Limitations of Technology

What company owns Comfort Inns? Choice Hotels. Is it a REIT? No, Host and Starwood are REITS.

That was an example of Frank and mine conversation as we made our way to class. Last night we stayed up late to finish our readings and we spent the morning quizzing each other from when we met in my room until we got to our classroom. Our heads were swimming with facts as we sat down ready to take our quiz on hotel brands. I felt like I got some of the brands and companies mixed up on the first half of the quiz but in the second page, I feel that I should have got only one or two wrong.

After the quiz we got our presentation grades back. My group got a 87 which isn't great. I'm pretty disappointed about our grade because our scores for how we presented were great, it was our actual PowerPoint grade that prevented us from receiving an A. It gave me more motivation to do better on the next activity we did: a full run through in CHESS using our expense setting strategy we outlined in our business memo.

This time around, my hotel did much better than last time. My average daily department revenue rose by $1,800 and I think I can reach the $10,000 daily profit goal if I lower my expenses and change my strategy about closing rates. I really wish CHESS would allow me to apply what I learned in class today. We learned about setting up fences which is basically making it so you have lower rates open to price conscious people but keeping people who are willing and capable of paying a higher rate from paying the lower rate. This is done by setting up fences. An example is making the lower rate only available to those who know they won't cancel or making a stipulation that a customer can't book at the lower rate unless the customer stays for three nights. I would really love to apply this to CHESS because I'm always conflicted when it comes to closing rates. I want to close the lower rates early so customers that would pay $100 for a room aren't paying $70. On the flip side, I don't want to be scaring price conscious clients away. If I could set up fences, I think my CHESS hotel would be much more profitable.