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