Research Details

Abstract

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 reservation customers. When the reservation 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, we have a variation of Littlewood (1972). Where Littlewood would always save some capacity for valuable late 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.

Type

Article

Author(s)

Eren Cil, Martin Lariviere

Date Published

2013

Citations

Cil, Eren, and Martin Lariviere. 2013. Saving Seats for Strategic Customers. Operations Research.(6): 1321-1332.