1.Compare two different hotel/resort properties based on the metrics available for their revenue. Discuss the importance of RevPAR to the hospitality industry and how your selected hotel or resort...

1.Compare two different hotel/resort properties based on the metrics available for their revenue. Discuss the importance of RevPAR to the hospitality industry and how your selected hotel or resort uses RevPAR to determine profitability.2.How will the SWOT analysis help to determine revenue-generating opportunities for the hotel or resort you have selected? Are there potential gaps in the SWOT analysis that require further research to feel confident in evaluating a property's potential revenue stream?3.Some in the lodging industry believe too heavy a reliance on the STAR Report to evaluate a hotel's sales effort has a negative effect. Others defend the STAR Report as the only independent way to evaluate a sales staff's effectiveness. Identify two positive and two negative factors involved in an analysis of a hotel or resort's STAR Report. What alternative performance indicators would you suggest hotel owners use to evaluate the performance of their property?4.Some lodging properties measure their own effectiveness using either ADR or Occupancy %. More recently, RevPAR has become the standard by which the effectiveness of a hotel or resort's management team is evaluated. Describe at least one strength and one weakness of each of these approaches (ADR, Occupancy %, and RevPAR). Are all three still useful? Would you as a manager of a hotel or resort use RevPAR as your exclusive measure of effectiveness? Why or why not?5.Using the list of revenue-generating opportunities developed in previous topics, select one opportunity to identify and focus on for the remainder of the course. Provide an overview of the revenue-generating opportunity and include why it would be profitable for the hotel/resort. What general costs must be considered during the implementation process?6.Many travel-related sites offer a low-rate guarantee with additional incentives. How do hotels/resorts make a profit on these low-rate incentives provided by an indirect channel? Why are these channels important to the sales of the hotel? Are hotels/resorts strategic with the channels used to promote room rates through travel sites? Provide an example.7.Travelers increasingly book their hotels rooms online. When you search online for a hotel or resort to stay during your travels, what attracts you to a specific property or brand? Do you feel most travelers shop online in the same manner? List and discuss at least three things that you feel impact a guest's decision to select a particular hotel or resort when making a reservation online.8.The amount of marketing dollars spent promoting a specific distribution channel will typically affect the capacity of that channel to generate revenues for a hotel or resort. Consider third-party internet booking sites and your sales team as distinct channels. What factors might influence management to increase spending on internet booking sites? What factors might result in increased spending for the sales efforts of the sales team?9.Discuss how the revenue-generating event or idea will create a competitive advantage for your selected hotel/resort. Locate a competitor's successful story and discuss how to use competitor's ideas and pricing options to appropriately price and implement your revenue-generating idea.10.The marketing mix and its four p's (product, promotion, place, and price) have been compared to a recipe in which these ingredients must be combined with a skilled sales and marketing team if an acceptable hospitality product is to be sold. Even the proper use of an ingredient will not, on its own, ensure success. Each of the p's is an important ingredient, and poor execution in any one of the areas can, in many cases, mean failure for the business. Which one of the four p's would be the most important ingredient for success in the lodging industry? Why? Which would be the most important ingredient for the food service industry? Why?11.Prices strongly communicate to guests the value a hospitality organization places on its own products and services. In some cases, prices that are too low can cause some guests' perceptions of quality to decline. How can a hospitality organization ensure its target guests do not respond to discount prices in the form of special packaging as being "too cheap" to truly represent a good value?12.What considerations are relevant when creating pro forma statements? What considerations need to be made when developing pro forma statements for your revenue-generating ideas?13.Discuss strategies for improving accuracy in your pro forma statements. How important is historical data and competitors comparison?14.Some managers and owners believe that the balance sheet is the best indicator of an organization's economic health, while others point to the profit and loss statement as the better measure of financial strength. Which financial statement do you believe is the most important? Give two reasons to support your answer.15.Assume that you are a banker asked to lend money to a new hotel company. What are three pieces of financial information you would want to review before approving the loan? What specific financial ratios and key performance indicators would you evaluate to determine the company's ability to repay the loan?