What  are some strategies that can be used to ensure effective hotel room  pricing given the perishable nature of hotel rooms?

Front Office Management (Choose An Option)

Submit  your work to the module three discussion board. Post your work in one  post in the body of your discussion board post. Please do not attach  your work. However, you are advised to back up all work in a Word  document. Create your assignment in this document, save as you go and  copy and paste your work into the discussion board to submit.  Blackboard/technical issue can happen and it is imperative that you save  all of your work!

Remember  to respond to at least two of your classmates. Your responses should be  thoughtful, thorough and well developed. One or two sentences are not  sufficient. The goal is to create an active an engaging course  discussion. Please make sure your responses help to fulfill this goal.

Directions:

To  complete this assignment please select one of the options below and  complete the work for your selected option. Post your work for the  option you selected in one post in the module three discussion board (do  not attach the work in a separate document). For this assignment, you  get to take control of your learning experience and select the  assignment option that most interests you and that you would like to  complete. Remember to select and complete only one of the following  options.

Note:  Given that you have the flexibility to take control of your learning  and select the topic and assignment option that most interest you it is  very important that you look for posts from your classmates that discuss  a topic/pertain to an option other than the assignment option you  selected to ensure you have the opportunity to think about and discuss a  variety of topics from this module. So, for this module if you complete  option one look to read and respond to one classmate that completed  option two and one classmate that completed option three if possible.  Additionally, you are expected to post thorough, thoughtful and very  well developed response to the work of your classmates to ensure you  thoroughly explore and discuss the topic in question. Make sure you  challenge yourself and work diligently to learn all of the key  information presented in this module, not just the information  pertaining to your chosen option.

Option One: Forecasting and Forces Driving Change

Please  review my notes in the module titled “Instructor’s Notes: Forecasting  and Forces Driving Change” and then complete the following:

1. Select a hotel (this may be a local hotel, your favorite hotel, a hotel you would like to visit, a hotel you work for, etc.).
2. Look  at what is going on in the environment outside this hotel and identify  various forces driving change that may impact occupancy at this hotel.  Locate one force driving change that may increase occupancy and one  force driving change that may decrease occupancy. Note: this can be a  force driving change that may affect occupancy on a particular day (i.e.  a special event) or that may affect demand overall for the foreseeable  future (i.e. drop in has prices resulting in more travel that may lead  to higher occupancy during the upcoming summer travel months).
3. Share  the force driving change you identified that you think will increase  demand. Why did you select this as a force driving change? How do you  think it will result increased demand at this hotel (and therefore  higher occupancy that should be accounted for when forecasting)?
4.  Share  the force driving change you identified that you think will decrease  demand. Why did you select this as a force driving change? How do you  think it will result in decreased demand at this hotel (and therefore  lower occupancy that should be accounted for when forecasting)?

Option Two: RevPar versus GoPar

Chapter  nine discussed the importance of revenue management and the fact that  “Revenue management is a daily activity” (Woods et al., 2007). RevPar  and GoPar are also discussed. As a hospitality professional is crucial  that you understand the importance of revenue management as well as  these two very important measures of hotel performance. Let’s take a  moment to look at each.

1. Using  the Internet please find out more about RevPar and GoPar. Research  these two measures of effectiveness and find out more about each. There are also many interesting and relevant articles located in the folder titled “RevPar versus GoPar”.
2. Which performance measure do you think is “best” and why?  Please justify your choice and explain your reasoning using outside  sources, the book, your own experience, etc. to support your argument.
3. Out  of all of the articles and additional information you found when  completing your research on this topic which article or additional  information stood out to you and why? Share a brief summary of the  article or additional information.
4. Please  share you three key takeaways from your research (the three things you  learned that most surprised you, stood out to you, interested you, you  found most useful, etc.)

Option Three: Hotel Rooms: A Perishable Product

We  know that hotels rooms are perishable. If they are not sold on a given  day the revenue for that day is lost. They cannot be “saved” and sold  later like a physical item such as a TV, an item of clothing, a car, a  boat, etc. The perishability of hotel rooms means effective revenue  management is critical to the success of a hotel. Revenue managers must  they implement the correct pricing policies and revenue management  techniques to ensure they set rates that will ensure they sell rooms and  maximize revenue. Let’s take a closer look at the perishability of  hotel rooms as this is a crucial aspect of revenue management that you  should understand as a hospitality professional!

1. Using  the Internet please find out more about the perishability of hotel  rooms. There are also many interesting and relevant articles located in  the folder titled “Hotel Rooms: A Perishable Product”.
2. How does the perishability of hotel rooms affect the pricing strategies that are used?
3. What  are some strategies that can be used to ensure effective hotel room  pricing given the perishable nature of hotel rooms? Discuss several  strategies and the benefits of each strategy.
4. Out  of all of the articles and additional information you found when  completing your research on this topic which article or additional  information stood out to you and why? Share a brief summary of the  article or additional information.
5. Please  share you three key takeaways from your research (the three things you  learned that most surprised you, stood out to you, interested you, you  found most useful, etc.)

Option Four: Find Your Own Resource

Find  an article or video related to the module. You might consider some of  the following possibilities: Occupancy forecasts, RevPar, GoPar,  NRevPar, STR Reports, role of a revenue manager, room rate economics, yield management, etc.

Make  sure you include a very thorough summary of the article or video to  include why you selected it, how it relates to module three, what you  learned overall, your three key takeaways (the three things you learned  that most surprised you, stood out to you, interested you, you found  most useful, etc.)and how you think it can benefit your classmates.