The Walsham Hotel: the Mechatronic KoolNitro 346 mini-bar

Abstract

The Walsham hotel is an upscale hotel, located in a large southern city. Its clientele have high expectations and, given the Walsham's urban location, likely includes many senior executives. The case focuses on the hotel's Director of Rooms and, in particular, the hotel's profitable mini-bar department. A major face-lift for the property's rooms provides an opportunity to replace the refrigeration units in the mini-bar, units that have been in place for over 10 years. The Director is considering either a more energy-efficient version of the current unit or a much more expensive unit, the KN346. The latter has some interesting electronic features including sensing technology and peer-to-peer networking that, together, would permit remote real-time access to the mini-bar inventory. This unit could drive down labor costs, reduce disagreements at check-out, improve customer service, and allow personalized mini-bar stocking. The case is arranged in four parts. Only Part A should be distributed in advance. Part B should be distributed only after Part A is discussed. Parts C and D could be similarly distributed only after discussion of their preceding parts.