Donna Shader, manager at the Winter Park Hotel, is considering how to restructure the front desk to reach an optmum level of staff efficiency and guest service. Presently, the hotel has five clerks on duty, each with a separate waiting line, during the peak check in time of 3:00 P.M to 5:00 P.M.

Observation of arrivals during this time show that an average of 90 guests arrive each hour (although there is no upward limit on the number that could arrive at any given time). It takes an average of 3 minutes for the front-desk clerk to register each guest.

Donna is considering three plans for improving guest service by reducing the length of time guests spend waiting in line.

The first proposal would designate on employee as a quick service clerk for guests registering under corporate accounts, a market segment that fills about 30% of all occupied rooms. Because corporate guests are preregistered, their registration takes just 2 minutes. With these guests separated from the rest of the clientele, the average time for registering a typical guest would climb to 3.4 minutes. Under plan 1, noncorporate guests would choose any of the remaining four lines.

The second plan is to implement a single line system. All guests could form a single waiting line to be served by whichever of the five clerks became available. This option would require sufficient lobby space for what could be a substantial queue.

The third proposal using an automatic teller machine (ATM) for check-ins. This ATM would provide approximately the same service rate as a clerk would. Given that initial use of this technology might be minimal, Shader estimated that 20% of customers, primarily frequent guests, would be willing to use the machines.

(This might be a conservative estimate if the guests perceive direct benefits from using the ATM, as bank customers do. Citibank reports that 95% of its Manhattan customers use its ATMs.) Donna would set up a single queue for customers who prefer human check-in clerks. This would be served by the five clerks although Donna is hopeful that the machine will allow a reduction to four.

Required:

1. Determine the average amount of time that a guest spends checking in.
2. What is the check in time under each plan?
3. What plan would you recommend.

2. Courtney Newell, manager of the Silver Park Hotel, is considering how to restructure the front desk to improve guest service during the peak check-in hours of 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. At present, the hotel has 5 clerks on duty each with a separate waiting line.

Courtney is considering two plans for reducing the guest’s waiting time. The first proposal would be to implement a single waiting line in which guests would be served by whichever of the 5 clerks becomes available first. Observations of arrivals during the peak check-in time show that a guest arrives on average every 40 seconds. It takes an average of 3 minutes for the front-desk clerk to register each guest.

The second proposal would designate one employee as a “quick-service” clerk for guests registering under corporate accounts, a market segment that comprises about 30% of Silver Park’s guests. Since these guests would be pre-registered, it would take an average of only 0.5 minutes for the front-desk clerk to register them. Under this plan, the non-corporate guests would form a single line and proceed to the first available of the 4 remaining clerks. The average time for registering a non-corporate guest is 3.4 minutes.

Which proposal should Courtney implement? Provide appropriate quantitative evidence to support your recommendation.

1. Courtney Newell, manager of the Silver Park Hotel, is considering how to restructure the front desk to improve guest service during the peak check-in hours of 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.  At present, the hotel has 5 clerks on duty each with a separate waiting line.

Courtney is considering two plans for reducing the guest’s waiting time. The first proposal would be to implement a single waiting line in which guests would be served by whichever of the 5 clerks becomes available first.  Observations of arrivals during the peak check-in time show that a guest arrives on average every 40 seconds.  It takes an average of 3 minutes for the front-desk clerk to register each guest.

The second proposal would designate one employee as a “quick-service” clerk for guests registering under corporate accounts, a market segment that comprises about 30% of Silver Park’s guests.  Since these guests would be pre-registered, it would take an average of only 0.5 minutes for the front-desk clerk to register them.  Under this plan, the non-corporate guests would form a single line and proceed to the first available of the 4 remaining clerks.  The average time for registering a non-corporate guest is 3.4 minutes.

Which proposal should Courtney implement?  Provide appropriate quantitative evidence to support your recommendation.

Beavis Construction Company was the low bidder on a construction project to build an earthen dam for $1,700,000. The project was begun in 2020 and completed in 2021. Cost and other data are presented below: 2020 2021 Costs incurred during the year $ 486500 $1,000,000 Estimated costs to complete 903,500 0 Billings during the year 455,000 1,245,000 Cash collections during the year 355,000 1,345,000 ) Assume that Beavis recognizes revenue on this contract over time according to percentage of completion.

Gross Profit 2020 and 2021

During 2019, ABC Construction company changed from the cost-recovery method to the percentage-of-completion method for accounting purposes but not for tax purposes. Gross profit figures under both methods for the past three years appear below:

                           Cost-Recovery           Percentage-of-Completion

2017                      $   475,000                        $   900,000

2018                           625,000 1,050,000

2019                           700,000     1,050,000

                              $1,800,000 $3,000,000

Assuming an income tax rate of 40% for all years.

the effect of this accounting change on prior periods should be reported by a credit of...........

Select one:

a. $510,000 on the 2019 retained earnings statement

b. $720,000 on the 2019 income statement

c. $720,000 on the 2019 retained earnings statement

d. $510,000 on the 2019 income statement

A random sample of 378 hotel guests was taken at La Mirage and it was found that 194 requested non-smoking room. Another random sample of 516 hotel guests at Neptune Grand showed that 320 requested non-smoking room. We wan to test the claim that the percentage of guests requesting non-smoking room is different
between the two hotels, using significance level 0.05. Round you answer to 3 decimal places.

1. Thyme to Eat Restaurant has the following information:

Total Sales: $77,500

Food Sales: $62,000

Beverage Sales: $12,000

Other Sales: $3,500

Food Purchases: $19,500

Beverage Purchases: $3,250

Beginning Food Inventory: $14,000

Beginning Beverage Inventory: $2,700

Ending Food Inventory: $17,900

Ending Beverage Inventory: $3410

Labor Dollars Spent: $26,450

1. What is the Prime Cost in Percentage form?
2. What is the Food Cost percentage for this restaurant?
3. What is the Beverage cost percentage for this restaurant?
4. What is the labor cost percentage for this restaurant?
5. If the plate cost is $3.45 and you wanted a 32% Food Cost, what do you need to charge for this dish and what is the contribution margin for this dish?

Suppose marginal benefit from a hectare of for a public park (assume it is a pure public good) for two groups of consumers (A and B) is given by: MBa = 10 − Q and MBb = (8 – Q)/2 where Q is the number of hectares of the park. To simplify our analysis, assume that there are only 1 consumer of each type. The marginal cost to provide the park is a constant $5.

a) What is the socially efficient number of hectares for the park?

b) Assume that the consumers each makes a voluntary contribution to a fund which will be used to build the park. The size of the park depends on the amount of money collected. How many hectares will be built in the end? Assume both consumers know the marginal cost and marginal benefit function of each type.

Let’s return to Tallahassee hotel market we considered in Problem Set 1, but now from the perspective of a hotel manager. Consider a hotel which can supply an unlimited number of hotel rooms at the constant marginal cost c = 20 per room per night, so that the hotel’s total cost function is given by C(q) = 20q. Assume that demand for hotel rooms in Tallahassee takes two possible values: on game days, demand is described by the demand curve q = 100−p, while on non-game-days demand is described by the demand curve q = 60 − 2p.

1. First suppose that the hotel acts as a price taker.

(a) What does it mean for the hotel to act as a price taker? What condition determines a price taker’s optimal supply decision?

(b) Assuming the hotel acts as a price taker, what will be the equilibrium price and quantity sold on game days? What about on non-game-days? (Remember, the hotel’s marginal cost is constant!)

(c) Briefly discuss, without solving, how your results in (b) would change if the hotel instead had increasing marginal costs (say for example MC(q) = q rather than MC = 20).