STR collects data from about 90,000 hotels globally to provide the industry with insights into occupancy and average pricing in various markets, which helps operators set room rates and match supply and demand.“When rival businesses share competitively sensitive information — including through a third-party data analytics provider — this reduces the uncertainty competing businesses normally have about how each other will act,” the CMA said.The regulator added: “This can affect how strongly companies compete because it makes it easier for them to predict what each other will do and co-ordinate their behaviour.”