IR question 1 from the OG online questions

[SirSriracha]

Hi Everyone,

I'm struggling with the very first question, and I think it comes down to the wording. I have attached the entire question, but the part I am concerned with is outlined in yellow.

The question states that hotel room rates are per guest, per night, assuming two guests per room. The question then goes on to ask about the price for one person. Should I be able to infer that one person will pay double the indicated rate, since the indicated rate is per person, based on two people?

This means that for 1A, a conference attendee at CC would pay 110$ x2 (because he/she is alone) x2 (for two nights) = $440. Is this confusing to anyone else (and should I just pretend this is how things work for the sake of the GMAT), or is my inference incorrect?

Thank you!

[Whitney Garner]

Hi SirSriracha!

I can definitely see how the language can be confusing, particularly when we're not sure if the question requires new assumptions! When in doubt, I would say that we want to avoid making new assumptions, particularly those that require additional calculations (like doubling the price of the hotel to each person). If we just go with the passage assumption of double occupancy but determine the PER PERSON price, we can show that in the case of FFNA, there is a cost savings by employing the ROB method. Let's see why:

Typical = Discount Registration + Block Rate
ROB = Registration + Lowest Rate

CC: Typical (620+110=730), ROB (720+70=790) NO, ROB is More expensive!
FFNA: Typical (275+140=415), ROB (325+70=395) YES, ROB is a cost savings!
HMHPA: Typical (575+104=679), ROB (600+79=679) NO, ROB is the SAME price!

And it is actually this last example that makes me feel more confident that we did the correct calculation - looks like the GMAT designed one of the answers to be an exact breakeven!!

Hope this helps!

Whit