Hotel Benchmarking in Action: Lessons from SHaDPitch Participants

When it comes to convincing investors, passion helps—but data seals the deal. That’s why SHaDPitch, the trailblazing pitch competition by She Has A Deal designed for aspiring women hotel owners, partnered with HotStats to arm participants with full-profit-and-loss benchmarking insights.

We used HotStats to benchmark the operational performance of our subject hotel against a comp set of similar properties. The most crucial metrics for my underwriting included GOP margin, RevPAR, departmental expenses, and undistributed operating costs. Veronica Phuong Vu, a SHaDPitch finalist

Hotel Benchmarking in Action: Lessons from SHaDPitch Participants Veronica Phuong Vu, a Finance and Economics student at the Honors College Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University, was a runner-up in last year’s SHaDPitch.

Instead of focusing solely on top-line performance, contestants leveraged detailed hotel performance benchmarking data to uncover real profit opportunities.

HotStats emphasized bottom-line metrics like GOPPAR and EBITDA margin. That focus helped shift my strategy toward sustainable financial performance. Courtney Begoon, another SHaDPitch participant

Hotel Benchmarking in Action: Lessons from SHaDPitch Participants Courtney Begoon, a Hospitality and Tourism Major at the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech --was one of the 2025 participants in the Early Careerist Segment of SHaDPitch.

Full P&L analytics gave participants an edge. I kept certain operating expenses lower in my pro forma after seeing my hotel was below the comp set average in utilities and admin, said Veronica. The benchmarking confirmed my assumptions—and made my pitch more credible.

Courtney agreed: Citing HotStats’ comp set performance validated my projections and made the assumptions more believable to investors.

Both participants discovered advanced, owner-focused insights that set them apart from peers. HotStats gave us the flexibility to drill into labor, cost control, and departmental performance in a way other platforms couldn’t, Courtney explained. That allowed us to make more targeted, data-driven recommendations, Veronica added, The departmental expense breakdown was especially helpful in pinpointing savings that aligned with my repositioning strategy.

For aspiring hotel owners, understanding hotel operational performance beyond RevPAR is critical. Exposure to the platform gave me a deeper understanding of hotel performance metrics beyond ADR and RevPAR, said Courtney. That’s an advantage I’ll carry into every future role.

Take the Next Step

SHaD’s next cohort is now open for registration. Visit shehasadeal.com/shadpitch-2025 to apply and access SHaD’s hotel ownership roadmap, coaching, and deal equity opportunity.

Want to benchmark like the pros?

Explore how HotStats empowers future hotel owners, asset managers, and investors with full P&L insights that go beyond top-line data. For more info, contact us at askus@hotstats.com.

As Veronica put it: If you want to compete seriously in hotel ownership, HotStats gives you the insights you need to succeed.