
Today’s hotel guests are more informed and selective than ever. With unprecedented access to reviews, websites, and social media, travelers rely heavily on public sentiment when choosing where to stay.
NB: This is an article from EHL
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In fact, 89% of travelers say reviews influence their booking decisions. In a market defined by transparency and comparison, it is critical for hotel businesses to stand out.
Staying ahead in this landscape is synonymous with being data-driven, which is precisely how you should approach competitor analysis. By looking at their property in the context of their competitors, hoteliers can have a proactive management strategy.
This article outlines best practices for hotel competitor analysis and highlights the most common mistakes to avoid.
What is Competitor Analysis in the Hotel Industry?
Hotel industry competitive analysis is the process of assessing a hotel in the context of its competitors to recognize the strengths and weaknesses unique to the property. By benchmarking against other comparable or interchangeable products on the market, hoteliers can understand where their property has room for improvement or which of their existing offerings are their competitive advantage.
For instance, is your hotel the only one in the bunch with a swimming pool? Make sure to market it as the go-to hangout spot for those scorching summer days, surely shadowing any competitor offerings.
Competitive set or comp set analysis differs from broader market analysis in the sense that the latter focuses on a much wider scope of indicators, such as development in the vicinity of your hotel or even macro-level considerations such as consumer purchasing power.
In contrast, a comp set analysis focuses on data of a set of hotels chosen based on specific selection criteria, allowing for a different view of your hotel’s performance.
Why Hotel Competitor Analysis is Important
Understanding your hotel’s competitive landscape can be a game-changer for your business. By choosing a competitive set and assessing your hotel’s performance against your peers, decisions on pricing, positioning, and revenue management strategy can be data-backed.
Competitor analysis also helps hoteliers identify untapped demand (read: untapped revenue), fine-tune marketing communications, and better understand guest expectations. A hotel that understands how it stacks up is a hotel that can lead, not follow.
By staying up to date on competitor activities, you can spot trends that can be taken advantage of, such as providing remote working spaces for guests; or even better, become a trend-setter, bringing something new to the market to attract new demographics and gain market share.