Who is your competitor and how do you decide that? Very often people ask me this question and I like to ask the same questions from others to find the best answer. If you ask this question from someone in hospitality you will probably get some hypothetical answer or a totally irrelevant story. Don’t take me wrong because I really spoke to some people before writing this. Keep reading…

Recently I spoke to a General Manager of a of major western hotel brand. I asked him who are your competitor and he went like this… “well actually we don’t have competition…but x,y, and z hotels are considered our competition in the market..” I shook my head and raised my glass, Cheers….

Last week I welcomed a General Manager of a top Maldives resort together with his CEO to our island for a lunch. As we started chatting he asked if he could look at some rooms and facilities of our island while waiting for lunch. So, I asked the GM and CEO how they find Maldives (as both are expats) and how they define competition etc, etc. And the GM explains….”I think we (each resort) are very different with different features so we don’t have a defined competition”. And I believed him….

This became very interesting for me so I called a Director of Sales & Marketing of a top resort in the Maldives, and asked her the same question as above. She went on to explain that she recognizes competitors to her resort and named few of them. She also highlighted some key features of her competitors and how they match to her resort. She then told me that every year she takes her Management team across to other resorts to have lunch or dinner, just to look around and experience the product and services of the other resorts. And through this the Management comes to a conclusion on competition for their resort.

I like the last case because it sounds more genuine unlike the two GMs I talked about earlier. But I feel that in general the above three cases explain one thing – that they all seem to be very emotional in their opinions. Are we sometimes too ego-centric that we really don’t want to believe we have competition? Do you always think that you are the best and no body can beat you? Is it healthy to believe that you are the best and nobody can touch you? I don’t think so….

Now I have to ask the same question I asked at the beginning. How can you decide your competition? Is there a mathematical formula to answer this question? I think there can be many ways to decide your competition. Why not ask questions – from your customers, from your staff, from your neighbors and from the industry people or from anyone who think is relevant to comment about your product!

Your competitive value is a perception, something that will vary from person to person or from place to place. Hence, you have to be careful when asking questions or doing a survey to determine your competition.

For a time-tested method on deciding your competition please email.