ifferentiation respectively.
In the hotel industry there is one overall ranking of quality with
which we would expect all customers to substantially agree, i.e.,
hotel category (1 through 5 stars, which is actually assessed offi-
cially in Spain by the proper agency).In other words, most people
would agree that a five-star hotel is usually better than a four-star
hotel and so on. It is reasonable to believe that,if customers were
given the same rates for hotels, they would choose a higher category hotel. Thus, hotel category is an option for hotels to differentiate vertically and, indeed, it is regarded as an excellent proxy for
overall hotel quality (Fernández & Marín, 1998). Of course,