Pricing strategies for perishable products: the case of Vienna and the hotel reservation system hrs.com

Consider a retailer who sells perishable products for which there is uncertain demand. Yield management with dynamic pricing is a standard practice that firms use for revenue management. For perishable products, recent analysis has focused on the distribution of flight capacity, referred to as ticket sales. Other non- storable, non-transportable, immaterial hospitality products include hotel capacity. The article discusses the extent to which hotel pricing strategies vary within the internet distribution system hrs.com. This study focuses on the distribution of hotel rooms available for booking on the internet for Vienna and gives an outlook to Euroland capitals. The main research interests are the underlying pricing models and the setting of the end price. Data was taken from hrs.com, which is the most important specialist for hotel room internet distribution in Germany according to recent studies by KMPG and others. The results include the identification of different pricing strategy clusters with regard to hotel category and hotel availability over a 22-day period for Vienna and one city from all Euroland countries (the capitals were studied for all cases except for the Netherlands, for which data was collected for Amsterdam). The study took the arrival days Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays into account, and used data for all these days from the 11th of July, 2005, to the 10th of October, 2005, for Vienna, and the first and the last of these dates as a comparison base for the other Euroland cities.     

The impact of resale on entry in second price auctions

This paper investigates the effect of resale allowance on entry strategies in a second price auction with two bidders whose entries are sequential and costly. We first characterize the perfect Bayesian equilibrium in cutoff strategies. We then show that there exists a unique threshold such that if the reseller’s bargaining power is greater (less) than the threshold, resale allowance causes the leading bidder (the following bidder) to have a higher (lower) incentive on entry; i.e., the cutoff of entry becomes lower (higher). We also discuss asymmetric bidders and the original seller’s expected revenue.     

考虑预订取消率的酒店退订政策选择演化博弈研究

基于顾客的取消预订行为,在Hotelling模型框架下构建了酒店的博弈模型,分析了两竞争性酒店退订政策选择的问题。研究表明,当顾客对酒店之间水平差异的敏感程度较高时,若两酒店的预订取消率差异较小,则两酒店都将选择宽松的退订政策;若取消率差异较大,则取消率较高的酒店将选择严格的退订政策,而取消率较低的酒店将选择宽松的退订政策。当顾客对酒店之间水平差异的敏感程度较低且两酒店的预订取消率差异较小时,系统存在两个演化稳定策略,酒店只有选择与竞争对手相反的策略才能获得最大收益。本研究能够为酒店的决策制定和收益管理提供一定的支持。     

“酒店+OTA”双渠道供应链超订策略研究

为解决市场需求不确定环境下,酒店和在线旅行网站(Online Travel Agency,OTA)合作时的能力超订量与在线房间预留量的决策问题,建立了基于佣金合作模式的数学模型,给出了实现酒店整体期望收益最大化的在线房间预留量与能力超订量。借助数值分析,进一步研究了佣金率与需求不确定性对最优决策的影响。结果表明,当佣金率与门店需求不确定性较小时,酒店采取双渠道策略并且实施超订;当佣金率与门店需求不确定性很大时,酒店采取门店单渠道策略但不实施超订。另外,在线房间预留量随着佣金率、门店需求不确定性的增大而减小。     

Modeling and analysis of the causes of bullwhip effect in centralized and decentralized supply chain using response surface method

The “bullwhip” effect is a major cause of supply chain deficiencies. This phenomenon refers to grow the amplification of demand or inventory variability as it moves up the supply chain. Supply chain managers experience this variance amplification in both inventory levels and orders. Other side, dampening variance in orders may have a negative impact on customer service due to the increase in the inventory variance. This paper with simulating a three stage supply chains consisting of a single retailer, single wholesaler and single manufacturer under both centralized and decentralized chains. In this paper, it is intended to analysis the causes of bullwhip effect from two dimensions of order and inventory variance using the response surface methodology. The results show that in both supply chains, rationing factor is considered as the least important cause of bullwhip effect. While the wholesaler’s order batching and the chain’s order batching are considered as the main causes for the bullwhip effect in the decentralized and centralized chains, respectively.     

多营销渠道模式下H酒店客房销售渠道的选择分析

“互联网+酒店管理”背景下,酒店的客房销售渠道从单一向多样化发展,同时,顾客选择何种渠道订购客房服务受价格和非价格等多种因素影响。因此,如何综合考虑多种因素对酒店客房多销售渠道模式进行评价和排序,对提高酒店客房销售收益至关重要。基于此,本文运用层次分析法(Analytic Hierarchy Process,AHP)对酒店客房销售渠道选择进行量化分析,研究其在实际决策中的运用。结果表明:在线旅行社(online travel agent,OTA)的优先级别最高,其次是门市预订、官网预订、酒店APP预订、旅行社、批发商和电话预订。     

Successive approximations for average reward Markov games

This paper considers two-person zero-sum Markov games with finitely many states and actions with the criterion of average reward per unit time. Two special situations are treated and it is shown that in both cases the method of successive approximations yields anε-band for the value of the game as well as stationaryε-optimal strategies. In the first case all underlying Markov chains of pure stationary optimal strategies are assumed to be unichained. In the second case it is assumed that the functional equation Uv=v+ge has a solution.     

考虑预定时间限制的酒店客房定价决策

假定顾客是价格敏感的、房价的变化会带来需求的变化以及酒店可在预定期初调整价格策略以便影响市场需求将客房充分预售的条件下,给出了考虑预定时间限制的酒店客房定价决策模型,分析了最优房价、期望收益随预定时限的变化情况.     

Solving Euclidean Distance Multifacility Location Problems Using Conjugate Subgradient and Line-Search Methods

Subgradient methods are popular for solving nondifferentiable optimization problems because of their relative ease in implementation, but are not always robust and require a careful design of strategies in order to yield an effective procedure for any given class of problems. In this paper, we present an approach for solving the Euclidean distance multifacility location problem (EMFLP) using conjugate or deflected subgradient based algorithms along with suitable line-search strategies. The subgradient deflection method considered is the Average Direction Strategy (ADS) imbedded within the Variable Target Value Method (VTVM). We also investigate the generation of two types of subgradients to be employed in conjunction with ADS. The first type is a simple valid subgradient that assigns zero values to contributions corresponding to the nondifferentiable terms in the objective function, and so, the subgradient is composed by summing the contributions corresponding to the differentiable terms alone. The second type expends more effort to derive a low-norm member of the subdifferential in order to enhance the prospect of obtaining a descent direction. Furthermore, a special Newton-based line-search that exploits the nondifferentiability of the problem is also designed to be implemented in the developed algorithm in order to study its impact on the convergence behavior. Various combinations of the above strategies are composed and evaluated on a set of test problems. The results show that a modification of the VTVM method along with the first or a certain combination of the two subgradient generation strategies, and the use of a suitable line-search technique, provides promising results. An alternative block-halving step-size strategy used within VTVM in conjunction with the proposed line-search method yields a competitive second choice performance.     

Constitutive equations of non-isothermal polymer melt

Constitutive equations of non-isothermal polymer melt are presented by the analysis of entropic free energy contribution of the macromolecular chains, which are treated as elastic dumbbell models. With describing non-isothermal dumbbell spring, as the function of temperature, the non-linear elastic coefficient expression causes the appearance of temperature gradient in stress constitutive equations. Following the constitutive equation of Hookean dumbbell model, non-isothermal stress constitutive equations of FENE and FENE-P models are derived. In deriving process of constitutive equations, the second moment approximation is used to closure FENE model. Using the non-isothermal constitutive equations, numerical simulations of polymer flow through shear cavity and planar contraction cavity are presented. And the distributions of correlative stress functions and the effects of different temperatures on stress functions are discussed. The present results are shown to explore the non-isothermal constitutive equations of elastic dumbbell models, and to search more accurately describing way of non-isothermal polymer melt.     

Random graphs in the monadic theory of order

We continue the works of Gurevich-Shelah and Lifsches-Shelah by showing that it is consistent with ZFC that the first-order theory of random graphs is not interpretable in the monadic theory of all chains. It is provable from ZFC that the theory of random graphs is not interpretable in the monadic second order theory of short chains (hence, in the monadic theory of the real line). Received: 18 July 1996     

随机环境中伴有移民两性分枝过程的极限性质

本文在独立同分布的随机环境下,建立带有移民的两性分枝过程{Zn}n≥0,且移民人口数依赖当前人口数,证得{Zn}n≥0和{(Fn,Mn)}n≥1是随机环境中的马氏链,并得到第n代每个配对单元平均增长率{rk}k≥0的极限性质,从而推广了经典两性分枝过程的相关理论.     

Volume discount pricing strategy in the VMI supply chain with price sensitive demand

This paper develops a volume discount scheme to coordinate Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) supply chains with multiple heterogeneous retailers, in which the supply chain is modelled as a Stackelberg game with price sensitive demand. The paper proposes a method to construct a volume discount price scheme and shows that, any volume discount can be represented as a piecewise constant function of demand. We provide the game formulations of VMI supply chains and develop algorithms to solve this type of game problems, including finding the optimal volume discount scheme. Through a numerical study comparing the results of applying a volume discount strategy with the profits from a single wholesale price strategy, we show that the volume discount pricing strategies can be used to improve profits for all participants in the VMI supply chain in comparison with single price strategies.     

Design of regional production networks for second generation synthetic bio-fuel - A case study in Northern Germany

In the medium-term, second generation synthetic bio-diesel will make an important contribution to sustainable mobility. However, attributed to political, technical, and market related uncertainties, it is still not clear which interest groups will invest in production capacities and which technologies will be used. Hence, a multi-period MIP-model is presented for integrated location, capacity and technology planning for the design of production networks for second generation synthetic bio-diesel. The approach is applied to the region of Niedersachsen, Germany. Principle network configurations are developed for this region considering different scenarios and different risk attitudes of interest groups. As results of the investigation, recommendations are drawn regarding advantageous plant concepts, as well as strategies for the capacity installation. Finally, recommendations for political decision makers as well as for potential investors are deduced.     

Can remembering history from predecessor promote cooperation in the next generation?

People usually think that helping the next generation to remember history can promote cooperation in dilemma games. We show that is not always the case when agents have memory. Agents play with each neighbor by game history and strategies (such as TFT and WSLS), and the next generation inherits good strategies from the predecessor. We analyze the system’s cooperation ratio by comparing the 2 sources of history at the beginning of each generation: (a) inherited from the predecessor; (b) randomly initialized with different cooperation ratio. We find that with unconditional imitation update rule, agents who remember history get lower cooperation ratio than those who randomly initialize the history; while with replicator rule, higher initial cooperation ratio promotes higher final cooperation. We also do additional experiments to investigate the R, ST, P reciprocity and strategies distribution of the systems.     

Dominance,bargaining power and service platform performance

In this paper we study the relationship between a firm (hotel) and a service platform (Ctrip.com). We start with a newsvendor hotel facing two kinds of customers. D-customers order the room directly from the hotel front desk; C-customers order the room through Ctrip.com. Ctrip.com charges the hotel while introducing its members to the hotel. The hotel decides how many rooms are allotted to Ctrip.com to achieve optimal profit. We consider the situation where one party’s demand cannot be observed by another, and study the commonly used wholesale price contract. Interestingly, the contract can always coordinate the system. We then investigate the influence of bargaining power on the profit division under situations where Ctrip.com and hotel, respectively, dominate the system, and find that increasing (or decreasing) a party’s bargaining power without considering the other does not necessarily benefit (or damage) the first party. Further, we discuss how the parties choose dominance and appropriate bargaining power to make a trade-off for better cooperation. An interesting phenomenon is that bargaining power for each party can be identical when any party dominates the system. We also propose a threshold at which the wholesale price contracts can always be the Pareto optimal for the channel.     

On the representation of finite multiple Markov chains by weighted circuits

In this paper circuit chains of superior order are defined as multiple Markov chains for which transition probabilities are expressed in terms of the weights of a finite class of circuits in a finite set, in connection with kinetic properties along the circuits. Conversely, it is proved that if we join any finite doubly infinite strictly stationary Markov chain of order r for which transitions hold cyclically with a second chain with the same transitions for the inverse time-sense, then they may be represented as circuit chains of order r.     

Set partitioning and packing versus assignment formulations for subassembly matching problems

This paper addresses alternative formulations and model enhancements for two combinatorial optimization problems that arise in subassembly matching problems. The first problem seeks to minimize the total deviation in certain quality characteristics for the resulting final products from a vector of target values, whereas the second aims at maximizing the throughput under specified tolerance restrictions. We propose set partitioning and packing models in concert with a specialized column generation (CG) procedure that significantly outperform alternative assignment-based formulations presented in the literature, even when the latter are enhanced via tailored symmetry-defeating strategies. In particular, we emphasize the critical importance of incorporating a complementary CG feature to consistently produce near-optimal solutions to the proposed set partitioning and packing models. Extensive computational results are presented to demonstrate the relative effectiveness of the different proposed modelling and algorithmic strategies.     

A non-radial measure of different systems for Taiwanese tourist hotels’ efficiency assessment

The literature assumes that Taiwan’s international tourist hotels have identical frontier technology to evaluate non-radial efficiencies, even if they characterize different operating types. This study develops a non-radial systems model, for which the different operating types are evaluated based on different frontier technologies in order to calculate efficiencies. Compared to the radial systems model, the new model is able to practice two verifications. First, efficient units can be separated into strong and weak efficient sets. The second finds the benchmark among the different types for each input and output. The empirical results show that most efficient units reflect strong efficiency while only one hotel reflects weak efficiency. Inefficient hotels should refer to the chain type in order to improve excess utilizations in employees, rooms, catering space, and revenue deficits. For improving excess operating expenses and occupancy rate deficits, inefficient hotels should refer to the independent type.