This chapter gets you from "I have a login link" to "I can read every part of the screen."
Logging in
Your professor will give you three things:
| Where to type it | |
|---|---|
| Simulation ID | The "Simulation ID" field |
| Hotel name | The "Hotel Name" field — exact spelling, capitalization matters |
| Password | The "Password" field |
Open the simulator URL, click Hotel Team on the landing page, and enter those three values.
The hotel-team login. Three fields — that's it.
If your hotel name or password is wrong, the form will tell you. If the simulation ID is wrong, you'll be sent back to the landing page.
Where you land
After login you arrive at your Results Dashboard. The first time you log in there won't be much here yet — no periods have run. That's normal.
The top bar — your hotel's vital signs at a glance.
The top bar is the most important strip of pixels in the simulator. From left to right:
| Element | What it means |
|---|---|
| Hotel name | Your hotel |
| Type pill | Luxury / Upscale / Midscale / Budget — your hotel's category |
| Star rating | Industry-style 1–5 stars, based on amenities and brand |
| Service score pill | A measure of your hotel's operational quality, built from the amenities you've installed and your brand affiliation. Higher is better. |
| Reputation pill | Your long-term word-of-mouth. Higher is better. |
| Period N | The period currently open for editing |
| Cash pill | How much money you have to spend |
If you've made decisions that haven't been run yet but will change your reputation or service score, the pill will show a small projection arrow (e.g. Rep 64 → 78). That's the engine telling you "after this period runs, expect this." It's a preview, not a guarantee.
The five tabs
Below the top bar are five horizontal tabs:
The five tabs you'll live in.
| Tab | What you do here |
|---|---|
| Results | Read what happened last period (P&L, daily breakdown, occupancy, ADR) |
| Decisions | Set prices and inventory for the next month, commit your forecast |
| Leaderboard | Compare your performance to competitors (you see indices, not their dollar numbers) |
| RFPs | View open corporate / group bid requests and place bids |
| My Hotel | Configure your hotel itself — amenities, loyalty / brand, channels, marketing |
You will spend the most time in My Hotel (especially in early periods) and Decisions (every period).
The two-stage workflow every period
This is the single most important habit:
First set up your hotel in My Hotel. Then set prices and submit in Decisions.
Here's why: things you change in My Hotel — like installing a spa, joining a loyalty program, or activating a marketing campaign — affect how guests perceive your hotel, which affects who books with you and at what price. If you set prices before deciding to install a spa, your pricing strategy may be off.
The Decisions tab has a reminder banner about this:
The "Did you set up My Hotel?" banner appears in Review & Submit. It's there for a reason.
When you can't edit
Your professor controls when you can make changes. Two things can lock you out:
- The period is closed. No editing once the professor has run and published the period.
- The professor locks editing. Even with the period open, the professor can lock editing — usually right before they run the period so nobody changes anything mid-run.
When either is true, you'll see a 🔒 banner at the top of any editable page, and the inputs go gray:
Locked state. You can still read everything; you just can't change anything.
Logging out
Top-right corner. There's no "auto-save" warning — anything you typed but didn't save is gone, so always click Save on each tab before logging out.
Next
→ Chapter 3: Setting Up Your Hotel (My Hotel tab)