The HOTS simulation is a team based problem solving exercise, where teams will be working<\/p>\n
together making decisions throughout the semester. Each team member has a role and<\/p>\n
function to ensure that your hotel performs well over three simulated \u2018years\u2019. This report,<\/p>\n
however, is an individual <\/strong>report which demonstrates your understanding of your hotel<\/p>\n performance over the three years, as well as the current situation of your hotel.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Business decisions will be made each \u2018month\u2019 (within the simulation), based on<\/p>\n the performance of your hotel. Ensure that all decision processes are recorded during the<\/p>\n semester, as these are required for this report. Business simulation cycling will occur from<\/p>\n Week 5 through to Week 11 (which will result in 3 years of business operations).<\/p>\n The first part of this report is an analysis of your hotel\u2019s performance based on<\/p>\n the decisions\/strategies which your team implemented over the last three \u2018years\u2019. The second<\/p>\n part of the report is a Business Plan for the fourth year. This Business Plan will outline your<\/p>\n current environment, and develop strategies to improve your performance (based on your<\/p>\n results from the last three years).<\/p>\n Specific items that you must include, but not limited to:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Cover Page: <\/strong>Provide identifying details on your cover page.<\/p>\n Table of Contents: <\/strong>Include numbered headings (as shown below) with starting page<\/p>\n numbers.<\/p>\n star rating of your hotel). In a few sentences, state overall how you feel your hotel<\/p>\n performed over the last three years.<\/p>\n analysis:<\/strong><\/p>\n Under each of the following sub-headings, analyse your hotel\u2019s performance for the<\/p>\n last three years, providing data in graph form where required (showing monthly<\/p>\n figures, see examples on L@G).<\/p>\n 2.1. Hotel Improvements. <\/strong>In this section, you will discuss the decisions that you<\/p>\n made relating to refurbishments, extra facilities, guest comfort and EMS. Create<\/p>\n sub-sections for each year (i.e., 2.1.1 Year 1; 2.1.2 Year 2; 2.1.3 Year 3<\/strong>), and<\/p>\n include the ROCE figure achieved in each year. Explain any unusual<\/p>\n decisions\/performance in appropriate business terms (i.e. do not state that you<\/p>\n \u201cforgot to enter decisions before cycling\u201d).<\/p>\n 2.2. Performance of Major Operational Departments. <\/strong>In this section you will<\/p>\n describe and analyse the performance of the Rooms department and the F&B<\/p>\n department. Use appropriate sub-headings (i.e., 2.2.1 Rooms Department<\/strong>;<\/p>\n and 2.2.2 F&B Department<\/strong>). For each sub-section, include a line graph that<\/p>\n visually depicts (month by month) the departmental revenue and the<\/p>\n departmental net income. To create the graphs, download the data from your<\/p>\n Page: 2<\/p>\n HOTS site (see L@G for a sample graph).<\/p>\n Write three paragraphs for each<\/p>\n sub-section (i.e. one paragraph for each year).<\/p>\n In your discussion, include<\/p>\n annual figures of total departmental revenue and total departmental<\/p>\n net income, explaining performance (i.e., what decisions were made). Your<\/p>\n discussion should also highlight such things as departmental revenue as a<\/p>\n % of total hotel revenue<\/p>\n , and F&B GP%.for each year. Explain any unusual<\/p>\n decisions\/performance in appropriate business terms (i.e. do not state that you<\/p>\n \u201cforgot to enter decisions before cycling\u201d).<\/p>\n 2.3. Revenue Management Strategy. <\/strong>In this section you will describe and analyse<\/p>\n your revenue management strategy for each of the three years (i.e. write three<\/p>\n paragraphs). Include a line graph that visually depicts (month by month) your<\/p>\n hotel\u2019s ADR, RevPAR and occupancy percentage (download the data from your<\/p>\n HOTS site and see L@G for a sample graph with two y axes). In your<\/p>\n description\/analysis, as a minimum you must i<\/p>\n nclude annual figures for average<\/p>\n occupancy, average daily rate and<\/p>\n REVPAR, explaining performance and rate<\/p>\n strategy<\/p>\n decisions such as distribution channels, discounts and letting limits. The<\/p>\n best reports will relate rate strategy to STAR report indices. Explain any unusual<\/p>\n decisions\/performance in appropriate business terms (i.e. do not state that you<\/p>\n \u201cforgot to enter decisions before cycling\u201d).<\/p>\n 2.4. Marketing and Service Delivery. <\/strong>In this section, you will discuss your<\/p>\n marketing strategy (i.e. 2.4.1 Marketing Strategy<\/strong>) and service performance<\/p>\n (i.e. 2.4.2 Service Delivery<\/strong>). In terms of marketing, as a minimum you need to<\/p>\n discuss your marketing spend as a % of total revenue and your Public<\/p>\n Awareness Index, including the relevant decisions that affected these figures.<\/p>\n In terms of service delivery, as a minimum you need to discuss your Market<\/p>\n Image Index as well as staffing decisions. Explain any unusual<\/p>\n decisions\/performance in appropriate business terms (i.e. do not state that you<\/p>\n \u201cforgot to enter decisions before cycling\u201d).<\/p>\n 4:<\/strong>Introduce this section. Your Year 4 business plan should be based on outcomes of<\/p>\n Year<\/p>\n 3.1. SWOT:<\/strong><\/p>\n Assessment of current environment (as at January Year 4). Your business\u2019s<\/p>\n strengths and weaknesses are internal factors, while the opportunities and<\/p>\n threats are external trends or facts. You must include your STAR report<\/p>\n indices<\/p>\n as either a strength or weakness.<\/p>\n Each point identified must have supporting evidence. For example, if you state<\/p>\n you have good service quality, provide evidence (e.g. consistently low staff<\/p>\n turnover %). If you have good occupancy, state your average annual occupancy<\/p>\n %. If<\/p>\n you say your restaurant is best in town, it has to be more than just because<\/p>\n one customer says so (remember you had 1000\u2019s of customers dine in your<\/p>\n restaurant). A better indication of a well-run restaurant are things such as gross<\/p>\n profit and number of covers per day.<\/p>\n Each opportunity and threat requires a reference to support the fact\/trend<\/p>\n discussed. Ensure a discussion of your competitors are included under \u2018threats\u2019,<\/p>\n but for the best marks you must consider other realistic threats other than just<\/p>\n your competitors.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The majority of the supporting references should be from HOTS documents.<\/p>\n Do NOT present information in a table format, but use full sentences,<\/p>\n paragraphs<\/p>\n and supporting in-text citations. These can be presented in bullet points. A<\/p>\n minimum of three dot points is required for each of the four SWOT sub-headings.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 3.1.1. Strengths:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 3.1.2. Weaknesses:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 3.1.3. Opportunities:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 3.1.4. Threats:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 3.2. Objectives:<\/strong><\/p>\n Each objective must be clear, achievable, measurable and with a time frame. A<\/p>\n minimum of four objectives are required (with at least six for the best marks)<\/p>\n including both financial and marketing objectives, and should be presented in point<\/p>\n form. Refer back to the Week 2 Lecture for the difference between objectives and<\/p>\n strategies.<\/p>\n For the best marks, there will be a clear and obvious link between the SWOT and<\/p>\n your objectives\/strategies. The most important weaknesses, opportunities and<\/p>\n threats will be addressed in the objectives and strategies, e.g. if you have good<\/p>\n revenue but low profit, then increasing your profit % is an important objective that<\/p>\n can be supported by strategies aimed at cost control.<\/p>\n 3.3. Strategies:<\/strong><\/p>\n Your strategies are the HOTS decisions that you would implement for Year<\/p>\n 4, in order to achieve the objectives you have just stated above. You can<\/p>\n continue<\/p>\n previous decisions in the areas where you are doing well (if any) but focus your<\/p>\n strategic plan on areas that are poor (need improvement). Identified weaknesses,<\/p>\n opportunities and threats should therefore be addressed in this process (not<\/p>\n necessarily explicitly, but the link will be obvious to the reader if done well).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A list of headings are supplied on the next page but more can be added. For<\/p>\n example, after 3.3.2 you could then have 3.3.3 labelled \u2018Conference market\u2019 (not<\/p>\n \u2018Other\u2019 as the headings need to be descriptive). For each discussion on market<\/p>\n segments, e.g. corporate and leisure, discuss the basic HOTS decisions first. For<\/p>\n example, if are you building any new \u2018product\u2019 for corporates in Year 4, what<\/p>\n weekday rate are you planning to charge, how do you plan to promote weekday<\/p>\n rooms, what discounts you are offering etc. This information is the minimum level<\/p>\n required for PASS and CREDIT mark on this assessment criterion.<\/p>\n Then you can introduce external ideas which are referenced from journals. For<\/p>\n example, you may read the latest academic peer-reviewed research (i.e. not a<\/p>\n random blog on Google) which identified corporates want mobile check-in<\/p>\n opportunities. This would then be a recommendation in 3.3.1 to install this<\/p>\n technology. This additional information is required for a DISTINCTION and HIGH<\/p>\n DISTINCTION on this assessment criterion.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 3.3.1. Corporate\/weekday Market <\/strong>(discuss each of the following:<\/p>\n Product, promotion and sales, pricing and distribution, as relevant to the corporate<\/p>\n market)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 3.3.2. Leisure\/weekend Market <\/strong>(discuss each of the following: Product,<\/p>\n promotion and sales, pricing and distribution, as relevant to the leisure<\/p>\n market)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 3.3.3. Other market segments<\/strong>\u2026(use a descriptive heading e.g., conference<\/p>\n market) (discuss each of the following: Product, promotion and sales,<\/p>\n pricing and distribution)<\/p>\n 3.3.4. Food and beverage <\/strong>(discuss your food and beverage decisions including<\/p>\n menu, supplier, liquor and selling price. Also include relevant advertising<\/p>\n decisions)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 3.3.5. Staffing and Service quality <\/strong>(Staffing: minimum discussion is pay,<\/p>\n training and number of staff based on forecasts. Service quality:<\/p>\n strategies to improve service quality providing specific steps)<\/p>\n 3.3.6. Physical property condition <\/strong>(current status, building and renovations<\/p>\n planned, EMS initiatives)<\/p>\n 5.1. Current Balance Sheet (December Year 3) <\/strong>(one page only)<\/p>\n 5.2. Statement of Income for the whole of Year 3 <\/strong>(one page only)<\/p>\n 5.3. Monthly Indicator report for all 12 months of Year 3 <\/strong>(two pages only)<\/p>\n Page: 5<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The HOTS simulation is a team based problem solving exercise, where teams will be working together making decisions throughout the semester. Each team member has a role and function to ensure that your hotel performs well over three simulated \u2018years\u2019. Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-182644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182644\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n
\n
\n
\n