Center for Hospitality Research

Hotel School's research center spreads its wings

By Linda Myers

When the hotel industry was hard hit following the drastic drop in air travel after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, reports from Professor Cathy Enz and colleagues affiliated with Cornell's Center for Hospitality Research (CHR) helped the industry manage its recovery better.

Today, research from the CHR, which is based at Cornell's School of Hotel Administration, is cited regularly in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Forbes and Newsweek as well as in such international industry standard bearers as Hospitality World.

A roaring success story since its reinvigoration in 2000 under Enz, the center has increased its corporate affiliates by 60 percent a year since then and now is up to 35, plus 27 faculty affiliates, most of them at Cornell's Hotel School. Last week the center's advisory board, whose members are CEOs, COOs, presidents and partners of some of the world's leading hotels, met on campus at the Hotel School's new Beck Center. And next week, the CHR will be a presence at the massive International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show at the Javits Convention Center in New York City. About 10,000 people have registered to download reports posted on the CHR Web site, http://www.chr.cornell.edu, which boasts an online discussion forum and 22,000 subscribers to its monthly e-mailed newsletter, plus an additional 900 journalists.

"We generate new knowledge for the hospitality industry, and our mission is outreach," said Gary Thompson, professor of operations at the Hotel School and the current executive director of CHR. "Our job is to get the word out to the industry about research, reports and tools that faculty are working on that can help people run their business in a better way, and to gain greater visibility for the school."

It works both ways. "We listen to our advisory board, and we're also getting information from the hospitality industry back to the school, through our roundtables," said Joe Strodel, managing director of CHR since 2001. Five industry roundtables are planned for this academic year. The by-invitation-only discussions typically involve 25 to 30 senior-level leaders in the industry as well as Hotel School faculty members.

Enz's survey of hospitality managers led to her seminal think piece, "What Keeps You Up at Night?" published in the Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, based in the CHR. Hotel School faculty members and graduate students have since addressed these issues:

How to meet the challenge of third-party purveyors of hotel rooms via the Internet ("Evolution in Electronic Distribution" by Bill Carroll and Judy Siguaw and "Why Discounting Doesn't Work" by Enz, Linda Canina and Mark Lomanno);

How to keep customers loyal to your brand ("Understanding Switchers and Stayers in the Lodging Industry" by Judy Siguaw and Iselin Skogland);

Hotel safety and security ("The Safety and Security of U.S. Hotels: A Post-Sept. 11 Report" by Enz and Masako Taylor);

What to do when a disaster occurs and power goes off at your hotel property ("Safeguarding Service: Emergency Preparedness Essentials" by Robert Kwortnik);

How to schedule your workforce to meet changing demands ("Workforce Scheduling: A Guide for the Hospitality Industry" by Thompson.

The CHR, which is a member of the Cornell Corporate Outreach Group, discussed its progress when it hosted the group's monthly luncheon last June. Directors of other units were especially interested in the center's success at helping faculty members make their scholarly research accessible to a broad audience. "Our faculty like that we facilitate and enhance outreach," said Thompson. One tip: He sends all affiliated faculty members regular reports showing what work is being cited where -- in industry and in the media.

November 11, 2004