Essence Meester

(Jump to the bottom to see the good stuff… Ubuntu Setup Instructions)

Over the last few years, there have been numerous stories in the news about companies and individuals getting hacked. From Sony to the Democratic National Committee, we’ve seen how devastating it can be for intruders to access your private data. To combat these attacks, it is essential to take security serious, both in our corporations as well as our personal lives.

In the security industry, there is a saying…

There is no silver bullet to protect us, and no matter what, an attacker with unlimited resources and unlimited time will eventually succeed at breaking into our digital fortresses. The only approach to combat this is through defense in depth.

In the same way that we try to protect our homes in the physical world, we need to try and protect our digital assets. For a house, you would install deadbolt locks, get a big mean dog, install a security alarm, build a fence around the property, pay an off duty police officer to patrol the neighborhood, and join a neighborhood watch to work together with your neighbors to prevent crime. Individually, none of these would prevent a burgler from stealing your TV, but combined together, it would maybe make the burgler go to the house next door or the neighborhood down the street for easier targets.

In our digital infrastucture, we need to do the same thing. When setting up a new server or application, we should think of all the ways we can make it a harder target for would be attackers. This would include strong passwords, firewalls, logging, alerting, intrusion detection, role based access control, least privileged user accounts, removing unnecessary services, vulnerability scanning, and patch management (among many others). Additionally, a growing popular method for securing user accounts is to use Two Factor Authentication.

Two Factor Authentication (2FA) has been around for quite a while and boils down to requiring more than one piece of evidence that your are authorized to use a service before you are granted access. These pieces of evidence are routinely decribed as something you know (a password), what you have (a hardware device), and what you are (your fingerprint).

A YubiKey is a popular tool for adding a second factor to authentication schemes. It is a physical USB drive that plugs into your computer and pretends to be a keyboard that types out a One Time Password (OTP) when you physically touch the device. This OTP can then be validated by a 3rd party service, in addition to your password, before authorizing you to log into the service. An attacker would have to hack into your computer to steal your password and also physically steal your YubiKey before they could log into an account as you. This is much safer than only using a password.

Also to note, many 2FA solutions have recently been using a phone number and text message as the second factor. When you log onto a service, it would send you a unique code in a text message for you to enter. By being able to produce this unique code, you can prove that you both have the password to the account and have the phone associated with the account. However, we have recently seen many phone porting attacks where someone uses social engineering to get the phone company to port a targets number to a different phone, thereby enabling them to bypass the 2FA (See here for an example). In fact, this is so easy to do that NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) no longer recommends using a phone number as part of a multi factor authentication scheme. Having a physical device that generates one time tokens is much safer than relying on text messaging.

In a recent project, I was charged with setting up some infrastructure on Amazon AWS and wanted to leverage 2FA with YubiKeys. By default, Amazon disables password based SSH access to the servers and instead requires public/private keypairs for authentication. This is more secure than using (often weak) passwords for login and would require an attacker to hack into your machine and get your private key. However, if you enable 2FA with a YubiKey, it would be much more secure and even if an attacker got hold of your private key, they still wouldn’t be able to log onto the server without your YubiKey token.

Our standard device templates are Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS and requires some manual setup to allow 2FA with YubiKey. Fortunately, YubiKey provides a PAM (Pluggable Authentication Module) library to integrate with Linux. Below are the steps required for getting things up and running:

First, add the PPA and install the library:

Next, edit the pam settings for SSH.

Add the following line at the top to enable the module:

The Client ID and Client Key can be generated here for free:

Next, you need to create a mapping file to let the library know which YubiKey devices are associated with which user accounts on the system. The mapping file contains a user account, followed by a colon separated list of keys that are valid. To get the Token ID, you can just grab the first 12 characters of a generated token. The Yubico-Pam website has more details about this step.

For the mapping file, you can either create one mapping file for all users or have a separate mapping file for each user kept in their home directory. For our use case, we went with a combined mapping file (and instructions follow this setup).

Create the mapping file:

Add the mappings for each user:

Next, modify the SSH configuration to prompt for the YubiKey token and require both the public key authentication as well as the PAM authentication.

Edit the configuration file:

Enable challenge response authentication by changing this to “yes”.

Add a new line that sets the Authentication Methods to require first the public key to be valid and then the YubiKey token for each user.

Finally restart the sshd service to pick up the new settings:

Before testing this out, make sure to keep your existing SSH session alive in case something went wrong. Otherwise you may get locked out of your server.

In another terminal session try to log in without using the key parameter (it should be rejected):

Next, try again with the key parameter to satisfy the first part of the 2FA, and you should then be able to validate the YubiKey token (the token is not displayed on the terminal window):

Above you will see that the certificate was validated and it prompted for the YubiKey. Once the YubiKey is touched, it will automatically type in the One Time Password and continue to the welcome screen. You have now been validated through 2FA.

As mentioned earlier, this is not the end-all-be-all of security, but is just another level of defense to protect your environments. Other research and implementation of security hardening and security methods should be investigated and included to make secure as possible while still being usable.

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SF9 Fandom Name: Fantasy SF9 Official Fan Color: Fantasia Hologram

SF9 Official Accounts: Official Website (Japan): sf9-official.jp Twitter: @sf9official Twitter (Fan Club): @SF9_FANCLUB Twitter (Japan): @SF9_official_jp Instagram: @sf9official Instagram (Japan): @sf9_official_jp Facebook: SF9 Weibo: SF9official Youtube (on FNC Ent. channel): SF9 Youtube: SF9Official Youtube (Japan): SF9 Fan Cafe: SF9 Fncent: SF9 TikTok: @sf9official

SF9 Members Profile: Youngbin Stage Name: Youngbin (영빈) Birth Name: Kim Young Bin (김영빈) Position: Leader, Lead Dancer, Lead Rapper Birthday: November 23, 1993 Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius Height: 178 cm (5’10”) Weight: 67 kg (148 lbs) Blood Type: AB MBTI Type: ISFP Representative Emoticon: 🍀 Nationality: Korean Instagram: @yb_dkxh SoundCloud: .

Youngbin Facts: – His hometown is Anyang, South Korea. – Youngbin has an older sister and an older brother. – He is the “father” of the group. – His favorite foods are spicy foods. – His favorite color is Red. – His hobbies are Korean chess, reading and playing basketball. – He is good at playing basketball. – Youngbin has a dog named Jamong. – Youngbin is former 1MILLION dance studio trainee. – Yongbin is hard to wake up. – Youngbin likes skin-ship and he is the one doing the most skin-ship among the members, especially with Chani. (Rooftop Radio) – Youngbin is a big fan of Epik High. (vLive) – According to Dawon, Youngbin is smart and has much wisdom. – Youngbin had finished third place at a high jump competition back then in middle school. (Rookie Show) – Youngbin’s habits are biting and licking his lips. – Youngbin has 2 tattoos. One goes down his left side and says “Shine Forever.” The other is by his collarbone and says “sic parvis magna.” – Dorm arrangements: Youngbin and Jaeyoon share a room. (Still in the old dorm) – On March 29, 2022 Youngbin enlisted in the military. – Youngbin’s ideal type: Someone with a good feeling. Show more Youngbin fun facts…

Inseong Stage Name: Inseong (인성) Birth Name: Kim In Seong (김인성) Position: Main Vocalist Birthday: July 12, 1993 Zodiac Sign: Cancer Height: 184 cm (6’0″) Weight: 70 kg (154 lbs) Blood Type: A MBTI Type: ENFJ Representative Emoticon: 🌰 Nationality: Korean Instagram:: @pum.castle

Inseong Facts: – His hometown is Nowon-gu, Seoul, South Korea. – Inseong is an only child. – He is the oldest member. – Inseong is very-well educated. He comes from a very well-off family. – Inseong studied in London for one year so he can speak English well and he’s the English speaker of the group (After School Club). – He speaks Korean and English. – Inseong is a former SM Entertainment trainee. – He is good at drawing. – Iseong is the smartest member. (Hongkira) – Iseong is really good at 3 line poems. (Hongkira) – He loves eating, though he’s slim, he’s a big eater. – His hobbies are chess, gomokgu (an abstract strategy board game), draw manga and puzzles. – His favorite color is Pink. – Inseong is the “desert fox / fennec fox” of the group. – He graduated from Kyunghee University. – Inseong charms are his lip corner and eyes. – Inseong is left handed. (Seen from “The Immigration” and on Vlive.) – Inseong appeared on the drama “20th Century Boys and Girls” (2017). – Dorm arrangements: Inseong and Dawon share a room (In the new dorm). – On March 21, 2022 Inseong enlisted in the military. – Inseong’s ideal type: “My ideal type is Fantasy” (their fan club name); Someone tall Show more Inseong fun facts…

Jaeyoon Stage Name: Jaeyoon (재윤) Birth Name: Lee Jae Yoon (이재윤) Position: Sub Vocalist Birthday: August 9, 1994 Zodiac Sign: Leo Height: 184 cm (6’0″) Weight: 65 kg (143 lbs) Blood Type: O MBTI Type: INFP Representative Emoticon: 🐣 Nationality: Korean

Jaeyoon Facts: – He was born in Nam-gu, Busan, South Korea. – Jaeyoon has a younger sister. – Jaeyoon graduated from Dong Ah Institute of Media and Arts. – He is a jokster. – Jaeyoon used to live in the countryside, so he can distinguish poisonous plants and animals from those that are not poisonous. – His hobbies are movie appreciation and sports. – He has a bright personality. – Jaeyoon is afraid of heights (SF9 Graduation trip). – Jaeyoon loves bread, coffee and chocolate (“SF9 Trip With Fantasy”) – His favorite color is “Fantasy”. – Jaeyoon is the one singing the “Girls Generation 1979” OST (part 1). – He also sings the OST for “My Only Love Song”, called “Thank you, My love”. – Jaeyoon is in charge of Honey Voice in the group. He can sing any song in a sweet way. – Jaeyoon thinks his best trait is his butt. (The Immigration) – Jaeyoon used to work part-time at a spicy stir-fried chicken restaurant. (Rookie Show) – Jaeyoon has very deep dimples. – Jaeyoon’s habit is speaking in satoori. – Dorm arrangements: Youngbin and Jaeyoon share a room. (Still in the old dorm) – Jaeyoon’s ideal type: Someone who likes Pokemon. Show more Jaeyoon fun facts…

Dawon Stage Name: Dawon (다원) Birth Name: Lee Sang Hyuk (이상혁) Position: Sub Vocalist Birthday: July 24, 1995 Zodiac Sign: Leo Height: 179 cm (5’10.5″) Weight: 65 kg (143 lbs) Blood Type: A MBTI Type: ISFJ Representative Emoticon: 👅 Nationality: Korean Instagram: @dwww_w_

Dawon Facts: – He was born in Ilsan, South Korea. (He said it on ASC) – Dawon is an only child. – He likes to joke around. – Dawon sang Big Bang, Taeyang’s “I Need A Girl” for his audition. (Hongkira) – He is also known for his role in “Click Your Heart” – He was the male lead in the music video of AOA Cream’s “I’m Jelly Baby”. – Dawon has four tattoos: first is saying Grazioso, second is some Roman numerals (LVIIIVIII), third is a crown similar to G-Dragon‘s tattoo and the fourth is Michael Jackson. – His hobbies are eating, to dress up and stealing hearts. XD – Dawon in really close with Ayno (Yoonho) from VAV. – Dawon is multi-talented, he is in charge of variety. – Dawon can do impressions of iKON’s B.I, actor Jo In Sung, and Bruce Lee. – Dawon visited and studied in Spain for 4 months. (Rooftop Radio) – Dawon appears on “Weekly Idol” in their Masked Idol segment. – Dawon is a regular cast member of SBS’ “Game Show”. – Dawon’s habit is pursing lips. – Dorm arrangements: Inseong and Dawon share a room (In the new dorm) – Dawon’s ideal type: Someone who’s sexy and cute; Someone middle height; Someone with long hair; Someone with big eyes; Someone kind Show more Dawon fun facts…

Zuho Stage Name: Zuho (주호) Real Name: Baek Ju Ho (백주호) Position: Main Rapper Birthday: July 4, 1996 Zodiac Sign: Cancer Height: 185 cm (6’1″) Weight: 67 kg (148 lbs) Blood Type: O MBTI Type: ENFJ Representative Emoticon: 🦁 Nationality: Korean SoundCloud: zuho Instagram: @zuuuuu_oh

Zuho Facts: – He was born Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, South Korea. – Zuho has a younger brother. – Zuho was the first trainee for SF9. (Rooftop Radio) – Zuho and Rowoon trained for 6 years before their debut (Sf9 graduation trip). – He is attending Soongsil Cyber University. – He is considered the most charismatic member (by the other members). – He may appear cold, but he’s actually a warm person. – He is also known for his role in “Click Your Heart”. – He is set to act in the web drama called “Meal Kid” – He’s confident in his sexy dance. XD – Zuho sometimes sleeptalks while he’s sleeping. – His favorite color is Black. – His hobbies are writing songs, composing songs, walking and spacing out. – Zuho did water skiing for 5-6 years until he was in the 10th grade (SF9 Trip with Fantasy Ep.4) – Zuho’s role model and mentor is BTS’ Suga. (Vlive) – Zuho hates corn because when he was young, he almost died eating it. (The STAR) – Zuho is featuring on Lee Hong Ki’s song “Cookies”, from his 2nd mini album, “Come To Me”. – Zuho is really close with Wendy from Red Velvet. – He acted in a web drama “Meal Kid” (2020) and the Kdrama “Heartbeat Broadcasting Accident” (2021). – He has clothing brand named “Celui Huru” that was his cats name Lui and Huru. His father is the CEO of the brand. – Dorm arrangements: Zuho has a room of his own. (In the new dorm) – Zuho’s ideal type: Someone to fall in love with at first sight Show more Zuho fun facts…

Rowoon Stage Name: Rowoon (로운) Real Name: Kim Seok Woo (김석우) Position: Lead Vocalist, Visual, Center Birthday: August 7, 1996 Zodiac Sign: Leo Height: 190.5 cm (6’3″) Weight: 74 kg (162 lbs) Blood Type: B MBTI Type: INFJ Representative Emoticon: 🐭 Nationality: Korean Instagram: @ewsbdi Weibo: SF9_金路云

Rowoon Facts: – Rowoon is from Daechi-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea. – He has an older sister. – Rowoon was the second trainee for SF9 (Rooftop Radio). – Rowoon and Zuho trained for 6 years before their debut ( Sf9 graduation trip ) – He is the member who can cook the best. – He is very caring. – He has a cheerful personality. – He is talented in sports. – Rowoon is afraid of heights. (Neoz School Ep. 3) – Rowoon likes spicy food (Special Food 9). – His favorite color is White. – Rowoon’s closet friend is Chani (Bingo Talk). – He is also friends with Pentagon‘s Yeo One. – Rowoon is a ‘neat freak’. (Rooftop Radio) – Rowoon can’t watch scary movies. – Rowoon played soccer when he was young. He finished third place at the National Soccer Competition in Chuncheon. – Rowoon won a prize at a plant name memorization contest when he was in elementary school. – He is also known for starring in the web drama “Click Your Heart” (2016). – He acted in the Korean dramas “Where Stars Land” (2018), “Extraordinary You” (2019), “She Would Never Know” (2021). – He participated in an Acuvue commercial alongside girl group AOA’s Seolhyun. – Rowoon was in FNC’s reality show Cheongdamdong 111 back in 2013 when he was a trainee. – Rowoon is a big fan of F.T. Island, F.T. Island was the top artist when he was still in school days. – His hobbies are sports, especially skateboarding. – He starred in “Lipstick Prince” a Korean show that premiered on December 1, 2016. – He joined the show “Cafe Amor”. – He acted in several Korean dramas: “Click Your Heart” (web drama 2016),  “School 2017” (2017), “Where Stars Land” (2018), “About Time” (2018), “Extraordinary You” (2019), “She Would Never Know” (2021), “The King’s Affection” (2021), “Tomorrow” (2022). – Dorm arrangements: Rowoon has a room of his own. (In the new dorm) – Rowoon’s ideal type: Someone who looks good in his eyes; Someone tall Show more Rowoon fun facts…

Yoo Taeyang Stage Name: Yoo Taeyang (유태양), formerly known as Taeyang (태양) Birth Name: Yoo Tae Yang (유태양) Position: Sub Vocalist, Main Dancer Birthday: February 28, 1997 Zodiac Sign: Pisces Height: 182 cm (6’0″) Weight: 67 kg (148 lbs) Blood Type: O MBTI Type: INFP Representative Emoticon: 🌞 Nationality: Korean Instagram: @taeyang_0228 TikTok: @taeyang_0228

Yoo Taeyang Facts: – He was born in Mok-dong, Yangcheon-gu, Seoul, South Korea. – He has a brother. – Taeyang was the 3rd trainee for SF9. (Rooftop Radio) – He is a fashionista. – He is mostly confident in his eyes and eyebrows. – His hobbies are playing guitar and walking. – His talent is dancing to various types of music. – He has a calm and thoughtful personality. – Taeyang has an unique vocal skill, he can sing any song by any artist in sorrowful version. – Taeyang has the best calligraphy in the group. (Rookie Show) – Taeyang also eats a lot. (SF9 Special Food Ep 2) – Taeyang keeps his side of the room dirty. (Rooftop Radio) – His favorite color is Black. – Taeyang can mimic JYJ‘s Junsu, he’s been practicing to sing like him. (Rookie Show) – If Taeyang wasn’t a singer, he would want to be a florist. (Bingo Talk) – Taeyang participated in ‘Star Empire Audition’ in 2013. – Taeyang’s role models are EXO’s D.O and Kai. – He is really close with DK from iKON. – Taeyang can dance to any kind of music. (The Immigration) – Dorm arrangements: Taeyang and Hwiyoung share a room. (Still in the old dorm) – Taeyang’s ideal type: Someone who smiles brightly Show more Taeyang fun facts…

Hwiyoung Stage Name: Hwiyoung (휘영) Birth Name: Kim Young Kyun (김영균) Position: Sub Rapper Birthday: May 11, 1999 Zodiac Sign: Taurus Height: 180 cm (5’11″) Weight: 61 kg (134 lbs) Blood Type: B MBTI Type: INFP Representative Emoticon: 🔝 Nationality: Korean Soundcloud: 0

Hwiyoung Facts: – He was born in Busan, South Korea, and his hometown is Midang-ri, Bongyang-eup,  Jecheon-si, Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea. – He is a gentleman. – He has broad shoulders. – He exercises every day. – Education: Hanlim Multi Art School – His hobbies are movie appreciation, kick-boxing and drawing. – According to Inseong, Hwiyoung is the “happy virus” of the group. – Hwiyoung can move his ears. (Show Champion behind the scenes) – According to Jaeyoon, Hwiyoung is the visual member. (Hongkira) – Hwiyoung has a very attractive gummy smile. – He is close to Chani. – Hwiyoung’s favorite type of music is HipHop/Rap. – Hwiyong cried watching “Train to Busan”. – Hwiyoung is emotionally sensitive. (Pops in Seoul) – Hwiyoung’s charm is his Adam’s apple. – Hwiyoung hates sea food. – His favorite color is Blue. – Hwiyoung can pull out pitch as high as dolphin’s. – Hwiyoung is participating in the show “High School Rapper” season 2. – He acted along Chani in the drama “Imitation” (2021). – Dorm arrangements: Taeyang and Hwiyoung share a room. (Still in the old dorm) – Hwiyoung’s ideal type: Someone with long legs; Rachel McAdams Show more Hwiyoung fun facts…

Chani Stage Name: Chani (찬희) Birth Name: Kang Chan Hee (강찬희) Position: Main Dancer, Sub Rapper, Face of the Group, Maknae Birthday: January 17, 2000 Zodiac Sign: Capricorn Height: 177 cm (5’10″) Weight: 57 kg (125 lbs) Blood Type: A MBTI Type: ENFP Representative Emoticon: 😇 Nationality: Korean Instagram: @c_chani_i

Chani Facts: – His hometown is Seo-gu, Daejeon, South Korea. – Chani has younger brother named Kang Suk-hee. (vLive) – He graduated from SOPA in February, 2018. – Chani is a former Fantagio trainee. – He became a trainer since he was in Primary 4. (Kim Jiwon’s Rooftop Radio) – Chani has been a trainee for 7 years. – He can play the piano and violin. – Chani can’t eat spicy food (Special Food 9) and hates mushrooms. – His favorite color is Red. – Chani isn’t good with scary movies – Chani’s Role model are Jung Yong Hwa from CNBlue and SHINEE‘s Taemin – Chani is the bravest member (Hongkira). – Chani can reach the highest note in SF9. – He appeared in TVXQ‘s “Balloons” MV as mini Yoochun. – He acted in Korean dramas: “Can You Hear My Heart” (2011), “Heaven’s Garden” (2011), “The Innocent Man” (2012), “To the Beautiful You” (as the young Kang Tae Joon – 2012), “The Queen’s Classroom” (2013), “Hwajung” (2015), “Signal” (2016), “Click Your Heart” (2016), “Sky Castle” (2018), “Imitation” (2021), “Under the Queen’s Umbrella” (2022). – He also acted in movies: “Familyhood” (2016), “The King’s Case Note” (2017) – Chani and Hwiyoung were special guests in Thailand sitcom ”Coffee House 4.0” in Eps 8. – He was part of the pre-debut team under FNC Entertainment, “Neoz School” as a member of the first group called NEOZ – His hobbies are sleeping, playing the piano and drawing. – Chani wants to appear in a fried chicken commercial since he really loves chicken. – He won an art prize when he was younger. (Pops in Seoul) – Chani used to be childhood friends with Astro‘s Moonbin and iKon‘s Chanwoo. – Chani is really good friends with Stray Kids‘ Hyunjin and Gugudan‘s Mina. (vLive) – He is part of the “Leaving The Nest 3” show cast. – Chani is a host on MBC’s Show! Music Core with Stray Kids’ Hyunjin. – He is really close with Rocky from ASTRO. – He played a role in the series “True Beauty” (2020). – Dorm arrangements: Chani has a room of his own. (Still in the old dorm) – Chani’s ideal type: Someone kind and sincere; Someone with good manners. Show more Chani fun facts…

Note: Please don’t copy-paste the content of this page to other sites/places on the web. If you use info from our profile, please kindly put a link to this post. Thanks a lot! 🙂 – Kprofiles.com

Note 2: The current listed positions are the positions given out by FNC through the Fancity app, the Korean music app blip and Melon. We may have different opinions on their positions but we respect the official ones given out.

(Special thanks to Angie Xu, Kayla d, ShiroiAkuma,『Ito』, baek Youngbin, lucky Bean, Aurora Noe, Tashel, asdfghjkl xxx, ccssinseong, Somuchkpopsolittletime 7, Black&White, Myrah, Zoe Kim, Chain of Chani, Yuggyyeeoomm, raven, Taelyn Parker, kathleen hazel, ChenTheBeagleLeader, NuraddinaVixx, Minghao, SF9 Jaeyoonie, Rachel Tryana, jenini_panini, Markiemin, Michon, Gellie Cadimas, zoe, Pavlína Otáhalová, ☽ⒷⒿ♚ⓛⒸ♚ⒻⒶⓃⓉⒶⓈⓎ♚☾, Somuchkpopsolittletime 7, geethree, — . ♡,  Myrah, ChanTae, BlueSky, Lumapas, Meirima, placebo, Minhoe, Princess Nicole, Maggie Wang, Jaee ¹²⁷, fanboi lou, Pink Princess, Namy, YoonTaeKyung, Rosy, ulthei, mateo 🇺🇾, chipsnsoda, Adheesha Prasmusinto, Melissa Zambrano, thedramakiddo, A Fantasy, Dottie, JESSICA, The Nexus, tandanrue, Tayler Leigh Pierce, Hirakocchi, sepgu, Stylus Stray, Baam, Hurulove, elly bean, rae,Haruny, Flora, AP, cutiesahi, baby é, arohaluvastro, Fliza, Handi Suyadi, han)

You may also like:  Quiz: How well do you know SF9? SF9 Tattoos & Meanings SF9 Discography

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As a hotel operator, you might have come across STR reports at one point or another. But what are they all about?

Staying ahead of the competition is essential to the long-term growth of your hotel. Falling short of your competitors when it comes to guest experience, accommodation standards or your marketing and advertising strategy can quickly lead to lost revenue.

That said, understanding where you stand in relation to the competition is critical for analysing the strengths and weaknesses of your hotel business strategy and making adjustments accordingly. Which areas of your hotel are performing well and which do you need to improve? Which competitors are outpacing you and why? Where are there gaps in your strategy that should be filled?

An STR report, also called a STAR report, can help you answer these questions and more. This guide covers all you need to know about this essential hotel benchmarking tool: what an STR report is, what it can tell you, how to get one and how to read and analyse one.

Before we look at STR reports in more detail, what exactly does ‘STR’ stand for?

STR Inc. is a hotel analytics company founded in 1985 as Smith Travel Research. The company is the recognised leader in hotel industry benchmarking and provides market data including supply and demand and market share information on a global scale.

For example, STR data reveals that the average occupancy rate across US hotels in August 2022 was 66.5%, and the average daily rate was US$151.49.

STR Inc. compiles all of the data they receive into STR reports, which can be used by hotels across the globe to benchmark their performance against relevant competitors.

An STR report is a benchmarking tool that compares your hotel’s performance in relation to a group of similar hotels (competitors). Although it’s spelled ‘STR’, the correct pronunciation is ‘STAR’ and the terms ‘STR report’ and ‘STAR report’ are often used interchangeably.

It’s important to note that STR reports or STAR reports aren’t related to star ratings that help you gauge guest satisfaction. Rather, an STR report uses a variety of KPIs and metrics to show how well your hotel is performing compared to your competitors. To do this, STR Inc. uses data from your competitive set (compset), which is a group of hotels that you choose for comparison purposes.

STR reports are typically released weekly, although you can also choose to receive reports monthly or yearly if preferred. We’ll talk more about how to access an STR report in ‘How to get an STR report for your hotel’ below.

An STR report can help you to:

Comparing your performance against your competitors is a critical step when measuring your success. However, to benchmark accurately, you need to choose a group of competitors with a similar profile to your hotel.

This is where your competition set, or compset, comes in.

When ordering your STR report you’ll need to choose a compset, which STR Inc. uses as a basis to compile and deliver data that’s relevant to your hotel.

Generally speaking, an optimal compset includes 3-5 hotels that:

One thing to keep in mind is that you can change your compset with subsequent STR reports, so don’t worry too much about getting it perfect the first time around.

To get an STR report, you can head to the STR website and request a demo or purchase a report. Once you’ve registered, you can choose whether to receive new reports weekly, monthly or yearly.

You’ll also get access to 18 months of historical data, which includes year-on-year, year-to-date, and running 3 and 12-month data percentage changes and indexes. The report covers various KPIs and metrics, which we’ll cover in more detail below.

Looking at your STR report for the first time can be confusing given the amount of data available. That said, with a bit of background reading it shouldn’t take long to familiarise yourself with the key terms, KPIs and metrics, and what they mean for your hotel.

A good starting point to read an STR report is to scroll down to the ‘Monthly Performance at a Glance’ tab. This tab contains a general summary of your hotel’s performance against your competitive set for the current month, year-to-date, running 3-month and running 12-month periods.

A more involved way to analyse your STR report is to compare the current week’s performance to your performance during the same week last year. You can also do this for your compset.

Once you have a better handle on the ins and outs of the report, you can dive deeper into the data to review your performance against KPIs including occupancy, ADR and RevPar.

When reading your STR report, you’ll see your performance is calculated as an index. Your index number tells you whether or not your hotel is outperforming your compset against three key KPIs: occupancy, ADR and RevPar. The index is calculated by dividing your KPI values by the average KPI values of your compset, then multiplying by 100.

An index number higher than 100 indicates you are capturing more than your fair market share, whereas an index number below 100 indicates you are capturing less than your fair share.

In other words, the higher your index number, the better your hotel is performing. An index below 100 tells you there’s room for improvement to compete more effectively in your market.

These are the tabs you can expect to see in a typical STR report, and the information they provide:

Monthly performance at a glance This tab is a summary of your hotel’s performance against your competitive set for the current month, year-to-date, running 3-month and running 12-month periods.

Questions to ask when reviewing this tab:

STAR summary Here you’ll see a summary of your hotel’s occupancy, ADR and RevPar versus your compset and others industry segments, for the current month, year-to-date, running 3-month and running 12-month periods.

Questions to ask when reviewing this tab:

Competitive set report See a comparison of your hotel versus your compset for the most recent 18-month period, as well as for the year-to-date, running 3-month and running 12-month periods.

Questions to ask when reviewing this tab:

Response report Here you can find details of properties in your compset that have reported data to STR over the past 24 months.

Segmentation summary Your segmentation summary compares your hotel versus your compet’s segmentation data for the current month and year-to-date. Segmentation data includes occupancy, ADR andRevPar broken down by the source of business (transient, group and contract).

Questions to ask when reviewing this tab:

Segmentation analysis This tab shows monthly occupancy, ADR, RevPAR, index and ranking analysis of transient, group, contract and total business for the past 18 months. It compares your hotel’s data to your compset and your broader market.

Segmentation day of week On this tab you’ll find monthly occupancy, ADR, RevPAR, index and ranking analysis of transient, group, contract and total business by day of week for the current month. It compares your hotel’s data to your compset and your broader market.

Additional revenue analysis This is a monthly revenue analysis for room, food and beverage, other and total for the past 18 months. It compares your hotel’s data to your compset and your broader market.

Questions to ask when reviewing this tab:

Daily data for the month This tab shows occupancy, ADR and RevPAR by day of the week for the entire month. It compares your hotel’s data to your compset.

Questions to ask when reviewing this tab:

Day of week and weekday/weekend This tab details occupancy, ADR and RevPAR for each day of the week and weekday/weekend for the current month, year-to-date, and the same day of the week for running 3-month and 12-month periods. It compares your hotel’s data to your compset and your broader market.

Questions to ask when reviewing this tab:

The three most important STR report tabs to pay attention to are:

An STR report details important KPIs for your hotel and for your competitors (compset). The three core KPIs to be aware of are:

1. Average daily rate (ADR) ADR, which stands for average daily rate, is the average income per occupied room your hotel makes in a set period of time.

ADR = Total room revenue/total rooms sold

You can use ADR to forecast for specific weeks, months, or seasons, and then set performance goals for your business – making plans to improve any areas you thought you could have done better in the past.

2. Occupancy (Occ) Occupancy rate is the percentage of occupied rooms in your hotel at a given time. It is one of the most high-level indicators of success and is calculated by dividing the total number of rooms occupied, by the total number of rooms available, times 100, creating a percentage.

Occ = Total rooms occupied/total rooms available for sale x 100

3. Revenue per available room RevPAR stands for revenue per available room, and is one of the most common and important hotel metrics. It provides an insight into the number of rooms that are being sold at a hotel and how much revenue is being generated from those bookings.

RevPar = ADR x Occ

If the RevPAR of your property is increasing, it can mean your average room rate or occupancy rate is increasing – or both.

By analysing these three KPIs in your report, you can discover:

Follow these best-practice tips to get the most out of your STR report:

Keep an eye on trends Whether caused by seasonal fluctuations, adjusted pricing or a change in your business strategy, look out for trends that could be positively (or negatively) impacting your hotel’s performance and the performance of your compset.

A good place to start is to look at your index number. If it’s above 100, you’re doing better than your compset average, and if it’s below 100, there’s room for improvement. Ideally you want to see your index number trending upward over time. If it’s trending downward, look to see if the same trend is happening to your compset and other industry segments. This can tell you whether it’s isolated to your hotel or a result of wider industry fluctuations.

Compare year-on-year performance Hotels and accommodation providers are particularly susceptible to seasonal fluctuations, so a drop in performance over a week or month isn’t necessarily a major warning sign. However, a general improvement in year-on-year performance shows that your hotel is growing steadily in the long term.

If your performance has dropped compared to last year, try to figure out why that’s the case. Perhaps a tourist campaign brought more guests to your hotel last year, or maybe there has been an overall downturn in discretionary spending. If you can’t attribute the downturn to any broader causes, it could be time to rethink your strategy and start looking at new ways to bring in revenue or attract a different subset of guests.

Make notes of your insights While an STR report contains a lot of valuable data, you need to dive deep into the meaning behind the data to make meaningful improvements to your business. Taking time to analyse your reports thoroughly and make notes of your findings is a crucial first step in developing more effective strategies that help you win a bigger share of your market and outperform your competitors.

An STR report is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to managing your hotel effectively and ensuring your long-term success.

Our hotel commerce platform helps you take full control of your hotel or accommodation business, with valuable insights and tools to support your growth.

From distribution and marketing, to bookings and payments, we partner with you to succeed on your terms. Find out more about how to unlock the full potential of your property with SiteMinder.