Applying Value Engineering to Rooms Management

Achieving a balance between occupancy and average room rate is now well recognised as a prime determinant of good rooms department performance. Yield management techniques are increasingly used to help maximise rooms department sales revenue. However, it can be argued that the complexity of making available different product offerings to different market segments requires not only consideration of the sales side of the profit equation but of the cost side as well. The nature of the variable costs of accommodation operations is examined and a case study approach is used to describe the contribution derived from different room types. These data are then used to construct a value engineering matrix which can identify successful and not so successful areas of operation and suggest ways of improving overall profit performance.