Hotel ARI Calculator
Where does your rate stand against your competitors? Enter your own rate and the rates you saw — and give each competitor a weighting factor, so the renovated place next door doesn't count as if it were the same as yours. Free, no sign-up.
What is ARI?
ARI (Average Rate Index) shows where your rate stands against your competition: 100 means parity, 92 that you're asking 8% less, 110 that you're asking 10% more. It's a measure of position, not of performance.
At the big benchmarking firms it's built on realised ADR. Here the numerator is the night's published rate — “how do I look tonight”, not “what did I end up making”. Two useful questions; don't mix them up.
How is it calculated?
The part that isn't obvious is the denominator. A simple average counts rates without knowing what the guest gets for each one — so every competitor gets a weighting factor, and their rate is divided by it:
Adjusted average = Sum of adjusted rates ÷ Count
That way the renovated property at €120 with a factor of 1.30 comes down to €92.31 and is compared with you like for like. Its higher rate is no proof that you're underpricing.
When it can't be calculated
If you have no competitor rate at all, the index is not calculated. It doesn't show 100, it doesn't show 0, it doesn't take the week's average. An index without a denominator isn't an index — it's a guess with two decimal places.
And a sneakier case: the average comes from the competitors you recorded. If one day you noted all three and the next day only one, you'll see an index both times — but they don't stand on the same ground. The tool always says how many went into the average.
What this tool doesn't calculate
- Non-refundable next to flexible: a “€150 non-refundable” and a “€150 free cancellation” are not the same rate. The correction isn't made — neither here nor in WisDom RM: nobody knows how many flexible bookings cancel, and a “market” percentage would be an invention.
- Sold-out competitors: a sold-out competitor has no rate to go into an average. In WisDom RM it's left out of the average and counts as a separate signal of market compression; here, just leave it empty.
- Whether they're filling up: an ARI of 92 with the competition full and an ARI of 92 with the competition empty are the same number and two opposite situations. ARI is a rate index, not a demand index.
- Your own booking pace: always read it alongside, never on its own — just as RevPAR isn't read without the occupancy behind it.
- More than three competitors: WisDom RM's comp set holds three as well.
- How demand reacts to a rate change: no tool here predicts it.
Never want to work it out again?
ARI changes every day, for every date separately. In WisDom RM you record the rates in Rate Intelligence — and ARI is calculated on its own for 30 dates ahead, per room type, with the weighting factors you set once in Settings. You see it in each date's card in the Demand Calendar. In every plan.
WisDom RM doesn't download competitor rates from anywhere and has no access to market data. You record the rates yourself, as you saw them.