Early Bird & Night Owl Evaluation Tool (EBNOET) v2015

The early bird and night owl restaurant tool found in the accompanying Excel file provides an estimate of the effects of offering off-peak special menu prices. Unlike the classic back-of-envelope calculation, the tool includes the effect of anticipated cannibalization of full-price covers and seeks to optimize table use. The tool also considers the revenue from new customers attracted by the early bird or night owl promotions, as well as the level of increased business needed to achieve the net monetary value target for the promotion.

Shining Examples of Service When the Lights Went Out: Hotel Employees and Service Recovery during the Blackout of 2003

The electrical outage in the summer of 2003 that interrupted power to thousands of hotels wrought a variety of facilities failures and service-process problems. Fortunately, strong service-recovery efforts from hotel employees mitigated the worst of the blackout’s effects. Using survey data from hotel managers who experienced the blackout, this study highlights those employee actions that most contributed to immediate service recovery; however, the study also reveals limited organizational learning or efforts to failsafe hospitality service from the eventuality of future power failures.