Hotel and Lodging Management Series

The setting

SILVER HOUSE is a historic building recently converted into a lodge. Almost nobody locally has been inside it, and the owner believes the people most likely to recommend it to visiting family have never seen a room.

Your role

You are to assume the role of the general manager of SILVER HOUSE.

Your task

The owner (judge) wants you to plan how SILVER HOUSE introduces itself locally. Identify the lodging sales opportunities an event like this could create, explain how you would acquire the knowledge of the property's capacity and amenities you would need to sell it, explain the factors that motivate people to choose one property over another, describe the concept of promotion in this industry, and explain the promotional methods the industry uses.

Performance indicators

• Identify lodging sales opportunities.
• Acquire knowledge of property capacity/amenities.
• Explain factors that motivate people to choose a hospitality and tourism site.
• Describe the concept of promotion in the hospitality and tourism industry.
• Explain promotional methods used by the hospitality and tourism industry.

The judge will ask

1. 1.Who in this town would you most want through the door?
2. 2.How would you know afterwards whether it worked?

The setting

A guest at the BELMONT reported that their key card opened another guest's room. The front office believes it was a one-off programming error; nobody has checked whether it could have happened before.

Your role

You are to assume the role of an operations associate at the BELMONT.

Your task

The general manager (judge) wants you to explain what happens now. Explain how key-control measures protect guests, explain the hotel security considerations this raises, explain the security considerations in the hospitality industry more broadly, explain how an emergency situation should be handled if it turns out not to be a one-off, and explain the nature of guest recovery for the guest who reported it.

Performance indicators

• Use key-control measures to protect guests.
• Explain hotel security considerations.
• Explain security considerations in the hospitality and tourism industry.
• Handle emergency situations in hospitality and tourism.
• Explain the nature of guest recovery.

The judge will ask

1. 1.What do you tell the guest who reported it?
2. 2.What would you check before you say it was a one-off?

The setting

The RIVERBEND fills at weekends and sits largely empty from Monday to Thursday. The building costs the same to run every night, and the sales effort has always gone where the demand already is.

Your role

You are to assume the role of a sales associate at the RIVERBEND.

Your task

The director of sales (judge) wants you to recommend how the RIVERBEND sells its midweek nights. Identify the lodging sales opportunities midweek actually offers, explain how you would acquire knowledge of the meeting room capacity the property could sell, explain the factors considered when determining a group rate, explain what motivates a different kind of guest to choose a property, and describe the services the hospitality industry offers that the RIVERBEND does not yet.

Performance indicators

• Identify lodging sales opportunities.
• Acquire knowledge of lodging meeting room capacity/requirements.
• Explain factors considered when determining group/event negotiation strategies.
• Explain factors that motivate people to choose a hospitality and tourism site.
• Describe services offered by the hospitality and tourism industry.

The judge will ask

1. 1.Who stays in a hotel on a Tuesday, and what do they need?
2. 2.What would you stop doing to make room for this?

The setting

The KINGSFORD must replace the bathrooms on every floor. Closing is not an option, so the work will happen floor by floor while guests are in the building, paying the usual rate to sleep above a building site.

Your role

You are to assume the role of an operations associate at the KINGSFORD.

Your task

The general manager (judge) wants you to plan how the work is run. Explain how the hazardous chemicals and waste the work produces should be identified, explain how they should be labelled and stored in an occupied building, explain how deliveries should be processed through a hotel that is also trading, explain how emergency situations would be handled with a floor under construction, and explain how service standards should be maintained through peaks in disruption.

Performance indicators

• Identify hazardous chemicals/waste.
• Label/store hazardous chemicals/waste.
• Process deliveries.
• Handle emergency situations in hospitality and tourism.
• Maintain service standards during peaks in demand.

The judge will ask

1. 1.How do you decide which floor goes first?
2. 2.Do you tell guests at booking? What exactly do you say?