The Apprentice Task (Designed by learners)
Design a Hotel in England
Before you start
Martin will choose a project manager to lead your team.
Martin is Alan Sugar. Lord Newton can choose to change the project manager at the
start of each week if he wishes.
The Task
Lord Newton has a chain of hotels and you have the opportunity to run one of Lord
Newton’s hotels. Lord Newton will invest money to build and fit out a new hotel, your
task is to design the hotel and run the hotel for a year. The new hotel will provide
accommodation for tourists in England and must be in a city centre location, by the
seaside or in a rural beauty spot.
You must consider all costs involved in running the hotel.
All that you are provided with is a blank canvas of a building and you must decide
what facilities the hotel has. The hotel will be of equivalent size to the Lifestyle
building.
The hotel must be given a name and a theme which should influence the style of the
hotel.
At minimum, you must include:
 Three style of rooms-a luxury/family room, a double room and a single room,
you must decide what percentage of rooms are either luxury/family rooms,
double rooms or single rooms
 Entertainment for all age groups, that would be suitable for a week’s stay
 A restaurant and all the food for the number of visitors that stay at the hotel
 Appropriate staff for room keeping, customer service (manning the reception,
for example), catering and serving at the restaurant
 Access for disabled visitors
Then, you should:
 Draw out a scale, plan view diagram of your hotel which should be fully
dimensioned, and you must do a detailed plan of a double room.
 Produce a business plan based on your income and outgoings, this must show
profit you will make on a double room.
 Produce a poster which will advertise a double room and the hotel in general
This apprentice task has been designed by IT and Childcare learners on Core Maths L3 at Stoke College working with
Martin Newton
The Apprentice Task (Designed by learners)
The success of the challenge is based on your advertisement. It will be sent to every
member of staff around the college, which Lord Newton will help out with.
The profit that you make on your single room times by how many staff members
choose to stay in your room will determine who wins the competition.
Whether or not the staff will want to stay at your hotel, or whether or not they feel
that the room is worth the cost, is up to them.
Consider how much your hotel will cost in proportion to how much you will charge
for your room.
You have two weeks to complete this task…
Good luck!
In addition:
 You will have access to Claire Gardener, College educational technologist.
 You might want to carry out a survey to see what people would prefer?
 Nathan Loughton Finance manager at the College will come and answer
questions on putting together a business plan.
 You can choose to locate your hotel in a rural beauty spot, city centre or by the
seaside.
 You must use the occupancy levels stated in the table for levels of staffing and
income generated.
Hotel Occupancy Levels
Rural beauty spot
80% occupancy for 7
months of the year
City centre
90% for 5 days of the
week
Seaside
100% for 5 months of
the year
50% occupancy for 5
months of the year
30% for 2 days of the
week
35% for 7 months of the
year
This apprentice task has been designed by IT and Childcare learners on Core Maths L3 at Stoke College working with
Martin Newton
The Apprentice Task (Designed by learners)
You must ensure that you employ enough staff based on occupancy levels.
The following staff must be employed on permanent full time contracts at the
salary stated below.
Job
Permanent full time staff salaries
Median UK City centre
Seaside
salary
salary
salary
£30,946
15% above
15% below
median salary median salary
£13,928
General
Manager
Head
Receptionist
Head Chef
£27,010
Hotel Manager £23,977
Duty Manager £16,909
Rural location
salary
5% above
median salary
The following staff will be employed at the hourly rates stated below and will
be on zero hours contracts so they will be paid based on occupancy levels.
Staff paid on zero hours contracts
Job
Median UK
City centre
hourly rate
salary
Receptionist
£6.48
5% above
living wage or
Waiter/waitress £6.21
20% above
Head
£6.82
median salary
housekeeper
rate,
housekeeper
£6.42
whichever is
Chef
£7.12
lowest
Grounds
£6.42
person
Bar staff
£6.20
As above
Seaside
salary
5% above
minimum
wage or
median uk
hourly rate
whichever is
highest.
Rural location
salary
5% above
median uk
hourly rate.
This apprentice task has been designed by IT and Childcare learners on Core Maths L3 at Stoke College working with
Martin Newton
The Apprentice Task (Designed by learners)
You must use industry recommendations for number of staff needed and based on
occupancy levels:
Industry recommendations for staff levels
Job
Job ratio
Receptionist
1 for overnight 12am-7am
Waitress/waiter
Head Housekeeper
Housekeepers
Chef
Groundsperson/handy
person
Bar staff
1 per 100 residents 7am12am
10 tables for breakfast,
average of 4 customers
per table, 7am-11am
5 tables, average of 4
customers per table for
evening meal, 6pm-10pm
1 per 10 housekeepers
30 minutes per room for one housekeeper
1 chef per 10 customers, 2 chefs per 25 customers, 3
chefs per 50-75 customers, 4 chefs per 100 customers
1 per 250 customers
1 per 100 customers
Fixed costs
Fixed cost
Monthly
rent/mortgage
Payment notes
Cost per
calendar
month
Business rates
Paid in 10
instalments a
year.
Yearly
payment
IT systems, wi
fi, telephone
and TV loan
costs.
Maintenance
and renewal of
Monthly costs
City centre
Mortgage of
£1.8million
interest only at
rate of 4.25%
per annum
46% of annual
mortgage cost.
Seaside
Rent per
calendar
month of
£5500
Rural location
Mortgage of
£1.6million at
4.98%
43% of annual
rent.
45% of annual
mortgage cost.
£50000 for 50-100 guests,
£75000 for 101-200 guests,
£30000 per 100 guests above 200
£6000 per month
This apprentice task has been designed by IT and Childcare learners on Core Maths L3 at Stoke College working with
Martin Newton
The Apprentice Task (Designed by learners)
fittings and
hardware,
kitchen etc
Insurance
Gas and
electricity
Yearly
£25000 per year for 100 rooms
£18000 per year per 100 rooms, for above 100
rooms
Monthly
3% of annual profit of your hotel business
You must consider how much VAT must be charged and this must be included in
the cost of your room.
Tax rates that you must charge
VAT
Charged at
appropriate
rate
Business tax
Yearly
on profits
Check this.
Check this
You must consider what entertainment facilities you want in your hotel; you will have
to calculate the cost of these facilities compared to lost room income. You must do
realistic costings for your facilities including staffing. The cost of these facilities must
be calculated and added to your overall costs of running the hotel.
You must produce a report which includes the profit and costings.
Remember this task is all about the margins, the
group that makes the most profit on the rooms
that they sell will be the winner!
This apprentice task has been designed by IT and Childcare learners on Core Maths L3 at Stoke College working with
Martin Newton