Hotel & Restaurant

Management Simulation

CASE DESCRIPTION
 Crown Hotel Arkadia
CASE COMPANY DESCRIPTION

BACKGROUND
Crown Hotel Arkadia is a medium-sized hotel in the city of Arkadia. The hotel has been operational for
20 years and gained a good reputation during these years. There are three groups of customers in this
hotel: leisure customers, business customers and conference customers. In addition, the hotel also
operates a restaurant.

ABOUT THE CITY OF ARKADIA

Arkadia is the largest city in the country with a population of over 7 million. It was the capital of an old
empire and has a rich and eventful history spanning from the medieval times. According to statistics
published by the National Geography magazine, on average 5 million tourists per year are attracted to
visit Arkadia. The city is also a central business hub, with 20 companies of “Fortune 500 enterprises”
headquartered in the city’s financial district. Also, a variety of different conferences are held in this city
throughout the year.

Due to the financial crisis, the forecasting made by HCG Consulting Group has shown that the tourism
and business travels are suffering a continuous recession in the following year. However, there are also
inspiring news. The Continental Football Championship will be held in Arkadia this summer, so an
increase in tourist numbers is to be expected.

You are asked to replace the previous management team, who served in this hotel for 3 years and
demonstrated weak financial performance during its term. The owner of the hotel has high hopes for the
new management team.

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Crown Hotel Arkadia
CASE COMPANY DESCRIPTION

GENERAL BUSINESS SITUATION

HOTELS IN ARKADIA
There are approximately 1000 hotels in the city area, so strong competition can be expected. Half of
these hotels have their own restaurant operations and many offer the same quality level as your hotel
does.

LABOR MARKET
Due to the ongoing recession unemployment rate has been continuously rising during the past two
years. As a result, experienced staff is easier to find than normal and the retention rate for the existing
staff is also high.

PERSONNEL
The previous hotel management team has been working for Crown Hotel Arkadia for over three years.
The previous general manager knew everything about the day-to-day hotel operations. There were four
managers in his management team: Crown Hotel Arkadia Case Description of Hospitality Simulation
Game a front desk manager, housekeeping manager, maintenance manager and a restaurant manager.

The previous front desk manager thought that the room demand would be difficult to forecast, so he
proposed to have more temporary staff than permanent ones in order to keep the staff structure more
flexible. The previous housekeeping manager considered service quality as her first priority, so she
suggested having more permanent staff due to their higher skill level.

As a result, the employees that are currently hired by the hotel are listed below:

Permanent staff Temporary staff

Desk 3 5

Housekeeping 10 5

Restaurant 7 10

- Kitchen 4 5

- Dininghall 3 5

Maintenance 3 0

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Crown Hotel Arkadia
CASE COMPANY DESCRIPTION

OPERATIONS

HOTEL OPERATIONS
The hotel has a total of 140 rooms. The rooms are homogeneous; meaning that there are no differences
in room pricing based on the room type. Also, there are various facilities available for the customers,
such as SPA services and an outdoor swimming pool.

FRONT DESK
Decisions regarding pricing strategies for different booking periods, sales promotions, and front desk
staffing are done here.

HOUSEKEEPING
The previous housekeeping manager felt sometimes disappointed with the previous general manager of
this hotel, because he had only wanted to cut costs, rather than trying to bring the best possible value to
satisfy the customers. As such, the current situation is that you are currently cooperated with the least
costly outsourced housekeeping firm with a medium service quality level. No priority areas are assigned.
This housekeeping service is mainly in the hotel part, though the restaurant and bar area are also served
by the same team.

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Crown Hotel Arkadia
CASE COMPANY DESCRIPTION

MAINTENANCE
Roughly a year ago, a big renovation was done on the hotel and restaurant facilities. As a result, both
the hotel and restaurant are nearly as good as new. The maintenance manager has led his team for
continuous improvements for the hotel. During the last two weeks, they have finished the redecoration of
the staff lounge. Besides the facility improvement, they are also responsible for some additional value-
added service for both customers and staff.

RESTAURANT OPERATIONS AND BREAKFAST

The restaurant manager is responsible for monitoring everything both in the kitchen and the dining hall.
Each round he decides the food menu and beverage selection as well as estimates the sales and makes
staffing decisions. He will also decide the table arrangement for the restaurant.

The simulation has an optional breakfast module and if that module is enabled there are decisions
regarding price, quality, and staffing that need to be done. Note that the breakfast module is not visible
unless your instructor has enabled the module.

SUPPORT OPERATIONS
HUMAN RESOURCES
The general manager is in charge of the human resources policy. He makes decisions on recruitment,
compensation plans, and training policies. At the moment, the hotel offers the employees an industry
average salary and benefits. No training policy is used currently due to the previous budget made by the
former general manager.

PROCUREMENT
You have no procurement specialist at this moment, so as the management team you have to decide the
planned surplus rate by yourself. Room consumable goods are also purchased in this department. The
estimated use is based on your estimations at the front desk and restaurant.

REPORTS
A detailed report covering both your and your competitors’ performance will be available to you after
each round. The reports will give you comprehensive information about your performance and helps you
to benchmark against your competitors.