September 2018 | News

4th Annual EuroCHRIE University Challenge 2018 results in an exciting conclusion!

...now updated with Student Reports

2017 REPORT: 3rd Annual EuroCHRIE University Challenge Comes to a Terrific Conclusion!

The 4th Annual EuroCHRIE University Challenge, which began in late February, came to an exciting finish on March 23rd. The eight schools competing were The Budapest Business School (Hungary) - 2017 Winner, Stenden University (South Africa), Stenden University (The Netherlands), NHTV Breda University (The Netherlands) - 2016 Winner, The University College of Northern Denmark - 2015 Winner, The Dublin Institute of Technology, Strathmore University (Kenya) and The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management (United Arab Emirates).

The teams, comprised of four senior students and one instructor, competed in the Simulation Challenge in a competitive set of eight (with one hotel operated by each school). Each week they made strategic decisions to improve the position of their hotels in the competitive set, with a focus on Market Share, Financials, Guest Satisfaction, and Associate Engagement. The winning team was the hotel with the best overall balanced scorecard at the end of the four-week competition.

While in the competition, the students also completed their Certification in Hotel Business Acumen via on-line learning modules, supplemented by weekly web conferences. This was a very dynamic competition with teams using different strategies to move their hotel forward in the competitive set.

Sincere congratulations to all involved! REDGlobal will be delighted to honor the top two teams at EuroCHRIE 2018 in Dublin.

THE WINNERS

Strathmore University - Kenya

Team Ankara

Brenda Monica Wairimu
Kirsten Erica Dass
Anneirene Kerubo Muma
Vivian Muthoni Wachira

And, of course, Joy Goopio!

"The best part of competition is that through it, we discover what we are capable of – and how much more we can actually do than we ever believed possible" – Anonymous

When we started this journey, we had so many mixed feelings. It was in the middle of our crazy, final semester, and quite honestly, we were rather apprehensive of the challenge. Being our first-time taking part in the competition, we did not know what to expect from our competitors, the challenge itself and ourselves. All we knew was that we could rely on each other’s’ strengths and capabilities.

In the course of the 6 weeks of the simulation, we got to understand our worthy competitors through their strategies, decisions and constant communication with them. With each quarter, we learnt to be proactive, strategic, we learnt to consider each other’s opinions and that eventually paid off.

We are grateful for the opportunity and the experience!

THE RUNNERS-UP

Budapest Business School

Vivien
Zsófia
Anita
András

Participating in this competition was more than beneficial to our team, due to the opportunity to experience real life hotel management challenges and how to overcome them. The simulation contributed to the development of our management, analytical and cooperative skills.

We enjoyed being in a competitive set, where we learned how to use all the vital strategies in order to run a successful business. Therefore, we highly recommend taking part in this competition to acquire those valuable abilities which assist to a prosperous career in the future. Thank you again for this terrific experience!

Stenden South Africa

Lea Struder
Ruvimbo Matanhire
Jesse Stanley
Christabel Sibanda

Being part of the EuroCHRIE challenge was a pivotal learning experience for us as future hoteliers. It gave us a glimpse of how hotels are run, and how much effort goes into the whole process. One can definitely say that the experience enhanced our decision-making skills, as we had to learn how to make thoroughly informed decisions every week, which put heavy focus on the accuracy of our forecasting and consequently, the strategies devised. It was interesting to see how each member of the team gravitated toward an ‘Decision Area’ that they were actually interested in in real life, giving them an opportunity to truly experience this beyond the theory we receive in lectures. In the end it was a long and exciting tug-of-war that made us all step up to the challenge, and although the coveted First Place eluded us, we were grateful for the opportunity to engage with some of the sharpest young minds in the world.

Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management (EAHM) - Dubai

LeVu Minh
Zixuan Huang
Jophie Shu
Maria Helmy Naguib

“Our team thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the EuroCHRIE Challenge 2018. It was a great opportunity for us to put our theoretical knowledge, that we had learnt within the classroom, to test in a real-life hotel simulation. We gained in-depth knowledge on balancing short and long-term decisions, working together and incorporating each other’s ideas, and further developed our analytical skills through examining the data and change in revenue quarter on quarter. These skills learnt will be valuable in the rest of our hospitality careers and we encourage everyone to take part in this competition.”

NHTV Breda - Netherlands

Kevin van Grondelle
Huib de Borst
Robin Slegers
Nikki Jansen

It was an exciting 4-week challenge. We really had the feeling we were running a ‘real’ hotel. Starting out with 8 schools who were all starting with the same hotel, which resulted in many different strategic choices, was a lot of fun to experience. Setting strategic prices on your competitors, increase your market share and adjust your marketing budgets, all these steps were taken to increase the four areas of the Balanced Score Card.

We were running the hotel with a team of 4, who all had a different area of expertise and we had to learn to respect and trust each other’s opinion. We started out with a 5th place after Q1, and with some strategic adjustments we took the 3rd place after Q2 and preserved this place till the end.

REMINDER - If you want to be part of the 5th Annual EuroCHRIE University Challenge contact:

heidi.anaya@russellpartnership.com

The Winning and Runner up teams will be presented with their awards in Dublin 2018

Stenden Netherlands

Thom Hollenberg
Tereza Krajcerova
Laila Besser
Rixt van der Meulen

Tereza Krajcerova:
The EuroCHRIE University Challenge was a very interesting experience for me. I did not only have fun during the competition, but I also gained lot of knowledge. Especially to work with the REVsim simulation, that was something completely new for me. Even though we did not end up on a higher place, I am grateful that I was given the opportunity to participate in this competition. The challenge was combined with e-learning lessons that prepared us for the final quiz in order to obtain the certificate in Hotel Business Acumen. In the end, I would like to thank to our teacher Joke Tasma, who was always there for us!

Thom Hollenberg:
During our course for the EuroCHRIE competition I have learned a lot and gained interesting information regarding the industry but also regarding my own knowledge. The detailed and specific overview that is involved in the whole management of a hotel was new to me. Even though I knew the procedure from the books, by putting it to practice I got to know I way better. I could see all the connections between the different aspects more easily than before. As I said before, I also gathered interesting information about my own knowledge. Because this competition is interactive, you get the opportunity to benchmark yourself to others. This taught me, what my level of knowledge was compared to others. Overall, I would recommend any other dedicated student to apply for this course!

Rixt van der Meulen:
For me it was the first time to join a revenue management related contest, well the first time that I even joined a contest, so I did not really know what to expect. We started with the first session and the homework which I found really interesting! I liked the weekly meetings and the online lessons you could follow. But besides this, we had to fill in the revenue management system every week, when we did it the first time it was really hard, because we were not sure what all the different options would do, but after a while it got better, and we could ask the things we did not understand during the weekly meetings. However, I think it is difficult that you only play quarterly, since it is hard to see the effects of your decisions. But overall, I really enjoyed the contest with our team!

Laila Besser:
Together with my team I represented the Stenden Hotel Management school during the EuroCHRIE Challenge 2018. I have participated in two other hospitality related competitions so far. EuroCHRIE, however, is quite unique. As it is split up into online lessons, the simulation which forms the actual competition and online review sessions, the Challenge appears to be more multi-dimensional. I have learned a lot during the weeks of the competition and was very enthusiastic to receive the opportunity to test out my theoretical knowledge in a competitive setting. It was astonishing to see how engaged everyone seemed to be, although we (unfortunately) never met the other teams in person.

Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT)

Chloe Keating
Isabella Terrinoni
Alexander Bubnov
Andrew Nolan

Competing in the EuroCHRIE Challenge 2018 has taught us a lot about running a hotel from a managerial perspective using the online simulation, accounting was particularly helpful to us in this regard. The personality test that we took as part of the challenge also taught us lots about ourselves. Participating in the challenge has also meant that we have become good friends as opposed to just classmates, working together as a team was both a challenging and also a hugely enjoyable experience.

We would like to take the opportunity to thank Heidi for all of her efforts at coordinating the challenge and offering all of the teams such great support. Finally, we would like to wish Heidi and all of our fellow competitors the best of luck for the future.

University College of Northern Denmark (UCN)

Adrienn Judit Kisvari
Kasper Bager Mortensen
Enikö Wölfinger
Mette Kimie Vaarning

We really enjoyed participating in the challenge and feel that we have learnt a lot. It was a great learning experience which helped us to understand how the terms and tasks we heard about during classes work in real life situations. Especially the importance of the competitive set and forecasting. We were also happy to „meet” hospitality students from all around the world and we also enjoyed the fact that we were working in a team. The online lessons were also useful, easy to understand and helped to make the topics clear. Thank you for the experience!

Heidi Anaya
Director of Education - REDGlobal Group
heidi.anaya@russellpartnership.com