The Awona Hotel

1
The Awona Hotel
Identifying potential customers and boosting
business in a tough economy.

• Jennifer ONeill
• LIBR 245-10
• San Jose State University
• Spring 2010

2
Overview
The Awona Hotel is a luxury hotel in Yosemite
National Park. Its 123 rooms and suites are sold
out for most of every summer but it suffers 60
percent occupancy in winter. The General Manager
wants to boost business in the off-season.
Specifically, he would like to know what
geographic areas conduct the most web searches
for The Awona Hotel. He would also like
information on forecasts and trends in luxury
travel.

3
Information Need

• Which geographic areas conduct the most searches
  for The Awona Hotel?
• Identify clusters of residents in these areas
  that are most likely to visit using income data.
• Summarize forecasts and trends in luxury travel
  and hotels.

4
General Search Strategy

• Google Trends provides information on search
  demographics.
• Forbes magazine periodically publishes income
  data by zip code search via Google.
• Big Three Search Dialog, Dow Jones Factiva and
  Lexis/Nexis to identify forecasts and trends in
  the industry.

5
Search Flowcharts

6
Search Concepts and Terms

• Step One
• Google Trends
• Awona Hotel
• Awona Hotel
• The Awona
•  
• Google
• siteforbes.com richest zip codes
• siteforbes.com highest incomes
•  Step Two
• The Big Three
• Luxury Travel or Hotel
• Wealthy/Affluent Travelers
• Forecasts or Trends
• pygt2008

7
Google Trends

• The popular search engine Google gives users
  access to web search data via Google Trends.
• A search for a given term returns graphical
  representations of number of searches performed.
• A breakdown of geographic locations is also
  provided.
• Term Awona hotel returned most pertinent
  information so I chose it to analyze in Google
  Trends.

8
Google Trends
Awona hotel searches by geographic location
since 2007.

9
Google Trends
Awona hotel searches by geographic location in
previous 12 months.

10
Google

• Forbes magazine publishes lists of richest zip
  codes
• Searched for siteforbes.com richest zip codes
  no relevant results
• Searched for siteforbes.com highest incomes
  returned article Where Americans Earn the Most

11
American Community Survey

• Census Data is available at http//factfinder.cen
  sus.gov
• Select Custom Table from 2008 American
  Community Survey
• Geographic Type Selected State --gt Place
• State California
• Geographic Areas All Places
• Table Selection Method By Keyword
• Keyword Search Income
• Table Selection B19301 Per Capita Income
• Data Elements Per capita income in the past 12
  months (in 2008 inflation-adjusted dollars)
• Clicked Next, then Next again
• Results Table of 121 major cities in California
  with their per capita income and margin of error.

12
American Community Survey

• Top earning cities per capita
• Newport Beach 86,586
• Santa Monica 59,530
• Pleasanton 52,075
• Mountain View 50,250
• Redondo Beach 49,622
• San Francisco 47,420

13
Dialog

• Searched MULTIIND Category
• s luxury()(travel or hotel) and pygt2008 and
  (forecasts or trends)
• 346 Results
• rd
• 246 Unique Items
• Typed out seven results in full for later review.

14
Dialog

• Searched File 15 ABI-Inform
• e hospitality
• Selected Hotels Restaurants
• Combined with (forecast? or trend? or outlook? or
  perspective? or predict?)/TI,DE,AB per Dialog
  tutorial on finding RD and forecasts
• 414 Results
• Further narrowed with (affluent or wealthy or
  richest or luxury)
• 39 Results
• Selected one item for further review

15
Dialog Results

• Barsky, J., Nash, L. (2010, February 19). Guest
  satisfaction trumps hotel location, study says.
  Hotel Motel Management. Retrieved March 21,
  2010, from http//www.hotelworldnetwork.com
•  
• Chipkin, H., Sarbin, H. (2009, January 8).
  Research reveals trends among affluent in
  economic downturn. Travel Weekly, 23-23. Citation
  retrieved March 21, 2010, from Dialog File 18.
  Retrieved March 21, 2010, from http//travelweekly
  .texterity.com.
•  
• Crocker, M. (2009, February 9). Luxury consumers
  adapt to the times. Travel Weekly. Citation
  Retrieved March 21, 2010, from Dialog File 18.
  Retrieved March 21, 2010, from Http//travelweekly
  .texterity.com.
•  
• Freed, J. (2009, October 5). Why some operators
  choose to ignore rate advice. Hotel Motel
  Management, 224, 1-1. Retrieved March 21, 2010,
  from Dialog File 13.
•  
• Research and Markets. (2009, November 16).
  Forecast for luxury travel through 2010 A luxury
  trend report Press release. Retrieved March 21,
  2010, from Dialog File 636.
•  
• Ricca, S. (2010, February). Demand fuels luxury
  recovery. Hotel Motel Management, 1-42.
  Citation retrieved March 21, 2010, from Dialog
  File 15. Retrieved March 21, 2010, from SJSU -
  Business Source Complete.

16
Dow Jones Factiva

• Limited sources to Hotels (except Casino)/Motels.
• Limited date to last two years
• Searched for ((luxury or affluent or wealthy)
  w/2 (travel or hotel)) and (forecast or
  trends)
• 323 Results
• Limited to United States
• 132 hits
• Selected five for review

17
Dow Jones Factiva Results

• Jones, B. (2010, February 7). Hotels eye a
  top-down recovery. Retrieved March 25, 2010, from
  Dow Jones Factiva.
•  
• Weinstein, J. (2010, March 1). View from the top
  Industry leaders offer opinions on trends, issues
  and opportunities, as well as forecasts for the
  months ahead. Hotels' Investment Outlook, 44.
  Retrieved March 21, 2010, from Dow Jones Factiva.

18
Lexis/Nexis

• Limited to United States
• Limited Industry to Hotels Motels
• Searched for ((luxury or affluent or wealthy) w/2
  (travel or hotel)) and (forecast or trends)
• Returned 1782 Results
• Limited descriptors to Major Terms only
• Returned 785 Results
• Further limited to Magazines Journals
• Returned 88 Results
• Selected three to review

19
Lexis/Nexis

• Revised search to (affluent w/1 traveler!) and
  hotel! Within the last year.
• Limited to United States
• 56 Results many duplicates.
• Selected two for review.

20
Lexis/Nexis Results
Simms, K. (2009, September 22). Luxury Travel for
Frugal Sybarites. Retrieved March 25, 2010, from
LexisNexis.
21
Results Summary
Metros that search the most for Awona hotel on
Google.com with Per Capita Incomes   San
Jose/Santa Clara MetroSan Jose - 33,849Santa
Clara - 40,845Sunnyvale - 45,455Mountain View
- 50,250 Los Angeles MetroLos Angeles -
28,071Santa Monica - 59,530Burbank -
33,047Pasadena - 39,833 Irvine MetroIrvine -
40,090Costa Mesa - 30,564Newport Beach -
86,586 San Diego MetroSan Diego - 32,472Chula
Vista - 25,064 Fresno - 20,213 Pleasanton
MetroPleasanton 52,075Livermore -
36,767 San Francisco MetroSan Francisco -
47,420Berkeley - 38,859Oakland -
30,372Alameda 39,139 Sacramento
MetroSacramento - 25,313Elk Grove -
28,548 Stockton MetroStockton - 19,658Manteca
- 23,865
22
Results Summary

• Affluent Traveler Behavior in the Recession
• Affluent consumers feel as much financial
  insecurity as the rest of the population.
  (Crocker, M).
• However, we can expect to see affluent clients
  trimming expenditures without sacrificing
  quality. This might translate to fewer vacations
  or shorter lengths of stay, but the affluent
  will still seek out luxury hotels.
• People are looking for less risk in choosing a
  vacation, which often means returning to a
  favored place. (Chipkin, H).
• Sites like Tripadvisor and Yelp affect guest
  decisions now more than ever. Location is an
  important reason for selecting a hotel,
  especially for economy and mid-scale guests. But
  it is the guest experience that has the most
  influence on hotel selection. Guest experience
  factors, which include past experience,
  reputation, recommendations and online reviews,
  are critical to selecting a hotel by a majority
  of hotel guests (51 percent) and are now more
  important to guests than either hotel location
  (48 percent) or price (42 percent). (Barsky, J).

23
Results Summary

• Economic Trends and Forecasts
• In 2010 the recession will bottom out and the
  hospitality industry will begin to recover.
  (Weinstein, J). The drivers are in place,
  including increased occupancy and tightened
  operating efficiencies. (Ricca, S).
• The luxury segment will lead industry recovery.
  (Ricca, S).
• Demand was down only 0.6 percent for the whole
  year in the luxury segment. Industry wide,
  demand was down 5.8 percent. The luxury segment
  doesnt have as much of a drop to recover from as
  the rest of the market.
• Occupancy will be up this year, but rate down.
  After a market-wide trend of heavy discounts,
  guests are now expecting deals.
• The industry will move past the record losses of
  2009, and occupancy should hold steady. (Jones,
  B).
• While the business travel segment is likely to
  continue to struggle, things are looking up for
  the pleasure market. The luxury travel sector
  has been one of the categories slower to recover
  from the recessionluxury travel was slower going
  into the recession, and is slower coming out.
  (Research and Markets).
• That means budget, discount and value are key
  words for travel.
• In destination markets, rate discounts are
  essential to boosting occupancy in the
  off-season. (Freed, J).
• Discounts at upscale properties increase customer
  satisfaction for guests that are accustomed to
  staying at mid-scale properties.

24
Conclusion
The General Manager was satisfied with the
results of my research. We know that we have many
visitors from San Francisco and the Bay Area.
Search demographics allowed identification of
areas for potential expansion especially in San
Jose and southern California. Online guest review
websites are becoming more popular, and a
stronger web presence could be a useful tool for
driving sales and reaching a larger market.