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.