1. Situation Background:
“Crown of Farfara” hotel is expanding its operation after the late archeological discovery of
the Lost City. The magnificent unique discovery and the expected increase in number of tourists
expedited the opening of the government funded transnational highway. Farfara has been known
for “Loch Wesh” lake that is famous by its monster.
In addition to that, many international companies are relocating their offices to the nearby town of
“Karkara” which led to unprecedented demand on hotel rooms.
International hospitality companies are mobilizing their businesses to grab a piece of the new
international sensation. Plans for hotels and resorts are underway from big names like Marriott and
Intercontinental
Crown of Farfara owners are partnering with reputable investors to increase the hotel capacity from
30 rooms to 300 by building a lakeside resort carrying their strong brand name that has been developing the
past 30 years.
One Stop Solutions Background:
You are a systems integration company that provides solution to businesses by combining elements
of “point solutions” and integrating them in a total solution that provides value to your customers.
One Stop Solutions is known to help customers in numerous industries to achieve their goals, solve
their operational problems and capture lost opportunities.
The situation
The founder of “Crown of Farfara” Mr. Beck dated is still the owner and the main decision maker in
any business venture, his reputation as the pioneer of boutique style hospitality in the country and
the huge success of Crown of Farfara bred a generation of loyal management team who has
adopted Mr. Dated style of purchasing and his conservative us use of technology.

2. CF success is proven by the minimum upfront booking of 6 months in advance and the premium
price that guests compete to pay for a stay at boutique hotel. Celebrities and high profile social
personalities take pride in having their “special rooms” ready for them when they spend their
holidays.
The only way to convince Mr. Beck Dated is to demonstrate the cost-benefit of ANY purchase to him
and the management team. The current system is manual as will be explained in the following
sections.
Consulting study:
Mr. Beck has hired a consulting firm to provide the strategy that should be taken to approach the
planned expansion. The consulting firm report stated that the current CF system is fully manual
which is acceptable for a small size boutique hotel. However to run 10 times room capacity
establishment CF should use automated solution for all business units. The business units and
functions are outlined:
Business area Function
Reservations & Booking
Food and Beverage Food production
Restaurants supervisor & staff
Bar supervisor & staff
Banquet
Room service
Marketing & Sales
Engineering
Admin. & management control Accounting
Frond desk (Cashier)
Room division Front office
Housekeeping
Security
Human Resources Hiring & training
Empowerment
Laundry
Functions & events
Wellness
Mr. Dated realizes that his success in CF being an exclusive boutique style hotel cannot be
replicated in a large scale operation that is 10 times the room capacity; however he has been

3. running an internationally recognized operation that is fully manual with no complaint. “I have no
problem using technology to do the extremely necessary tasks that cannot be done manually” he
always tells his team.
Your mission:
Despite Mr. Dated conservative business attitude CF is considered a lucrative customer to its
suppliers. If Mr. Dated sees a convincing cost-benefit case he will approve the purchase right away.
He is a good payer and a great reference to boutique hotels community worldwide who have the
same “less technology, more personal service” business policy.
However it is a challenging task to find a compelling argument that demonstrates to Mr. Dated the
optimum way to run his new operation that cannot be dealt with using the same methods and
techniques used by his boutique style operation.
Running a 300 room hotel and keeping the rooms busy all the time requires a different sales &
marketing strategy, innovative ways to increase revenues, additional services such as in-room
Internet and entertainment system, internet booking, partnership with hospitality websites such as
booking.com, Agoda, Experdia, etc..
The only way to convince Mr. Beck Dated and win the lucrative automation contract is to tell him
the benefits of your solution to the new operation and the lost opportunities if he does not
automate his new operation.
Current environment:
Reservation & booking
 Reservations are done by telephone or by Fax; payment is received to CF bank account.
Cancellation is allowed up to 30 days before arrival otherwise the booking is cancelled and
the payment is not refunded.
 Reservations are recorded on paper and are updated manually.
 No packages are offered, however due to the latest development new hotels are built which
will drive competition that CF has almost no experience with.
 Credit card payments are accepted exceptionally.
Hotel Staff
 CF employees are highly skilled and expensive to keep; the new expansion from 30 rooms to
300 represents a recruitment challenge. The staff needed will be multiplied by 5 folds at

4. least, hiring this number of highly skilled workforce represents a major challenge in finance
and human resource availability.
 The low number of workers and the “homey” work environment makes staff management
a personal task , workers are known by name so issues as hiring, motivation, bonuses and
firing are handled by senior management.
 CF management did not practice outsourcing due to the contained operation, everything is
done by CF employees.
 HR records show the following personnel:
o Reception staff, 2 persons
o Concierge and bell captain, 2 persons
o Security, 2 persons
o Accounting & HR, 1 person
o Reservation & booking, 1 person
o Kitchen & restaurant
o Laundry, 1 person
o Room makeup and cleaning, 3 persons
o Driver, 1 person
o Management
 Marketing is done by management
Communication systems:
 Hotel rooms allow local telephone calls only, room to room and room to facilities. No
internet service or paid TV, Mr. Beck Dated does not see any value in providing these
services to his elite clientele.
 Hotel phone system uses PA feature (public address) so there is no need for an RF system,
Mr. Dated is not a believer in “fancy shmancy walkie talkies”.
 There is a fax line to communicate with guests and travel agents.
Rooms division: Room cleaning staff receives a list of checking out guests, clean the rooms on as
needed basis, no system to track the time taken to clean the rooms or the frequency and the bed
turn out, etc..
Restaurants and room service: All systems are manual!
Laundry systems: The laundry is collected on a daily basis and sent to a nearby professional laundry
services owned by Mr. Dated nephew. The driver drops off the new laundry and collects the
finished one every day at 1:00 PM.

5. Your assignment
To help you, we provided a table that lists the business units and functions so you fill the
Business area Function Current method Lost opportunity Benefit of new method &
solution
Reservations & Booking
Food and Beverage
Food production
Restaurants supervisor &
staff
Bar supervisor & staff
Banquet
Room service
Marketing & Sales
Engineering
Administration and
management control
Accounting
Frond desk (Cashier)
Room division
Front office
Housekeeping
Security
Human Resources
Hiring
Training
Empowerment
Laundry
Functions & events
Wellness products
You will present to Mr. Beck Dated the business areas/functions current method (manual) and the
opportunity to make more money if the operation is automated. You will mentioned the benefits ONLY ,
and if he is interested he will ask you “ what do I need to purchase to get this benefit?” THEN, and only
THEN you will talk about technology and features, etc.
Good luck to all participants, Ashraf Osman 2013