HTMS students participate in Market Study Competition

By Jane Bokunewicz, PhD, institute coordinator & associate professor of Hospitality

������Ƶ Hospitality students participated in the Fall 2020 Smith Travel Research (STR) Virtual Student Market Study Competition. ������Ƶ was one of 43 colleges and universities from 17 countries including Hungary, Russia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Croatia, Lithuania and South Korea that submitted a Market Study analysis. The 28 students in the Hotel Simulation class first competed internally in teams of 5-6 students each. The Zoom presentation of the winning ������Ƶ team, which was selected by the professor, was submitted to the international STR Virtual Student Market competition.

STR provided 5 reports to the teams including data on the Philadelphia Hotel Industry that students analyzed to prepare a professional market analysis. The analysis included a market description by Hotel Type, Average Daily Rate (ADR), Revenue per Available Room (Revpar), Occupancy Rate, trend data over time and a comparison to other markets. 

The winning ������Ƶ team for the internal competition included students Amber Berthe,  Jacqueline Brescia,  Emily Deibert, and An Khuc. The winner of the international STR competition was a team from Virginia Tech which presented an analysis of the Norfolk/Virginia Beach Market.

The ������Ƶ team’s study revealed that in 2019 the greatest market share of hotels in the Philadelphia market were in the Economy class (36%) followed by Upper Upscale (31%). Only 3% were in the luxury class. The hotel class generating the most rooms revenue was the upscale class ($527 million) followed by Upper Upscale ($506 million). Although the Economy class had the highest market share by number of hotels, it only generated $163 million in rooms revenue. The average occupancy rate for the market overall was 70%, ADR was $136 and Revpar was $96.

July of 2020 was a challenging month for Philadelphia with an occupancy rate of 55%, ADR of $121 and Revpar of $66. These results were better than the city of Baltimore which had an ADR of $104 and Revpar of $56 but not as good as Boston which had an ADR of $201 and Revpar of $96 for July.  Both Boston and Baltimore had average occupancy rates of 55%. 

The students participating in the Market Challenge competition felt that the learning experience was valuable, and they were proud of their results. Khuc said, “The experience I received from this project has tremendous value. The fact that it was being part of a competition made it different from other presentations.”  He expressed that winning the ������Ƶ competition “gives me confidence that I can achieve the same in all classes.”  Brescia said, “This project allowed us to come together (virtually) and create something great!”  Berthe added that she “enjoyed the STR Student Market Challenge Competition very much. It helped me gain a better understanding of the Philadelphia Hotel Market” where she would like to relocate one day for her career.  Her advice to all students is “to take advantage of this project and really absorb the information you come across because it may help you on your future endeavors.”

Slides from the Presentation:

(provided by students: Amber Berthe, Jacqueline Brescia, Emily Deibert and An Khuc)