The case examines the issues faced by a hotel management and development company as it tries to increase the return to its shareholders. The firm's major shareholders have commented that they believe the firm is currently under-valued, so management is considering several means of unlocking extra value. Due to difficult economic conditions resulting from the Global Economic Crisis, there are both many opportunities as well as many risks to the .....more

In June 2008, the Kimpton Hotels' area director of revenue management (director) for Washington, D.C. was trying to process the most recent customer information report from Priceline.com (Priceline). In an attempt to improve revenues during periods of low occupancy at the hotel, the director had recently been using Priceline's "name your own price" bidding format. While using this sales channel had limited success, the director .....more

In June 2008, the Kimpton Hotels’ area director of revenue management (director) for Washington, D.C. finished creating a pricing strategy that would determine the optimal posted price for rooms in the Washington, D. C. hotel as well as the number of rooms that should be provided to Priceline.com. He realized there was even more potential to gain revenue by posting more than one price; however, this would add further complexity into the strategy .....more

The Kimpton Hotels’ area director of revenue management (director) for Washington, D.C. was excited about using Priceline.com to help fill rooms on some of Kimpton’s low-demand weekends. He estimated the coming weeks’ demand across three rate classes and across three lengths of stay (LOS), and he wanted to make sure he did not use Priceline.com too aggressively by releasing too many rooms onto the site.

A management consultant is dispatched to a Central Asian Republic to conduct an operational analysis of an underperforming hotel. Initially the objective of the assignment is to turn around the business. The scope of the intervention, however, changes dramatically as the consultant finds himself in the midst of a high stakes stakeholder standoff with numerous parties vying for ownership of the business. Based on an actual consulting assignment, the .....more

The manager of an upscale hotel in the heart of London, Ontario – The Clonlara – wanted to apply revenue management techniques to increase revenue at the hotel. Specifically, she wanted to apply quantitative analysis to determine how many rooms to discount for a Saturday night stay.

In the spring of 2007, a vacationer is upset by the poor hotel experience he has had on the island of Guam. At the onset, the reasons for the bad experience seem to point to seemingly minor issues: bad management, poor service and old rooms. The value of the case lies in the analysis of the symptoms and arriving at the root causes of the problem, particularly the profit maximization strategy of the hotel's owners in a mature industry. The case .....more

The general manager of The Mount Rundle Hotel in Banff, Alberta, Canada, felt pressure from her boss at the Encore Hotels Group. A customer had complained to her. Later, he approached the Better Business Bureau of Southern Alberta, the Banff Lake Louise tourism development board, the mayor’s office and had posted a complaint on Tripadvisor.com. The general manager’s boss was not happy and she was frustrated. The customer did not seem to give up. .....more

The hotel industry has experienced tremendous growth since the 1980s and has emerged as a global industry. During the expansion processes and rise of competition, multinational, multi-brand corporations, such as Hilton Hotels Corporation, were in the process of finding new markets and setting priorities. On the other hand in emerging markets, such as Russia, most of the national hotel industry had been formed under the pressure of foreign hotel .....more

The case looks at the takeover of the Roaring Dragon Hotel (RDH), a state owned enterprise in south-west China, by global hotelier Hotel International (HI) and discusses the cultural collision and organizational adoptions resulting from the intersections of two significantly different business cultures. Specifically in this case, the focus is on the challenge involved with downsizing, redundancy, communication, cultural sensitivity, strategic planning .....more