Atlantic Hotels operates a centralized call center for the reservation needs of its
time-share units. Costs associated with use of the center are charged to the time-share
group (Luxury, Resort, Standard, and Budget) where a reservation is made on the basis
of time on a call. Idle time of the reservation agents, time spent on calls where no
reservation is made, and the fixed cost of the equipment are allocated on the number of
reservations made in each group. Due to recent increased competition in the time-share,
the company has decided that it is necessary to more accurately allocate its costs to
price its services competitively and profitably. During the current period, the use of the
call center for each group was as follows (in thousands of seconds for time usage and in
number of reservations):
During this period, the cost of the computer center amounted to $2,410,000 for
personnel and $1,240,000 for equipment and other costs.
Required Determine the allocation to each of the divisions using (you may round all
decimals to three places):
a) A single rate based on time used.
b) Multiple rates based on time used (for personnel costs) and number of reservations
(for equipment and other cost).
Answer: