No panorama energético brasileiro, a geração de água quente e fria, pelos métodos convencionais, utilizando energia elétrica, implica em mais um fator de sobrecarga no sistema de geração, transporte e distribuição, potencializando os conhecidos picos de energia, onde o sistema de geração de energia elétrica de nosso país tem que estar dimensionado por apenas seis horas por dia e que para continuar garantindo esta energia exige pesados investimentos públicos, com grandes impactos. A energia elétrica é uma forma de energia de alta qualidade, devendo assim ser destinada a aplicações nobres, onde não é possível substituí-la. Maior importância tem sido dada ao estudo dos sistemas de refrigeração por absorção, devido às peculiaridades desses sistemas em relação aos ciclos por compressão e também pelo aproveitamento dos rejeitos térmicos. O objetivo desta pesquisa é contribuir para a redução do consumo de energia elétrica no setor comercial, mais especificadamente em hotelaria, situação esta que encontramos no consumo simultâneo de fonte de calor quente e fria. No entanto como fonte de energia alternativa a energia elétrica busca-se o gás LP, devido a sua capilaridade de distribuição de grande acesso aos empreendimentos em qualquer local do país e alto poder calorífico. O sistema de ar condicionado a gás LP é uma opção para sistemas de climatização. Proporciona uma significativa redução de consumo de energia quando se busca um equilíbrio nas demandas de fonte quente e fria / The Brazilian energy landscape, the generation of hot and cold water, by conventional methods, using electricity, implies an additional overhead factor in system generation, transmission and distribution, leveraging the familiar \"power surges\", where the system electric power generation in our country have to be sized for only six hours a day and to continue ensuring that energy demands heavy public investment, with major impacts. Electricity is a form of high quality power and should therefore be applicable for nobles, where you cannot replace it. Greater importance has been given to the study of the absorption refrigeration systems, due to the peculiarities of these systems in relation to the cycles of compression and also the utilization of waste heat. The objective of this research is to contribute to reducing electricity consumption in the commercial sector, more specifically in hotels, we found this situation in simultaneous consumption of heat source hot and cold. However as an alternative energy source to power up the search LPG, due to its capillary distribution of large enterprises access to anywhere in the country and high calorific value. The air conditioning system LPG is an option for air conditioning systems. Provides a significant reduction of energy consumption when it seeks to balance the demands of hot and cold source.

A partir de 1987 le développement économique est remis en question avec le paradigme de la durabilité qui vise à favoriser un développement viable d'un triple point de vue, économique, social et environnemental. Le secteur du tourisme a été très tôt investi par cette valeur, notamment au Sommet de la Terre de Rio de Janeiro de 1992. L'OMT et le WTTC ont promu l'Agenda 21 en énonçant que les acteurs du tourisme doivent participer au développement durable des territoires. Ils doivent contribuer à l'amélioration de la qualité de vie des communautés, en assurant un développement économique local, en renforçant la cohésion sociale et en favorisant une meilleure gestion environnementale. L’engagement des entreprises du tourisme et notamment des hôtels se voient encadrés par un certain nombre d’outils, tels que le RSE (Responsabilité Sociale des Entreprises). Par cette injonction et par le relais des instances gouvernementales, le développement durable devient une valeur mondialisée. Ainsi, les hôtels transnationaux opérant à Bali sont obligés par la loi indonésienne depuis 2007 d’intégrer le programme de RSE, leur imposant d'apporter un bénéfice pour la communauté locale au sens holistique. Les hôtels transnationaux sont donc tenus de participer au développement durable local, mais aussi de respecter les exigences de la philosophie théologique, écologique et sociale traditionnelle balinaise, appelée Tri Hita Karana. Cette dernière répond à une autre conception de la « durabilité » reposant sur des principes de relations entre les hommes, avec les dieux et avec l’environnement « naturel ». Cette recherche interpelle donc le paradigme occidental de durabilité, qui aspire à l’universalisme, en interrogeant sa capacité à intégrer les spécificités culturelles, en l’occurrence balinaises, en combinant approche réflective et pragmatique, focalisée plus spécifiquement sur le cas particulier des hôtels transnationaux. Ces derniers sont des agents essentiels de l’essor touristique international de Bali, depuis 1970. / From 1987 economic development is challenged with the sustainability paradigm that aims to promote a sustainable development of a triple bottom lines, economic, social and environmental. The tourism sector was strongly engaged with the value, notably since the Summit of the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992. UNWTO and WTTC promoted Agenda 21 by stating that tourism stakeholders have to participate in sustainable development of the territories. They have to contribute to improving the quality of life of communities, ensuring local economic development, strengthening social cohesion and promoting better environmental management. The engagement of tourism businesses including hotels, equipped themselves with a number of tools such as CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). By the impregnation and the stage of governmental actions, sustainable development becomes a global value. Thus, transnational hotels operating in Bali are required by Indonesian law since 2007 to integrate the CSR program, requiring them to bring benefit to the local community in a holistic sense. Transnational hotels are required to participate in local sustainable development, but also to meet the requirements of Balinese traditional theological philosophy, ecological and social known as Tri Hita Karana. The latter responds to another concept of "sustainability" based on principles of human relations, with the gods and with the "natural" environment. This research therefore challenges the western paradigm of sustainability, which aspires to universalism by questioning its ability to integrate cultural specificity in the Balinese case, by combining reflective and pragmatic approach, focused more specifically on the particular case of transnational hotels. They are essential agents of the international tourism boomin Bali since 1970

The broad objective of this thesis is to develop an understanding of factors affecting outsourcing in the hotel industry and also the role played by management accounting in hotel outsourcing. The thesis draws on transaction cost economics (TCE), agency, contingency, and labour process theories in the context of appraising factors motivating outsourcing. Two empirical phases have been undertaken in the study. The first phase involved a series of interviews with general managers and financial controllers in large South East Queensland hotels. The second phase involved two distinct questionnaire surveys of large Australian hotels. The first was administered to hotel general managers, and the second was administered to hotel financial controllers. Significant findings arising from the study include: 1. In light of the substantial international literature describing hotel outsourcing, it appears that outsourcing in Australian hotels is relatively limited. This appears to be particularly the case with respect to food and beverage related activities. 2. Mixed support is offered for the TCE model. Both the survey and interview data provide some support for TCE's prescription that frequently conducted activities will not tend to be outsourced. Two specific extensions are offered to this aspect of the model, however. Firstly, where activities are conducted to a minimal extent, it can be uneconomic to outsource. Secondly, where large activities are undertaken by a group of organisations, their enhanced purchasing power can result in inexpensive outsourcing arrangements. With respect to TCE's uncertainty proposition, support is offered for the view that the propensity to outsource will be greater where behavioural uncertainty is lower. No support has been offered with respect to environmental uncertainty. The interview data provides some support for TCE's asset specificity proposition, however, minimal support was found in the survey phase. Despite this, the many dimensions of asset specificity (eg. site specificity, human asset specificity, etc) provided a useful checklist of issues to be considered in relation to the outsourcing decision. 3. Negligible support was found for labour process theory (LPT) in the interview phase of the study. In light of this, and the need to narrow the study’s focus in the survey phase, LPT was not pursued further. LPT is a difficult construct to operationalise, given the social desirability error that may result. This may partially account for the absence of significant LPT findings in the interview phase. 4. The survey data provides some support for the agency theory view that risky activities will tend to be outsourced. 5. Considerable cross-hotel variation exists in management of, and accounting's involvement in, outsourcing decision making and control systems. Accounting appraisal of outsourcing proposals rarely includes long term oriented, sophisticated techniques such as "net present value". It appears this may be because outsourcing decisions are not conducted in the context of the formal capital budgeting process. 6. High performing hotels and hotels that conduct their outsourcing decisions in the context of a long term outsourcing strategic agenda have more sophisticated outsourcing management systems.

<p>Konkurrensen mellan hotellen har ökat på grund av förändringar i samhället, även kundernas behov och önskemål har förändrats. I dagens samhälle blir det allt vanligare att hotell inte enbart kan konkurrera med bra service och pris. Det krävs något extra, något utöver det vanliga för att locka kunder och öka konkurrensfördelarna. Hotellen måste hitta nya sätt att differentiera sig på och det har blivit allt viktigare med ett starkt varumärke som kan ge ett mervärde till kunderna. Det har blivit vanligt att hotell använder sig av storytelling och tema för att bygga upp sitt koncept och varumärke. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur hotell i Sverige kan använda sig av storytelling och tematisering för att bygga upp varumärket. Syftet är deskriptivt men även till viss del normativt. I studien används en deduktiv metod och ett antal telefonintervjuer har genomförts. Detta för att exemplifiera hur en varumärkesuppbyggande process kan se ut inom storytelling- och temahotell. Studien fokuserar på den interna varumärkesuppbyggande processen. Resultatet i denna studie är inte generaliserbart utan vägledande för hur man kan bygga upp sitt varumärke med hjälp av storytelling och tematisering. Denna studie bidrar med ny fakta inom ett relativt obeforskat område som tema och varumärken. Studien visar att den varumärkesuppbyggande processen skiljer sig mellan varusektorn och tjänstesektorn. Detta eftersom andra delar då blir mer betydelsefulla, detta redovisas i en egen modell i studiens analys. Slutsatserna av studien visar att det är viktigt att vid uppbyggandet av storytelling- och temahotell vara; konsekvent, trovärdig, ha bra och välinformerad personal som kan förmedla storyn och temat samt att det finns en röd tråd genom konceptet. Om hotellen inkluderar dessa delar när de bygger upp sitt varumärke kan detta leda till en minnesvärd upplevelse. Slutsatserna visar även att storytelling och tematisering kan bidra till ett ökat mervärde till gästerna vilket leder till gratis reklam genom word-of-mouth samt skapa ökad uppmärksamhet i media. Det skapar även ökade konkurrensfördelar då det går att differentiera sig från konkurrenterna. Detta bidrar till att ett immateriellt varumärke byggs upp. Avslutningsvis visar studien att storytelling kan vara ett starkare koncept jämfört med tematisering.</p> / <p>Competition in the hotel industry has increased depending on changes of today’s society and of the needs and wants of the hotel guests. Hotels today should compete with something more than just a good service and pricing, since it has become something ordinary. They need to have something special, something extraordinary to attract customers and add to their competitiveness. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how hotels in Sweden can use themes and stories to build their internal brand. In this study a deductive method has been used and telephone interviews have been made which are declared in the empirics. This has been done to exemplify how the internal brand building process may turn out in story-telling hotels and theme hotels. Our conclusions from this study are that the brand building process may be different depending on how companies build their immaterial brand. The difference is due to other parts of the process may become more important, which we also implicate with our brand building model that you will find in our analysis. The study also shows that it is very important for hotels with a theme and story-telling to be credible, have well informed staffs that are able to mediate the story or theme and to be coherent through the whole concept. If the hotel management has all this in mind while building their brand, it will lead to a memorable experience for the guests. It also helps to build an immaterially strong brand. The conclusion is also that the use of story-telling can be seen stronger than a theme. This study contributes with new information about theme and brands which still is a relatively unresearched area.</p>

Hotels constitute one of the main, and still expanding, pillars of the tourism sector and are highly unique among other commercial buildings. Resource intensive and frequently inefficient systems and operational routines applied in the sector, result in considerable environmental impact and indicate an urgent need for more environmentally sound practices and products in the hotel industry. A certain level of activity in the area of reducing resource use has been observed for quite some time but the motivation for this was related to cost-benefit issues rather than the environment. Furthermore, most of the initiatives are still considered to be best practice case studies and not daily routines. The constantly increasing prices of basic commodities, such as energy resources and water, encourage the implementation of energy and water efficiency and conservation measures in hotel facilities. To this end, numerous guidelines and initiatives have been produced by hotel-related organisations. The study of attitudes among 610 European hoteliers indicated that, at the moment, the level of environmental awareness among hotel managers is not high enough to introduce significant changes, although attitudes differ depending on the country of origin and the corporate policy. The prospects of significant cost savings, as well as customer demand were identified as the most likely parameters to enhance environmental responsibility among hoteliers. The popularity of CSR reporting and sustainability indices, especially among the larger companies, leads the author to believe that the industry is preparing to change. Many of the companies running hotels are also reporting their environmental management goals and indicators of environmental performance, while benchmarking and all types of comparison league tables are gaining popularity. There is, however, no system or methodology of data collection and monitoring that is universally accepted or applicable throughout the hotel sector. Furthermore, the accuracy and validity of the published performance indicators and benchmarks is widely debated due to large variations in the figures reported. The analyses performed on data from over 180 upscale and mid-market European chain hotels (Hilton International and Scandic) indicated that even among relatively uniform (service-wise) hotels the amenities offered did influence consumption, further complicating the concept and applicability of uniform benchmarking and resource consumption modelling. It was thus concluded that, creating a uniform model for all hotels is almost impossible, or would require a significant amount of very detailed input data, and that the results could still be highly inaccurate. Instead, it was suggested that it might actually be more accurate to develop models for individual hotels. Such an approach would allow for the modelling of the behaviour of all types of hotels with no size, type of services or standard limitations. Multi-variate step-wise regression analyses performed on individual Scandic hotels in Sweden indicated that energy consumption was dependent on the outdoor air temperature/actual heating degree days, while water consumption was mainly influenced by the number of guest-nights sold. Experience gained by the author during the process of the Hilton Environmental Reporting system upgrade allowed for the formulation of a set of rules of thumb that ought to be followed in the design of similar schemes. The experience of various regions and numerous companies also suggests that well designed and implemented environmental and resource management programs bring significant benefits at an individual as well as a corporate level. This study provides an indication of the strategies that can be used by various stakeholders in the process of development and implementation of such programs. This research further suggests that future developments in environmental performance indicators and benchmarking may best be served by disaggregating hotels into modules (such as guest-rooms, catering outlets, conference centres) and developing consumption models and best practice indicators for these particular components. The individual efficiencies/performance indicators should then be combined and weighted to provide a just overall evaluation of a facility that could then be compared to a benchmark (developed in the same manner). In a similar manner, sustainability assessment schemes and indicators for destinations and communities could be developed. However, more accurate and differentiated knowledge of the individual performance of sub-systems is necessary to proceed with such an alternative. In addition, the methodologies for data collection and reporting procedures, at all levels of the company and sector, need to be standardized and detailed / QC 20100818

The aim of this thesis is to find out whether or not a guest’s cultural background is being considered when working with service quality management in the Ibis hotels. By doing qualitative interviews with both managers and front-office staff at three different Ibis hotels in the Stockholm area, the thesis analyzes the hotel chain’s way of working with service quality management on several levels of hierarchy within the company. The academic world is just starting to acknowledge the effect of culture on customer’s perceptions on service quality, while the tourism industry is still not paying attention. Our research has shown that the Ibis hotels do not consider the cultural background of their guests when working with service quality management, although they do seem to understand that doing so could help them avoid cultural shocks and lower the risks of service failures.

Konkurrensen mellan hotellen har ökat på grund av förändringar i samhället, även kundernas behov och önskemål har förändrats. I dagens samhälle blir det allt vanligare att hotell inte enbart kan konkurrera med bra service och pris. Det krävs något extra, något utöver det vanliga för att locka kunder och öka konkurrensfördelarna. Hotellen måste hitta nya sätt att differentiera sig på och det har blivit allt viktigare med ett starkt varumärke som kan ge ett mervärde till kunderna. Det har blivit vanligt att hotell använder sig av storytelling och tema för att bygga upp sitt koncept och varumärke. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur hotell i Sverige kan använda sig av storytelling och tematisering för att bygga upp varumärket. Syftet är deskriptivt men även till viss del normativt. I studien används en deduktiv metod och ett antal telefonintervjuer har genomförts. Detta för att exemplifiera hur en varumärkesuppbyggande process kan se ut inom storytelling- och temahotell. Studien fokuserar på den interna varumärkesuppbyggande processen. Resultatet i denna studie är inte generaliserbart utan vägledande för hur man kan bygga upp sitt varumärke med hjälp av storytelling och tematisering. Denna studie bidrar med ny fakta inom ett relativt obeforskat område som tema och varumärken. Studien visar att den varumärkesuppbyggande processen skiljer sig mellan varusektorn och tjänstesektorn. Detta eftersom andra delar då blir mer betydelsefulla, detta redovisas i en egen modell i studiens analys. Slutsatserna av studien visar att det är viktigt att vid uppbyggandet av storytelling- och temahotell vara; konsekvent, trovärdig, ha bra och välinformerad personal som kan förmedla storyn och temat samt att det finns en röd tråd genom konceptet. Om hotellen inkluderar dessa delar när de bygger upp sitt varumärke kan detta leda till en minnesvärd upplevelse. Slutsatserna visar även att storytelling och tematisering kan bidra till ett ökat mervärde till gästerna vilket leder till gratis reklam genom word-of-mouth samt skapa ökad uppmärksamhet i media. Det skapar även ökade konkurrensfördelar då det går att differentiera sig från konkurrenterna. Detta bidrar till att ett immateriellt varumärke byggs upp. Avslutningsvis visar studien att storytelling kan vara ett starkare koncept jämfört med tematisering. / Competition in the hotel industry has increased depending on changes of today’s society and of the needs and wants of the hotel guests. Hotels today should compete with something more than just a good service and pricing, since it has become something ordinary. They need to have something special, something extraordinary to attract customers and add to their competitiveness. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how hotels in Sweden can use themes and stories to build their internal brand. In this study a deductive method has been used and telephone interviews have been made which are declared in the empirics. This has been done to exemplify how the internal brand building process may turn out in story-telling hotels and theme hotels. Our conclusions from this study are that the brand building process may be different depending on how companies build their immaterial brand. The difference is due to other parts of the process may become more important, which we also implicate with our brand building model that you will find in our analysis. The study also shows that it is very important for hotels with a theme and story-telling to be credible, have well informed staffs that are able to mediate the story or theme and to be coherent through the whole concept. If the hotel management has all this in mind while building their brand, it will lead to a memorable experience for the guests. It also helps to build an immaterially strong brand. The conclusion is also that the use of story-telling can be seen stronger than a theme. This study contributes with new information about theme and brands which still is a relatively unresearched area.

Place branding is commonly conceptualized with a focus on big cities, such as London, New York and Singapore, building from concepts and models from mainstream branding theory. In contrast to such conceptualizations, this thesis focuses on place branding in small and medium-sized cities. The present thesis aims to study place branding from a geographical perspective. It starts with debates theoretical and empirical understandings of place branding; what it is and how it is affecting the places where it is introduced. The thesis develops and argues for a perspective of territoriality and relationality to place branding discussing concepts, methods and empirical approaches to carry out place branding research using geographical perspectives. Empirically, this thesis focuses on in-depth studies of place branding in small and medium-sized cities in Sweden. By analyzing the development of place branding over the course of time, nuances and aspects of both territorial and relational origin emerge, situating place branding practices within a wider spatial contextualization. Four individual papers are presented, which taken together contribute to the aim of the thesis. Paper 1 introduces the place branding research field in geography and how it has developed; Paper 2 investigates the phenomena of flagship buildings located in small cities and towns; Paper 3 discusses the relationship between policy tourism and place branding; and Paper 4 analyzes how local environmental policies are affected by green place branding. The thesis demonstrates the complex and continuously interchangeable spatial structures and place contexts that create and re-produce the geographies of place branding. Here, research models and methodological examples are presented to illustrate how place branding can be studied from a geographical perspective and thus improve theoretical understandings of place branding. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript.</p>

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references.

O grande número de opiniões geradas por usuários online fez o antigo \boca a boca" migrar para o mundo virtual. Além de numerosas, muitas opiniões úteis estão misturadas com um grande número de opiniões fraudulentas, incompletas ou repetitivas. No entanto, como encontrar os fatores que influenciam no número de votos recebidos por uma opinião e encontrar opiniões consideradas úteis? A literatura na área de mineração de opiniões possui diversos estudos e técnicas que são capazes de analisar a influência de propriedades encontradas no texto das opiniões. Este trabalho apresenta a adaptação para o português de uma metodologia de avaliação de utilidade de opiniões com o objetivo de identificar quais características exercem maior influência na quantidade de votos de utilidade: básicas (ex. nota atribuída a produtos/serviços, data da publicação), textuais (ex. tamanho das palavras, parágrafos) e semântica (ex. o significado das palavras do texto). A avaliação foi realizada em uma base de dados extraída do site TripAdvisor com opiniões sobre hotéis escritas em português. Resultados mostram que os usuários dão mais atenção a opiniões recentes com notas mais altas para localização do hotel e com notas mais baixas para qualidade do sono, atendimento e limpeza. Textos com opiniões positivas, palavras curtas, poucos adjetivos e advérbios aumentam as chances de receber mais votos. / The large number of opinions generated by online users made the former “word of mouth” find its way to virtual world. In addition to be numerous, many of the useful reviews are mixed with a large number of fraudulent, incomplete or duplicate reviews. However, how to find the features that influence on the number of votes received by an opinion and find useful reviews? The literature on opinion mining has several studies and techniques that are able to analyze of properties found in the text of reviews. This paper presents the application of a methodology for evaluation of usefulness of opinions with the aim of identifying which characteristics have more influence on the amount of votes: basic utility (e.g. ratings about the product and/or service, date of publication), textual (e.g.size of words, paragraphs) and semantics (e.g., the meaning of the words of the text). The evaluation was performed in a database extracted from TripAdvisor with opinionsabout hotels written in Portuguese. Results show that users give more attention to recent opinions with higher scores for value and location of the hotel and with lowest scores for sleep quality and service and cleanliness. Texts with positive opinions, small words, few adjectives and adverbs increase the chances of receiving more votes.