Order Description
Part1. Monitor nitenite Cityrooms room prices. Price differences between sites over the monitoring period.Plot the prices on a chart.Present an overview of your key findings (use theories about pricing, distribution and revenue management to provide convincing reasoned explanations)
Part2. Identify what satisfies customers during the delivery of a service in housekeeping, front desk or maintenance.
Critically evaluate operations and service management theories that can be applied to the design of the service processes in one department to ensure that satisfactory service is consistently delivered to customers.
Assignment Remit
The assignment is broken down into two parts; each part is given a % value towards the total of this module.
Part 1 (15%): Presentation of 10 minutes per team on 01/12/2015
For part 1 you work in teams of two. Each team will be allocated a hotel(niteniteCityrooms). Visit its own website and one third party site (e.g. Expedia, LateRooms, Travelocity), your task is to monitor room prices on both sites and account for any change over time or price differences betweensites over the monitoring period. References used should be included.
Part 1, task one
• Start monitoring prices on Monday October 19th. Select one room type and choose an arrival date of Monday November 9th for one night.
• Check and note prices every day up to and including Sunday November 8th, remember always to use November 9th as the arrival date.
Remember you are checking the same room type on the two sites.
• Plot the prices on a chart. If the room type you are monitoring ceases to be present on a website on any date then record the price as zero pounds.
Part 1, task two
• Start monitoring prices on the same date as in task one. Use the same room type as in task one.
• Check and note prices every day from Monday October 19th up to and including Sunday November 8th, BUT THIS TIME check the price for the room as if you were arriving on the day that you check the price.
Remember you are checking the same room type on the two sites.
• Plot the prices on a chart. If the room type you are monitoring ceases to be present on a website on any date then record the price as zero pounds.
You will present an overview of your key findings to your peers in scheduled seminar during week 10.
Students are expected to use theories about pricing, distribution and revenue management to provide convincing reasoned explanations in the presentation. Just describing the pattern that you find will not be sufficient to pass this task.
You can adopt any format e.g. a poster, presentation, handouts. (Facilities exist within UCB to access art room materials. You are required to exercise your own initiative to explore ways to support and articulate your own ideas).
Nothing will be submitted to the resource centre, you will be graded during your presentation and leave hard copies or originals of your presentation materials with the marker.
Part 2 (60%): Individual essay of 3,000 words,e-submissionon 03/12/15
Identify what satisfies customers during the delivery of a service in housekeeping, front desk or maintenance.
Critically evaluate operations and service management theories that can be applied to the design of the service processes in one department to ensure that satisfactory service is consistently delivered to customers.
Pay special attention to the additional grading criteria below for part 2.
Find out what satisfies or dissatisfies customers in a particular service. Think about some of the things that can go wrong that might result in the service not being delivered consistently to the satisfaction of the customers. When you have done this you can research and debate what operations and service management theory says about how you can arrange the resources and processes so that you can achieve a more consistent performance.
Seminars will be used to explore some concepts that could be discussed in the essay. You will need to do additional reading of theory and practice so that you can communicate a good level of knowledge and apply theory to a departmental context.
You must not discuss the importance of customer satisfaction or theories about service quality. Focus ONLY on the design of a service process to ensure consistent delivery to the required level of performance.
It is advisable to focus on one process (activity). One of the following for example; taking a reservation, check-in, cleaning a bedroom, ensuring equipment works as it should.
Module Learning Outcomes:
1. Evaluate the contemporary accommodation/ facilities sector and assess the implications of environmental change on operational management strategy.
2. Appreciate the complexity of operational challenges faced by managers in hospitality/ tourism operations with specific reference to the functions of accommodation/ facilities management
3. Appreciate the inter-relationship of areas of business such as technical operational areas and human resources in the pursuit of delivering quality customer centric services
Grading Criteria
UCB’s Generic Grading Criteria for HE work at Level 7 apply to this assignment:
https://portal.ucb.ac.uk/documents/file/1144/level-7-generic-grading-sheet
Additional Grading Criteria for part 1
In addition you should pay attention to the following for the presentation:
? 80% of the marks will be awarded for the quality of the content of the presentation and only 20% for the presentation skills expressed.
Additional Grading Criteria for part 2
In addition the following are requirements of the essay assignment:
? You must contextualise your debate, by this we mean that you must discuss the application of theory in hotels. The appropriate solutions can be partly justified by the nature of the chosen hotel(s), for example, its quality rating, location and target markets.
You need to combine technical knowledge of hospitality departments with theory that justifies how processes and resources in a particular context can be configured to achieve the desired outcomes (e.g. zero defects, speed of response, lower cost). This means that debates about theory that do not evaluate how or why it is (or is not) appropriate for the context are irrelevant.
? You must avoid lengthy description of operations. In other words you are seeking to explain and justify WHY it is necessary to configure work in a certain way to achieve the desired outcomes.
? Remember you need to think constantly about whether what you are writing helps answer the question set. If a sentence or paragraph does not add evidence related specifically to the remit then you need to question why you have included it.
? We expect STRONG evidence of independent reading in particular a good range of contemporary (recent) journals. These help provide justification
? Clear reasoned conclusions which sum up the key points, answer the question set and offer your final judgement are encouraged.
? In-text references MUST underpin lines of argument to make your discussion persuasive. They must also conform to the format described in the UCB referencing guide.
IN ADDITION for this essay you MUST use page numbers for all references even when they are NOT direct quotations. We understand that this differs from UCB guidelines.
? You must make extensive (but not exclusive) use of books and journal articles referenced in the Module Delivery Scheme, lectures, seminars and on the UCB Online Seminar document for this module.
? In addition it is expected that references to academic texts will include only those available in the library or available via UCB e-resources. If you have used information beyond these resources you will be required to identify them and provide a short explanation in the reference section identifying the library source used and rationale for its inclusion. This supportive information is to your benefit to demonstrate your research activity, provide reassurance as to its integrity and thus be reflected in a balanced and fair assessment of your efforts.
? You must use i.p. referencing in your list of references. By this we mean that you must include the page number(s) on which each reference appears in the text.
Plagiarism
Please note that this assignment is an individual piece of work and should represent your own individual effort. UCB policy in case of plagiarism will apply:
https://portal.ucb.ac.uk/documents/file/1109/code-of-practice-on-plagarism-and-academic-misconduct
Extenuating Circumstances
https://portal.ucb.ac.uk/#/extenuating-circumstances
Cut-off date for late work:
Late work submitted after the Hand In Date risks being capped at 40% (UG)/ 50% (PG) unless Extenuating Circumstances are submitted and are accepted. The final cut-off date for this assignment, with or without extenuating circumstances, is 10 working days from the original deadline. The last point that extenuating circumstances can be submitted for this assignment is 10 working days from the original deadline. For special queries contact Registry on extenuating@ucb.ac.uk.
ATS Submission:
ATS Frontispiece Assignment Key 316
EGGI
16S1C
In order to access the correct frontispiece you will need to access the Assignment Tracking System (ATS) via UCB Online or directly by typing in http://ats.ucb.ac.uk. You will need to use the above Assignment Key to access the frontispiece which should be attached to your submitted work.
E-submission:
To submit your assignment online, access the relevant module site in UCB Online and navigate to the ‘Submit Assignment’. Click on the ‘View Assignment’ link (see example below) that is appropriate for your assignment. You can identify the correct submission point by the period in which you are required to submit it and by assessment. For example the submission point for Semester 1 Coursework 1 will appear as S1 CW1 as in the example below.
For step by step instructions on how to submit your assignment, scan the QR Code or access the tiny url.
http://tinyurl.com/o7sev4q
Additional Academic Guidance:scan the QR code for Academic Skills Centre resources