Hotel market positioning.
👉 The place your hotel occupies in the guest’s mind compared to alternative options.
📊 What is hotel positioning?
Positioning refers to how your hotel is perceived by potential guests in relation to other accommodations. It’s not just about price, star rating or location — it also involves your online reputation, perceived quality, design, services, reviews, and how well your brand promise matches the actual guest experience.
In Revenue Management, understanding your positioning is essential to build a coherent pricing strategy and connect with the right audience.
🧠Key points about positioning
- It’s perception-based: you don’t fully control it — the market defines it.
- It’s relative: your value is measured in comparison to other options.
- It’s shaped by both data and emotion: pricing, photos, scores, storytelling…
✅ Why does positioning matter?
- It directly impacts conversion: a poorly positioned hotel (in price vs. perceived value) loses bookings.
- Helps adjust pricing without resorting to rate wars.
- Influences which channels will bring more bookings (direct, OTAs, agencies…).
- Serves as a foundation for sustainable revenue and marketing strategy.
📘 Practical example of positioning
Two 4-star hotels in the same city:
- Hotel A has strong reviews, professional photos, smart pricing and a clear local experience offering.
- Hotel B has similar facilities, but weaker visuals and lower guest scores.
→ Though both charge the same, guests perceive greater value in Hotel A.
That’s the power of positioning.
In short, positioning is the space you occupy in your potential guest’s mind when they compare their options. And in a world full of choices, it’s not the best hotel that wins, but the best perceived one.
