55NL Assignments and timeline
Hotel management students at Breda University a.s., I'm counting on you!
Organization of the module
It is essential that each of you, individually and as team members, participate and join in all on-campus events and online meetings as scheduled. During the upcoming sessions and throughout the two-week duration of this simulation game, you will be tasked and expected to perform as business managers. As such, in addition to working on your assignments, keeping up with your social media and live interaction becomes a must.
So, what to do first? Take it step by step.
Prompt yourself to think all about hotels during these two-full weeks (including weekends) and how they remain open and available to customers. This should inspire you and the team to keep your hotel communication 'alive'. Bear in mind, hotels don’t close at certain hours.
All events are scheduled in your roster.
Assignments
You are tasked to run the hotel by a number of assignments.
| Marking in the Game | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game year | Deadline | Business assignment | Creativity assignment |
| Year 1 | Hand in June 4th, 3 pm | 55NL Year 1 Business assignment New strategy, name, logo etc. | Creativity Year 1 Get ready! |
| Year 2 | Hand in June 6th, 5 pm | 55NL Year 2 Business assignment Decisions on prices and costs | No Creativity assignment Year 2 |
| Year 3 | Hand in June 12th, 5 pm | 55NL Year 3 Business assignment Prices, costs and more explanations | Creativity Year 3 Beat the competition |
| Year 4 | Hand in June 16th, 3 pm | No Business assignment Year 4 | Creativity Year 4 Golden bell |
| A total of 6 assignments | |||
To be done in week 23, prepare yourselves!
* Step 1: Kick-off
Join in and participate in the Main Plenary Kick-off Meeting along with other management teams: You will receive instructions from CEO Jill Jandal regarding your Team and the Game, such as:
- The team members with whom you will manage the hotel: The list has been made available via Teams, so you should familiarize yourself with your own Teams channel
- The team number of your hotel. This will look something like “55NL-A01” (no spaces in between)
- Your Game is the 55th game and takes place in Breda, BUAS Hotel management the Netherlands, so that is why it is number 55NL.
- Your hotel. For instance, if your hotel is in the fictitious city of Amstelburg, the letter A will correspond to your hotel. The letter B stands for the city of Budano, the third city being Copenstadt: C, the fourth being Dreskovski, D. All cities are in the Netherlands, you can be creative in your 'assumptions', in a reasonable way, though.
- Your hotel in this case will be hotel number 01 out of approximately ten hotels in your city. The other (nine) hotels are your main competitors.
* Step 2: City meeting. Check your City's time slot in your schedule, follow your coaches’ instructions.
It might be held after the kick-off. If you have time, check the other tasks for this week. In this session you meet your coach, ask questions, have a look at the assignments of this week etc. It is a very bad idea to miss this meeting. In this session you will get your secret link to your Team File and will find out which channel 'belongs' to your Management Team. So, you can 'go' to your own channel afterwards, secure a workplace, and make arrangements within your team.
Team File
As a team you will work in a shared Team File, a Google spreadsheet. Soon, you will get a secret link to this file from your city coach. With this link, you will have access to your hotel’s Team File: the most important document in the game. This is the document in which you get to present your assignments, formulate your hotel future plans, and where you will also find your results under each year / round.
The secret link will look like 'https://goo.gl/L4cABC' and is case sensitive.
Keep this link private and secret! Inside this Team file (for your eyes only), you will work on:
- All of your assignments, to be 'handed in'
And you will find per year (round):
- Feedback from your coach
- Your scores on business assignment as well as creativity assignment
- Your hotel's occupancy rate
- Your hotel's revenue
- Your hotel's profit
Your coach will have access to your Team File at all times. A few things to bear in mind while working collectively in this Team File:
- Please use Chrome as your browser (will work the best, both owned by Google).
- When you are logged into Google (YouTube, G-mail), you will get a few more options in the menu for working in the Team File
- It is real time, with a small delay. And be aware that 'the last edit counts'. Make sure to agree on, which team member will do the final editing (mind the deadlines).
- Work online only: downloading, converting to Excel etc. will always give some small issues.
- You have edit rights in a selected number of cells, only the light green indicated ones: follow the instructions, do not change tabs, don't make new tabs etc.
- Many cells have a small triangle on the top right corner: hover your mouse over it, as this will give additional information on the subject.
- You are not allowed to change things after the deadline, or in any previous year once the deadlines have passed (cells will also appear greyed-out later-on).
- It could be be handy to install the extension "Editor for Docs, Sheets & Slides" to Chrome, available via this link. This extension is needed for copying / pasting information between Google files.
- Depending on your Wi-Fi bandwidth, it may take a few seconds to load your Team File. If the file doesn't seem to load, exit and open it again or do a refresh (once!).
* Step 3: Meet with your fellow team members
Plan meetings with your team so you can prepare and plan for who is going to do what. It could take some extra effort on your part when cooperating online. Still, you are expected to be a team player and aim not to leave anyone behind. We know MS Teams can work miracles; you can also make use of other backchannels like WhatsApp, Signal, Slack, or Facebook live. Managing a hotel entails having your team and hotel well organized.
Make sure to work together in a professional manner while supporting everyone in the team to perform his/her tasks well and on time. Good management is also good team-management. If things don’t work out as planned, act immediately!
For that matter, you are required to set-up a team management contract in your Team file in your earliest round (Year 1, the strategy).
* Step 4: Study Introduction to Hotel
Visit the Game 55NL home page, read it thoroughly and begin to understand what the task at hand is, and how to embrace it as a new mandate to your team. Next, follow it with an open discussion with your new management team. This should act as your first ideation or brainstorming point. You should also study Introduction to Hotel, in the left-hand menu, and familiarize yourself with the hotel and how it has been introduced prior to the new challenge you have just been given.
* Step 5: Study Introduction to Game play
Study the Introduction Game play: Here you will find the ten pages you need to read on what you can do as a new management team.
More information
After this, during the game you can find much more info:
- In the main menu you can see your Game 55NL: 55NL-live, with its own homepage and information. Don't bother or get distracted with other Games.
- You can always find more info on Hotel Info pages in the main menu. They give detailed information on the real hotel.
- Clicking Help will show more information on photos and videos of the original hotel and links to the Emerald Forest Hotel social media accounts.
- More options in the main menu, when needed.
To be done in week 23, Year 1:
Use info on what to do from the Year 1 (the Preparation) page and check the Team file page on this platform to see what your Team File is and does. Then have a look at your own Team File. All team members can log in using the private link as provided to you by your city coach. Having multiple users at the same time is not a problem. Your team will work in this file and also find your own results after each round (year). After reading, discuss your strategic plans regarding the hotel and come to a conclusion.
The next two assignments are crucial and will be assessed upon timely completion. Click for details:
Deadline Wednesday, June 4 at 15:00. Year 1 Get ready!
> 55NL Year 1 Business assignment
> Creativity Year 1 Get ready!
If your material will be late or incomplete, it will get your hotel in trouble and your assignment will be graded with a low mark.
To be done in week 23, Year 2:
The next assignment is crucial and will be assessed upon timely completion. Click for details:
Deadline Friday, June 6 at 17.00, Year 2
> 55NL Year 2 Business assignment
> 55NL Year 2 Creativity assignment not applicable
If your material will be late or incomplete, it will get your hotel in trouble and your assignment will be graded with a low mark.
To be done in week 24, Year 3:
The next two assignments are crucial and will be assessed upon timely completion. Click for details:
Deadline Thursday, June 12 at 17.00, Year 3
> 55NL Year 3 Business assignment
> Creativity Year 3 Beat the competition
If your material will be late or incomplete, it will get your hotel in trouble and your assignment will be graded with a low mark.
To be done in week 25, Year 4:
The next assignment is crucial and will be assessed upon timely completion. Click for details:
Deadline Monday, June 16 at 15.00, Year 4
> 55NL Year 4 Business assignment not applicable
> Creativity Year 4 Golden bell
Final Ceremony: The Golden Bell Award 2025, Tuesday, June 17 at 13.00 (BUAS chapel).
If your material will be late or incomplete, it will get your hotel in trouble and your assignment will be graded with a low mark.
