Price Risk Strategy Analysis for Budget Hotels in the Post-Pandemic Era

Abstract

The supply chain of the tourism industry, including air transportation, travel agencies, souvenirs, and hotel services, is almost at a breaking point, causing a rise in unemployment with huge losses during the COVID-19 pandemic period. In order to overcome these losses, we propose that luxury hotels should consider offering budget hotels at a lower cost but with satisfactory accommodation in order to create some turn-arounds in the post-pandemic era. However, budget hotels that branch off from luxury hotels cannot post the same room rates because there are some uncertain factors that affect the traveler experience when staying in budget hotels. In this study, we define four types of risk factors for the self-selection of the consumer model, and then find that the optimal room price appears to be independent of the performance risk for the service quality, brand image, and shuttle buses, but is dependent on physical risk in terms of priority number risk, the financial risk of refund rates, and the privacy risk of investment in the system. Finally, we discuss how government subsidies can encourage branched budget hotels by describing three sensitivity scenarios. The results show that subsidies that go towards staff training and higher-frequency shuttle buses will cause consumers to book more stays in budget hotels and, thereby, contribute to a higher profit. By lobbying the policy on government subsidies, budget hotels that branch off from luxury hotels are a profitable business model for a reduction in the huge losses occurred during the period of the spread of COVID-19.