Not just hotels
A hotel, a restaurant and a nightlife venue share the same logic — capacity to sell, a reputation to protect — but not the same metrics or timelines. For a hotel, what counts is occupancy rate, average daily rate and revenue per available room; for a restaurant, covers and average check; for a venue, attendance per night and the mix of admissions, bar and events. For a venue, the “booking window” is often the same evening.
How to read the market, in five steps
1. The real competitive set
Properties in the same destination or catchment area, in the same tier, plus the customer’s alternatives: a vacation rental instead of the hotel, a pub instead of the restaurant, another destination.
2. Reputation
Review scores and volume, the themes that get praised and the ones that get criticized — yours and your competitors’. In hospitality, reviews are often the number-one conversion driver.
3. Direct and intermediated
How much comes from booking platforms and how much comes direct, and what the commissions cost. Shifting even part of your bookings to direct changes your margins.
4. Guests, occasions and origins
Who comes, for what occasion — business, vacation, dinner, an event — and from where: the source market for a destination, the local catchment for a venue.
5. The seasons to fill
Slow periods, local events, local partnerships, ancillary revenue. Where you can grow without cutting the price.
The most common mistakes
- A competitive set that’s too narrow. The customer’s alternatives aren’t only properties just like yours.
- Reading reviews only as a score. What matters is the themes, and how they change over time.
- Depending on intermediaries without measuring what they cost.
- Applying hotel metrics to a venue. The timelines and the levers are different.
