RD MANAGEMENT CASE STUDY
You have been appointed RD manager of a small new boutique 5* resort, in the Algarve
area. Next week, you have the opening, but as you have a great sales team that has been working
for more than one year in advance, the levels of occupancy are quite good.
The hotel counts with 10 junior suites and 15 suites. Each of the rooms is unique and it
counts with a different personality reflected in their Mediterranean like decoration. The size of the
rooms ranges from 65m2 in the junior suites to 100m2 in the suites. The decoration although very
simple in style, with predominating white and beige colors, shows a high level of coziness and top
luxury appearance. Each room is equipped with a minibar that features 25 different items, including
beverages and snacks.
Apart from the 25 rooms, the hotel counts with other facilities such as the following:
– Buffet breakfast with show cooking a la minute.
– A 2-Michelin-star restaurant offering daily lunch and dinner.
– 24hrs rooms service, with hot dishes until 00:00 hrs.
– A Beach restaurant, open from March to September offering barbeque
dishes at lunch time.
– A Sunbed area on a private beach including cocktails and snack services.
– 24hrs reception & concierge.
– Valet parking services.
– Shuttle services
– Turndown service/evening room refreshment.
– Open swimming pool.
– SPA (500 m2).
– Gardens and open area in front of the sea (2000m2).
As part of the tasks as RDM, you have been requested to do the following:
1) Your GM has asked you to generate the organizational chart of the rooms division and to
include it in the welcome pack of your employees so that they have a clear idea of who reports
to whom.
2) Next week you will be opened, but before that your FOM needs to hand in a detailed list of all
the tasks that your receptionists will be doing per shift. Please write down this list for your
FOM and create a checklist per shift for your Front Desk personnel.
3) Your FOM has handed in the occupancy forecast for the next 2 weeks and has asked for help
to arrange the schedules for the first two weeks of operations. Your Front office department
counts with a FOM, an ASST. FOM and four full time employees. Your opening day is
“Monday 1st week”.
Week 1 Occ rooms 5 15 18 20 24 24 10
Arrivals 5 12 5 12 8 6 1
Departures 0 2 2 10 4 6 15 Jun. Suite 0 2 0 6 4 3 10
Suite 0 0 2 4 0 3 5
Stayovers 0 3 13 8 16 18 9 Jun. Suite 0 0 8 7 7 9 4
Suite 0 3 5 1 9 9 5
% OCC 20% 60% 72% 80% 96% 96% 40%
Week 2
Occ rooms 3 5 10 19 23 24 4
Arrivals 3 2 5 14 16 7 1
Departures 10 0 0 5 12 6 21 Jun. Suite 6 3 0 3 8 4 10
Suite 4 0 0 2 5 2 11
Stayovers 0 3 5 5 7 17 3 Jun. Suite 0 2 3 3 4 9 2
Suite 0 1 2 2 3 8 1
% OCC 12% 20% 40% 75% 92% 96% 15%
4) You, in collaboration with your Housekeeping manager, have established the SOP for the
cleaning of the rooms. After checking the SOP, you have figured out that the cleaning of a
junior suite will take 45 minutes for departures, 35 minutes for stayovers and 10 for the
turn-down service. For the suites, it will take 65 minutes for departures, 50 minutes for
stayovers and 15 minutes for the turn-down service. Starting and finishing activities will
account for 10 minutes per shift. Considering that your housekeeping team has a labor
relations agreement that establishes a maximum of 8 working hours per day, with 15
minutes break for a snack, and 30 minutes for lunch or dinner, how many GRAs would you
need to clean the rooms in the first week? Their salary is 9€ per hour: how much will be the
labor cost of the week in terms of GRAs?
5) You have been asked to establish the minimum and maximum inventory levels for the
guest supplies. Assume that in high season you are going to be fully booked from Monday
to Sunday and that amenities are to be replaced daily. The performance standard
establishes the following set up of each room as follows:
– 2 gels
– 2 shampoos
– 2 soaps
– 2 body-milks
In each box of each type, you receive 250 units. The leading time for the delivery is 20 days,
and you order monthly. At the moment, your safety level is established at one box of each
item. Do you think you need to change it?
6) After one month of the opening, you are requested to generate a report where you compare your budget against the real result achieved. You come out with
the following numbers. After analyzing your numbers, write a report on the variances; you need to highlight where you did well and where you did wrong,
explaining why.
MONTH OF JANUARY VARIANCES
ACTUAL % over sales BUDGET % over sales € % % over
sales
Revenue
room sales 205.500,00 € 203.450,00 € 2.050,00 € 1,01%
allowances 500,00 € 0,24% 300,00 € 0,15% 200,00 € 66,67%
Net revenue 205.000,00 € 203.150,00 € 1.850,00 € 0,91%
Expenses
Salaries & wages 27.250,00 € 13,29% 24.350,00 € 11,99% 2.900,00 € 11,91% 1,31%
Employee benefits 4.125,00 € 2,01% 4.750,00 € 2,34% -625,00 € -13,16% -0,33%
Total payroll & related expenses
31.375,00 €
15,30%
29.100,00 €
14,32%
2.275,00 €
7,82%
0,98%
Other expenses
Commissions 1.125,00 € 0,55% 800,00 € 0,39% 325,00 € 40,63% 0,15%
Contract services 921,00 € 0,45% 873,00 € 0,43% 48,00 € 5,50% 0,02%
Guest supplies 2.300,00 € 1,12% 2.150,00 € 1,06% 150,00 € 6,98% 0,06%
Laundry & dry cleaning 1.300,00 € 0,63% 975,00 € 0,48% 325,00 € 33,33% 0,15%
Linen 2.300,00 € 1,12% 1.875,00 € 0,92% 425,00 € 22,67% 0,20%
Operating supplies 2.815,00 € 1,37% 2.780,00 € 1,37% 35,00 € 1,26% 0,00%
Reservations 1.930,00 € 0,94% 1.900,00 € 0,94% 30,00 € 1,58% 0,01%
Uniforms 500,00 € 0,24% 475,00 € 0,23% 25,00 € 5,26% 0,01%
Other 675,00 € 0,33% 672,00 € 0,33% 3,00 € 0,45% 0,00%
Total other expenses 13.866,00 € 6,76% 12.500,00 € 6,15% 1.366,00 € 10,93% 0,61%
Total expenses 45.241,00 € 22,07% 41.600,00 € 20,48% 3.641,00 € 8,75% 1,59%
Departmental Income
159.759,00 €
77,93%
161.550,00 €
79,52%
-1.791,00 €
-1,11%
-1,59%
