For any business, competitive pricing is the key to generating profits. Whether you’re selling food, clothing, or hotel accommodations, a successful company’s main goal isn’t simply to offer the lowest price, but to offer the best value for a consumer’s dollar. How does a business know how to determine whether or not they’re offering the most for the money? They must study their competition and strive to offer a better deal than their competitor.

In the hotel industry, hoteliers often use the practice of call-arounds to find out what type of deals and rates other hotels are offering. However, picking up the phone and pretending to be a traveler interested definitely isn’t the best practice. To start with, call-arounds are extremely time consuming. By the time you’ve reached out to all competitors, the rates could have easily changed. Another problem with call-arounds is that there’s never a way of knowing if the information is completely accurate. The other hotel might have known a competitor was calling and given out fake information or perhaps a lower rate was offered because the hotel had been experiencing an unusually slow month.

Method #1- P&L Statements
A Profit and Loss Statement can provide information on basic costs and expenses, which can be a great indication to how a business has done within a certain time period, as well as assist in predicting how the company is expected to do within the next month, period or year, based on averages and other factual information. P&L Statements can be compared to other companies during the same period, which can allow hoteliers to come up with trends, as well as make financial predictions for future periods.