Competitive marketing strategies of selected hotels: an exploratory study

Organisations continually seek new ways to acquire, retain and increase business, since the cost of losing customers is rising. Service organisations such as hotels need to put in place competitive marketing strategies to improve their competitiveness and thus retain customers. Once demand is created, a hotel needs to manage this demand as well as its capacity to deliver. This study investigates the importance that hotels attach to executing competitive marketing strategies, as well as managing supply and demand. The study also determines whether or not hotels of different size and ownership type differ in their view of the importance of carrying out these functions. An interviewer-administered in-office survey was used to collect data from hotel managers in Gauteng. Hotel managers across the board consider all competitive marketing strategies as important. Significant correlations exist, however, between the importance attached to certain competitive marketing strategies and the size of hotel – as well as the hotel ownership type. Key words: competitive marketing strategy, hotel, services marketing, competitive advantage, sustainable competitive advantage, positioning, service lif