests in […]

Comparing apples and oranges? Examining the impacts of Airbnb on hotel performance in Boston

By Tarik Dogru, Makarand Mody, and Courtney Suess If you are in the hotel industry, chances are that Airbnb has come up in conversation at some point or another. The sharing economy phenomenon and the economic, social, and technological changes fueling its growth have challenged the hotel industry to rethink its experiential value proposition to […]

Hotel Brand Websites, OTA’s, Meta Search and Wholesalers: A Distribution Dilemma Within The Industry

By Nick Cohen The year is 2001, and the world is still recovering from the tragedy of September 11th.  The travel industry is in a downward spiral as fears of flying and terrorism ripple across the United States and beyond, and hotels have lost significant occupancy due to a decrease in demand. Simultaneously, a fledgling […]

Hospitality Healthscapes: The New Standard for Making Hospitals More Hospitable

By Courtney Suess, Makarand Mody, & Gabrielle Guarracino What words come to mind when you think of a hospital room? Chances are, your results might sound something like this: Stark. Sterile. Bare. Clinical. These don’t paint a very attractive picture, nor do they engender any comfort for those who find themselves needing to stay at […]