The Center for Hospitality Research - Hotel School Research Review

Accompanied by a handy checklist, this comprehensive new marketing guide offers dozens of suggestions for promoting bed and breakfast inns. The checklist, “A Comprehensive Guide to Merchandising Bed and Breakfast Inns,” was developed by William Carroll, Ph.D., senior lecturer, Cornell University; three Cornell students; and Pamela Lanier, director, Bed & Breakfasts Inns & Guesthouses International; publisher of numerous guides and books for B&Bs and host of Travelguides.com and Lanierbb.com. The guide is the newest publication in the CHR Tools for Industry series. The guide and checklist are available at no charge from the Cornell University Center for Hospitality Research, http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/chr/pubs/tools.

“Our goal is to make sure that innkeepers have a comprehensive list of both the traditional methods of promoting B&Bs, as well as the expanding methods for using the internet,” said Carroll, who is a senior lecturer at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. “We know that innkeepers won’t need every idea that we offer, but we want to make sure that nothing is overlooked.”

In addition to listing the promotion ideas, the guide explains how each promotion idea can be used in different circumstances. “Promoting a B&B is different from marketing a hotel, because of the personal touch,” Lanier explained. “Even though it’s important for an inn to have strong internet presence, for example, many customers still prefer to telephone the innkeeper for reservations. That means the innkeeper has to promote the B&B through both traditional and electronic means.”

As examples of traditional methods for promoting a B&B, the inn can be listed in guidebooks, become a venue for special events, and send out direct-mail pieces by various means. Electronic promotion hinges on offering an attractive website, but that’s just the beginning, since that site must feature keywords that search engines will notice and handle guests’ requests for rates and availability. It is important that the inn’s name comes up strongly in search engines, which is often achieved by joining inn and B&B directories that themselves come up well in organic and ppc-sponsored searches. Along that line, email contact is a logical way for innkeepers to remain in touch with guests and potential guests.

Meet and interact with Dr. Carroll, an active member of the executive education faculty at the School of Hotel Administration, when he presents sessions in the Professional Development Program (http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/industry/executive/pdp) and the General Managers Program (http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/industry/executive/gmp).

Cornell Quarterly Features Case of Carnival Cruise Lines

A case study of Carnival Cruise Lines, published in the August 2006 issue of Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly (CQ), traces the development of the Carnival brand and how management took advantage of its theme of “Fun Ships” to earn mass-market appeal and industry-leading profits. Faced with competitors, however, Carnival has developed a new concept of “fun” through quality enhancements and a more sophisticated product bundle and marketing message.

The analysis of Carnival’s brand strategy was written by Robert Kwortnik, an assistant professor at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration. This is the first case study to be selected as a Cornell Quarterly featured article on the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research web site, and it is available for download at no charge at www.chr.cornell.edu.

With the assistance of Carnival’s executive team, Kwortnik analyzed the cruise line’s competitive position, value proposition, and marketing strategy—with a focus on the brand’s evolution. “Carnival’s emergence as a dominant brand in the seascape has been guided by managements’ focus on the concepts of value and fun,” Kwortnik explains. “The challenge that I found is for Carnival to refine its “Fun Ships” brand to differentiate from competitors who have developed their own versions of fun at sea. At the same time Carnival needs to protect the equity contained in its brand.”

The Carnival Cruise Lines case illustrates the difficulties hospitality managers face when nurturing a brand as it matures. The key, Kwortnik concludes, is for companies like Carnival to stay focused on core customers and the meanings and experiences they seek from a brand. Focusing on this “brand essence” can help managers make decisions about marketing strategy—from product design elements to marketing communications.

David Sherwyn has been appointed academic director of the Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration. Sherwyn, an associate professor of Law, has taught at the School since 1997.

"The Center for Hospitality Research is playing a vital role in creating and sharing research that helps to define the industry’s knowledge base and its best practices,” said Hotel School Dean Michael Johnson. “David Sherwyn has an outstanding record and he respects the crucial role research plays at the Hotel School. I am confident that under his stewardship, the Center will continue to be a leading voice for research that defines the future of our industry.”

Sherwyn teaches Business and Hospitality Law and Employment Discrimination Law and Union-Management Relations. His research interests include sexual harassment, arbitration of discrimination lawsuits, and union organizing. Sherwyn’s articles have been published in the Stanford Law Review, the Berkeley Journal of Labor & Employment Law, the Fordham Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania's Labor and Employment Law Journal, and the Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly. Sherwyn has won numerous teaching and research awards while at Cornell.

In 2002, Sherwyn organized and hosted the Center’s first Hospitality Industry Roundtable, on labor and employment law. Under his direction the Center has expanded the Roundtable program to include conferences on lodging, restaurants, marketing, human resources and design. Sherwyn is a Research Fellow at the Center for Labor and Employment Law at NYU's School of Law and is Of Counsel to the law firm of Shea Stokes Carter. Prior to joining the Hotel School faculty, he practiced management side labor and employment law for six years. Sherwyn holds B.S. and J.D. degrees from Cornell University.

Sherwyn succeeds Professor Gary M. Thompson, Ph.D. who led the Center since summer 2003.

“I look forward to building on the tremendous progress achieved by Gary Thompson and his team,” Sherwyn said. “We will work to strengthen our existing partnerships and seek out new ones so we can extend our leadership in discovering and sharing best practices for the hospitality industry.”

The third Human Resources Roundtable, co-sponsored by Cornell's Center for Hospitality Research and eCornell, will be held September 28-29, 2006, at the Statler Hotel, Cornell School of Hotel Administration. The Roundtable, chaired by Associate Professor J. Bruce Tracey, Ph.D., will be attended by over 20 executives from various sectors of the hospitality industry. Please contact Joe Strodel, Jr., at 607-255-4646, if you are interested in sponsoring this event.

Cathy A. Enz, Ph.D., The Lewis G. Schaeneman, Jr. Professor of Innovation & Dynamic Management and Associate Dean of Industry Research and Affairs, Cornell School of Hotel Administration, will be attending the 2006 Lodging Conference.

The Lodging Conference, celebrating its 12th year, is a high-level event bringing together the top minds in hotel finance, development and operations. The 2006 Lodging Conference is scheduled for September 18th - 21st at the luxurious Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa in Phoenix, Arizona.

With record attendance in Monte Carlo in 2005, the 4th Annual International Hotel Conference moves to the spectacular Rome Cavalieri Hilton from 11-13 October 2006. The conference, co-sponsored by the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, focuses on hotel financing, development and management in Europe and beyond. The program will feature superb networking, deal making, and 100 industry expert speakers presenting 40 interactive sessions designed to engage the audience of executive level hoteliers, managers, owners, developers, lenders, members of the media, and those who service the hotel industry.

Cathy A. Enz, Ph.D. will be presenting at the conference. Additional information about the event, registration, sponsorships, and related activities can be found at the event’s web site www.internationalhotelconference.com, or by contacting the conference organizers, Morris Lasky and Mary Lou Koys of Lodging Unlimited, Inc. at mlasky@aol.com.

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