The analysis of relational capabilities currently constitutes a topic of great academic interest because of the significant increase of strategic alliances, partnership relationships and outsourcing. Dyer and Singh (1998) establish the sources of obtaining additional rents but do not examine the means and procedures that must be followed to achieve and develop relational capabilities. This article focuses on the study of relational capabilities in the hotel sector and concludes that a methodology aimed at creating them and strengthening them must start with an internal analysis based on the resource and capability theory. The clarification of the internal perspective is what permits the relational analysis to be addressed; an analysis that can be verified in various directions: suppliers, service outsourcing, collateral relationships and customer loyalty promotion.
Another aspect that becomes clear is that having a good, close relationship with another company is insufficient if it does not lead to additional rents. In this respect, the integration of processes is the main operational aspect leading to the materialization of sources of additional rents providing that the aim is to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the processes while simplifying or eliminating activities that do not create value to the end consumer. The combination of those three perspectives results in the creation and consolidation of relational capabilities. In turn, these have a direct effect on the reinforcement of the relational capabilities of the hotel companies in the relationship. That effect is the materialization of additional rents, differentiation from competitors, and concentration of resources and capabilities on the activities comprising the core competence. A double loop feedback is also generated between the reinforcement of associative and internal competitive advantage. Some of the aspects proposed in this article are difficult to consider in the industrial or services sector since a different analysis is required in the tourism sector. Competitiveness in the tourism sector is analyzed by the efficiency and quality offered by a destination rather than by a specific hotel. Therefore, collaboration is necessary at all imaginable levels, considering that joint resources and capabilities that favour the hotel in the first and last instances can be obtained from the sum of possible collaborations.