Hotel price monitoring: how to stay competitive and drive more revenue

Key takeaways

• Tracking competitor prices helps you stay competitive and increase revenue by understanding market trends and what guests are willing to pay.
• Competitor pricing should guide your strategy, not control it so you can balance market data with your own demand and positioning.
• Using technology makes price tracking easier and more effective by giving you real-time insights to adjust rates quickly.

In order to track hotel prices, it’s important to choose your top competitors and continuously monitor their rates, allowing you to stay on top of the market. A competitor-based pricing strategy helps you figure out what customers are willing to pay and to adjust your prices accordingly to beat out the competition.

In this article, we will look at why it’s important to track your competitor’s prices as well as the best ways to track hotel prices on the internet.

Why is it important to track competitor prices?

Tracking competitor prices helps you stay aligned with the market and make more informed revenue management and pricing decisions. It gives you visibility into how your property compares, while also helping you respond to shifts in demand. Some of the reasons hoteliers participate in hotel price monitoring is to:

• Stay competitive in your market by understanding how your rates compare to similar hotels.
• Identify market trends so you can adjust pricing based on demand and market fluctuations.
• Set a clear pricing baseline using your comp set to guide your positioning and product mix.
• Build guest trust by offering pricing that feels fair and consistent.

However, competitor pricing should be used as a reference point - not your entire strategy. Your pricing decisions should also reflect your own demand, positioning and performance. Key strategies include:

• Use demand-based pricing by factoring in forecasting and expected occupancy.
• Recognize differences across properties as boutique and large hotels may follow different pricing patterns.
• Focus on your unique strengths instead of relying solely on competitors to guide decisions.

5 hotel price monitoring strategies that work

Now that you know why tracking hotel prices matters, let’s look at the best ways to do it.

1. Utilize rate shoppers

A rate shopper automates hotel rate comparisons and helps revenue teams make faster, data-driven pricing decisions. Rate shoppers look at the changing rates across different channels to get a better picture of what is happening in the market using live data.

Furthermore, you can use the rate shopper to compare competitor pricing strategies across OTAs, which can help improve your bottom line. This is also an important part of a competitor set analysis.

2. Use Google Hotels for price tracking

Google Hotels offers useful features for monitoring hotel rates. You can compare competitor prices against the market average and quickly see when a deal icon appears, indicating lower-than-usual pricing.

You can also filter to find nearby hotels offering deals and adjust your rates to stay competitive.

3. Leverage Google Hotels price insights

Google also offers a price insight feature that lets you track how hotel rates fluctuate over time across different seasons. You can review historical pricing for specific periods to see whether competitor rates are higher or lower than usual and benchmark your performance against similar hotels.

Combined with your PMS and Mews integrations, this data can help you optimize rates, inventory and packages to stay competitive.

4. Implement hotel price tracker tools

There are several rate comparison tools that help you track and predict competitor pricing.

Tools like Hopper monitor hotel prices and send alerts when rates change. This can help you understand market fluctuations and decide when to raise or lower your prices to stay competitive. Platforms like Google Travel now provide insights into when hotel rates are typically higher or lower, making it easier to adjust accordingly.

Both can be used alongside major OTAs like Booking.com and Expedia to stay aligned with real-time market pricing.

5. Use hotel rate comparison site

Comparison sites like Skyscanner, Kayak, TripAdvisor and Trivago help travelers compare prices across OTAs. You can use this data to evaluate how your pricing stacks up and stay competitive without underselling your property.

By monitoring when OTA prices drop, you can adjust your direct rates to offer better value and attract more direct bookings. Since OTA bookings typically come with higher costs, tracking these price changes is essential for protecting your bottom line.

Turn pricing insights into revenue for your hotel

Getting the most out of your rooms starts with pricing them intelligently. Competitor pricing gives you a valuable benchmark, helping you stay aligned with the market and adjust rates based on demand, seasonality and positioning. But it shouldn’t be your only input - your pricing strategy should also reflect your unique value, inventory and revenue goals.

With Mews, you can bring pricing, distribution and revenue management together in one place. From tracking competitor rates to optimizing pricing in real time and managing availability through your PMS and RMS, Mews gives you the tools to make faster, data-driven decisions that improve both occupancy and profitability.

Ready to simplify your pricing strategy and drive better results? Get a demo.