By Ivana Johnston, Co-Founder and CEO, Puzzle Partner - 5.2.2025
Most hospitality marketers define their competition too narrowly — and it’s costing them bookings. They focus on properties that offer similar accommodations or experiences, but travelers don’t make decisions based on industry categories. They care about outcomes.
If you want your positioning to resonate — and drive real growth — you need to redefine who you’re competing against.
What “The Matrix” Can Teach Us About Competition
One of my favorite films is “The Matrix.”
Think about Neo. He spends the first part of the movie thinking he’s competing within the system — trying to be the best programmer/hacker in his digital playground. Then comes the Red pill moment. Turns out his real competition wasn’t other humans in the Matrix at all — it was the limiting construct of perceived reality itself.
Hospitality marketers often make this mistake. They assume they’re competing against direct rivals — the Marriott to their Hilton. But like Neo, many don’t realize that their real competition is entirely different. And that blind spot is costing them a fortune in lost bookings.
“I’m trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it.” – Morpheus.
Okay, I digress. The problem is how we define competition.
Traditionally, competition means any property offering similar accommodations:
- Four Seasons vs. the Ritz-Carlton
- Airbnb vs. VRBO.
- Hyatt vs. Westin.
It makes sense, but that’s not how travelers think.
Travelers don’t make decisions based on industry categories or market definitions. They care about outcomes. They don’t want a hotel room. They want a rejuvenating experience. The failure to understand that results in positioning strategies built on the wrong definition of competition. That’s when hospitality brands don’t just misjudge their rivals — they miss the real threats to their occupancy rates.
The Competition You’re Likely Ignoring
Hospitality businesses face two types of competition — what I call “mirror competitors” and “shadow competitors.”
Mirror Competitors: These look like you, offer similar amenities, and target similar demographics. They’re the obvious competitors that appear in your STR reports and competitive analyses.
Shadow Competitors: These deliver similar outcomes through completely different experiences, channels, or models. They often fly under the radar of traditional competitive analyses, yet they’re steadily capturing your potential guests.
Understanding both is essential, but most properties focus exclusively on the first while completely missing the second.
Let me share a recent experience that illustrates this principle in action.
My friend Lisa, who leads a regional marketing association, reached out for guidance on planning their annual summit. She needed a venue for 200 marketing professionals that would provide both professional development and the rejuvenation her team desperately needed after months of intense work.
Initially, she considered the conventional options: a beachfront resort with conference facilities or a downtown convention hotel with spa amenities. Both seemed logical choices within her mental model of “appropriate venues.”
When the beachfront resort she preferred was unavailable due to renovations, she naturally pivoted to looking at similar properties—what I call “mirror competitors.”
But when those alternatives couldn’t accommodate her specific needs, something beautiful happened: Lisa opened herself to considering “shadow competitors”—venues that wouldn’t typically compete with conference hotels but could deliver the same transformational outcomes.
A botanical garden with flexible event spaces. A university campus with waterfront views.
These weren’t just backup plans; they represented an entirely different way of thinking about what her event could be. She ultimately chose the botanical garden, creating an experience that attendees still talk about months later.
This illustrates an important concept of competition and positioning.
We position ourselves against anyone who offers what we offer. But, as my experience shows — it’s an incomplete picture that often leads hospitality marketers to miss the positioning mark.
Rather than building a static property, hospitality brands exist on a spectrum of evolving guest needs — where the rules and competitors constantly change. Success depends on adaptability, not property size or brand recognition.
The only constant is the traveler’s desired outcome. Understanding your actual competitive set means recognizing that travelers aren’t only comparing you to direct competitors — they’re weighing any alternatives that deliver the transformation. Those alternatives are your competitive set and who you should position against.
Learning From The Leaders
Some brands inherently understand this perspective. They’ve built their entire approach around transformation rather than industry categories.
Take the Calm app, for instance. While other meditation platforms focused on competing with each other, Calm recognized that their actual competition included hotel spa treatments, vacation reading nooks, and scenic viewpoints—any experience that delivered mental tranquility.
By positioning themselves against these alternatives, they transcended their category, becoming not just another wellness app but an essential companion for mindfulness seekers everywhere.
Similarly, Six Senses has thrived by maintaining a broad view of their competitive landscape. When at-home wellness technology gained traction, they didn’t dismiss it as “not our category.” Within four months, they developed a wellness tracking system that integrated with guests’ existing health apps, extending the transformation journey beyond the physical property.
They understood that what they were selling wasn’t a luxury resort stay but a transformative wellness experience—one that could face competition from unexpected sources..
This proactive approach meant they could quickly recognize and respond to the emergence of at-home wellness technology — within months. While competitors were still pushing traditional spa packages, Six Senses unveiled a customizable wellness tracking system capable of integrating with guests’ existing health apps and continuing the transformation journey long after checkout.
Hospitality success has always hinged on correctly understanding your competition. Unfortunately, most marketers define competition solely along rigid industry lines. But that’s not how travelers think or how you should think. Instead, competition should be determined by the outcomes your guests are seeking.
As Neo’s journey in The Matrix, Calm’s pivot away from traditional rivals, and Six Senses’ rapid adaptation to wellness tech demonstrates, redefining your competitive set to include mirror and shadow alternatives is key. It allows you to effectively position your brand against the real threats to your bookings. It also helps you avoid common pitfalls, stay agile in a constantly changing environment, and unlock opportunities for innovation and sustainable growth.
The multi million-dollar question isn’t just who your competition is today — it’s who your travelers will replace you with tomorrow. If you can’t answer that, your guests will, and you might not like their answer.
Ivana Johnston, CEO and co-founder of Puzzle Partner, is a trusted brand strategist that collaborates with some of the world’s most innovative companies in hospitality, travel, wellness, healthcare and technology. She has a proven track record of initiating, driving, and cultivating high-value business ideas and relationships, helping her clients outperform the competition, achieve profitable exits, and expand into the Americas. Her insights are regularly featured in business trade publications, Forbes.com, Entrepreneur and other prominent media outlets. As a member of the Forbes Agency Council, Forbes Business Council she contributes to Forbes Expert Panels®, offering her expertise on the interplay of advanced technologies and business success.
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