Graded Homework

Phoenix
Boutique Hotel Group (PBHG) was founded in 2007 by Bree Bristowe. Having worked
for several luxury resorts, Bristowe decided to pursue her dream of owning and
operating a boutique hotel. Her hotel, which she called PHX, was located in an
area that included several high-end resorts and business hotels. PHX filled a
niche market for “modern travelers looking for excellent service and
contemporary design without the frills.”Since opening PHX, Bristowe has
invested, purchased, or renovated three other small hotels in the Phoenix metropolitan
area: Canyon Inn PHX, PHX B&B, and The PHX Bungalows.

One
of the customer service enhancements Bristowe has implemented is a centralized,
toll-free reservation system. Although many customers book specific hotels
online, the phone reservation system enablesPBHG to find the best reservation
match at all properties. It has been an excellent option for those customers
who have preferences regardingthe type of room, amenity options, and the best
price across the four hotel locations.

Currently,
three agents are on staff for the 6 a.m.to 2 p.m.call shift. The time between
calls during this shift is represented in Table 1. The time to process
reservation requests during this shift is in Table 2.

Table 1: Incoming Call Distribution

Table
2: Service Time Distribution

Bristowe
wants to ensure customers are not on hold for longer than 2minutes. She is
debating hiring additional staff for this shift based on the available data.
Additionally, Bristowe and PBHG will soon be featured in a national travel
magazine with a circulation of over a million subscriptions. Bristowe is
worried that the current operators may not be able to handle the increase in
reservations. The projected increase for call distribution is represented in
Table 3.

Table 3: Incoming Call Distribution

Bristowe has asked for your
advice in evaluating the current phone reservation system. Create a simulation
model to investigate her concerns. Make recommendations about the reservation
agents.