2011

Faculty of Management Studies(FMS) Sanchit Makhija, F64, Section A, FMS (FT), 2012 Batch

[CASE ANALYSIS: PD TENNIS CLUB]

Case: Playa Dorada Tennis Club (PD Tennis)

The case involves Douglas Hall, newly appointed tennis director of the Playa Dorada Tennis Club (PD Tennis). He has available data of projections regarding occupancy rates of the resort and playing hours. Also he has last year s trends of tennis play hours. By taking suitable assumptions for projecting demand after using the above information, Hall can manage with the current court capacity for the March- April 07 season, with just adjustment of demand. However, for the peak season of 2008, i.e. March- April 2008, he will need to add capacity. As the Land acquisition costs to build courts over and above the four that can be built in the current enclosure are not provided, we assume that such a cost would be very high. Thus, for 2008 s peak season, it would be advisable to only add 4 extra courts. Some measures that he can take to modify the demand, thus increasing percentage utilization while meeting customer needs would be as follows:
SNo. 1 Solution Description

Doubles play

2.

Student discounts

Often people come to these resorts in smaller groups and hence prefer to play singles. If they can be convinced to play doubles it would free up courts for others to play. Playing doubles, or mixed doubles, can be promoted as a way to mingle and make new friends during your stay. While student discount is a good idea to attract them to play tennis, it should be ensured that they are not being given priority over higher paying guests who are also potential house buyers. For this, the discount can be available only during evenings (to encourage evening play). Also, hard courts are being used less because older people complain of leg fatigue. Students, being younger and healthier can be encouraged to play on hard courts with discounts. By changing the maintenance schedule from 7- 8 AM every morning to 6-7 AM, he can free up an hour of play on each of the 23 courts at a time which many people would prefer to use for playing tennis. However, this will be subject to the availability of maintenance staff and other suitable conditions.  Price after 2 hours of play: Currently, after two hours of play, the tariff is only $10 for an additional hour, whereas the goal should be to get people to play lesser number of hours in one go. Thus, the price should be increased instead of decreased for longer duration of play. Alternatively, guests can be told they can make bookings for only two hours at one time after which

3.

Hours of play

4.

Pricing structure

they have to rebook subject to availability. This strategy, however, can have negative repercussions as people might not want to interrupt their play.  Pricing during lighted play: Currently, the price is high and dissuades people from using the facility. Even if the prices were lower, fewer people would prefer to play in the evening because they have other plans. Hence, it is important to promote evening play by offering discounts, batch offers or other such deals.