Comp Set (Competitive Set)

Comp Set (Competitive Set) is the group of hotels that a property considers its direct competitors and benchmarks itself against. The comp set is the foundation of nearly all hotel performance benchmarking — RGI, MPI, ARI, STR reports, and most competitive pricing decisions are calculated relative to it.

How a comp set is chosen

A well-constructed comp set typically includes 4–6 hotels that share:

• Geography — same city, neighborhood, or airport submarket
• Star rating / class — luxury vs upscale vs midscale
• Brand affinity — independent vs branded, similar service level
• Guest segments — leisure-heavy vs business-heavy
• Size — comparable room count

Choosing the right comp set is more art than science. Too narrow and the data is noisy; too broad and the benchmarks lose meaning. Most properties review and adjust their comp set annually.

How it's used

• STR reports — daily, weekly, and monthly performance reports compare the hotel against the comp set on occupancy, ADR, and RevPAR
• Rate shopping — pricing tools track comp set rates across OTAs in real time
• Index calculations — MPI, ARI, RGI all measure the hotel against comp set averages
• Forecasting — comp set occupancy is one input into demand forecasts

Common pitfalls

• Aspirational comp sets — choosing hotels far above the property's actual market position to look good in reports
• Stale comp sets — failing to update when new properties open or close
• Single comp set — different segments (leisure, corporate, group) often warrant different comp sets

Many sophisticated revenue managers maintain multiple comp sets — one for primary benchmarking, one for rate shopping, and one for narrow segment-specific analysis.