by

The Marina Bay Sands Ice Skating Rink

Background

The skating rink at the Marina Bay Sand’s Integrated Resort in Singapore is located inside the retail complex on the Canal Level, next to the Rasapura Masters Food Court.  Operating hours are 10am to 10pm daily (closed 5pm-6pm for maintenance). http://www.marinabaysands.com/Singapore-Shopping/Skating-Rink/

 

The Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort

 

It is pretty small, measuring only about 600 SM. The rink shape isn’t your typical elongated oval (an Olympic hockey rink comes in at about 1830 SM.  Given its small size it is mainly used just for recreational skating.  It is a good way to keep the kids happy since the rest of the integrated resort is geared for adults (lots of gaming, nightlife options, upscale shopping, celebrity chef restaurants, etc). 

While I’m focusing only on the rink at MBS, in case you’re curious and want to go ice skating in hot and humid Singapore, the MBS rink is one of only two operating ice skating rinks.  It came online with the opening of the integrated resort in 2010.  The only other rink is Kallang Ice World which opened in 2007 as part of the Kallang Leisure Park, located near the Stadium MRT.  At 975.5 SM, the Kallang rink is much bigger but still nowhere near Olympic size.  Nevertheless as Singapore’s larger rink, Kallang is the preferred practice rink for figure skaters and hockey players. Some more trivia that is sure to improve your life…the NTU figure skating club uses Kallang’s rink.  A third rink, Fuji Ice Palace, ceased operations in 2008.

Me at the MBS rink

Defining Space

Space in an ice skating rink is sold implicitly but not as implicitly as a hotel where space is split up into guest rooms or restaurants where space is divided into different types of seats.  The customer doesn’t know that they are being sold a piece of space which in this case would be the amount of space they are allocated based on the maximum safe capacity that the rink can handle.  

Defining Time

At the MBS rink, time is sold explicitly in hour-long blocks.    The pricing is as follows: S$7 for the first hour for adults (S$5 for additional hours), and S$6 for kids for the first hour (S$3 for additional hours).  This makes it easy to predict duration. 

Most other rinks in the industry (the kind that I’m more used to seeing) sell time in a more implicit manner using a flat rate that allows the skater to skate all day.  This sort of pricing scheme makes it hard to predict duration.

If MBS sticks with an explicit definition of time, it could consider splitting time up into the half hour, perhaps offering a 0.5 hour “quickie” or a 1.5 hour option.  The rink is small so I think most people will get bored pretty quickly and decide to leave before a full hour is up.  Thus a quickie may be an enticing offer.  They can do a few laps, take the necessary “victory” sign picture and move on with their day. 

For a rink that chooses to define time implicitly, another way is to split it into perhaps morning (10:00-noon), afternoon (noon-17:00), and evening sessions (17:00-closing). 

A night photo that I found online

Rate Fences

Rate fencing is not really utilized at the MBS skating rink except to divide the adult rate classes and child rate classes (a non-physical rate fence).  Age is used to prevent jumping to the lower rate class, though the cutoff age is not clear from the website.

Presently there doesn’t seem to be any real physical rate fence used.  There are no amenities (though I guess MBS can bundle in some equipment if they were to be more creative with managing the ice rink).  There are no “fancy ice skates” that can be rented at a premium over the regular ugly ones, and that can be used to differentiate a premium customer from a regular one.

Also since it is a small ice rink and people move around, there really isn’t a sweet spot that would allow you to sell a particular piece of it at a premium as you might be able to do for better seats in a movie theater or a nicer table in a restaurant.

The rink can consider rate fences to aid in RM efforts but it should probably approach it in a more back of the scenes approach (as in keep the pricing board at the ticketing counter as simple as possible).  The last thing you want to do is confuse the customer when they stare at the prices.  Here’s some ideas for rate fences.

  • If MBS begins to do reservations (i.e. for peak periods), a credit card guarantee against arrival uncertainty could be used to justify a discount for booking ahead.   
  • If MBS were to consider launching targeted promotions, adding in value adding amenities (i.e. souvenirs, equipment bundling, or some sort of special service like helping to clear the ice for a few minutes so a man can propose to his girlfriend) could be a physical rate fence. 
  • With discount promotions, restrictions on usage become a non-physical rate fence. 
  • If MBS were to introduce discounted pricing onto their pricing board based on time of day, day of week, weekday/weekend & public holiday, then these factors become non-physical fences
  • If MBS were to do group sales (more on that later), then the group affiliation becomes the non-physical fence.

 

Factors appropriate for Revenue Management

Fixed Capacity: The MBS rink has a fixed capacity.   It’s not going to get any bigger. There’s probably also a maximum limit of people who can be on the ice at any one time for safety reasons.

Perishable Inventory:  This is valuable real estate inside a busy retail complex.  If the space isn’t being utilized as efficiently as possible (i.e. not a lot of skaters) throughout the operating timeframe each day then there are lost revenue generating opportunities.

Appropriate Cost Structure: high fixed cost (to build it) and relatively low variable cost to run it (probably just some staff to sell tickets, handle the shoe rental, someone to watch for safety, and someone to drive the zamboni)

Varying Customer Price Sensitivity: maybe…Ice skating at MBS is pretty expensive.  I’m used to paying a flat rate back in the States which is something like $10 all day.  At MBS there is a fixed pricing scheme of S$7 for the first hour for adults (S$5 for additional hours), and S$6 for kids for the first hour (S$3 for additional hours).  While I’m sure there are tons of rich, price insensitive people who come to MBS, there are probably lots of poor people like me who just visit from time to time to walk around.  I might be more inclined to want to skate (on an impulsive whim) if they offer a variable pricing scheme with promotions for off-peak periods.

Predictable Demand and Time Variable Demand: MBS probably has the data to forecast customer arrival patterns by time of year, DOW, and TOD.  I don’t think they do reservations so you’re not going to really have an exact on-the-books kind of demand picture at the start of the day, but there might be a correlation of ice rink customer volume with occupancy patterns, particularly if drilled down to certain customer segments in house?

What Quadrant?

Currently the MBS ice rink is likely at quadrant 1.  It has a predictable duration (customer is charged based on how many hours they want to skate), and a fixed price (though they get a little discount after the first hour).  The rink would have to move towards a more dynamic pricing scheme in order to advance towards quadrant 2.

Measurement

Similar to a restaurant where customers start and end their meals at different times, the MBS ice rink has people starting and ending their time blocks at different times.  Additionally there is a limit to how many people who can safely be on the ice at one time. Although I’m not sure what the best way to measure success is, I’ve got two ideas.

One way is to use revenue per available square meter (RevPASM) since you know the rink dimension.  You can look at RevPASM hour by hour (to be more accurate you can look into prorating the revenue from each customer based on when they start and finish arriving at a total hourly revenue figure for the rink) and try to maximize it without overcrowding the rink. 

Another idea that I’m more inclined to attempt is that I’d take into account the maximum safe capacity of the rink based on company policy (or regulation?) and do an imaginary compartmentalization of space so that it can be sold more implicitly.  This would be analogous to dividing up a restaurant dining room into seats.  Instead of restaurant seats, you’d have skater-space (the amount of space you’d allocate for the skater on the rink).  So if I say 10 SM per skater, then I can safely put 60 skaters on the 600 SM rink.  Doing so, I can use a measurement similar to revenue per available seat hour (RevPASH) that incorporates both a space and time element: revenue per available skater-space hour, which abbreviates to RevPASSH (threw in the extra “S” to avoid confusion)

Ancillary Revenue

 Skate rental $3 (you’re forced to rent; cannot bring your own skates), socks $6 (probably b/c a lot of people probably make a last minute decision to skate and don’t have crew socks high enough to protect your ankles from chafing), gloves $10 (maybe if you fall a lot).  People who skate probably also spend some money on food (hot chocolate?) at the adjacent food court.  Additionally, they (especially the parents) probably are going to spend money in other parts of the integrated resort as well.

How to Boost Revenue Performance

For the MBS ice rink, probably the easiest way to boost revenue performance and get closer to Quadrant 2 is to examine RevPASSH and figure out the hot/cold periods throughout the day.  Then attempt to implement variable pricing to maximize revenue.  They can launch promotions and discounts to drive demand on the cold periods (i.e. through targeting their Premium Advantage member card holders).  Actually if they’re more concerned with a total RM approach, I want to put it out there that I’m a Premium Advantage card holder and I’m a sucker for free things.  So if they gave me a free skate hour I’d probably use it, and end up staying and blowing money in the casino after.  This suggests that if you can do something to get kids to beg their parents to take them to the rink, MBS stands a good chance of getting one parent to venture into the casino while the other watches the kids.     

MBS can make more money by selling ice rink souvenirs and enticing people to eat at the food court next to the rink.  You can have your hot chocolate.  And, since it’s Asia, there’s dim sum!

mmm.....dim sum!

Another thing MBS can do is to consider selling to small groups as part of their meeting package.  It could be marketed as a “quick fun break” where meeting goers can all go down and have a few minutes of fun.  But MBS must do this carefully and target the cold periods.  MBS is a large MICE facility.  The last thing you want is a few hundred meeting goers all demanding to use the rink at once.  The poor rink attendant will get slaughtered.

Additionally they can look into streamlining the procedures to get people off the ice quickly once their time is up and to clean and turn over the ice skates. This will help to enforce the predictable duration and also reduce time between customers.

31,193 thoughts on “The Marina Bay Sands Ice Skating Rink”

  6. It is a dazzling invigorating article. I’m typical that really matters content with your remarkable work. You put absolutely strong information. Keep it up. Keep framing for a blog. Girlplace

  41. It is a well-known and widely used activator that delivers real-time activation for Windows 10 Crack Free Download. Even if your machine is in good working order and you receive automatic updates every time it is started Windows 10 Crack.

  42. Good morning!! I am also blogging with you. In my blog, articles related to are mainly written, and they are usually called 메이저사이트. If you are curious about , please visit!!

  44. Hello, I do believe your web site may be having browser compatibility issues. When I look at your web site in Safari, it looks fine however, if opening in Internet Explorer, it’s got some overlapping issues. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Besides that, great site! I blog often and I seriously appreciate your content. This great article has truly peaked my interest. I am going to take a note of your blog and keep checking for new details about once a week. I subscribed to your Feed too. This is a great tip especially to those new to the blogosphere. Simple but very precise info… Thanks for sharing this one. A must read article! 먹튀검증

  45. I and also my friends ended up following the nice thoughts from the blog and so quickly I got a terrible feeling I never expressed respect to the web site owner for those strategies. The women were certainly warmed to read through them and now have pretty much been making the most of them. Appreciate your turning out to be well thoughtful and also for selecting certain important issues most people are really needing to be aware of. Our own honest regret for not expressing appreciation to earlier. Needed to compose you that very little observation so as to say thanks a lot once again about the pleasing methods you have shown in this case. It was so surprisingly generous with you to offer unhampered precisely what some people would’ve sold as an electronic book to earn some profit on their own, precisely given that you could possibly have done it in case you desired. These techniques as well served like the fantastic way to realize that the rest have the identical zeal really like mine to understand a lot more pertaining to this problem. I am certain there are lots of more enjoyable sessions up front for individuals that scan your blog post. 에볼루션카지노

  46. I really impressed after read this because of some quality work and informative thoughts. I just wanna say thanks to the writer and wish you all the best for coming!. We at Unique Submission. We have our ability in each type of Online Assignment Help which Includes Dissertation Writing, Essay Writing, Assignment composing, Research Proposal Writing, Admission essay composing, Coursework composing and many more. Excellent blog I visit this blog it’s really awesome. The important thing is that in this blog content written clearly and understandable. The content of information is very informative. Thanks for sharing! If you are using a Garmin Express device, an update will offer you newer features because the company always works on developing their older features to give customers a better experience. 메이저놀이터

  47. Thank you a lot for giving everyone an exceptionally brilliant opportunity to check tips from this web site. It is often very lovely and as well , packed with a lot of fun for me and my office co-workers to search your blog minimum three times in a week to study the new items you have got. And lastly, we are at all times satisfied for the cool knowledge you serve. Some two ideas in this article are indeed the most efficient we have ever had. My spouse and i have been really lucky when Chris could conclude his research via the precious recommendations he grabbed when using the weblog. It is now and again perplexing to simply possibly be giving for free helpful tips which often a number of people have been making money from. Therefore we know we need you to give thanks to for this. Most of the explanations you made, the simple blog menu, the friendships you will help to promote – it’s got everything excellent, and it’s really aiding our son and our family believe that this article is exciting, which is extremely vital. Thank you for the whole lot! 우리카지노

  48. I wish to show some appreciation to this writer just for rescuing me from this type of crisis. After researching throughout the search engines and getting methods which were not pleasant, I assumed my entire life was over. Living without the presence of approaches to the problems you’ve sorted out as a result of this report is a crucial case, as well as the kind that might have badly affected my entire career if I hadn’t discovered the blog. Your primary talents and kindness in playing with every aspect was helpful. I don’t know what I would have done if I had not come across such a step like this. I can at this moment relish my future. Thanks a lot so much for the high quality and results-oriented help. I will not think twice to recommend your blog post to any person who should receive support on this topic. Thanks a lot for giving everyone remarkably splendid chance to check tips from this website. It’s always so nice and packed with a lot of fun for me personally and my office fellow workers to search your blog nearly 3 times per week to read through the new issues you have. And of course, I’m also at all times astounded with the awesome advice you serve. Selected 4 areas on this page are really the most impressive I have had. 먹튀검증

  49. Hi, I do think this is a great web site. I stumbledupon it I’m going to return yet again since i have bookmarked it. Money and freedom is the greatest way to change, may you be rich and continue to help other people. You are so interesting! I don’t believe I have read through anything like this before. So nice to discover somebody with some unique thoughts on this topic. Seriously.. many thanks for starting this up. This site is one thing that’s needed on the web, someone with some originality! I’m impressed, I must say. Seldom do I come across a blog thats both educative and entertaining, and let me tell you, you have hit the nail on the head. The problem is something which not enough folks are speaking intelligently about. I am very happy that I stumbled across this during my search for something regarding this. 먹튀폴리스

  50. I truly wanted to send a simple word in order to thank you for all of the lovely secrets you are giving here. My particularly long internet lookup has finally been compensated with extremely good information to share with my partners. I ‘d believe that most of us visitors are very fortunate to be in a wonderful website with many awesome people with very helpful solutions. I feel very much privileged to have seen your entire web site and look forward to so many more enjoyable minutes reading here. Thanks again for everything. Thank you a lot for providing individuals with an exceptionally superb chance to read critical reviews from this web site. It’s always so kind and packed with a lot of fun for me personally and my office fellow workers to search your site at a minimum 3 times in a week to see the fresh guides you will have. And of course, I’m also usually happy concerning the fabulous tactics you serve. Certain 3 ideas on this page are absolutely the best we’ve ever had. I together with my guys have been reviewing the nice points located on your web blog and then the sudden developed a terrible feeling I had not thanked the web blog owner for those strategies. All the ladies appeared to be as a result glad to see them and now have surely been making the most of them. Many thanks for turning out to be really helpful and also for selecting such important themes millions of individuals are really needing to be informed on. Our own honest regret for not expressing gratitude to sooner. 먹튀검증

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *