Are you pondering the creation of a thorough and tailored hotel competitive analysis, often referred to in marketing as hotel benchmarking? Excellent choice!
Understanding your hotel’s competitors is a crucial component of your overall hotel marketing strategy. Below, we provide essential insights to elevate and refine your property’s competitive analysis.
In the highly contested terrain of the hospitality sector, formulating a comprehensive competitive set analysis is indispensable for a hotel to maintain a competitive edge. Here’s a systematic guide to assist you in developing an impactful competitive set analysis for your hotel:
Your Hotel ‘Comp Set’ is unique
New travelers will not compare your hotel to the same hotels than that of previous travelers,
as this usually depends on the specific needs and wants of each traveler. A ‘Comp Set’ is a selection of other,
competing hotels that you group together when creating your competitive study, based on relevant,
specific selection criteria compared to your property.
Therefore, the main idea is to identify the major selection criteria for each segment,
and evaluate your strengths and weaknesses vis-à-vis your competitors for each of these points.
Some examples of selection criteria for different comp sets are:
- By service scale / quality
- By geographical location and accessibility
- By event organizing capacity
- By total number of rooms to welcome large groups
- By leisure facilities (swimming pool, spa, gym, etc.)
Put yourself in a potential guest’s skin
How to define your competitors for each segment? It’s easy!
You could either use your own knowledge about these competitors, or simply pay them a physical visit.
Meanwhile, also consider those guests who do not know a destination at all. How do they reserve or find your hotel?
Today, the internet (Google) and OTA’s (Online Travel Agencies) like Booking.com, Expedia.com, TripAdvisor.com, etc. are
the main tools used by potential guests to decide upon and book a property.
That said, the best way to create your Competitive Analysis is to:
- Do some research on Google, using the different Google portals for all your main geographical markets, and searching with different keywords in their native languages.
For example, you could use: hotel booking + “destination name” - Go to TripAdvisor and other OTA websites, and check the rates or offers available for a given date (also try a few less demanding dates such as Sunday nights in two months, for example, to get the most of all hotel availabilities).
When doing this type of research, it is important to always keep your main objective in mind:
How can I
optimize the classification of my hotel on these lists and websites?
Furthermore, do not hesitate to ask your business partners such as tour operators, travel agencies, events agencies, corporate executive assistants, etc. which hotels they usually do business with, and why.
Their responses might surprise you, as we are all rather prone to making assumptions first, without being aware of factual information.
Make your Comparative Analysis
It is also very important to create a clear, well structured competitive analysis.
It allows you to easily list your hotel’s strengths and weaknesses, in relation to those of your competitors.
This will help you to sharpen your positioning by taking into account the facts surrounding the current market situations.
It might even lead to the discovery of new, untapped business opportunities!
Do any of your competitors offer an “eco-friendly” concept?
Do they offer bundled packages, like “Room + Museum Pass + Golf” for leisure customers?
Do any of your competitors highlight special segments (e.g. Japanese tourists who prefer twin beds and a bath), etc.
These are but a few examples of hidden opportunities you might find!
Create a Competitor Matrix: Rates versus Client Satisfaction
You can use the table and chart below to create your very own Competitor Matrix!
It will allow you to visually place your property among your competitor’s and get a better understanding of your market.
| Hotel Name | Rating | Rate | Rooms |
|---|---|---|---|
Prepare a Comparative Table
Using the following information (for example):
- Hotel Name, Number of Stars, Total Rooms, Location
- Note / Ranking on TripAdvisor
- Rates : the lowest rate offered at the same date
- Do they have an
attractive hotel website? - How many languages are available?
- Which OTAs are they selling via? (booking.com, expedia, etc.)?
- Other useful criteria for you: swimming pool, restaurant, conference/meeting room, etc.
Is your hotel’s competitive analysis ready? Good!
You can now starting thinking about your property’s competitive advantages and how to use them to build
your hotel marketing mix.
Tools like PMS (Property Management System) and CM (Channel Manager) only assist lodging establishments in operating more simply, saving time, and being more efficient compared to not using them. However, that is not the root of growth or the challenges faced in the accommodation business. If you want to effectively manage OTA channels and create stable growth, you should have a clear understanding of how OTA platforms operate, such as their nature, operational models, and how they display, calculate displayed prices, and collect prices (after deducting commissions). Of course, larger hotels that want to approach it systematically will do it synchronously from the beginning, but smaller lodging establishments wanting to reduce operational costs should overlook it and focus on optimizing display and providing outstanding customer care.
Synthesized by: OTA Lyst
