Hospitality Insight

The Hospitality Insight blog will no longer be updated. We are now using a Facebook page to provide the same content as our blog has provided for the past three years. Thank you for reading our blog and please Like us on our Facebook page. Thank you.

Attention Cornell students: find your way through the information fog and learn how to make today’s great abundance of information work for you, not against you. HADM 5592: Information Survival Skills is being offered for the first time in the Fall 2010 semester (two credits: class meets Tuesday/Thursday 8:40-9:55). This course will guide you through the process of finding, evaluating, and using information effectively and efficiently.

Information Survival Skills will use a variety of social media tools – blogs, Twitter, polls, surveys, etc. - and a lot of hands-on practice. Classes will meet in a classroom on Tuesdays and the Binenkorb computer lab on Thursdays. You will benefit from the skills learned in this class throughout your life at Cornell, and beyond.

Please note that this course counts as a free elective and not a Hotel School elective. For more information, contact the instructor, Ken Bolton, at ktb4@cornell.edu.

Cornell University Library, with funding from the School of Hotel Administration and the Johnson Graduate School of Management, is offering alumni access to three electronic databases that feature the latest news and research on a variety of topics. The databases are: Academic Search Alumni Edition, Business Source Alumni Edition, and Hospitality & Tourism Index. For detailed descriptions of these databases, visit the Library Services for Alumni page.

Cornell alums can access these resources from any computer using their Cornell NetID.  If you do not have a NetID, the Alumni Affairs Web site has instructions for requesting one.

Unfortunately, contracts with vendors prohibit Cornell from providing alumni access to other licensed library resources. Visit your local public library to speak to a reference librarian who can explain access options in your region/state.

Attention Cornell students: find your way through the information fog and learn how to make today’s great abundance of information work for you, not against you. HADM 5592: Information Survival Skills will be offered in the Fall 2010 semester (two credits: class meets Tuesday/Thursday 8:40-9:55). This course will guide you through the process of finding, evaluating, and using information effectively and efficiently.

Information Survival Skills will use a variety of social media tools – blogs, Twitter, polls, surveys, etc. - and a lot of hands-on practice. Classes will meet in a classroom on Tuesdays and the Binenkorb computer lab on Thursdays. You will benefit from the skills learned in this class throughout your life at Cornell, and beyond.

Please note that this course counts as a free elective and not a Hotel School elective. For more information, contact the instructor, Ken Bolton, at ktb4@cornell.edu.

The Nestlé Library subscribes to several key resources for spa industry research, including:

• Understanding the Global Spa Industry
• Spa: A Comprehensive Introduction
• Spa Business Strategies: A Plan for Success
• Spa Management (trade  journal)
• Salon and Day Spa Consumer Trend Report

Additional resources for spa industry research are listed on our spa industry guide. For additional help, contact the library reference team.

The Nestlé Library is offering a series of information sessions to help Hotel School students locate important research data for class projects or assignments this week. These 30-minute sessions are designed to familiarize students with key library resources in a specific area of hospitality research.

No registration is required – just show up in the library at any of the following session times:

The Nestlé Library has created a research guide for Ithaca and Tompkins County. Containing both library subscription sources and free Internet sites, the guide serves as a practical starting point for local research.

Categories include local demographics, government resources, Cornell University and Ithaca College facts, news, and local commercial property data.

Additional industry guides for hospitality fields are also available on the Nestlé Library web site.

Many hospitality investors fear that we have entered into one of the darkest periods in the lodging investment cycle, with many of them believing that the downturn in the lodging sector will be deep and longer than anyone could have imagined. PKF Consulting recently released its 2009 Hospitality Investment Survey and it provides some eye-opening statistics. Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR) is expected to drop 13.7 percent in 2009 and a quarter-over-quarter gains in sales is not anticipated until the first quarter of 2011. The RevPAR forecast is the largest annual decline observed by PKF since 1932.

The 2009 Hospitality Investment Survey presents both investment criteria (capitalization rates, internal rate of return, equity yield, cash returns) and lending criteria (loan-to-value ratios, interest rates, loan terms, debt coverage ratios), as well as several topical articles.

Current and historical copies of the Hospitality Investment Survey can be found on the reference shelf of the Nestlé Library (call number TX911.3 F5 H65).

An analysis of four decades of hospitality industry stock returns shows that investors have done a poor job of timing the market. According to research by Cornell professor David Weinbaum, the timing of investment flows has been inverse to stock performance. Weinbaum’s analysis of hotel investment and hospitality industry investing, “Assessing the Historical Performance of Hospitality Stocks: The Investor’s Perspective,” is published in the February 2009 issue of Cornell Hospitality Quarterly.

The article analyzes the historical performance of hospitality stocks, taking into account the magnitude and timing of investor capital flows in and out of the hospitality sector. For hospitality investors, market timing translates into a shortfall of 1.5 percent per year over the time period 1962—2006. A value-weighted portfolio of both restaurant and hotel firms earns a lower average return over this time period compared to a similar portfolio of either hotel or restaurant stocks only, because of the same timing issue.

Cornell student can access this article from the Center for Hospitality Research web site (free registration required). Full-text electronic access to Cornell Hospitality Quarterly is available through the library’s Find eJournals service.

Our Top 3 in 30 workshop is back for another round. In 30 minutes, you will receive hands-on practice with three of our most popular databases, with a focus on the hospitality industry. Topics include article searching, company research, and market research. The following classes are available this week:

Monday, 11/17, 3:00-3:30
Tuesday, 11/18, 4:00-4:30
Wednesday, 11/19, 2:00-2:30
Wednesday, 11/19, 4:00-4:30
Thursday, 11/20, 2:00-2:30

Classes will be held in the Nestlé Library. To register, visit our workshop page.