Call for papers: “Pricing and Revenue Management in the International Hospitality Industry”

For a special issue of the International Journal of Revenue Management.

The international hotel industry, which comprises more than 14 million rooms, is one of the world’s largest service sectors, contributing nearly 10% of the world’s GDP. The growth and success of the hotel industry and its role in the global economy is enabled through the efficient and effective implementation of revenue management models and systems. But fast-evolving information technologies are contributing to the complexity of revenue management in the industry.

Big data is the name of the game in hotel revenue management as pricing decisions becoming increasingly dynamic, reflecting the evolution taking place in distribution channels. In addition, other hospitality sectors – such as restaurants – increasingly apply (new) pricing and revenue management techniques.

Unfortunately there is a paucity of academic research that provides deep consumer insights at a micro level to enable the better application of disciplined analytics that predict consumer buying behaviour to optimise revenues and profits. This special issue seeks to explore directions for future research in hospitality pricing and revenue management, a significant and yet under-researched topic.

This issue invites high-quality research offering insights into the key emerging challenges in pricing and revenue management. Since it is a special issue, we are not bound by methodological restrictions. We are more interested in papers that make significant contributions to understanding pricing and revenue management decisions in hotels than in the choice of methodologies.

We are open to diverse methodologies including data-based mathematical models, empirical research, integrative literature reviews, meta-analysis papers, case studies, experimental research, conceptual frameworks and/or any innovative methods.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• Behavioural pricing – Deep insights into how consumers perceive, process and respond to prices
• Price presentation – Greater understanding of impact of price formats, price endings, discounts, price levels and fences on revenue management
• Data and segmentation – New possibilities to unlock customer-oriented data
• Discrete choice modelling and conjoint analysis – Consumer choice in the context of pricing
• Dynamic pricing and learning – Determining optimal selling prices under changing circumstances
• Forecasting – Improving the quality of forecasts through better models and evaluation
• Revenue analytics – Customer-oriented metrics to assess revenue management performance
• Technology, internet and revenue management systems – Capturing abundant consumer data via an advanced (IT) infrastructures to collect and store demand data and to automate the processing of revenue management decisions
• Distribution channels – Challenges faced by hotels in managing ever-evolving distribution channels
• Other specific hospitality pricing and revenue management topics with significant implications are also welcome; in such cases, please do not hesitate to contact the editors with a short outline of the intended submission

Important Dates

Manuscript submission: 31 August, 2015