The findings of this study confirm the existence of corporate effects in the hotel
industry. Compared to other factors that are well recognized in the literature as related
to a hotel’s operating performance such as hotel size, hotel age, price level, and time
(i.e. year), the owner appears to be the most significant factor in that it accounts for thelargest variance of a hotel’s operating performance. This study supports previous
research suggesting that the effects of the corporate parent may be larger in some
industries, such as non-manufacturing industries, than in others (McGahan and Porter,
1997). This finding reveals that, in addition to franchisors and management companies
that are commonly considered as influences on a hotel’s performance, hotel owners
play a critical role, in that they not only buy and sell hotels but also have significant
influence on their individual hotels’ financial performance.