Saving Seats for Strategic Customers
| Autor: | Martin A. Lariviere, Eren B. Çil |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2013 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Operations Research. 61:1321-1332 |
| ISSN: | 1526-5463 0030-364X |
| DOI: | 10.1287/opre.2013.1218 |
| Popis: | We consider a service provider in a market with two segments. Members of the first request a reservation ahead of service and will not patronize the firm without one. Members of the second walk in and demand service immediately. These customers have a fixed cost of reaching the firm and may behave strategically. In equilibrium, they randomize between walking in and staying home. The service provider must decide how much of a limited capacity to make available to advance customers. When the advance demand segment offers a higher per customer margin, the firm may opt to decline some reservation requests in order to bolster walk-in demand. When walk-in customers are more valuable, classical revenue management models would dictate that at least some capacity be set aside for high-value later arrivals. Here it is possible that the optimal policy saves no capacity for walk-ins. Thus, it may be better to ignore rather than pamper walk-in customers. This outcome is robust to changes in the model. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|