Abstract
“Last-minute” deals in travel and tourism services are very appealing not only to travellers but also for service providers. Timing and pricing are central to an optimization strategy for last-minute deals for both sides. This study analyses last-minute timing behaviour for self-catering customers and proposes to the supplier an estimation of the critical Last-Minute Momentum (LMM) that is, the optimal moment for launching these kinds of deals. The data emanates from the largest booking of self-catering accommodation platform in the Romand Valais in Switzerland, containing more than 154,000 transactions. The results show that last minute behaviours depend not only on the origin country and season (as previously postulated) but also on the length of the stay, the composition of the party and the destination. For practitioners, the results shed some light on the timing optimization of last-minute campaigns. For scholars, the results demonstrate that last-minute behavior challenges traditional paradigms of the Planning Vacation Process (PVP).
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Online results of logistic models with destination details and estimation graphs are available in https://www.tourobs.ch/5700.aspx.
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Scaglione, M., Johnson, C., Favre, P. (2018). When “Last-Minute” Really Is “Last Minute”. In: Stangl, B., Pesonen, J. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2018. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72923-7_38
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72923-7_38
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