ASSIGNMENT TASK:
You are required to produce a business report in the form of an executive summary (see the task guidance below). This should be an evaluation of the financial performance of your e-hotel over a 2 year trading period in three performance areas: Revenue, Costs and Profit, and recommendations to improve the performance of the business.
TASK GUIDANCE:
The submission should evaluate the financial performance of your e-hotel from a management perspective to senior directors of the company (you will be part of the hotel’s management team within the simulation). This should be a critical perspective of the e-hotel’s actual performance over a 2 year trading period in three performance areas: Revenue, Costs and Profit. Post the evaluation and analysis of the results, you are to provide brief recommendations to improve the performance of the business in revenue generation and cost control. In the executive summary, you should adopt the principles of variance analysis, be supported by the application of key performance indicators, financial ratios and statistics. You are required to include tabulated data showing actual performance, comparison and where appropriate, make use of graphs and/or charts to support your evaluations.
The executive summary should be professionally presented; the following structure and guidance should be used to address the task:
1. Title page
2. Contents Page with numbers
3. Introduction (100 words)
Provide an overview of the financial performance of the e-hotel. Include tabulated data outlining relevant key performance indicators.
4. Evaluations on Revenue, Costs and Profitability
Revenue (250 words)
• Provide the summary revenues and KPI’s for rooms and food and beverage departments.
• Analyse the actual results for two years of trading.
• Make use of tabulated quarterly financial data to breakdown the results, as appropriate.
• Critical evaluation of the performance in regards to the key decisions made during the simulated exercise and their impact on the actual outcomes.
• Provide a minimum of two recommendations to improve revenue generation across all departments.
Costs (250 words)
• Provide the operating cost summary for rooms, food and beverage and other key areas for 2 years of trading.
• Analyse the actual results for two years of trading.
• Make use of tabulated quarterly financial data to breakdown the results.
• Critical evaluation of the performance in regards to the key decisions made during the simulated exercise and their impact on the actual outcomes.
• Provide a minimum of two recommendations to improve the control of costs within the hotel.
Profitability (250 words)
• Provide a summary of the profits and profitability ratios (for both rooms and food and beverage) achieved to analyse the actual results for two years of trading.
• Provide a summary of the key factors that have influenced the profitability of the company.
• Make use of tabulated quarterly financial data to breakdown the results
Closing Statement (150 words)
Provide a summary of the key recommendations made in all three areas and consider their impact on setting the targets for the next financial year. Budgeted targets for the next financial year are not to be provided.
5. Further points to note:
• Any words used within data tables, graphs and charts do not count towards the stated assignment word count.
• As this is an Executive summary related to your e-hotel’s performance, no in-text citations and reference list is required.
• For further guidance on this assignment, please access the assignment vodcast available through Canvas.
MARKING CRITERIA:
This executive summary will be graded using the Level 5 Generic Marking Criteria that is provided with the assignment launch. The following are indicative marking criteria for your assignment:
Introduction (10%)
• This opening section needs to provide a clear overview of the financial performance of the e-hotel. This should include the key highlights of the year and provide the directors with an understanding of what is to follow in the review.
• Inclusion of tabulated data outlining relevant key performance indicators.
Evaluations on Revenue, Costs and Profitability (25% marks each for all three areas)
• This section should critically analyse the actual results performance of Year 2 over Year 1 of trading, professionally tabulated for all 3 areas.
• Effective use of quarterly financial data to breakdown the results for analysis and comparison.
• Critical evaluation of the performance in regards to the key decisions made during the simulated exercise and their impact on the actual outcomes.
• The evaluation should adopt the principles of variance analysis. It should be supported by the application of relevant key performance indicators, financial ratios and statistics.
• It needs to be suitably supported with commentary outlining the variances, summary results and recommendations.
• Recommendations made should be practical and achievable within the next financial year.
• Higher marks will be awarded for analysis of revenues generated per room type and the corresponding KPI’s.
• Higher marks will be awarded for appropriate use of graphs and/or charts to support evaluations.
Closing Statement (10%)
• Closing statement needs to summarise the key findings and recommendations and avoid introducing any new information.
Structure & Clarity (5%)
• The report needs to follow academic guidelines in relation to structure, recommended word-counts and layout. It should be written using appropriate business language and should be of a persuasive and informative nature from a management perspective to senior directors of the company.
E-SUBMISSION GUIDANCE FOR DOCUMENT UPLOAD SUBMISSION:
● This assignment will require you to submit your work by uploading a document in Word or PDF format to Canvas. Please follow this online guide on document submissions and contact the DICE team on dice@ucb.ac.uk if you need any further support.
GENERAL ASSIGNMENT GUIDANCE:
Teamwork and Its Assessment Should this assignment require you to work as part of a team, you will receive an individual grade based upon your performance as well as personalised feedback. The module leader will explain how your individual grade and feedback will be determined.
Importance of Word Count and Presentation Timings Assignment word counts and presentation timings should always be observed. Ignoring a word count increases significantly the risk of your work losing marks because it lacked structure, flow, focus and clarity. Timings must be observed for assessed presentations for the same reasons.
E-submission https://www.ucb.ac.uk/higher-education-student-handbook/assessment-issues/
Cut-off date for late work https://www.ucb.ac.uk/higher-education-student-handbook/assessment-issues/
Grading criteria https://www.ucb.ac.uk/higher-education-student-handbook/assessment-fairness-and-marking/
Plagiarism https://www.ucb.ac.uk/higher-education-student-handbook/essay-writing/plagiarism/
Extenuating Circumstances https://www.ucb.ac.uk/higher-education-student-handbook/assessments-if-things-go-wrong/
UCB Referencing Guide https://portal.ucb.ac.uk/download/referencing/referencing-guide.pdf
General Academic Guidance https://ucbirmingham.instructure.com/courses/26756
