The Protea Hospitality Group has launched an iPad app challenging you to see if you have what it takes to run your own Protea Hotel – or any other hotel or business – profitably.
The app, which runs as a game, teaches financial management in a simple and entertaining manner, while challenging the user to think laterally to improve revenue.
The app distils the hotel revenue management and the like process into a game with five rooms to be managed for a one week span.
The player is challenged to place bookings in rooms by choosing which offers to accept or reject in trying to maximise the hotel’s revenue.
Upon completion of the game, the revenue your hotel has managed to bank versus the actual highest revenue possible is shown, teaching how each decision made — regardless how seemingly trivial at the time — can cost a hotel money.
Danny Bryer, Director of Sales, Marketing, and Revenue for the Protea Hospitality Group, says second only to the comfort and satisfaction of GUESTS, revenue management is the most important part of running a hotel.
“It’s not exactly the rock n roll side of the business, though, so the best way to learn about it is to make the process fun.
“What’s great about it, though, is even if you’re not a games buff you can play this one. It stretches your mind laterally because you get to choose which guests to accommodate at the right time based on demand.
“Put them in rooms you think will tickle their fancy, and accept or reject offers to maximise the revenue of your hotel. You only have 1 week and 5 rooms to play with, so think carefully. Each decision you make could cost the hotel money. Ka-ching!”
Bryer says the app perfectly shows why the process of managing hotel revenues should be tailored to the individual hotel’s operation.
“Even with only five rooms to manage, this app does an amazing job of detailing the complexity and skill needed to achieve this.
“We wanted to make the app as interesting, rich, entertaining, and immersive as possible, which is why we decided on a gamification strategy. As the name implies, gamification is essentially the employment of the thinking behind games, to non-game applications.
“Gamification’s aims are simple: make something which may not be fun, fun,” Bryer says, “It’s an incredibly effective teaching tool and we’re very proud that it’s out there.”
Compatible with iPads running iOS 4 or later, the app, titled Protea Hotels Revenue Management is available for immediate download at Apple’s iTunes app store.“
