Are all online hotel prices created dynamic? An empirical assessment

Melis, Giuseppe and Piga, Claudio A (2016): Are all online hotel prices created dynamic? An empirical assessment.

Abstract

Understanding how tourist firms set their online prices is important due to their growing reliance on Online Travel Agencies (OTA). Little is known, however, about whether differences exist in the online pricing approaches adopted by hotels using an OTA. The article tests, using a big data approach, whether the diffuse narrative of a pervasive presence of dynamic pricing provides a realistic description of hotels’ pricing behavior and thus challenges the view that dynamic pricing should be considered the prevailing norm for the industry. The evidence suggests a heterogenous attitude across hotels, with uniform pricing being more widespread in most hotels of our sample, namely, the 3-star or less, while dynamic pricing is more likely applied in higher quality hotels.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Revenue Management; Online travel agents; Heterogeneous strategic management behaviour; dynamic pricing
• Subjects: L - Industrial Organization > L8 - Industry Studies: Services > L81 - Retail and Wholesale Trade ; e-Commerce; L - Industrial Organization > L8 - Industry Studies: Services > L83 - Sports ; Gambling ; Restaurants ; Recreation ; Tourism

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