Rate Shopper
A rate shopper is software that automatically tracks what a property's competitors are charging. Most rate shopping tools collect those prices through scheduled scrapes, automated processes that pull and store room rates at fixed intervals (Hotel Rate Shopping Tool: What Small Hoteliers Need to Look For) (Hotel rate shopping: Why real-time, live data beats a scheduled shop every time).
Last updated: November 2026
How a rate shopper works
Each tool decides which channels it reads, how far ahead it looks and how often it refreshes. One hotel software vendor's rate shopper refreshes competitor rates every 24 hours, shows a rolling 90 days ahead and shops a list of about 20 channels, including Booking.com, Expedia, Agoda, Airbnb and Tripadvisor (PIE - Rate Shopper (help center)). A market intelligence product tracks OTAs, brand.com and metasearch with live shops, and compares hotel and short-term rental rates in a single view (Rate Insight product page).
Those settings decide what the data can show. A tool that refreshes once a day records a competitor's price change the next day at the earliest, and a tool with a 90-day window says nothing about dates further out.
The result is a record of what each competitor charged for each future date at the time of the last shop. Read date by date, it shows where a property's rate sits against each competitor for a given night, and which competitors changed their price between two shops. Forecasting demand and recommending a price are separate jobs. A revenue management system or a dynamic pricing tool does that work, and competitor rates can be one of its inputs.
Why a rate shopper matters for hotel distribution
A rate shopper reads the same public channels that carry a property's own rates, so those channels are where its position against its comp set can be seen.
That position is tied to revenue results. Hotels priced above the average of their competitive set recorded higher revenue per available room than their competitors, even with lower occupancy relative to them, in a study published in 2009 (Cornell Hospitality Quarterly Article of the Year Focuses on Competitive Hotel Pricing).
Competitor rates matter most where a property has little data of its own. Hotel dynamic pricing has relied mostly on detailed occupancy data, which often puts smaller independent hotels at a disadvantage because they lack access to it; a 2025 academic model prices from competitor rates and a range of external factors instead (Adaptive Hotel Rate Prediction Using External Data: A Competitor-Driven Approach (HICSS-58)).
For the property being watched, the rates it loads on each channel are the rates its competitors' tools record. A stale rate on one OTA shows up in someone else's report as that property's price for the night.
Rate shopper compared with other pricing tools
| Tool | What it looks at | What it produces |
|---|---|---|
| Rate shopper | Competitors' public rates on booking channels | A record of competitor prices by date |
| Revenue management system (RMS) | Demand, forecasts and, often, competitor rates | Recommended prices, or prices it sets |
| Rate parity checker | The property's own rate on each of its channels | A view of where its own rates differ |
| Comp set benchmarking report, such as an STR report | Competitors' past occupancy, ADR and RevPAR | A historical comparison, with no forward prices |
| Short-term rental dynamic pricing tool | Comp set prices, as one input | Nightly rates |
A rate shopper and a parity checker are often sold in the same tool. The difference is whose rates each one reads: a rate shopper reads competitors' prices, and a parity checker reads the property's own.
Frequently asked questions
How often does a rate shopper update competitor prices?
Does a rate shopper show every rate a competitor sells?
Do you need a rate shopper if you already have a revenue management system?
How is a rate shopper different from an STR report?
Related terms
See all termsWhere Jetstream fits
A rate shopper can only record the rates a property publishes, so the rates on every channel need to be right. Jetstream builds an AI channel manager that connects a property's systems to the channels where guests book and keeps rooms, rates and availability accurate on each one, managed from one place.