If necessity is the mother of invention, extreme discomfort might be the mother of necessity, as Cornell Alumnus Arthur Chang discovered during a return flight from the Dominican Republic back in 2001. After jostling for armrest position yet again, he conceived an idea of a contraption that would provide much needed comfort to a cramped airline seat. He set the idea aside, though, as he entered into the competitive industry of hospitality consulting with Jim Coyle’s (’87) prestigious firm Coyle Hospitality Group; meanwhile, his wife and fellow Cornell Alumnus, Grace, earned her masters degree in architecture and began working in design.

The airline comfort idea never fully died, though, and in 2011 the Changs decided to bring their brainchild to life. Thanks to Arthur’s vision and Grace’s background in design, they created a sleek, lightweight, attachable armrest divider that successfully ends the fight for armrest space, allowing both sides to share equally. The couple searched for ways to bring it to market, but struggled to interest vendors in their design.

Fortunately, they belong to an innovative network of people who share their entrepreneurial spirit: The Cornell Hotel Society. Arthur and Grace began to consult with old friends and fellow Cornell Alumni, who offered valuable insight into the Changs’ branding and marketing strategy. The Changs engaged with Hotelie Kira Kohrherr (’01), who helped with the company’s rebranding; with a new name and a strategic marketing campaign, Soarigami quickly took off.

Deeply impressed, the television marketing experts at Will It Launch brought Soarigami to “As Seen On TV,” and the Changs’ savvy invention began to revolutionize the travel industry as it received international acclaim and became the “product to have,” according to publications such as Conde Nast Traveler, Fast Company, CNN, Gizmodo, The Atlantic, and over 400 others in 50 countries.

Thankful not only for the success of their invention but for the instrumental advice and support from their fellow Cornell alumni, the Changs were inspired to give back during Entrepreneurship@Cornell’s Annual Celebration Conference. As Arthur put it, “We were blown away by all the students who have ideas to disrupt industry and change the world. Our idea feels so small compared to these students’ (ideas).” Thus, Arthur and Grace led the way in creating the “Launch your Idea!” consumer product competition.

This competition, made possible by a deal that the Changs brokered between Entrepreneurship@Cornell and Will it Launch, will look for the next big “it” idea among Cornell students and alumni and will connect the winner directly to both funding and to the people who can bring it to market. The Changs’ biggest regret is not going to their CHS network sooner, so they are thrilled at the chance to help others by smoothing the way for fellow Cornell students and alumni.

Arthur and Grace are taking all that they’ve learned from their entrepreneurial adventure and leveraging it into the start-up world. Most significantly, they remember that this sense of community and belonging comes full circle: connected every step of the way to their fellow Hotelies, they received support to become an international success, and now will influence those who follow in their rather impressive footsteps.

by Peter Glanville

Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration has released a compelling study measuring the direct impact of the Stash Rewards loyalty program on hotels, one of the first detailed studies showing how a loyalty program affects actual loyalty.

The main limitation is the focus on the third-party Stash Rewards program, as it does not offer conclusions related to the performance of existing hotel chains’ loyalty programs. Nonetheless, the study details just how independent chains can benefit from a third-party program – and Stash Rewards is, according to the company, the largest program for independent hotels in the United States.

The study considered two separate hotel groups: one of is a regional group with over a dozen properties with an ADR of $73 and the other is a more upscale, with an ADR of $261 across more than dozen properties. By using a statistical procedure known as “coarsened exact matching,” the study authors ensured that each data point is matched with a similar one for comparison purposes.

This means that each member was matched with a non-member, with the matched pairs occurring between guests that had the most comparable spending patterns in the 365 day period before enrolling in the loyalty program. One of the matches then enrolled in the program, while the other remained a non-member, allowing the behavior to be compared to see how spending was affected in the 365 day period post-enrollment.

 

Read more at here.