Faculty & Research
John O'Neill
John W. O’Neill, an Associate Professor, teaches and researches in the area of lodging strategy and real estate at Penn State, and has received the Favorite Professor Award. Prior to his professorship at Penn State, he was Professor in the International Hotel School at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island where he was named Teacher of the Year.
Previously, Dr. O’Neill was Senior Associate in the Hospitality Industry Consulting Group at the international accounting and consulting firm of Coopers & Lybrand in New York, and prior to that, was Director of Market Planning for Holiday Inn at its Eastern Regional Office in Boston. Previously, he held unit-level, regional-level, and corporate-level management positions with Hyatt and Marriott in Chicago, Kansas City, and Washington, DC. Dr. O’Neill also currently serves as Managing Director of Hospitality Advisory Services, LLC, a firm specializing in hotel appraisal and consulting.
Dr. O’Neill has conducted numerous speaking engagements, including presentations to Hilton Hotels Corporate Officers, Radisson Hotels General Managers, Embassy Suites Area Vice Presidents, Army Lodging Managers, the Port Authority of New York, the Robert Morris Association, Appraisal Institute, Hotel Brokers International Annual Conference, Commercial Property News Annual Conference, Academy of Management Annual Conference, Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education Annual Conference, the Maine Innkeepers Association Annual Convention, the Pennsylvania Tourism & Lodging Association Annual Convention, and Novgorod State University in Russia.
Dr. O’Neill has served as a consultant to Marriott International, Hilton Hotels, Holiday Inn, Choice Hotels International, numerous banks, and others. He has been admitted as an expert witness pertaining to hotel cases at U.S. District Court, and has testified to multiple state legislatures on topics related to the hospitality industry. Dr. O’Neill is a Licensed Real Estate Appraiser in three states.
Dr. O’Neill is frequently quoted on a variety of topics related to the hospitality industry in USA Today, Business Week, Business Travel News, Hotel & Motel Management, Hotels, Lodging, New York Times, Crain’s New York Business, Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Business Journal, Providence Journal, Kansas City Star, and U.S. Japan Business News. In addition, he has written articles for Lodging, Lodging Hospitality, Commercial Investment Real Estate, The Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, and the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, having received the Article of the Year Award from the latter two.
Dr. O’Neill holds a B.S. degree in Hotel Administration from Cornell University, an M.S. degree in Real Estate from New York University, and a Ph.D. degree in Business Administration from the University of Rhode Island.