What are Star (STR) reports and how do you read them?

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What are Star (STR) reports and how do you read them?

As a hotel operator, you might have come across STR reports at one point or another. But what are they all about?

Staying ahead of the competition is essential to the long-term growth of your hotel. Falling short of your competitors when it comes to guest experience, accommodation standards or your marketing and advertising strategy can quickly lead to lost revenue.

That said, understanding where you stand in relation to the competition is critical for analysing the strengths and weaknesses of your hotel business strategy and making adjustments accordingly. Which areas of your hotel are performing well and which do you need to improve? Which competitors are outpacing you and why? Where are there gaps in your strategy that should be filled?

An STR report, also called a STAR report, can help you answer these questions and more. This guide covers all you need to know about this essential hotel benchmarking tool: what an STR report is, what it can tell you, how to get one and how to read and analyse one.

What does STR stand for within the hotel industry?

Before we look at STR reports in more detail, what exactly does ‘STR’ stand for?

STR Inc. is a hotel analytics company founded in 1985 as Smith Travel Research. The company is the recognised leader in hotel industry benchmarking and provides market data including supply and demand and market share information on a global scale.

For example, STR data reveals that the average occupancy rate across US hotels in August 2022 was 66.5%, and the average daily rate was US$151.49.

STR Inc. compiles all of the data they receive into STR reports, which can be used by hotels across the globe to benchmark their performance against relevant competitors.

What is an STR report?

An STR report is a benchmarking tool that compares your hotel’s performance in relation to a group of similar hotels (competitors). Although it’s spelled ‘STR’, the correct pronunciation is ‘STAR’ and the terms ‘STR report’ and ‘STAR report’ are often used interchangeably.

It’s important to note that STR reports or STAR reports aren’t related to star ratings that help you gauge guest satisfaction. Rather, an STR report uses a variety of KPIs and metrics to show how well your hotel is performing compared to your competitors. To do this, STR Inc. uses data from your competitive set (compset), which is a group of hotels that you choose for comparison purposes.

STR reports are typically released weekly, although you can also choose to receive reports monthly or yearly if preferred. We’ll talk more about how to access an STR report in ‘How to get an STR report for your hotel’ below.