Hotel/Motel Room Rates

Abstract

Room rates should be keyed to the market served is an axiom of the industry. Recently, George D. Johnson, president of the American Hotel & Motel Association and vice president of ITT-Sheraton Hotels, told members of the Hotel Sales Management Association that "We've all been eating from the same pie with the result that many properties are getting a thinner and thinner slice." He pointed out that new markets must be tapped to raise occupancy. Most peo ple who travel for pleasure still stay with friends and relatives. And there are more overnight ac commodations in camp trailers, according to a 3-M Advertising study, than there are in hotels and motels — even though the recreational vehi cle is comparatively new in the travel field. Prof. Norman G. Cournoyer, who is associate professor in the Department of Hotel, Restau rant, and Travel Administration at the Univer sity of Massachusetts, points out in this article that complacently raising hotel-motel rates means diminishing markets for the industry. Pro fessor Cournoyer's doctoral dissertation devel oped "An Econometric Model of the Occupancy for Hotel-Motel Rooms in the Pioneer Valley, Massachusetts." This study found that the de mand for hotel-motel rooms in that area were influenced by: room price, distance from the' highway, services offered to clients, referral services, population of the surrounding area, ad vertising, and the size of the hotel-motel.