Evaluating the Performance of the Taiwanese Hotel Industry Using a Weight Slacks-Based Measure

The purpose of this paper is threefold: to assess the performance of 55 international tourist hotels in Taiwan in 2001 in terms of managerial, occupancy, and catering efficiencies; to analyze hotel operating characteristics, which might explain the variation in managerial efficiencies across these hotels; and to measure productivity growth in the 34 international tourist hotels over the years 1990–2001. Empirical results indicate that (1) the marketing for lodging services was not operated efficiently in 2001; (2) the hotels operated poorly both at the levels of occupancy and catering efficiencies in 2001; (3) there is a weak tendency for a hotel with relative high catering efficiency to go with good occupancy efficiency; (4) differences in operating variables, such as the floor space of catering department, the number of guest rooms, the closeness of a hotel to CKS international airport, and the number of employees do have a significant influence upon hotel performance; and finally, (5) about 61.76% of hotels had annual productivity changes over time.