Faculty & Research
Segmenting Hotel Customers Based on the Technology Readiness Index
Vol 7 No 13
By: Rohit Verma Ph.D., Liana Victorino , Kate Karniouchina and Julie Feickert
Executive Summary: The extent to which hotel guests accept and use technology both during a hotel stay and on their own can be a useful means of segmenting guests. One excellent mechanism for establishing segments based on customers' inclination toward technology is the Technology Readiness Index (TRI), as shown by the study described here. A test of the TRI with 865 business and leisure hotel customers in the United States revealed an approximate normal distribution that ranged from people who seek to use technology at every turn to those who essentially want nothing to do with it. Furthermore, a comparison of the travel habits of the high and low technology-ready guests revealed numerous differences that should be of interest to the hotel companies. For example, guests with a high TRI score tended to travel more frequently on business and were willing to pay relatively high room rates. A greater percentage of male guests were in the high TRI group than were in the low TRI group. The study also found that the hotel guests with high TRI scores were relatively young, more highly educated, and more affluent than the sample as a whole. The technology-adept guests were more likely to patronize upscale hotels than were the other members of the sample. Thus, executives who wish to differentiate their hotels using technology should carefully consider the response to high-tech innovations that will come from their target guest segments.
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- Segmenting Hotel Customers Based on the Technology Readiness Index By: Rohit Verma Ph.D., Liana Victorino , Kate Karniouchina and Julie Feickert
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Other Reports or Articles You May Find of Interest
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- Intellectual Capital: A Key Driver of Hotel Performance, by Linda Canina, Cathy A. Enz, and Kate Walsh
- Why Customers Shop Around: A Comparison of Hotel Room Rates and Availability across Booking Channels, by Gary M. Thompson and Alexandra Failmezger
About Rohit Verma Ph.D.
Rohit Verma is an Associate Professor of Service Operations Management at the Cornell University, School of Hotel Administration. Prior to his current appointment, he was the George Eccles Professor of Management, David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah. His research interests include Product/Service Design, Innovation & Process Improvement, Supplier Selection Strategies, and Operations/Marketing interrelated issues. He has published over 40 articles in prestigious business journals such as California Management Review, Cornell Quarterly, Decision Sciences, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Journal of Service Research, MIT Sloan Management Review, Production and Operations Management, and other journals. Summaries of three of his recent research articles appeared in various issues of MIT Sloan Management Review’s Intelligence sections. His research projects have been sponsored by the United States Forest Service, Marketing Science Institute, Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) and various corporations such as CSFB, First Chicago, NCR Knowledge Lab, General Growth Properties, Siemens, Mead Johnson, Kimberley Clarks, Hammerson, and others.
Rohit has received several teaching and research awards including the "Skinner Award For Early Career Research Accomplishments" from the Production and Operations Management Society; "Sprit of Inquiry Award" (the highest honor for scholarly activities within DePaul University); “Teaching Innovation Award” (DePaul University); and “Doctoral Student Teaching Award” (University of Utah).
He serves as the Associate Editor of Journal of Operations Management, and Decision Sciences; Senior Editor of Production and Operations Management; and Editorial Board Member of Journal of Service Research, and Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Quarterly. He also served as Guest Editor for four issues of Journal of Operations Management on topics related to effective management of service businesses.
