Price formation of tourist hotels of the city of São Luís/Maranhão

Abstract A hotel is a business establishment that provides accommodation and food services, and for that, it has physical structures that meet the specific and basic conditions to receive guests, in exchange for payment. Pricing in this sector may have a focus on cost, market competition, and the perception of value. The formation of price takes into account demand, segmentation, weather, competition behavior and characteristics of the property, among others. The aim of this paper is to analyze the pricing strategies in the lodging facilities in São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil. The study is justified by the importance of pricing for hotel management, from the reality of the hotel industry in São Luis. We adopted descriptive research procedures, predominantly quantitative in a sample of 31 hotel companies of São Luís, with managers from these establishments. Data were analyzed with support software R version 3.2.1. The research shows that the hotel chain in São Luis do Maranhão uses tools and price management strategies recommended by the legislation and other support for price management. It is concluded that there is an effort of the management of hotels to professionalize the calculation of daily rate, using techniques that give them more security in the decision and pricing, abandoning the informal or empirical methods, without abandoning the market research.

摘要 酒店是为宾客提供住宿与餐饮服务的经营性场所，需配备满足接待宾客所需的特定基础实体设施，并以此作为向客人收取费用的依据。该行业的定价通常以成本、市场竞争以及顾客价值感知为核心导向。定价过程需综合考量市场需求、市场细分、天气状况、竞争行为以及物业特征等诸多因素。本研究旨在分析巴西马拉尼昂州圣路易斯市住宿场所的定价策略。结合圣路易斯市酒店行业的实际发展现状，定价对于酒店管理的重要性为本研究的开展提供了合理依据。本研究采用描述性研究方法，以定量研究为主，调研样本涵盖圣路易斯市31家酒店企业，受访对象为各酒店的管理人员。数据分析借助R语言3.2.1版本软件完成。研究结果显示，马拉尼昂州圣路易斯市的酒店企业采用了符合法规要求的定价工具与管理策略，以及其他辅助定价管理的相关支持手段。研究结论表明，当地酒店管理层正致力于推动日均房价计算的专业化进程，通过采用能够提升定价决策可靠性的相关技术，摒弃了非正规或经验主义的定价方式，同时并未放弃市场调研工作。