Open Conference Systems, 50th Scientific meeting of the Italian Statistical Society

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The Pricing Behaviour of Firms in the On-line Accommodation Market: Evidence from a Metropolitan City
Andrea Guizzardi, Flavio Maria Emanuele Pons

Last modified: 2018-06-04

Abstract


The widespread diffusion of on-line travel agencies has opened the possibility,for hoteliers, to update continously quality and prices offered along the advancebooking. We study firms’ pricing behaviour in a business-oriented environmentconsidering time series of daily best available rates for 107 hotels in Milan,over a period of 9 months, from 0 to 28 days of advance booking. Throught a panel-VAR approach we assess if the typical planning of the price trajectory, includingdummies for holidays and fairs as covariates. Results suggest that strategies putinto effect by firms reflect some of the basic principles of the online revenue management.Price trajectories are planned considering both firms expectations on theprices they hope to charge last-minute, and their need to guarantee price stabilityalong the advance booking. Fairs and holidays show a different impact on price dynamics.While the response caused by an â€holiday shock†tends to be flat, room ratesduring fairs raise in the immediate future, then accommodate to the equilibrium inabout three days.

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