Measuring Wait with Excel

**AZ_Joe** · 01-07-2010, 11:26 AM

Is there a way to measure wait time? Large casino resorts with 1000 plus rooms in Las Vegas experience a flood of guests trying to check-in during a short period of time (aka peak-time). To accommodate this flood, casinos increase the number of desk agents, however queues still form. Ideally, I want to setup a model in Excel to show what happens when the number of guests arriving, agents, peak duration and the time to process each guest increases and decreases. Is this possible with Excel?

**Richard Buttrey** · 01-07-2010, 11:48 AM

Hi,

The simple answer is Yes. However you'll need to define what the 'rules' of your system should be. e.g. what are the limits to the various parameters like what's the maximum time you're prepared to have people waiting, how many agents can you call on, is there any log on time overhead for additional agents etc. etc.

Regards

**rwgrietveld** · 01-07-2010, 11:48 AM

Sure,

Where is all the data comming from?

**shg** · 01-07-2010, 11:51 AM

Sure it's possible, but you need to develop the underlying math model first. Take a deep breath, and then Google queueing theory

http://apps.business.ualberta.ca/aingolfsson/qtp/

**AZ_Joe** · 01-07-2010, 02:09 PM

Richard -

Thanks for your response. As for system "rules" it varies by property (casino hotel). When people book a hotel, they have no choice but to stay in line to check-in, and teh number agenst that can be added varies by property. Any idea how I can get my arms around this?

**AZ_Joe** · 01-07-2010, 02:11 PM

Ricardo -

Thanks for your response. The data will come from individual properties (casino hotels).

- Joe

**AZ_Joe** · 01-07-2010, 02:12 PM

shg -

I did this, that's why I here. Thanks for the response.

- Joe

**Richard Buttrey** · 01-07-2010, 02:22 PM

Hi,

Can you write down some basic criteria?

For instance if you want no queues at all at any time then obviously you need to ensure that there are as many agents as there are people booking in. i.e. 200 people checking in in the same 5 minute slot when checking in takes 5 minutes, means you need 200 agents. Clearly that is impractical, and impossible if you don't have 200 agents, and you are always going to have a queue of some sort so you need to state what the limits are, what queues are acceptable and what you are trying to achieve.

For instance how quickly can you locate agents and get them to the check in counter. In extremis the sum of all the queuing times will be at a minimum when all agents are being used. But only you can specify what these rules / limits are. If you can do that then maybe we can assist with some advice.

HTH