What the heck Dubuque?

[lurtsman]

Originally Posted by atler8

This is ridiculous from a business plan stand point, most pointedly, "Small cities do not plan to have enough room."
What do you propose the hospitality industry in a smaller city should do? Construct & have an excess inventory of hotel/motel rooms available year round that sit empty most of the time just so that on the extraordinary occasions when large scale or multiple events do occur, that there will be adequate inventory of rooms for every one under the sun? From a business plan sense that is not how the hospitality industry operates or makes a profit. Such a poor business plan would bankrupt the motels/hotels.
The inventory supply problem is not limited to small cities, by the way. I live in a metro that is one of the largest/busiest convention trade centers in America. Even here on extraordinary occasions there is a shortage of hotel/motel rooms & conventioneers/special event attendees are forced to stay in far flung locations.
An understanding of inventory fundamentals of supply and demand should be part and parcel of a business college education.

Atler,

Set posts to ignore or

I understand exactly how the industry works. Unlike you, I'm a financial analyst. I'm not going to waste my time educating you on capacity planning. I never said that it would be good business sense for them to plan sufficient capacity. You spend far too much time stretching out anything I say into what you wish I had said.

The simple truth is that anything less than a massive national event (like the superbowl) is not going to cause a city like Chicago, Raleigh, Denver, or San Diego to run out of hotel rooms. For people deciding where to visit, it is unfortunate that they must do significantly more planning for a trip to a tiny city to ensure their trip does not overlap with an event that is utilizing all of the available vacancies.

The desire to build less than the needed capacity is part of what morningstar refers to as a natural monopoly. In the case of these small cities, it is an oligopoly where the level of demand and corresponding price choices significantly impact the individual players because there are not enough actors in the market to cause the system to even remotely resemble free competition.

This E-stalking thing is getting absurd. You do not have a superior education. Your advice is not wanted. The fact that you respond to every post I make in the Iowa forums is disturbing to put it mildly. Reading comprehension should be part of every college education.

[citychik]

I know this is an old thread, but it came up in a search and grabbed my attention. What is a Homecoming, exactly, and what events does it involve, anyway? People coming home from college? In October? I didn't grow up in a place that had that sort of thing. I don't understand why a Homecoming would attract so many visitors that hotels and restaurants for miles around are booked up. I would think something like that would only appeal to local families of the people coming home, or am I missing something? Are homecomings that big a deal in the midwest? Can anyone explain?

[atler8]

The homecoming event described here was in relation to a college football weekend event that is a tradition on many campuses, not just in the Midwest, and is a weekend designated to not only include a home football game but numerous other activities to round the weekend out and make it more attractive to lure past alumnae back to the school to socialize, etc. & basically spend money.
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