What Is Hotel Market Segmentation?
Market segmentation in hotel industry practice is the process of sorting a hotel's target market into distinct groups by geographic, psychographic, demographic and behavioral traits. Benchmark reporting then groups room revenue into three broad segments, transient, group and contract, defined by how the rooms were booked (How to Use Hotel Market Segmentation to Boost Revenue (EHL Insights)) (Historical Benchmarking Data Reporting Guidelines (CoStar STR)).
Last updated: November 2026
How market segmentation in hotel industry practice works
Segments can also be drawn from booking patterns, grouping guests by how they book (Hotel market segmentation (Cvent)).
In STR (CoStar) benchmarking, transient rooms revenue covers rooms rented by individuals or groups occupying fewer than 10 rooms per night (Historical Benchmarking Data Reporting Guidelines (CoStar STR)). At 10 or more rooms per night sold under a contract, the business typically counts as group, booked as a block of rooms (Historical Benchmarking Data Reporting Guidelines (CoStar STR)). A consistent block of rooms contracted with another entity for an extended period of more than 30 days is reported as contract revenue (Historical Benchmarking Data Reporting Guidelines (CoStar STR)).
Outside benchmarking, the word transient is used more loosely: a transient guest books individually rather than with a group (Transient (HSMAI Academy Glossary)). The 10-room line still shows up in company reporting. Host Hotels & Resorts, a US hotel owner, describes its group business as clusters of guestrooms booked together, usually with a minimum of 10 rooms (Host Hotels & Resorts Form 10-K FY2024). The same filing describes its contract business as blocks of rooms sold to a specific company for an extended period at significantly discounted rates (Host Hotels & Resorts Form 10-K FY2024).
Why it matters for hotel distribution
Outside sources on which kind of demand fills a hotel are thin. STR's monthly "total transient" and "total group" segmentation is one of the few remaining sources on hotel customer mix, in the view of two US hotel industry writers (Who is The Hotel's Customer? (Hospitality Net)). At branded hotels, BAR, the best available rate, is typically the largest room-night segment booked through the brand, though no figure is given (Who is The Hotel's Customer? (Hospitality Net)).
Distribution adds a second lens. Channel segmentation shows where guests come from and which booking channels each traveler type uses (Hotel market segmentation (Cvent)). That is the bridge to channel mix, which measures the channels themselves, and to revenue management, which decides what each segment is offered.
Channels can also be used to reach one segment with one price. Booking.com lets a property offer a country rate, a discounted rate shown only to customers from a specific region, with discounts from 5% to 30% (Managing promotions (Booking.com Connectivity)). A mobile rate does the same by device: a discount of 10% to 80% shown only to guests booking on mobile web or the Booking.com app (Managing promotions (Booking.com Connectivity)). For basic, last-minute and early-booker promotions, a property can also limit the deal to guests who subscribe to the Booking.com newsletter (Managing promotions (Booking.com Connectivity)).
Each of those Booking.com options targets a geographic or behavioral group, two of the traits used to define segments in the first place. For the hotel, every such rate is another price on another channel that has to match the segment plan and the room inventory behind it.
Hotel market segmentation compared with channel mix and rate plans
| Hotel market segmentation | Channel mix | Rate plans | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Question it answers | Who booked, and how: individually, as a group or under a long-term contract | Which channel the booking came from | What price and conditions the guest booked |
| Typical units | Transient, group, contract, plus finer segments such as negotiated or wholesale business | Booking channels by traveler type | Codes such as BAR, a country rate or a mobile rate |
| Where it shows up | Benchmark reports and company filings | Channel and source reports | The rates loaded to each channel |
Frequently asked questions
What is market segmentation in the hotel industry?
What does SMERF mean in hotel segmentation?
How does STR treat segment data?
How much of a hotel's business is transient?
Related terms
See all termsWhere Jetstream fits
A segment plan only works if each segment's rates reach the right channels and stay in step with the rooms left to sell. Jetstream builds an AI channel manager that keeps a property's rooms, rates and availability accurate on every channel it sells through, managed from one place.