Bournemouth University have won the Passion 4 Hospitality Business Game for the second year in a row. Team member Ellen McCausland tweeted after the event “@HOTS_Simulation Such a fantastic day yesterday at @IoH_Online Conference. Proud to have brought home the trophy for a second year! #BUproud”.
The competition was contested this year by teams from Plymouth, Manchester Metropolitan, University College Birmingham, Westminster Kingsway and Bournemouth. These five teams came through the online heats for the competition, which featured eight teams.
This year the focus of the business game was on revenue management, social media and guest reviews. Each of the five teams competing in the HOTS business management game were given the responsibility of managing individual hotels within the simulated environment. All five teams were in direct competition with each other and competition was fierce.
The simulation scenario was created to compliment the theme from the P4H live debate final. The teams were tasked with creating a revenue management strategy for their hotels and then executing this within the simulation. The teams were judged on their hotel performance results, which included RevPAR, ADR, Occupancy and Gross Operating Profit. They each also had to produce a written revenue management plan.
The teams could sell rooms through online channels, set their rate strategies and also manage their social media profiles.
Peter Russell, Operations manager from HOTS (The Total Simulator Company) said, “We wanted to present the teams with a curve-ball this year and present them with an exercise closely focused on revenue management to see how they would cope. This will be an essential skill for them in years to come and all five teams coped very well, with all of them running profitable hotel businesses by the end of the competition, which is a great achievement.”
The properties all started the same, with all teams having an equal chance for success. The competition was fierce with Plymouth coming a very close second, followed by Manchester Metropolitan in third.
Debra Adams, Head of Professional Development at arena4finance said, “We were very impressed by the commitment and level of achievement demonstrated by all the teams taking part at this years event. REVPAR and GOPPAR maximisation was the key to success and all the teams massively improved these KPI’s for their virtual hotels resulting in a very close contest!”
The Business Management Game was delivered by the teams from HOTS and arena4finance and in partnership with the Institute of Hospitality and CHME.
The winning team will be awarded a day in industry from a partner organisation who will give them experience of what it is like working in the hospitality industry. This will be discussed with the team to make sure the day is focused on an area of interest to them.
All of the teams did exceptionally well. If these were real life hotels, all of the shareholders would be very pleased, as all five hotels were starting to turn a good profit by the end of the year, with the chance for further improvement in future years.
This was the second year that this Business Management Game has taken place and due to the positive feedback received, it will certainly be taking place again next year. If your university is interested in taking part, contact the teams from HOTS or arena4finance.
About arena4finance
Founded in March 2004 by Debra Adams, an experienced educator and trainer with over twenty years’ experience of developing bespoke training programmes, arena4finance specialises in the design and delivery of financial training and professional development for non-financial managers and career accountants.
About The Total Simulator Company (HOTS)
The Total Simulator Company are the world leaders in business simulation technology. We have been delivering courses to service industry managers and business professionals for over 20 years.
About the Author: Professor Peter A Jones MBE
Professor Peter Jones is the Dean of the eHotelier Academy. With a distinguished career in hospitality, education and training, Peter has been involved with national and international projects with clients involved in hospitality education. Peter is a Director the Edge Hotel School and of Hotel Future, a new education and training initiative in Greater Manchester and is a Visiting Professor at the University of Derby. He was also awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to the hospitality industry.
