*** PLEASE ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS IN PARAGRAPH FORMAT.

The following case study provides information for a hotel chain. They have recently conducted a customer satisfaction survey. Given these research results and the other information in the case, what advice would you give them? This is a good exercise in utilizing the results of market research.

ACTIVITY/TASK

The Quick-Stop Hotel Chain

Quick-Stop Hotels is a small hotel chain located along on the north coast of New South Wales. This chain consists of five different hotel complexes located several hours drive apart along the main coastal highway between Sydney and Brisbane.

Their prime target market is the family segment. This is because families often choose to drive from Sydney to Brisbane (or Brisbane to Sydney) and back again for their holidays. As this trip is around a 12-hour drive, many travelers choose to stop overnight in order break up their journey. Therefore, Quick-Stop has deliberately chosen popular stopover towns for their hotels.

In line with this location strategy, they promote themselves with the slogan, “the “perfect place for a break”.

Their individual hotels vary a little in quality, but all have either a 3 or a 4 star rating. This means that they are either medium (3 star) or good (4 star) quality in terms of facilities and general standard of accommodation. On average, they each have around 80 rooms and a fairly broad range of facilities (that is, a heated swimming pool, room service, restaurant and bar, a kid’s club during school holidays, a small gym, and some have tennis courts and a couple of stores).

In terms of promotion, they are heavy outdoor (billboard) advertisers on the coastal highway. They also advertise in various holiday and travel directories, and on the government tourism website.

As you can see from the table below, they vary pricing throughout the year. Pricing is generally used as a tool to increase demand in the low season and to increase revenue in the high season. This is necessary as they have highly seasonal demand, being frequently being booked out over the Christmas holiday period, and with very high demand in other school holiday periods.

The table also shows the results of a customer satisfaction survey for Quick-Stop Hotels. On average, 80% of customers indicated that they were satisfied with their stay and 10% were delighted with their stay. However, 10% indicated they were dissatisfied. These figures vary by season, whether the customer was a first-time customer, and by the quality of the individual hotel. Additionally, the table includes information on average room rates (per night) and occupancy levels. (Note: The occupancy level is the percentage of rooms occupied per night.)

QUESTIONS

1. Review the customer satisfaction information. Does it make sense? Why/why not?
2. Given these research results and the other information in the case, what advice would you give this firm.
3. Which of the above metrics did you find helpful? Which did you ignore?
4. What other information would have been helpful?

A cell phone manufacturer claims that the population mean battery life of its flagship smartphone model, the Black Bear, is greater than the population mean battery life of the largest competitor, the Grizzly. A consumer advocacy publication tests this claim by purchasing a random sample of Black Bear smartphones and a random sample of Grizzly smartphones. Members of the publication charged each smartphone to full capacity and then had the smartphones play back the same videos until the batteries were completely depleted. The publication researched the population standard deviation of the battery life from the manufacturers. The population standard deviation for the Black Bear is assumed to be 0.71 hour, and the population standard deviation for the Grizzly is assumed to be 0.63 hour. The results of the battery life test are shown below. Let μ1 be the population mean battery life for the Black Bear and μ2 be the population mean battery life for the Grizzly. If the test statistic is z=1.38, what is the p-value for this hypothesis test?

Do not round your answer; compute your answer using a value from the table below.

The Great Depression was ended in the United States by:

1)the government running budget surpluses throughout the 1930s.
2)the government increasing the money supply throughout the 1930s.
3)central planning of the economy by the government.
4)the huge amounts of government spending required to fight WWII during the early 1940s.

The main difference between the classical model of the price level and the modern understanding of the relationship between the money supply, the price level, and real GDP is that according to classical economists, _____, while today's economists _____.

1)money is neutral in the long run; do not consider money to be neutral in the long run.
2)the adjustment of prices takes some time; expect changes in the money supply to be instantaneous.
3)did not consider money to be neutral in the long run; consider money neutral in the long run.
4)the adjustment of prices to changes in the money supply is instantaneous; argue that this adjustment process takes some time.

The main idea behind monetarism is that:

1)the aggregate output will be even greater than potential output if the money supply grows at a constant rate.
2)the aggregate price level will increase proportionally if the money supply grows at a constant rate.
3)the government budget will have a deficit if the government spending grows at a constant rate.
4)the aggregate output will grow steadily at a constant rate if the money supply also grows at a constant rate.

Explain how the hypothesis below came up/was developed based on the initial observations (see below).

Hypothesis: The recombinant-based assay for HCV will detect HCV antibodies in blood samples of people with hepatitis C or who are carriers of HCV, but not in non-HCV individuals.

Initial Observations:

I. Hepatitis is a general category of liver diseases. Several different viral agents have been found to infect the liver and cause inflammation and damage.

II. In the 1940s, researchers identified two forms of viral hepatitis. Infectious hepatitis, or hepatitis A, is transmitted by contact with feces from infected individuals. Serum hepatitis, or hepatitis B, is transmitted through the blood and other body fluids. The hepatitis B virus was isolated in the 1960s and the hepatitis A virus was isolated in the 1970s.

III. Following the isolation of these two viruses, assays were developed in order to identify individuals infected with hepatitis A or hepatitis B viruses.

IV. A form of hepatitis occurs in patients that test negative for hepatitis A or B. This form of hepatitis, initially called non-A, non-B hepatitis (NANBH) but now referred to as hepatitis C, represented greater than 90% of transfusion-associated hepatitis.

V. Hepatitis C causes chronic disease which can lead to cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer.

VI. A recombinant-based assay for the hepatitis C virus (HCV) has been developed, using RNA isolated from the hepatitis C virus.

The kinetics of chymotrypsin were studied and yielded a KM of 5 mM and a Vmax of 0.2 mM/min. The enzyme concentration was 0.20 μg/ml. Calculate the turnover number, assuming one binding site per enzyme.

The human stomach has a maximum capacity of 4.2 quarts. If a raisin has a volume of 0.2 mL, how many raisins can fill the stomach? (1 qt = 0.946 L). Do not use scientific notation.

Chloropropionic acid, ClCH2CH2COOH is a weak monoprotic acid with Ka = 7.94 x 10-5 M. Calculate the pH at the equivalence point in a titration 34.8 mL of 1.09 M chloropropionic acid with 0.2 M KOH.

compute the first three iterations of the gradient ascent algorithm applied to the function f(x) = -0.2 + x + x^2 - 5.5x^3 +4x^4. Assume initial value for x0 = 0.11 and alpha = 0.1.