Grailer Faculty Fellow Program
The Grailer Faculty Fellow Program, offered by the Center for Hospitality Research (CHR), is designed to support tenure-track faculty at the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration conduct impactful, industry-relevant research that benefits the broader hospitality and travel industry.
To see a list of the CHR’s current funding opportunities, click here.
2026 Grant Recipients
Aaron Adalja
How sustainability initiatives generate ROI for hotels
This project evaluates how sustainability initiatives in hotel development and operations generate financial returns across risk, financing, operating costs, and revenue channels, and how those returns should inform investment decisions, by integrating property-level data from IHG’s Low Carbon Pioneers program with broader market and industry insights.
Lauri Kytömaa
How tenant protections for long-term renters reshape housing markets and potentially create competitive pressure on hotels
This project examines how recent tenant-protection policies in New York City reshape the allocation of housing across long, medium, and short-term rental markets, creating potential spillovers that affect hotel competitiveness and overall housing supply, by analyzing policy-driven shifts in housing stock, market pressures, and regulatory outcomes.
Meng Qi
How AI-empowered inventory copilots can reduce food waste in the Asian hospitality industry
This project develops AI-powered inventory copilots to reduce food waste in commercial kitchens, combining predictive optimization, bias detection, and generative AI interfaces to improve decision-making, build manager trust, and enhance both financial and sustainability outcomes.
2025 Grant Recipients
Heeyon Kim
Crossing Categories: The Competitive Impact of Marriott Homes & Villas on Airbnb Listings
Heeyon Kim analyzes the competitive response of incumbent Airbnb hosts to the entry of extended-stay brands such as Marriott Villas within their micromarket, focusing on availability, listing attributes, communication strategies, and pricing dynamics.
Tashlin Lakhani
Context Matters: Job Quality and Outcomes in the U.S. Hospitality Industry
Tashlin Lakhani is leading the hospitality component of a comparative study on job quality and its impact on job satisfaction and turnover across hospitality, healthcare, retail, warehousing, and telecommunications. The research uses surveys and semi-structured interviews.
Ruihao Zhu
LLM for Large-Scale Automated Decision-Making in Airline Network Planning
Ruihao Zhu is developing a methodology using large language models to translate managerial instructions into technical specifications for IT professionals. His pilot application focuses on airline route network design, using data from Singapore Airlines. Ruihao’s research projects focuses on Asian Hospitality Studies.