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The FOM in Action: The Challenge
Felicia Henderson was the newly appointed FOM
of the 105-room Harley Hills Hotel and Suites. She
had studied hospitality management in college,
worked hard, and graduated at the top of her class.
Of course, she was delighted with her new job.
She had worked as a front desk agent in high
school and was a night auditor during college. She
was talented, service oriented, and seldom made
errors. Business was good, and the management
team assembled by the general manager was
excellent. Young, aggressive, and talented, the
hotel’s staff achieved sales levels and RevPar
numbers that made the hotel’s ownership happy.
The meeting Felicia was now having with the
hotel’s general manager, however, was not making
anyone happy.
“I just can’t believe it!” said Gil, the hotel’s
general manager as he reviewed the report.
“Believe it,” replied Felicia.
It was 9:30 a.m. on Monday, and Felicia had
printed a reservation activity report for the previous
24 hours. Felicia discovered that Karl, a part-time
night auditor, had sold 85 of the hotel’s 105 rooms to
one guest on a Saturday night date nine months in
the future. The telephone call had come in about
11:30 p.m. and, because the guest wanted to buy so
many rooms, Karl had offered a 20 percent discount
on each room. The reservation was guaranteed by a
single credit card.
“That’s the day State University holds its gradu-
ation this year. What was he thinking?” asked Gil.
“I don’t know,” replied Felicia, “we’ve sold
every room during graduation for the past four years
for a rate $30 or $40 higher than our normal ADR
because we can eliminate all discounts. This year,
Karl has basically sold out the hotel, and our ADR
compared to last year will be awful!”
“Why didn’t he realize what he was doing?”
asked Gil, “and who’s responsible for making sure
this kind of thing can’t happen again?”
“Those are the right questions,” thought Felicia,
“and I need to find the right answers.”