It is necessary and important to know what can happen to thousands of people in coastal areas when one day they will be hit by hurricane wind and storm surge. Between 1960 and 1970, the number of people living and vacationing on the coast soared more than 40 percent. During the last 50 years, a great number of hotels has been built on Miami Beach, which makes this area more vulnerable than it ever was before. Insuring the safety of its guests and employees under all circumstances is a very important part of a hotel's security and safety program. It should by all means be a preventive program - the prevention of those hazards that can hurt, injure or destroy lives or property. All hotels should be extremely concerned with the safety of their guests and with the hotel's property. While the hotel's responsibility to a guest may differ in degree, the innkeeper must avoid any injuries or unpleasantness as far as possible. When a hurricane threatens, management's responsibilities are probably even greater because lots of lives are at stake. Safety and security go hand in hand. Security plans are needed to maintain guest safety. Security is a living thing and does not remain fixed. Conditions change continuously: personnel changes, new hazards arise, new security measures are developed both in Dade County and within the hotel. Concepts and physical equipment change. A hotel's security system should keep pace with the changes that are taking place, especially these days when people are expecting and demanding safer hotels and rooms. People are also less afraid to file law suits against a hotel that did not provide "reasonable care" for its guests. These are some of the reasons why hotels should accept a proper standard of care and develop a hurricane preparedness plan. More important, however, is that these standards and plans are known and enforced by management. The thought behind this thesis is that most hotels know what should be done in terms of emergency planning but that they for some reason - be it laziness, lack of control or lack of money - do not develop a written plan or do not put it into action. Miami is again becoming one of the most frequently visited cities and all travelers in general are more safety and security-conscious than ever. Therefore it is important to know if the hotels on our beaches do in fact care enough about their guest's safety, especially in the event of a hurricane. If they don't, Miami Beach might experience a true disaster and may never be able again to revive its image in the field of hospitality and tourism.

The hospitality industry has been one of the last major business segments in the United States to utilize the computer and its capabilities. Everyone associated with the industry and data processing has contributed to this delay: manufacturers have been very slow to identify and recognize the potential that exists in the hotel industry; data processors have often unwisely attempted to apply the successful solutions of other industries' problems to the hospitality industry; and lodging management has demonstrated little interest and contributed inadequate amounts of physical and economical resources. The initial attempt by the hotel industry to utilize the computer now seems extremely primitive. The only systems being used were large, complex computers with software designed for other industries with minor changes. The major problem was one of cost justification. With the systems that were in existence a hotel had to have at least 500 rooms with an average rate of $ 50 per room for it to be economically feasible. The most important breakthrough for the hospitality industry has been the development of the mini-computer. It provided hotelmen with a system that has an acceptable price performance level and has opened doors for computerization in properties as small as 150 rooms. The mini computer has provided the industry with the realistically-priced tools it needed to finally accomplish the goal of developing a powerful real-time hotel management information system. One of the mini-computer systems that is now servicing our industry is the Moby Data Hospitality System. The Moby Data System is a complete hardware and software package that may be easily converted to almost any property. However, the training of the hotel employees in its usage, has been accomplished by personal instruction in the past. The purpose of this paper is to develop a manual of instruction for the Moby Data Hospitality System at Florida International University. It is by no means a replacement for personal instruction on the system, but to be used as an aid for a better and more complete understanding of its capabilities and usage.

Research was conducted to determine if it was cost effective for the United States government to pay all airmen in the Air Force basic allowance for subsistence (BAS) in lieu of issuing them a meal card. A test was conducted at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas, to determine eating patterns and habits of those airmen presently on basic allowance for subsistence. It was assumed that if airmen were given BAS, their eating habits would be similar to those already on BAS. A 30 day observation period revealed that if all airmen on a meal card were given BAS, approximately 30,190 fewer meals per month would be eaten in the enlisted dining facilities. As a result, a cost savings would result to the government, and could possibly offset the additional cost of basic allowance for subsistence. All calculations proved that there would indeed be a substantial savings to the government, however, not enough to totally offset the cost of paying the additional BAS. The study proved negative, however, valuable information surfaced which will aid in achieving the Air Force goal of an all BAS program sometime in the near future.

There has been a dramatic increase in the number of Colleges and Universities offering Hotel and Foodservice Management Programs during the last several years. Many thousands of students have been or are now being trained. But the demand for qualified employees at all levels far exceeds the available supply provided by these schools. Private College's have an opportunity to offer programs of. study in this area and thereby increase their total student populations. Unlike most academic programs, the hospitality field requires a close association with the industry if the programs are to be both meaningful and effective for students. This guideline is offered to the private college which might be contemplating a hospitality program. The strategies outlined may be effectively utilized to help develop a new program or strengthen an existing one.

This dissertation analyses the Airbnb market in Orange County, FL to provide insight on the performances of short-term vacation rentals listed on the platform. In the first essay we examine the factors affecting the demand and supply of this real estate sector before and after the Covid-19 pandemic, using occupancy, pricing and revenue models. The results identify the aspects of the Airbnb peer-to-peer sharing model that do and those that do not recover quickly after local covid restrictions are lifted. In particular, host experience, professional management, and proximity to major tourist attractions are some of the key factors that generate greater Airbnb unit occupancy, revenue, and prices. The effects are stronger in the post-covid period. On the other hand, Airbnb consumers appear to steer clear of rentals with popular reviews from previous tenants, located in high-income areas, and in ethnic neighborhoods during the post-covid period. Traditional hotel rooms participating in the Airbnb market exhibit different post-pandemic responses than found for other properties. In addition, there is evidence that, while hotel participation directly competes with other properties, these effects are mediated by shopping externalities created by greater search traffic from hotels on the platform. In the second essay we use a choice theoretic approach to identify factors driving the Airbnb unit owner's choice of management form and the effect of that choice on the unit rentals performance. Property owners looking to let their real-estate assets on a short-term basis on the Airbnb platform can choose between two forms of day-to-day management: owner managed (OM) and third party managed (TPM). Incentives theory shows that asset owners must weigh the input mix inefficiency arising from the incentive structure of TPM against possibly greater TPM management ability. The empirical model reveals that management structure affects pricing and occupancy rates of these units in both the full sample and when controlling for endogenous management form selection using matched sample methods. Airbnb data for Orange County, Florida, over 2014-2022 reveals higher prices and occupancy for TPM units in both cases. Interestingly, TPM fails to outperform OM when the number of units managed for the owner are sufficiently high, consistent with effort-thinning associated with rising marginal management costs for TPM firms. In addition, professional management outcomes vary significantly across property types, with lower prices and occupancy rates for high density apartments and condominiums relative to comparable OM units. Furthermore, TPM hosts' response to the declining demand for vacation properties during the pandemic is found to be stronger than OM hosts.

Building on prior studies analyzing institutional logics within and among organizations, I first investigate large nonprofit organizations in Boston, Massachusetts, to determine the logics held by these organizations, how the logics drive organizational behavior when faced with payments-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOTs), and the strategies they implement as they recompose their position in the field. Using nonprofit community benefit reports, news and trade publications, and data from the Boston PILOT Program, I explore the development of organizational activities and how they use a combination of market and community logics to construct themselves as charitable. Nonprofit pursuit of creating and maintaining a strong civil society may entail earning their tax exemption by engaging in a quid pro quo relationship with government. Further, I explore the strategies implemented to determine if organizations use PILOTs to promote their organizational goals or circumvent regulatory requirements. In the second study, I investigate the revised Boston PILOT Program voluntary payment effects on nonprofit healthcare organization community benefit contributions. Recent studies of these organizations' contributions have focused less on the financial assistance and more on social benefit. This study builds on these prior efforts by fine tuning the analysis to include specific, socially beneficial community benefits as well as the underlying motivations for these allocations. Using publicly available data, I develop a model to determine the financial effects of revenue sources and PILOT contributions on community benefit spending. Results show PILOTs have a significant influence on allocations for community benefit, but not financial assistance, and contrary to expectations, revenue sources do not significantly influence PILOT participation. Finally, findings show when specifically analyzing contributions and donations, the need for organizational legitimacy to protect tax-exemption will drive organizations to make PILOTs; however, those organizations embedded in a community logic will reject these payments in favor of funding community building.

Although a substantial amount of research on Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) has been conducted, little is known about it within the context of the Japanese hospitality industry. While OCB is generally considered to be beyond ordinary job duties (extra-role), some researchers suggest that Japanese employees view OCB as part of their job (in-role). However, theoretical explanation for this phenomenon is still scant. This research aims to examine how culture-based organizational characteristics (workplace harmony and customer orientation) and generation influence the role perception of OCB among Japanese hospitality employees. An online survey was developed and distributed to hospitality employees working in Japan using snowball sampling and resulting in a total of 303 participants. The results showed that Japanese culture-based characteristics, workplace harmony and customer orientation, positively influenced in-role perceptions of OCB-Altruism and OCB-General compliance. In addition, older generations showed higher in-role perception of OCB-General compliance than Generation Y. This research contributes to OCB literature by examining the impact of culture-based organizational characteristics on the employee's positive behavior that helps increase organizational performance. Workplace harmony and customer orientation in Japanese service organizations have often been noted by researchers, however they are rarely examined. This research contributes to the hospitality service management literature by documenting their impact on OCB through an empirical examination. Lastly, the findings of this study provide hospitality practitioners with a better understanding of employee citizenship behaviors in a collectivistic cultural background so that the results can aid human resources practices, including recruiting and training.

Several industries require operations and services to be provided at all hours of the day. Many organizations have implemented a shift work system for scheduling purposes to meet the demand of their industry. While some research has been conducted on the effects of shift work on employees, overall, there is still much to be learned, especially in the hotel industry. Most hotel front desks in the United States operate 24 hours a day and therefore, have to staff employees for the morning, afternoon, and overnight shifts. Previous literature states that each shift starts and ends at different times of the day as well as the tasks for each shift may be different. These differences may cause a hotel front desk agent to perceive their role differently based on the shift they work. The primary objective of this study is to investigate if there are moderating effects caused by working different shifts at a hotel front desk on three prevalent relationships often examined utilizing hotel frontline employee samples. Social support, employee engagement, job satisfaction, intention to quit, and quality service delivery willingness will all be examined in this research. A survey instrument was developed based on existing scales and distributed to hotels in the southeastern United States via paper and electronic methods. A total of 554 surveys were returned. Moderated multiple regression was conducted utilizing the Process tool in SPSS. Results indicated that the employees who worked the swing shift (both morning and afternoon shifts) were significantly different than front desk agents who worked the overnight shift. Most of the relationships tested were much weaker for the swing shift employees almost to the point that the relationship became non-existent. Implications, limitations, and future research will also be discussed.

This research study examined the work conditions, ergonomic problems, and prevalence of pain among low wage hotel room cleaners in Orlando. In most hotels, the cleanliness of guestrooms is one of the most important service standards expected by customers. The role of the housekeeper is thus critical to service provision and hotel profitability. The hospitality industry is a major recruiter of low wage workers with the majority working in housekeeping departments. Due to the nature of the research problem, a positivist quantitative approach was adopted although the survey instrument included space for qualitative comments to some of the latter open-ended questions. The survey instrument used in this study was adapted from validated survey instruments used in previous studies about the occupational health of hotel housekeepers. Data was collected from 177 hotel housekeepers. The local union of hotel housekeepers assisted with data collection from hotel housekeepers in local hotels in Orlando. The questions were specific and relevant to housekeeping department work conditions. An informed consent to participate was included in the survey to inform respondents about the voluntary nature of participation and the possibility of withdrawal from participation in the study was possible. Data was coded for entry in SPSS for subsequent analysis. Before starting analysis, the data was explored for incomplete surveys, errors and outliers. The scale of the data was compressed for better data analysis results. Descriptive statistical analysis was conducted to understand the sample collected. Furthermore, chi square and t-test was used to explore physical workload,ergonomic problems and prevalence of pain among housekeepers.

This study examined the cognitive and affective factors that influence users' post-adoption behavioral intention. Specifically, based on the Expectation Confirmation Model (ECM) (Bhattacherjee, 2001b) the impact of cognitive factors (i.e., perceived usefulness, confirmation of expectations, mobility, personalization and responsiveness) and affective factors (i.e., satisfaction, perceived enjoyment) on hotel branded mobile applications (apps) users' continuance intention and WOM were examined. Hospitality firms invest considerable resources on technology solutions that are aimed at improving the consumer experience. However, for investments to be profitable firms must ensure that technology solutions are continuously used and ensure post-adoptive behaviors such as continuance intention and WOM. Data for the study were collected from 550 hotel branded mobile app users. After data were collected and cleaned, Partial Least-Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the data. The results of the structural model indicated that continuance intention and WOM were directly influenced by satisfaction and perceived enjoyment; with satisfaction exerting the most influence on continuance intention. Conversely, perceived enjoyment was most influential to WOM. All cognitive factors were found to influence satisfaction and enjoyment, except for responsiveness and perceived usefulness. The results show that contextual factors have a more significant impact than previously established constructs. The results of the study allow hoteliers and hospitality technology consultants to identify the influential factors impacting post-adoptive behaviors. The study extends the literature on post-adoptive behavior and the ECM by including context specific factors (i.e. perceived mobility, personalization and responsiveness). This study contributes to the scare literature in the lodging industry literature examining users' evaluations of mobile apps and post-adoptive behaviors in the hospitality industry. The study adds to the post-adoptive behavior literature by adding WOM as a second outcome to continuance intention. The treatment of contextual factors in this study, allowed to show the impact technology characteristics have on technology post-adoption.