Rate Shopping
Definition
Rate shopping is the practice of monitoring competitor rates — typically by scraping their public OTA listings — to understand market positioning. Tools like RateGain, OTA Insight, and Rate Tiger automate the scrape; manual rate shopping is daily OTA browsing.
What it tells you
Rate shopping tells you where the compset sits on rate today, tomorrow, and 30 days out. The signal is the move: if the whole compset just dropped €15 on next Friday, demand softened; if they all moved up, an event landed.
How to track it
Dedicated rate-shopping tools snapshot competitor rates daily across configured date ranges. BI tools may integrate the feed alongside your own data.
Where it fits
Foundational to compset analysis and dynamic pricing. The rate-shopping feed is the input that turns ARI from a retrospective monthly number into a forward-looking pricing signal.