If you own or operate an independent hotel, there's a good chance you're evaluating your performance in a vacuum. Occupancy is up from last month — but is that good? Your ADR held steady — but did your competitors raise theirs? Without a reference point, you're flying blind.

The STR report fixes that. And if you're not using it, your competitors probably are.

What It Is

STR — originally Smith Travel Research, now part of CoStar — is the hospitality industry's gold standard for competitive benchmarking. Every month, STR aggregates performance data from hotels across your market and delivers a report that tells you exactly one thing: how you're performing relative to the hotels your guests are choosing between.

It's not a rating. It's not a guest satisfaction score. It's a market share report.

The Three Numbers That Matter

The STR report tracks dozens of metrics, but for independent hotel owners, three index scores tell the whole story.

Occupancy Index (MPI — Market Penetration Index). Are you filling rooms at the same rate as your comp set? An index of 100 means you're capturing exactly your fair share of demand. Above 100, you're outperforming. Below 100, guests are choosing your competitors at a higher rate than they're choosing you.

ADR Index (ARI — Average Rate Index). Are you pricing at, above, or below your competitive set? A low ARI tells you one of two things: you're underpricing and leaving revenue on the table, or your product isn't commanding the rate your competitors can. Both are problems worth solving, but they require completely different responses.

RevPAR Index (RGI — Revenue Generation Index). This is the number that combines both. RevPAR — Revenue Per Available Room — is the single most important performance metric in hospitality. Your RGI tells you whether your overall revenue strategy is winning or losing against the market. If your RGI is below 100, you are subsidizing your competitors' success.

How to Read Your Index Score

Simple rule: 100 is breakeven. Every point above 100 means you're capturing more than your fair share. Every point below 100 means you're handing share to someone else.

A property with an RGI of 118 is outperforming its comp set by 18%. A property at 84 is underperforming by 16% — and probably doesn't know why.

That gap is where revenue strategy lives.

Why Most Independent Hotels Don't Use It

The STR report costs money — typically a few hundred dollars a month depending on your market and subscription tier. For ownership groups and branded properties with revenue managers on staff, this is a non-negotiable line item. For independents, it often gets cut in favor of tools that feel more immediate.

That's a mistake. No amount of Google Ads spend or OTA optimization tells you whether your strategy is actually working relative to the market. STR does.

What We Do With It at Escalante IQ

Every monthly Revenue Brief we deliver includes STR context. We don't just report your numbers — we report your numbers against the market. An ADR increase means something very different when your comp set raised rates twice as much as you did. A dip in occupancy reads differently when your entire market was down.

The STR report is the difference between reporting what happened and understanding what it means.

If you're not subscribed, it's the first thing we recommend when we start working with a property. The data pays for itself in the first strategic pricing decision it informs.

Escalante IQ is an independent hotel revenue and marketing advisory. We work with independent and boutique properties to reduce OTA dependency, build direct revenue, and give ownership the clarity they need to make better decisions.

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