Summary:

Both for the consumer (tourist) and producer (entrepreneur) of hotel ser-vices, a very important feature of the hotel is its location. Attractive location and service program properly matched to it, decide in fact on the level of profitability, and consequently on the development prospects of the hotel. One of the steps in the procedure of choosing the most suitable location is to identify factors that determine the choice. In the most general way, these factors can be divided into those that relate to demand values and supply values. It should be noted that apart from these two groups of factors important condition for determining the location of the hotel can also be a local authorities actions to stimulate the development of hotel investments in the areas of reception. The cognitive aim of this study was to determine the most important criteria for determining the location of hotels. To determine the most important factors for location of hotels two methods were used: documentary method and the method of diagnostic survey. At the first stage of the research documentary method (indirect observation) was used, in which the statistical data from secondary sources were obtained concerning hotels located in Opole. In the second stage of research, based on a diagnostic survey method, categorized, confidential, in-depth interview was used. The research tool was an interview questionnaire designed by the author for this study, consisting of five open questions concerning the location factors and the metric. Selection of the sample for testing was random in nature, as five of the nine hotel enterprises were selected whose owners agreed to participate in the study. The increase in tourist traffic and purchasing power of tourists and well developed infrastructure and consequently, transport accessibility, high tourist attractiveness of Opole, incentives from local authorities and access to interesting properties in attractive prices are the main factors determining the location of the hotels studied. Majority of the surveyed hotel owners were not considering alternative locations of their facilities, and the most important sources of knowledge used to making investment decisions were: knowledge and experience of the owner, market analysis and advisory services of consulting firms.