Use revenue metrics to diagnose demand, operating-profit metrics to diagnose execution, and a reconciled cash-flow statement to judge the investment. STR defines RevPAR using rooms revenue and available room inventory, and GOPPAR using gross operating profit and available room inventory. Neither is a complete owner-distribution measure. (costar.com)
| Measure | Use it to answer | Our required comparison discipline |
|---|---|---|
| ADR | What rate was achieved on sold room nights? | Match dates, room mix and revenue treatment |
| RevPAR | How much rooms revenue was earned per available room night? | Match supply definitions, closures and seasonality |
| GOPPAR | How much gross operating profit was earned per available room night? | Reconcile accounting classifications and included operations |
| NOI or hotel EBITDA | What income measure is being used for valuation or lending? | State every included and excluded cost; do not assume labels are equivalent |
| Owner cash after debt and capital funding | What can potentially be distributed without starving the property? | Reconcile working capital, restricted cash, debt payments and actual capital obligations |
The first three are standard operating measures; the last two require an explicit bridge to the actual accounts and financing documents. Our recommendation is to show that bridge beside every proposed valuation or operator comparison.
CoStar/STR versus Lighthouse versus Kalibri: are they substitutes?
Compare the purchased product and its data—not just the supplier name. These products address different questions, and a vendor may offer several products beyond those described here.
| Evidence category | Publicly described example | Best use in this research workflow | What not to infer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Achieved-performance benchmarking | CoStar with STR Benchmark offers hotel performance benchmarking. (str.com) | Test occupancy, achieved rate and market-relative performance using a defensible comparison set | That an aggregate market result is a forecast for a particular boutique |
| Advertised rates and forward demand signals | Lighthouse Pricing describes live competitor rates and forward-looking flight and hotel search signals. (mylighthouse.com) | Test pricing position, future event dates and demand hypotheses | That a displayed rate equals achieved ADR, or that search activity equals realised bookings |
| Channel economics and business mix | Kalibri describes transaction-level analysis, acquisition costs and demand forecasting by rate category and channel. (kalibrilabs.com) | Investigate whether revenue mix contributes profit after acquisition costs | That commercial contribution already includes every property expense, debt payment and capital requirement |
| Property financial and operational records | Owner-authorised accounts, PMS exports, payroll, invoices and bank records | Reconcile the target hotel’s realised economics | That the seller’s classifications can be accepted without checking |
Our procurement recommendation is to request a sample extract for the actual market before purchasing a subscription or study. Confirm property coverage, observation periods, suppression rules, export rights and permitted publication.
How should a boutique hotel competitive set be challenged?
Use three separately labelled groups in the underwriting process:
- Operating competitors: hotels competing for the same guests and dates.
- Positioning references: hotels illustrating the proposed product, without automatically supplying rate or occupancy assumptions.
- Transaction comparables: sales used to test market pricing after adjusting for asset and transaction differences.
For each proposed operating comparable, document micro-location, room count, room configuration, amenities, affiliation, demand mix, renovation status and trading calendar. This is our recommended audit method; no public room-rate scrape substitutes for achieved-performance evidence.