CHIA designation awarded to MU students

Please join us in congratulating the students from the enrichment course ‘’Hotel Strategy and Analysis’’ on being the first students of MU to earn the Certification in Hotel Industry Analytics (CHIA)!

The CHIA is a joint offer by the American Hotel and Lodging Association’s Educational Institute (AH&LEI), the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education (ICHRIE), and Smith Travel Research (STR Global). In 2013, MU joined the SHARE Program of STR, and since then, their data has informed teaching and research across all programs. Through this partnership, we are pleased to offer students with the opportunity of gaining the CHIA designation.

CHIA recipients have proven that they can ‘do the math’ as well as interpret various reports and key performance indicators, and have learned how to make strategic decisions and react on benchmarking and performance reports.

In an increasingly competitive environment, hotels rely heavily on well-equipped revenue managers to drive performance and improve profitability. Professional certifications like the CHIA are increasingly recognized by the industry as their show the applicants’ mastery of hotel-related analytical skills, giving MU students an addition edge on their future careers.

BBA student Caroline Schiestl reflected on the course, “it was interesting to see how exactly hotels create the rates, and what is important to consider regarding the prices and competitors. It helps me a lot for my future work, as not every job candidate is familiar with STR and how it works. This gives me a big plus at job interviews.”

For Julian Mayer, the Deputy General Manager, Fairmont Vier Jahreszeiten said it best: “You don’t bring occupancy to the bank; you bring cash to the bank”.

Dr. Florian Aubke decided to integrate the CHIA in his course Hotel Strategy and Analysis, elaborating that “for me, the content of the CHIA certification provides the perfect theoretical framework for an experiential learning course. In the classroom, students learn the details on how to read and interpret performance data.  Since STR reports are the daily bread of most hotels today, the ability to turn information into actionable knowledge is gold! The possibility to actually discuss the insights gained from the analysis with hoteliers in the market provides a holistic learning experience which is impossible to achieve otherwise. I am certain that the knowledge from this course and the CHIA certificate will give the students a competitive advantage in the workplace.”

The CHIA will continue to be offered as part of the enrichment course ‘Hotel Strategy and Analysis’, open to both bachelor’s and master’s students.  For details about this course and the CHIA, contact Dr. Florian Aubke.