DkIT Students Clich 3rd Place at the 34th IHI National Hospitality Business Management Game

Posted on March 9, 2020

A team of five Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management students, representing Dundalk Institute of Technology who finished in a magnificent Third place at the 34th Irish Hospitality Institute (IHI) National Hospitality Business Management Game 2020, at the Clayton Hotel Dublin Airport, finishing third. It is an inter-college competition for 3rd and 4th year students studying Hospitality Management, and over the course of the two days, the students will be given a total of three challenges designed to test their business and financial acumen as well as their team-building skills.

The competition required the game participants to spend two days devising various strategies for their business while managing financial constraints aligned to other challenges, which reflected the specific concerns facing the industry today. Firstly the students were required to devise a Sales and Marketing Strategy to respond to a new competitor entering the market. They then had to undertake a Heads of Department meeting to discuss their proposed strategy.

Challenge two required them to step into the role of the Revenue Management team at the hotel and using a computerised simulation they made decisions on room pricing, advertising, social media and online distribution channels in an effort to maximise occupancy, average room rate and RevPAR.

For the final challenge the students assumed the role of the Human Resources team and were required to devise a plan to address the issue of staff leaving the hotel to go and work with the new competitor. The competition is a valuable learning exercise for students as it gives them an opportunity to develop marketing, human resource, financial, teamwork and presentation skills.