The Effect of Demand Uncertainty on the Decisions and Revenues in the Two Class Revenue Management Model

We explore the impact of changes in market conditions on optimal allocation decisions and revenues, within the standard two-class revenue management framework, using stochastic dominance relations. We show that an increase in market size leads to higher revenues, and the number of units allocated to the high-end class increases in its market size. The direction of the change in optimal allocation and revenues in response to changes in the variability of the high-end market depends on the relationship between the high and lowend prices. Our structural and numerical results suggest higher variability in the market is generally detrimental to revenues.