Competitive analysis hotel

As a rule, a competitive analysis for a hotel is carried out as part of a feasibility study. It is also useful for the preparation of marketing planning to get an up-to-date overview of the services, offers and prices of the relevant competitors or even rivals.

Which areas should your competitive analysis for a hotel cover?

The competitive hotel in the real world

First of all, it has to be decided who actually are relevant competitors. For a simple 3-star Garni hotel in the big city, competitors may be located within a radius of 1 kilometre. A luxury wellness hotel in the holiday region, however, may have its competition nationwide or even Europe-wide.  It is important that the most important reasons for the decision are really comparable: these are quality, location, price, capacities, equipment and services.

First of all, it is examined in the real world (if necessary also through visits or even stays) where the competitor has its strengths and weaknesses (swot analysis).  Besides a personal visit, good sources can also be found here:

• Reviews of public portals (many guests may see more than you do).
• Prices at different travel times. Also investigate what special offers are made at times of low demand, for example.
• Subscribing to the competitor newsletter (preferably with a neutral mail account) will also keep you up to date.

Analysing the competitor’s website

These questions are particularly relevant:

• For which search terms does the competitor’s site rank better than your own site. This way, the competition could snatch away important prospects from your virtual doorstep.
• How big is the site, which languages are offered.
• Which purchase modules are offered (rooms, meeting rooms, tickets, vouchers, spa treatments, etc.). In what quality and with which apps?
  The traffic of the competitor site can also be determined with appropriate tools.

The analysis of activities in distribution and on the social web

If the biggest competitor, who may also have a slightly better location, is always 5 places ahead of your hotel in Booking.com and has 30,000 followers on Facebook and Instagram (while you have a few hundred likers), then this is important to know. Because your marketing and distribution team must derive measures from this.

In this world, it is no longer enough to simply have the nicer hotel. Even as a virulent company, it must know its competition and not let it become too strong.

By the way – RHC Hotel Consulting will also be happy to take on this important task for you.

<<To your contact person, Marcus Becks>>