Franchise Opportunities Abound with New and Established Brands

The president of Choice Hotels International discusses important considerations for investors and operators interested in pursuing franchise affiliations.

Howard Johnson's: Rise and Fall of an American Icon

The Howard Johnson’s restaurant chain was one of the first franchise success stories in the United States. Climbing in size to be over 1,000 restaurants, the chain today boasts fewer than 30 units. How could such a successful company spiral downward to virtually nothing? This article examines the history of the chain and offers reasons for its success and demise.

Determinants of Mid-scale Hotel Brand Equity

The traditional brand management in the hotel industry is facing a great challenge as numerous brands provide many choices to hotel guests. In such competitive environments, hotel firms realize that capitalizing on one of the most important assests they own- the brand- is critical to achieve a premier growth goal not only rapidly but also in a cost- effective way. THe purpose of this study is to examine the determinants of cutsomer-based hotel brand equity for the mid-priced U.S. lodging segment by assessing the impacts of four-widely accepted brand equity dimensions: brand awareness, brand associations, percieved quality and customer loyalty. 277 travelers participated in this study at the airport in a Midwestern city. Perceived quality, brand loyalty, brand associations were found to be the core components of brand equity, while brand awareness, a seemingly important source of brand equity, did not exert a significant influence on building brand equity of mid-priced hotels. The result of this study sheds insight about how to create, manage, and evaluate a distinctive and successful hotel brand.

Growth of the Food Service Industry

The food service industry has come into its own recognition as a growing segment of the total food market. The author looks at the recent expansion of the industry in volume, diversification of restaurant types, and menu variety

Franchising in the Hospitality Industry: Accounting Aspects

Franchised businesses are a powerful factor in the American economy. The author provides a general overview of the area, citing statistics supporting its growth in the industry. Attention will be focused on accounting aspects of franchising, placing major emphasis on issues associated with the recognition of franchise fee revenue.

Cruise Brand Management

Brands have always been associated with cruise and line voyage operations, but the branding concept has taken on new meaning in the modern cruise industry. In the consolidation of cruise lines under a few major corporate structure today, the acquiring entity has most often chosen to invest in lines acquired under their existing names, retaining separate brand identity. The author summarizes industry experiences with the acquisition and management of multiple brands under a single corporate structure, together with the rationale and advantages, this article is an updated and expanded version of that first given at the Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention March 11, 1999.

Perceived Work Status and Turnover Intentions of Casual-Dining Restaurant Employees

The current research examined the effects of perceived work status of hourly employees on the established relationships between turnover intentions and the constructs of autonomy, affective organizational commitment, perceived management concern for employees, and perceived management concern for customers in the casual-dining restaurant industry. Surveys were collected from 296 employees of a multi-unit casual-dining restaurant franchise, part of a large, national, casual-dining restaurant chain. Employeeswith perceived part-time work status revealed a generally negative trend in factors shown to contribute to turnover. Employees who perceived their work status as parttime also showed significantly lower levels of affective organizational commitment than those who perceived their work status as full-time. Additionally, the mean scores of the desirable attributes trended lower for those employees who perceived themselves as part-time. Even more, helping behaviors, so crucial in a casual-dining environment, were lower when employees perceived their work status to be part-time. The current study discusses managerial implications of the research findings and gives suggestions for future research.

Fast-Food Franchises: An Alternative Menu for Hotel/Casinos

In their discussion - Fast-Food Franchises: An Alternative Menu for Hotel/Casinos - by Skip Swerdlow, Assistant Professor of Finance, Larry Strate, Assistant Professor of Business Law, and Francis X. Brown, Assistant Professor of Hotel Administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, their preview reads: Hotel/casino food service operations are adding some non-traditional fare to their daily offerings in the form of fast-food franchises. The authors review aspects of franchising and cite some new Las Vegas food ideas.” The authors offer that the statewide food and beverage figures, according to the Nevada Gaming Abstract of 1985, exceeded $1.24 billion. Most of that figure was generated in traditional coffee shops, gourmet dining rooms, and buffets. With that kind of food and beverage figure solidly on the table, it was inevitable that fast-food franchises would move into casinos to garner a share of the proceeds. In a March 1986 review of franchising, Restaurant Business reported the following statistics: “Over 60 percent of all restaurants are franchisee owned. This relationship is also paralleled in dollar sales, which has exceeded $53 billion.” “Restaurant franchising expansion has grown at an annual rate of 12 percent per year for the past five years.” The beginning of the article is dedicated to describing, in general, the franchise phenomenon; growth has been spectacular the authors inform you. “The franchise concept has provided an easy method of going into business for the entrepreneur with minimal business experience, but a desire to work hard to make a profit,” say professors Swerdlow, Strate, and Brown. Lured by tourist traffic, and the floundering Chapter 11 afflicted, Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Burger King saw an attractive opportunity for an experiment in non-traditional outlet placement, say the authors. Although innately transient, the tourist numbers were way too significant to ignore. That tourist traffic, the authors say, is ‘round-the-clock. Added to that figure is the 2000-3000 average employee count for many of the casinos on the ‘Vegas strip. Not surprisingly, the project began to look very appealing to both Burger King and the Riviera Hotel/Casino, the authors report. In the final analysis, the project did work out well; very well indeed. So it is written, “The successful operation of the Burger King in the Riviera has sparked interest by other existing hotel/casino operations and fast-food restaurant chains. Burger King's operation, like so many other industry leadership decisions, provides impetus for healthy competition in a market that is burgeoning not only because of expansion that recognizes traditional population growth, but because of bold moves that search for customers in non-traditional areas.” The authors provide an Appendix listing Las Vegas hotel/casino properties and the restaurants they contain.

Perceived Value of Fast-food Restaurant Franchises in the USA

The main research objective of this study was to find out whether perceived value significantly affects consumers’ purchase intention. Additionally, this study examined if there are any significant differences in perceived value for different fast-food restaurant brands and attempted to identify which fast-food restaurant is perceived to be the industry leader. A total number of six fast-food restaurants (McDonalds, Subway, Starbucks, Wendy’s, Burger King, and Taco Bell) were selected. Findings showed that among the five perceived service value dimensions, Starbucks is the leader in terms of quality, emotional response, and reputation. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and multiple regression analysis were performed to test the study hypotheses. Results indicated that there were significant differences in perceived value for different fast-food restaurant brands. Besides, monetary and behavioral price significantly affects consumers’ purchase intention. Findings are expected to help hospitality marketers to strategically manage their brands.