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The reference price, used by consumers to evaluate market prices, has tremendous relevance in dynamic pricing. Reconciling current heterogeneous theories and studies on reference prices, this paper analyzes the impact of hotel price sequences on consumers' reference prices through a lab and a field experiment. Experiment 1 tests the importance of retrospective price evaluations, while Experiment 2 evaluates the impact of three forms of competition: (i) simultaneous behavior, where firms adjust prices simultaneously; (ii) leader-follower behavior, where one firm acts as the leader; and (iii) independent behavior, where each player takes its rival's strategy as given and seeks to maximize its own profits. The results show that consumers decrease their reference price when competing hotels adjust their prices simultaneously. Relevant managerial implications are drawn for the hospitality industry, which is affected by the presence of online travel agencies that announce the daily rates offered by each competitor. Keywords IntroductionSuppose that Carol wants to book a hotel room and begins checking prices (hotel rates) over the Internet. After several searches, she realizes that there is a certain degree of price variability each time she checks. To judge the prices she is offered, she can recall the prices she may have seen in the past, the prices paid for rooms at the same hotel, and/or the prices charged by similar competing hotels. What she has seen or paid in the past, along with the prices of comparable hotels, will influence her price evaluation.The issue of customers' price evaluations-how customers perceive prices and their variations-has become an important topic in hospitality management, particularly due to the widespread adoption of revenue management techniques by the lodging and travel industry.Dynamic pricing practices are now common and have become more feasible as Internet purchasing behavior has increased (Abrate et al., 2012). The widespread use of dynamic pricing is partly attributable to online tools, by which hotels can easily adjust prices in real time depending on the number of available rooms, the inventory and prices of close competitors, and other contextual indicators. However, though these pricing practices may benefit both sellers and buyers, consumers may perceive dynamic pricing as unfair because it produces a variety of rates for what appear to be identical products, such as the same hotel room (Choi and Mattila, 2005).The reference price is the standard against which consumers evaluate current product prices to assess their attractiveness (Monroe, 1973). Reference price has been the subject of a large body of research by both economists and marketing scholars. It can be conceptualized as a price expectation based on customers' memories of previous information (Mazumdar et al., 2005) or 2 as the normative price-the price considered a "fair" charge for the product (Bolton et al., 2003;Campbell, 1999).Several studies have underlined the importance of including customers' refe...

Drawing on the services marketing and sharing economy literature, the study identifies the leading reputational attributes that boost popularity in sharing economy platforms. As popularity stands as a purchase decisionmaking tool, the purpose of this paper is to jointly examine the influence of personal reputation and product description. A sample of Airbnb listings was collected in November 2016 in Italy and UK (n=502). The database consists of popularity variables along with personal reputational attributes and the description of the product being offered. The findings of the study, based on the Shapley Value Regression, suggest that personal reputation is of paramount importance, explaining alone almost 40% of popularity variation. The paper concludes with theoretical implications on self-branding and, given the importance weights of the different attributes in popularity building, practical implications for sellers operating in sharing economy platforms.

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yield management, revenue management, perceived fairness, hotels,

The study aims to contribute to the research on service quality, analyzing almost 30 years of research on the Gaps Model proposed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry in the 1980s. A literature review has been conducted from 1985 to 2013 with the purpose of underlining the model evolution and its criticisms. Major international academic databases have been consulted.On this basis the paper summarizes some theoretical-conceptual and methodological-operational critical aspects identified by scholars who analyzed and applied the model and the scale. Despite that, the Gaps Model and the SERVQUAL scale are still the most used instruments to study service quality in marketing literature.The analysis allows to identify interesting points for future research on the topic of service quality. The conceptual framework presented in the paper does not include any empirical research that could be eventually implemented to validate the findings.

Purpose This paper aims to explore the effects generated by the Milan World Expo 2015 on both firm performance and seasonality structure. It aims to answer the following research question: Did the Milan Expo 2015 influence only hotel results without changing seasonal patterns, or was this mega event able to reconfigure seasonal periods? Design/methodology/approach The present analysis is based on Smith Travel Research (STR) data. This source offers daily data on a large sample of Milan hotels (approximately 80 per cent of the total), representing more than 30,000 rooms. The empirical data relate to a period of 12 years, 11 of which are focused on the pre-event period (2004-2014), while 2015 is centered on the Milan Expo. This data comprise 4,383 daily observations. For each day, three operating measures were analyzed: occupancy, average daily rate (ADR) and revenue per available room (RevPAR). Findings The empirical findings fully support the first hypothesis: the four seasonal periods built around the main market segments are relevant lenses for understanding Milan’s demand structure before Expo 2015. The findings also support the second hypothesis relating to the effects generated by the event: Expo 2015 was able to improve hotel performance during the four seasonal periods analyzed. The most fragile seasonality registered the highest rise. Finally, the last two hypotheses to be investigated are as follows: did the Milan Expo 2015 simply improve hotel performance, without changing the underlying seasonal patterns (H3), or did this event reconfigure the demand structure (H4)? The analyses carried out lend more support to the fourth hypothesis, suggesting that new seasonal patterns emerged during Expo 2015. Originality/value This paper explores the impact of a mega event on seasonal patterns of hotel performance metrics. At least three original aspects are introduced. First, to analyze the Milan demand variation, a market segment approach that proposes an innovative seasonal matrix is developed. This is based on the three main client groups attracted by the destination. Second, the effects generated by the Expo are measured with consideration given to the four seasonal periods. Third, based on graphical and statistical analysis, the paper confirms that new seasonal patterns emerged during the Expo.

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