The relative role of strategic assets in determining customer perceptions of hotel room price

A behavioral process measure was used to investigate the contribution of strategic assets in determining customer perceptions of hotel room price in the Israeli hospitality industry. Participants estimated the market price of a single occupancy hotel room after acquiring information on competing hotels. The information available for the competing hotels were price, brand name, star rating, number of rooms, number of restaurants, location and pool size. Prior empirical studies employing a regression analysis on published market data reveal that star rating, brand name, location and number of rooms, are all assets that predict price. Participants selected relatively few information items, with price and star rating information most frequently selected. Brand information was selected more frequently when star information was absent than when it was present suggesting redundancy in the value of the two attributes for market price predictions. Importantly, the performance of middle level hotel managers’ and hotel management university students was indistinguishable on most measures save for initial confidence in their price estimates.