Purpose

Using the resource-based view (RBV), the purpose of this paper is to examine the potential mediation effect of customer relationship management capability, branding capability and service innovation capability on the established link between market orientation (MO) and hotel performance. It further investigates the complementarity between these capabilities in relation to hotel performance.

Design/methodology/approach

The survey data were collected from 216 UK hotels. AMOS 23 was used to analyse the research data.

Findings

The link between MO and hotel performance appears to be indirect via customer relationship capability, branding capability and service innovation capability. The three capabilities also appear to play different complementary roles when affecting hotel performance.

Practical implications

The current study offers hotel managers a ranking of the contribution of individual capabilities to hotel performance. It also helps them to make better investment decisions in developing the right capability combinations to enhance their hotel performance.

Originality/value

The research is based on integrating MO and RBV into a single framework to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between MO and high-order marketing capabilities and how these factors shape hotel performance.