HBS Pricing Simulation
Monday, July 12, 2010
September
By raising the weekday rental price by $5.00 and the weekend rental price by $3.00, we lost money compared to last month. Weekday and weekend utilization dropped, as did total unit sales. Not a good month for the Orlando market. I thought that by increasing the prices slightly, we could increase our earnings, but I was way off. Net revenue decreased by $5,705,596, net income decreased by $4,007,499, but accumulated profit increased by $17,175,324. I am a little confused at these findings.
MIAMI:
By increasing the weekday rental price by $2.00 and the weekend rental price by $5.00, the Miami market increased their earnings and had a decent month. Utilization was maintained at 100% and total unit sales stayed the same. Total revenue, net income and accumulated profit all increased.
Very different outcomes for the two markets by increasing the prices ever so slightly. Not a great way to end the month, or the simulation for that matter, but overall, I'd say it was a success.
August
Total unit sales decreased for the first time in 10 months, which is a little discouraging. I thought that by lowering the price a little bit, more customers would be able to rent cars, but I guess that wasn't the case. Utilization decreased for the weekend from 100% to 87% and for the weekday, utilization decreased from 100% to 95%. I guess to maintain utilization and to keep earning money, I will increase the price slightly and hope for the best.
Even with the drop in utilization and the drop in unit sales, accumulated profit increased from $94,701,092 to $115,883,915!
MIAMI:
By lowering the weekend rental price from $57.00 to $50.00, I was able to get utilization back up to 100%, which is great. I am not too happy about my net revenue and net income decreasing slightly, but my accumulated profit increased by $9,324,255, so that is great news.
Something that I found interesting was that weekend orders increased, while weekday orders decreased. Something that might have played a part in that is the fact that the percentage of leisure customers increased from 25% to 27%. I figure that most leisure customers rent cars on the weekend while vacationing or traveling and that is probably why the percentage increased.
July
ORLANDO:
Market demand decreased by 1,155,274, which is a large number, but the demand is still 1,765,811 which is very high. The number of unfilled orders decreased, which is a result of the decreased market demand and the total number of orders decreased immensly, by 652,176. Even though many of the numbers decreased, net income for the month was $23,017,376 and accumulated profit is now up to $94,701,092!
MIAMI:
Like with the Orlando market, I was nervous to increase the rental price by $10.00. Miami is a much smaller market than Orlando so I wasn't sure how the market would react. Since raising the price, weekend utilization dropped from 100% to 80%. So, for August, I will most likely lower the weekend rental price back to the price range it was before I raised it. I want to be sure that we are always at 100% utilization because that is the best, most efficient way to run a business.
I am a little concerned because the total number of orders dropped by a drastic 420,075, but our net income for the month increased by $3,059,122 and the accumulated profit is up to $36,725,780! A great success!
June
This month in Orlando, I decided to raise the rental price by $5.00 for both weekday and weekend rentals. I was a little nervous because it seemd like quite a large price jump, but it turned out to be beneficial. Our net income increased by a large amount, $3,301,959 to be exact. Another very impressive number was our accumulated profit, which increased by $16,413,458!
With summer approaching, I thought the amount of leisure customers would increase, but instead, they decreased from 50% to 49%. I anticipate, as the summer goes on, the number of leisure customers will increase due to families, students, and teenagers traveling to Florida for vacation.
MIAMI:
The price of the weekday and weekend rentals increased by $5.00 which seems to have been a good idea. While the total number of orders went down, our utilization was maintained at 100%. The plan for the next few months is to continue slowly raising the price to see if we can increase our profit without losing business.
Our fleet size for both the Orlando and Miami offices have stayed the same, which is a bit frustrating. If we had more cars to rent to customers, we would be able to make a larger profit. I hope we are given the chance to increase fleet size soon.
May
This month was a success. I decided to increase the weekend and weekday price by just $2.00 to see if we could increase our profit. While I raised the price just a little, the competition raised their price even more. They increased the weekday price by $7.00 and the weekend price by $5.00, although, our weekeday and weekend prices are still $2.00 more than the competition's. Even with the competition's price increase, we still managed to keep utilization at 100% and increase accumulated profit by an incredible $13,111,498! Unfilled orders this month increased, as did market demand. The Orlando market is quite a bit larger than that of Miami, but they both seem to be doing well and not losing money...knock on wood.
MIAMI:
As with Orlando, I decided to increase the rental price of both the weekday and weekend rates. I increased the price by $2.00, while the competition increased their's by $5.00. Even with this slight price adjustment, we increased our net income by $788,276 to $5,073,518. Our number of total orders increased as did the number of unfilled orders. We were busier this month that last month, which is great. One thing that stayed the same this month is the percentage of business customers and leisure customers we service. Business customers account for 74% of our business, while leisure customers account for 26%.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
April
Total orders for this month decreased, but we still maintained 100% utilization. I noticed that market demand is going down as well as the number of unfilled orders. Now that the holidays are over, I think things are slowly starting to calm down. The good news is that the Orlando market had great numbers this month. We increased the weekday rental price from $45.00 to $52.00 and the weekend rental price from $45.00 to $50.00. By doing this, our monthly revenue increased to $33,963,007; up from $29,717,631. In addition to total revenue, our net income grew $4,245,376; from $7,545,339 to $11,790,715! Accumulated profit increased immensly; from $30,368,044 to $42,158,760, a total of $11,790,717!
MIAMI:
We maintained 100% utilization this month! In addition, market demand and unfilled orders decreased. For the first time, Universal's total unit sales have dropped. Every month since last July, unit sales have increased, but this month they dropped by 237, while the competition's unit sales stayed the same. Even though Miami's unit sales decreased this month, we improved in revenue, net income and accumulated profit. By increasing the weekday price from $49.00 to $54.00 and the weekend price from $35.00 to $40.00, revenue increased from $17,618,188 to $19,566,281; net income increased from $2,332,911 to $4,285,272 and accumulated profit rose from $10,245,678 to $14,530,950.
Overall, April was a success.
March
Last month, the Orlando market lost money due to the decrease in unit pricing. This month, on the other hand, Orlando improved in all areas! In February, net revenue dropped by $1,132,101, but this month net revenue increased by $1,886,834, which means we made up the money we lost, plus more! The total number of orders are ever-increasing, so the plan is to slightly increase the price every month, unless of course, something drastic arises.
MIAMI:
For the first time ever, weekend and weekday utilization are both at 100%! By lowering the weekend price from $41.00 to $37.00, we were able to accomplish this. Unfilled orders are still on the rise, but since we are utilizing all we have, I will try not to be too concerned about it. In February, we lost $469,995 in total revenue, but were able to recoup $617,675 this month, so I am very excited about that. We also increased net income and accumulated profit, so I think it's safe to say that this month was a success.