"Well, Bethie, how does it look?" asked Barry Cook, the hotel's GM. "About like last month," replied Bethie McKay, 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 4% below last year's level."

This was not good news, as Barry well knew. The drop-off in group room 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 Barry, "What do you think is causing the drop-off?" "I'm not positive," stated Bethie, "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 rate 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?"

1. What are some additional possible reasons for the decline revealed by the monthly Pace Report?

2. If you were Barry, how would you go about assessing the sales difficulties now experienced by the hotel and its DOSM?

3. What tools could you use to help understand and solve the revenue problem?

4. How responsible do you think a GM should be held for the sales level of his or her property?