Linchi Kwok, Ph.D.

I am currently traveling in Mainland China for a few weeks. I will not be able to access the websites that do not meet the "standards" set by the Chinese government, such as blogger.com or Google. I will try my best to update this blog whenever I have a chance. Thank you for your patience.

It is commonly believed that the growth of Airbnb has made  a significant negative impact  on the hotel business.  There are also  empirical studies  that have documented Airbnb's negative impacts on hotels. That makes sense. As a substitute of the traditional lodging products —  hotel rooms   —  every transaction on Airbnb means a loss of revenue for hotels or online travel agents ( OTAs),  such as Expedia and Priceline, which also sell hotel rooms. Thus, it is not surprising to see hotels, Airbnb and OTAs are  firing up for a new war . Hotels, for example, are finding every possible way to  stop the growth of Airbnb , even though hotels' book-direct strategy might  push OTAs to work closely with Airbnb . Meanwhile, Airbnb is aiming big and  wants to become a full-service travel company  to compete with both OTAs and hotels. So, it is really not a question of whether Airbnb has become a big threat to local...

Among all the articles I shared on my Facebook page last week, one of them received substantially more attention than the rest from my network. This post reached three times more audience than the "least popular" update of the week. So, what was this popular article about? It was a post published by Jordan Bishop on Forbes' website, entitled " Science Says Travel Makes You Smarter ." In his discussion, Bishop summarized a few research studies and concluded "travel may actually make us smarter." When I first read his discussion, I thought, "This seems like an interesting topic. Let me share it and see what people in my network think." I guess I had made the right decision if my goal was to get people's attention. Yet, after I put more thought into the topic, I began to wonder why we need anyone to tell us (or to confirm for us) that travel is good for us.  Let's see what Bishop summarized for us from three different studies: T...

Impeccable service can only be delivered by  a well-trained, friendly staff .  Accordingly, the service industry is labor-intensive and employs a large number of skilled and unskilled workers. The recent employment report  released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also suggests that food services and drinking places (or restaurants), professional and business services, and healthcare are the three key sectors that contribute to the employment growth in July. Yet, what may seem to be an exciting update for the labor market  turns out to be concerning . Some critics pointed out that the job market was unhealthy because "too many" people were working in restaurants (the number increased by 53,000 in July 2017). The leisure and hospitality industry, which includes restaurants, added 62,000 jobs in July and a total of 313,000 over the year. What are the concerns? Restaura nt jobs are growing at a faster pace than healthcare, manufacturing or construction jo...

By the time I finished writing the article, " Expedia, Priceline join battle against Airbnb ,"  hotel giants Marriott and Wyndham announced bold  new  strategic moves: Marriott is going to team up with Alibaba  to serve Chinese tourists abroad. The deal will enable Chinese travelers to book a Marriott hotel on Alibaba's travel service platform, Fliggy, and to process payments with Alipay, Alibaba's online payment platform. Wyndham purchased Love Home Swap  for $53 million, a startup that allows people to swap homes. Moreover, Wyndham is going to consolidate its timeshare business and turn its hotel unit  into a new publicly traded company . Hotels, online travel agents (OTAs) and Airbnb are basically competing for the same type of business — accommodations for travelers who are away from home. As the competition heats up, does it mean hotels, OTAs and Airbnb are now at war against one another? Let's check out what they do when facing stiff competitio...

The growth of Airbnb  has made a significant negative impact  on hotel business,  even though the hotel industry has also been enjoying a steady long-time growth since 2009, as measured in almost all performance indicators including occupancy, average daily rate, revenue per available rooms and number of new hotels open for business. For hotels, it is a loss of revenue (or uncaptured income) when a traveler chooses to stay in an Airbnb listing rather than a hotel room.  Hotels have been trying hard  to fight with Airbnb, but it does not seem any of their strategies can actually stop the growth of the room-sharing website. Besides hotels, Airbnb also makes a negative impact on online travel agents (OTAs), such as Expedia and Priceline, especially when Airbnb is aiming  to become a true full-service travel enterprise . Because a large portion of OTAs' revenue comes from the commissions on hotel sales, it is also a loss of revenue for OTAs when a trave...

Many restaurants that are located in tourist and college towns usually shut down during their slow months, but is it possible to run a successful restaurant business year round? Jay Khan and Rob Longstreet, who are both restaurant owners, stated that: Yes, it is achievable to continue the business during the off seasons in the article --- " 11 Ways to Survive the Slow Season " (Barrett, 2017). Khan is the owner of RJ Mexican Cuisine in Dallas, Texas, and Longstreet owns the Craft Public House in Athens, Georgia. Both run successful restaurants year round as each owner follows the 11 simple steps to stay profitable, including: 1. Start planning early 2. Involve your vendors 3. Meet your neighbors 4. Run contests 5. Enlist outside help 6. Test new specials 7. Have a party 8. Hold a pop-up event 9. Spread the word 10. Follow up with previous guests 11. Trim operating costs (Barrett, 2017) These recommendations may appear simple and common sense, but in reality, man...