Hotel Competitor Analysis: How to Build and Use a Comp Set

The hotel industry is dynamic and highly competitive. Success depends on an accurate understanding of market trends and a thorough analysis of competitors’ operations and strategies.

Competitor analysis helps you plan your hotel’s strategy. It shows where you stand in the market and what you do well. It also helps you find weaknesses, opportunities and threats (see SWOT analysis). Use these insights to improve your rates, guest experience, market share and revenue.

Types of competitors

Start by choosing the right competitors. Think about which properties your guests would consider as alternatives to your hotel. Do not rely only on your own assumptions. There are three main types of competitor:

• Direct competitors: Hotels that offer similar services, target the same audience and are located in the same geographical area.

• Indirect competitors: These offer a different type of accommodation but target the same guests. For example, new, high-quality short-term rental apartments can compete with hotels.

• Potential competitors: These businesses usually serve a different market or quality category. They may still compete with your hotel in specific situations. For example, a local event can bring them into the same market.

Criteria for analysis

A hotel competitor analysis should consider several factors, which can be grouped into the following categories:

• Pricing: Track competitors’ rates across seasons, occupancy levels and sales channels such as OTAs. Compare like with like. Choose similar room categories, meal plans and booking terms. A room-only, non-refundable offer is different from a rate that includes breakfast and free cancellation. If you use dynamic pricing, include hotels that follow similar pricing principles.

• Service quality: Analysing guest reviews on platforms such as Tripadvisor, Google and Booking.com provides useful information about service standards, quality of service and overall guest satisfaction.

• Marketing and online presence: Examining competitors’ websites, social media activity, campaigns and search engine optimisation (SEO) can help improve your online strategy.

• Location and accessibility: Consider location, transport and nearby attractions. Also ask whether guests choose a town or a particular kind of stay. A family-friendly wellness hotel in western Hungary may compete with a similar hotel in eastern Hungary. An adults-only hotel in the same town may be a less direct rival.

• Innovation and technology: Look at dynamic pricing software, mobile apps, smart rooms, contactless check-in and payments. These tools can save time and reduce costs. They can also make booking and staying at a hotel easier for guests.

• Sustainability: Check how competitors save energy, reduce waste and use local products. These practices can influence guests’ choices.

Analysis methods

Competitor analysis can be carried out in several ways. The simplest and most commonly used methods include:

• Online research: Data is collected from publicly available information, including hotels’ own websites, rates on OTA websites and social media activity. Digital applications such as rate shoppers and revenue management systems can greatly assist online data collection, especially the collection of OTA rates.

• Guest-review analysis: Using text-analysis tools or manual review can reveal the areas in which a competitor performs better or worse and which additional services it offers compared with your own property.

• Benchmarking: Compare your performance using RevPAR (revenue per available room), ADR (average daily rate) and OCC (occupancy). Individual hotels’ figures are not public. Sources such as the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) and STR generally provide averages for groups of hotels, for example by category or location.

• Mystery shopping: An employee or commissioned evaluator tries a competitor’s services and then prepares a detailed report on the experience.

The benefits of competitor analysis

Conducting competitor analysis regularly provides many benefits. It enables a hotel to:

• Understand the market environment better.

• Respond to market changes, such as new trends and rate movements, in time.

• Develop more competitive offers with the support of an effective revenue management system such as RoomRaiser.

• Identify how it differs from its competitors, supporting clearer positioning.

• Improve its services and the guest experience.

How does RoomRaiser help with competitor analysis?

RoomRaiser can use selected competitors’ daily rates when it calculates your prices. You choose how much weight those rates carry. You can also choose which offers to compare: with or without breakfast, and refundable or non-refundable. This helps the system reflect market changes while following your pricing rules.

During onboarding, the RoomRaiser team helps you choose suitable competitors. It also recommends adjustments to their displayed rates. These adjustments account for differences in quality and value for money.

Once the settings are in place, RoomRaiser retrieves competitors’ market rates daily and displays them in a chart on the Dashboard alongside the property’s own rates.

After the pricing process, the Calendar view also shows how each competitor rate affected the rate recommended by RoomRaiser.

Closing thoughts

Review your competitors regularly. Your hotel’s position can change, and so can theirs. Check whether your chosen competitive set still reflects the alternatives your guests consider. Keep learning from the market and adjust your strategy as demand and prices change.