In the past decade, the hotel industry has found segmentation strategies to be critical to remaining competitive in increasingly fragmented markets. The chronological age of a segment is a commonly used variable in defining market segments. The consumer behavior literature suggests several approaches as alternatives to chronological age. These age measures assess how old a person feels and functions or how old they would like to be. This paper reports on a national study that determines the effectiveness of six age measures on their ability to aid in the segmentation of the markets of seven types of hotel/motel concepts.
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