IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/jorapm/v24y2025i2d10.1057_s41272-024-00494-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Addressing complex seasonal patterns in hotel forecasting: a comparative study

Author

Listed:
  • Apostolos Ampountolas

    (Boston University)

Abstract

Accurately forecasting demand poses challenges for revenue managers, especially amid supply and demand uncertainties increased by the recent global pandemic. In addition, demand forecasting is particularly challenging in the hotel industry due to anomalous days and repeating seasonal patterns. This study investigates techniques like TBATS, MSTL, and STL Decomposition against Linear Regression in hotel demand time series analysis, focusing on daily occupancy and average daily rate seasonalities. Using a 5-year dataset from an Upper Upscale branded property, the study employs in-sample data for model development and a rolling window approach for testing. Results highlight the robust performance of TBATS and MSTL across different forecasting horizons, consistently outperforming Seasonal-Trend Decomposition (STLF) and linear regression, providing insights crucial for revenue optimization and strategic decision-making in the hotel industry.

Suggested Citation

  • Apostolos Ampountolas, 2025. "Addressing complex seasonal patterns in hotel forecasting: a comparative study," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(2), pages 143-152, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:jorapm:v:24:y:2025:i:2:d:10.1057_s41272-024-00494-6
    DOI: 10.1057/s41272-024-00494-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41272-024-00494-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41272-024-00494-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kim, Sungil & Kim, Heeyoung, 2016. "A new metric of absolute percentage error for intermittent demand forecasts," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 669-679.
    2. Diamantis Koutsandreas & Evangelos Spiliotis & Fotios Petropoulos & Vassilios Assimakopoulos, 2022. "On the selection of forecasting accuracy measures," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 73(5), pages 937-954, May.
    3. Davydenko, Andrey & Fildes, Robert, 2013. "Measuring forecasting accuracy: The case of judgmental adjustments to SKU-level demand forecasts," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 510-522.
    4. Hyndman, Rob J. & Koehler, Anne B., 2006. "Another look at measures of forecast accuracy," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 679-688.
    5. Luis Nobre Pereira & Vitor Cerqueira, 2022. "Forecasting hotel demand for revenue management using machine learning regression methods," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(17), pages 2733-2750, September.
    6. Weatherford, Larry R. & Kimes, Sheryl E., 2003. "A comparison of forecasting methods for hotel revenue management," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 401-415.
    7. Naragain Phumchusri & Phoom Ungtrakul, 2020. "Hotel daily demand forecasting for high-frequency and complex seasonality data: a case study in Thailand," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(1), pages 8-25, February.
    8. Chao Chen & Jamie Twycross & Jonathan M Garibaldi, 2017. "A new accuracy measure based on bounded relative error for time series forecasting," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(3), pages 1-23, March.
    9. Apostolos Ampountolas, 2021. "Modeling and Forecasting Daily Hotel Demand: A Comparison Based on SARIMAX, Neural Networks, and GARCH Models," Forecasting, MDPI, vol. 3(3), pages 1-16, August.
    10. Yunhao Liu & Gengzhong Feng & Kwai-Sang Chin & Shaolong Sun & Shouyang Wang, 2023. "Daily tourism demand forecasting: the impact of complex seasonal patterns and holiday effects," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(10), pages 1573-1592, May.
    11. Naragain Phumchusri & Poonnawit Suwatanapongched, 2023. "Forecasting hotel daily room demand with transformed data using time series methods," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(1), pages 44-56, February.
    12. Apostolos Ampountolas, 2019. "Forecasting hotel demand uncertainty using time series Bayesian VAR models," Tourism Economics, , vol. 25(5), pages 734-756, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Makridakis, Spyros & Spiliotis, Evangelos & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios, 2020. "The M4 Competition: 100,000 time series and 61 forecasting methods," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 54-74.
    2. Philippe St-Aubin & Bruno Agard, 2022. "Precision and Reliability of Forecasts Performance Metrics," Forecasting, MDPI, vol. 4(4), pages 1-22, October.
    3. Ulrich Gunter, 2021. "Improving Hotel Room Demand Forecasts for Vienna across Hotel Classes and Forecast Horizons: Single Models and Combination Techniques Based on Encompassing Tests," Forecasting, MDPI, vol. 3(4), pages 1-36, November.
    4. Apostolos Ampountolas, 2019. "Forecasting hotel demand uncertainty using time series Bayesian VAR models," Tourism Economics, , vol. 25(5), pages 734-756, August.
    5. Tianxiang Zheng & Shaopeng Liu & Zini Chen & Yuhan Qiao & Rob Law, 2020. "Forecasting Daily Room Rates on the Basis of an LSTM Model in Difficult Times of Hong Kong: Evidence from Online Distribution Channels on the Hotel Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-17, September.
    6. Jacobs, Bas & Tobi, Hilde & Hengeveld, Geerten M., 2024. "Linking error measures to model questions," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 487(C).
    7. Ioannis Badounas & Georgios Pitselis, 2020. "Loss Reserving Estimation With Correlated Run-Off Triangles in a Quantile Longitudinal Model," Risks, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-26, February.
    8. Hewamalage, Hansika & Bergmeir, Christoph & Bandara, Kasun, 2021. "Recurrent Neural Networks for Time Series Forecasting: Current status and future directions," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 388-427.
    9. Naragain Phumchusri & Poonnawit Suwatanapongched, 2023. "Forecasting hotel daily room demand with transformed data using time series methods," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(1), pages 44-56, February.
    10. Ana Caroline Pinheiro & Paulo Canas Rodrigues, 2024. "Hierarchical Time Series Forecasting of Fire Spots in Brazil: A Comprehensive Approach," Stats, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-24, June.
    11. Athanasopoulos, George & Hyndman, Rob J. & Kourentzes, Nikolaos & Petropoulos, Fotios, 2017. "Forecasting with temporal hierarchies," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 262(1), pages 60-74.
    12. Spiliotis, Evangelos & Petropoulos, Fotios & Kourentzes, Nikolaos & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios, 2020. "Cross-temporal aggregation: Improving the forecast accuracy of hierarchical electricity consumption," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).
    13. Spiliotis, Evangelos & Petropoulos, Fotios, 2024. "On the update frequency of univariate forecasting models," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 314(1), pages 111-121.
    14. Jorge V Pérez-Rodríguez & Juan M Hernández & Julián Andrada-Félix, 2024. "Modelling prices and volatilities in the sharing economy," Tourism Economics, , vol. 30(5), pages 1189-1215, August.
    15. Karol Pilot & Alicja Ganczarek-Gamrot & Krzysztof Kania, 2024. "Dealing with Anomalies in Day-Ahead Market Prediction Using Machine Learning Hybrid Model," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-20, September.
    16. Van Belle, Jente & Guns, Tias & Verbeke, Wouter, 2021. "Using shared sell-through data to forecast wholesaler demand in multi-echelon supply chains," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 288(2), pages 466-479.
    17. Nghia Chu & Binh Dao & Nga Pham & Huy Nguyen & Hien Tran, 2022. "Predicting Mutual Funds' Performance using Deep Learning and Ensemble Techniques," Papers 2209.09649, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2023.
    18. Claudia Furlan & Cinzia Mortarino & Mohammad Salim Zahangir, 2021. "Interaction among three substitute products: an extended innovation diffusion model," Statistical Methods & Applications, Springer;Società Italiana di Statistica, vol. 30(1), pages 269-293, March.
    19. Yang, Cheng-Hu & Wang, Hai-Tang & Ma, Xin & Talluri, Srinivas, 2023. "A data-driven newsvendor problem: A high-dimensional and mixed-frequency method," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    20. Evangelos Spiliotis & Spyros Makridakis & Artemios-Anargyros Semenoglou & Vassilios Assimakopoulos, 2022. "Comparison of statistical and machine learning methods for daily SKU demand forecasting," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 3037-3061, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:jorapm:v:24:y:2025:i:2:d:10.1057_s41272-024-00494-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.