Week 5 - Discussion Topic #3 (Initial posting due by June 30th at 11:59pm) "Well, Michele, how does it look?" asked J.D. Ojisama, the hotel's GM. "About like last month," replied Michele Austin, the hotel's DOSM, as she glanced up from the document she was intently studying. "This month's Pace Report for future group room sales is about four percent below last year's level." This was not good news, as J.D. well knew. The drop-off in sales was now in its third consecutive month. The same was true, to a smaller degree, in the food and beverage department's catering bookings; although the hotel was not experiencing an occupancy decline or occupancy index decline evident in the monthly STAR Report, it was clear that future business bookings, which would be measured by future STAR Reports, were declining. "Well," replied J.D. "What do you think is causing the drop-off?" "I'm not positive," stated Michele, "but it could be several things. Citywide bookings may be down, the new sales manager we hired for corporate groups may not be up-to-speed yet, or perhaps we are being too aggressive in our bidding. I know that unless things turn around quickly we will have real difficulty meeting our revenue goals next quarter. What would you like me to do?" What are some additional possible reasons for the decline revealed by the Pace Report? If you were J.D., how would you go about assessing the sales difficulties experienced by the hotel and the DOSM? What tools would you use to help understand and solve the revenue problem? How responsible should the GM be held for the sales level of a hotel? Grading notes: . Your original post should be at least 5 sentences at the very least. Considering the content of this discussion, I'm expecting at least 3 full paragraphs from you. . Please include in-text citations as well as a list of full citations used at the end of your original discussion post in APA format. Discussions without citations will be graded accordingly. . Your original discussion must be posted by THURSDAY, JUNE 30th by 11:59pm