Assessment Task for TOURISM PRICING

ONLINE EXERCISES

1. You are going on a three-day business trip for your company to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. You
have up to $300 a day to spend on lodging and food. If you do not spend the money, you save
money for your company; you do not get to keep the unspent money. You will check in on
October 18 and check out on October 21. Choose the hotel where you would stay; what Web site
would you use to pick the hotel? What did your search process involve? How many Web sites did
you use to make your selection? What criteria did you make in choosing the hotel? (Note: look up
the hotel rates, but please do not make an actual reservation.)

The first thing that I did is that, using Google, I decided to search for a website that can easily search
hotel by just typing the things I need (location, prices etc.). So upon searching, I decided to use
tripadvisor. I chose this website because you can easily use it by typing everything you need for a hotel
accommodation like location, room availability, price deals, amenities, hotel rate, feed backs and so on
and they will suggest your different hotels. Using that website, I typed to what location I am going to stay
(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), what particular date and how many days I will stay (October 18 to October
21, 3 days), and how many rooms I need (since I will go for a business trip by myself, I chose one room
with single bed only).

Upon searching for the details that I put, tripadvisor provided different hotels and on the left side, you can
also check what you need for a hotel like following COVID safety measures, price range that you would
like, free breakfast and so on. I used to check the properties taking COVID safety measures because I
want to ensure my safety first, free cancellation so that I can easily cancel the reservation if there are any
unexpected things that will happen, and free breakfast so that I will not go outside early in the morning.
I used to open many hotel websites and tried to compare their room facilities, prices, promos or packages,
amenities, reviews and if there is a free WIFI so that I can check my emails while I am having my stay.
And I finally come up with Hyatt House Pittsburgh South Side after reading the feed backs of the past
customers in the reviews and they used to like the hotel accommodation

I checked the room availability for October 18 to 21 and the room facilities. They also used to have room
promo of 55% discount with free WIFI access, and good room ambiance. Before confirming the booking,
I check first the necessary information that I put (location, date, room type) and then if it is all ok, I
confirmed the booking. Upon having this activity, I learned that in booking a hotel, you need to consider
first your needs and make sure that everything is in place wherein you must gather various information
first before finally deciding to what hotel you are going to stay. After gathering the information, make
sure that the details that you will put is in place to refrain from misunderstanding, miscommunication and
to save time and effort as well.
EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISES

1. Conduct a price comparison of several hotels or restaurants in the same class. What price
differences did you find? Do you feel the companies that had the higher prices could justify those
higher prices by offering additional features or a higher-quality product?

Every hotel has its own unique pricing considerations depending on type, location, size, market
demographics, level of competition and type of service offered. I chose five-star hotels in the
Philippines and analyzed their price differences. Five-star hotel used to have higher prices because
these hotels add value to the prices. They offer a different atmosphere, high end room, service quality,
advanced technology, well-trained staff and so on. Instead of just selling just rooms, they also created
specific packages inclusive of additional offerings/services at a reasonable rate. From this, they offer
additional features with higher-quality product to really meet the needs and wants of customers and
exceed their expectations. In connection with pricing, they used to have the prestige pricing wherein
it is a pricing strategy that they set a high price with high quality value of products and customer is
willing to pay higher prices to receive specialized attention and high-quality products

SITUATIONAL EXERCISES

1. You just have been hired as the dining room manager at a local hotel. The manager asks you to
evaluate the menu prices to see if they need to be adjusted. How would you go about this task?

As a dining room manager, I will conduct research on evaluating the menu items. It is important in
every business because you will know if the menu items are profitable or not and if there should be any
changes or revisions that should be done.

Consumers’ perceptions of price bundles vary depending on the traits of the market segments. Which
customer segment do you think is the most sensitive to pricing strategies?

Price sensitivity can be defined as the degree to which consumers' behaviors are affected by the
price of the product or service. Price sensitivity is also known as price elasticity of demand, and this
means the extent to which sale of a particular product or service is affected. On the other hand, price
sensitive customers are those who view price as a serious factor in purchasing a product or service and
when there is a sudden change with the price, their buying behavior were affected. For me, those people
who are in behavioral segment are the most commonly sensitive to pricing strategies. These are the
following factors under behavioral segment: benefit sought, purchase, intent, occasion, buyer stage, user
status, life cycle stage and engagement. Thus, if there are changes in the pricing, their decision making
will be affected, and they will try to evaluate their buying behavior if the product or service that they will
purchase will be useful and worth it. For instance, products like alcohol may be purchased because of an
emergency like the pandemic of COVID 19. If one alcohol seller is selling it at a lower price than the
other (considering same quality), customers will go to the one which offers a lower price. The higher the
price, the demand for a particular product will go down.