Growth & expansion
Reading where a market, a guest base or a category is heading, not just where it currently sits, so a strategy is built for the market that will exist by the time a project opens.
Market foresight and insight, in a hospitality context, is the practice of forecasting demand, guest behaviour and competitive positioning for hotels, restaurants and mixed use developments, three to ten years ahead, so investment and design decisions are made against the market that will exist at opening, not the one that exists today.
Typically commissioned by private equity funds, sovereign wealth funds and family offices ahead of a hospitality investment decision, or by hotel groups, REITs and developers shaping a multi-year masterplan, brand strategy or expansion roadmap.
Forward-looking market analysis built for a specific investment or strategic decision, not a generic sector overview.
These three terms get used interchangeably, but they answer different questions.
| Term | What it answers |
|---|---|
| Market foresight & insight | Where is this market, category or guest base heading over the next three to ten years, and what does that mean for strategy. |
| Feasibility study | Will this specific project, on this specific site, generate a viable financial return. |
| Market research | What do guests currently think, want or do, usually through direct surveying or interviews. |
In practice, a feasibility study leans on foresight work for its demand assumptions, and foresight work is often informed by market research. We're typically engaged for the first, and brought in to support the second.
We combine desk research and third-party benchmarking data, such as STR or CoStar where relevant, with the fieldwork our team does constantly, hundreds of site visits and hotel stays a year, so the read on a market is grounded in what's actually happening, not a slide from a syndicated report.
A forward-looking market analysis tailored to a specific investment or strategic question, not a generic sector report.
It's forward-looking analysis of demand, guest behaviour and competitive positioning for a hotel, restaurant or mixed use development, built around a specific decision rather than a general sector overview.
A feasibility study tests whether one specific project on one specific site is financially viable. Foresight work looks more broadly at where the market itself is heading, and often feeds the assumptions a feasibility study relies on.
Where relevant, yes, alongside our own fieldwork, which is what stops a report reading like a generic syndicated overview.
Both are common, a single market study ahead of a decision, or a retained advisory relationship through a multi-year project.
We've delivered insight work across more than 20 countries, with a team based across the UK, USA, UAE, Estonia, Denmark, Brazil and Poland.