Author: Ahlea M Isabella

Digital Marketing Budgets for Independent Hotels: Continuously Shifting to Remain Competitive in the Online World

  By Leora Halpern Lanz and Megan Carmichael The hotel marketing budget, typically amounting to approximately 4-5% of an asset’s total revenue, must remain fluid, so that the marketing director can constantly adapt the marketing tools to meet consumer communications methods and demands. Though only a small amount of a hotel’s revenue is traditionally allocated […]

From Patrons to Chefs, a History of Women in Restaurants

By Jan Whitaker American women have long been involved in public eating places. In Early America a common pattern was set as wives partnered with husbands in operating dining rooms in taverns and inns – and then carried on alone. Elizabeth Fraunces, wife of Samuel Fraunces whose career is commemorated in New York City’s historic […]

Fall 2012: Letter from the Editors

Welcome to the Boston Hospitality Review. This is a new and different kind of academic journal from Boston University. It’s different on so many levels that it really isn’t a traditional university publication at all. We spent hours debating whether our new periodical should be a journal of business theory, a review of intellectual trends, […]

The Pricing Effects of Heritage at an Iconic Hotel

By: Bradford Hudson Historic hotels are a recognized product type in the lodging industry and may be found in significant numbers throughout the globe. Much of the academic and popular literature about these hotels focuses on their architectural, social, or business history. Less has been written about how such history might represent a value proposition […]

The Customer is Always Right, Right? A Look at How Yelp Has Taken Hold of the Boston Restaurant Industry

By: Rachel DeSimone Photography: Kristen Tieg Formal restaurant reviews made their debut back in 1941 when Duncan Hines, known today for his boxed-cake mix, put out his first restaurant guidebook, Adventures in Good Eating. The intention was, “to guide travelers and protect them from eating poisonous food from unsanitary places,” according to his biography by […]

Search Engine Marketing (SEM): Financial & Competitive Advantages of an Effective Hotel SEM Strategy

By: Leora Halpern Lanz & Jovanna Fazzini Inefficient algorithms drove various search engines throughout the 1990’s. Search results were at times unrelated to the proposed query, and were cluttered with spam. Google soon devised a more organized and systematic search result listing, and the relevance of search results improved exponentially. The plethora of data distributed […]

Boston, the Booth Brothers, and the Parker House

By: Susan Wilson April 14, 2015 was the 150th anniversary of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. This is the story of how that fateful day was linked to Boston, the Booth Brothers, and the Parker House. Hotel personnel have always collected wondrous tales about the visiting celebrities they’ve observed over decades of service. Few […]

Airports Hotels: Laying the Foundation for a Synergistic Relationship

By Allison Fogarty Hotels have always been located near transportation hubs. Centuries ago, travelers sought accommodation and refreshment in inns strategically located along the road network to provide a place for man and beast to recharge and refresh. As carriages and stagecoaches gave way to railroads, and sail yielded to steam, hostelries sprang up around […]

Product Life Cycle: Moving from Theory to Practice

By: Stanley I. Buchin, D.B.A. Last year, restaurant trends stretched from a rise of dining in retail stores to paleo and gluten-free menus. According to Baum + Whiteman 2015 Food & Beverage Forecast, this year’s trends will include technology like tablets immersed into the dining experience, expanding on diners restless palates who have had enough […]

Cunard in Boston

By: Bradford Hudson, Ph.D. The steamship Britannia arrived in Boston Harbor on a July evening in 1840. This concluded the inaugural voyage for the flagship of the newly established Cunard Line, which has since become one of the oldest and most distinguished travel companies in the world. To commemorate the occasion, Cunard will send its […]