Interviewer view · keep this screen to yourself
Standard: Sahra Heritage: how many hotel rooms for a new destination?
You run the case. Read the prompt, answer questions from the notes below, and share data only when the candidate asks for it or gets stuck. Score at the end.
Case timer
00:00
1. Read the prompt aloud
Read it slowly, then pause. Let the candidate ask questions before they structure.
Sahra Heritage, a government-backed developer in Saudi Arabia, is opening a desert heritage site to visitors. It must decide how many hotel rooms to have ready by the third year. The exhibit shows the plan. How many rooms should it plan for, and how should it add them?
Format note: Difficulty: Standard. Format: interviewer-led, with an exhibit. Industry: Tourism and hospitality. Region: Saudi Arabia. Interview length: about 30 minutes. The company is fictional and all figures are illustrative.
2. Answers to clarifying questions
Give these answers only if the candidate asks. If they ask something not listed, give a sensible answer or say it does not matter here.
If asked: Is the visitor target for one year?
Answer: Yes, 600,000 visitors in the third year after opening (illustrative).
If asked: Do all visitors stay the night?
Answer: No, about 60 percent stay, for 2 nights on average; the rest are day trips from the nearest city.
If asked: Is demand even through the year?
Answer: I will tell you more about that later.
3. The hypothesis a strong candidate states
Listen for an early, testable guess like this one. It does not need to match word for word.
Hotel rooms depend on overnight guests, not total visitors, so my hypothesis is that the destination needs a bit over twice the rooms it has today, and that seasonality could change the answer.
4. A model structure
Compare the candidate's structure with this one. A different split can be just as good if it is clean and fits the problem.
- Rooms needed = room nights demanded / (365 x target occupancy)
- Key: Visitors staying overnight, and nights per visitor
- Guests per room, giving room nights
- Target occupancy and rooms already open
- Seasonality: peak and off-peak demand
Exhibit 1
Reveal to candidate: when they ask for this data, say "Open Exhibit 1" (they press "Show exhibit 1" on their screen).
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Visitors a year | 600,000 |
| Share staying overnight (%) | 60 |
| Nights per overnight visitor | 2 |
| Guests per room | 1.8 |
| Rooms open today | 600 |
| Average room rate (SAR a night) | 900 |
So-what
Only overnight guests need rooms, so the room count starts from 400,000 room nights, not from 600,000 visitors.
5. The working, step by step
Each step shows how a strong candidate works it out. Share a new fact from it only when the candidate asks or is stuck, and let them do the math: the result in the dark box is what they should reach.
Step 1: Overnight visitors
What a strong candidate does: 600,000 visitors, of whom 60 percent stay the night.
Overnight visitors a year: 600,000 × 0.6 = 360,000
Step 2: Guest nights
What a strong candidate does: Each overnight visitor stays 2 nights.
Guest nights a year: 600,000 × 0.6 × 2 = 720,000
Step 3: Room nights
What a strong candidate does: On average 1.8 guests share a room.
Room nights a year: 600,000 × 0.6 × 2 ÷ 1.8 = 400,000
Step 4: Rooms needed
What a strong candidate does: Planning for rooms to be 70 percent full on average across the year.
Rooms needed at 70 percent occupancy (rooms): 400,000 ÷ (365 × 0.7) = 1,566
Step 5: Rooms to add
What a strong candidate does: Rounded up to 1,570 rooms, with 600 rooms open today.
New rooms to add (rooms): 1,570 - 600 = 970
Step 6: Curveball: the cool season
What a strong candidate does: Interviewer: "About 70 percent of room nights fall in the 182 cooler days from October to March, and hotels cannot be fuller than about 90 percent on busy nights." Rooms needed to meet peak demand:
Rooms needed in the peak season (rooms): 400,000 × 0.7 ÷ 182 ÷ 0.9 = 1,709
Step 7: Off-season occupancy
What a strong candidate does: If Sahra built 1,710 permanent rooms, the other 30 percent of room nights would spread over the 183 hot days.
Off-season occupancy with 1,710 rooms (%): 400,000 × 0.3 ÷ (183 × 1,710) × 100 = 38.35
Step 8: Room revenue
What a strong candidate does: At an average room rate of SAR 900 a night.
Room revenue (SAR a year): 400,000 × 900 = 360,000,000
The recommendation to listen for
At the end, say: "The CEO walks in. What is your recommendation?"
Plan for about 1,570 permanent rooms by year three, which means adding about 970, and meet the cool-season peak with about 140 seasonal units rather than more hotels. First, 600,000 visitors become 400,000 room nights, which need about 1,566 rooms at 70 percent occupancy. Second, demand is seasonal: the cool months alone need about 1,710 rooms, but building that many permanently would leave hotels about 38 percent full in the hot months. Third, the rooms earn about SAR 360 million a year at SAR 900 a night, so the plan should protect the room rate rather than chase volume. Build in two phases, with the second phase released only when the first reaches its occupancy target, and use desert camps or other seasonal units for the peak.
Risks a strong answer names: The visitor target may not be reached, leaving new rooms empty; Seasonal units may not meet the quality the destination promises.
Next steps: Test the visitor forecast against bookings from the first year; Ask operators for offers on seasonal units for the cool months.
Strong versus weak
A strong answer
Converted visitors into room nights before counting rooms, used occupancy, and saw that seasonality changes the build plan.
A weak answer
Divided 600,000 visitors by 365 and said about 1,600 rooms, missing day visitors, shared rooms and the seasonal peak.
Score the candidate
Score each criterion from 1 to 5. A 2 or a 4 sits between the descriptions.
Total
0 out of 25
Score all five criteria to see the band and the feedback template.