BOULDER, Colorado—All around us are hotels attractive enough to be named as a competitor by dozens of other hotels. These properties possess a handsome mix of class, price, location and age that warrant a magnetic quality toward other hotels. They are “comp magnets.”
While studying more than 30,000 U.S. primary competitive sets, STR Analytics noticed a few trends among the top 1% of hotels named as competitors more times than any other hotels. Here is an outline of the findings for what STR Analytics has coined “comp magnets”:
• 44% are located in suburban settings;
• 27% are between 11 and15 years old;
• 48% are upper-midscale class properties; and
• 60% are between 76 and150 rooms.
These features are the perfect concoction for being a comp magnet. However, some hotels do not fit that exact bill at all. For example: The Royalton Hotel in New York is crowned the king of comp magnets, having the most number of hotels in its reverse comp set (the number of properties naming it as a competitor).
Comp magnets have the greatest influence of data. This is the concept of how often one set of data touches another set of data. If a comp magnet has 20 properties in its reverse comp set, essentially those 20 properties are being influenced by that one set of data. Those 20 properties are using the data to make decisions, which in turn influences their comp sets and reverse comp sets. It’s a vicious ripple effect few hoteliers take into consideration.
On the other hand, some hotels are not named as a competitor at all. We call them “comp repellants.” Comp repellants are in essence the complete antithesis of comp magnets; they seem to repel potential competitors from naming them as a competitor. Here are some characteristics of the typical comp repellant:
• 34% are located in suburban settings;
• 35% are 26 years or older in age;
• 34% are economy class properties; and
• 54% are between 1 and75 rooms.
Because 1,407 U.S. hotels are not named once by anyone as a competitor, there is no comp repellant king. Not surprisingly, the second largest age group for repellants is between 0 and5 years old (27%). This makes sense because their youth has not allowed enough time to position themselves within the market and entice other hotels to add them to their comp sets.
Comp repellants have essentially zero influence of data because their data is never used in benchmarking. For better or for worse, their existence is not monitored by any other hotel.
Whether you are a comp magnet or a comp repellant, it should be the influence of data that most concerns you. As a comp magnet, every pricing adjustment or occupancy spike you experience is being scrutinized by your reverse comp set in their revenue per available room Positioning Matrix reports. They might not know that blue dot is your data specifically, but they are tracking its movement around the four quadrants and using your information to strategize.
