Actuality. In scientific and practical terms, the need for a comprehensive study of theoretical and methodological problems of reputational capital has come to naught; an assessment of its impact on the strategy of growth and the formation of competitive advantages in the organizations of all spheres of activity, in particular, actualization of the problem for the hotel and restaurant industry sphere. Purpose and methods. The purpose of the article is to justify the further research of the business category of business reputation and provide evidence of the need for management in this asset as a factor in increasing the material value of enterprises in general and hotel and restaurant business in particular Methodological basis of the research were the following methods of scientific analysis: dialectical method, methods of interdisciplinary research, systemic method, morphological analysis method, methods of analysis and synthesis, logical generalization method. Results. The article deals with the economic content of the category “business reputation”, generalized the ratio of the category “business reputation” with the related ones – “image”, “brand”, “authority” of the organization, and distinguishes between them, the methodical approaches to the assessment of business reputation are analyzed, RM. Conclusions and discussion. The results of the conducted research allow asserting that today, for business success, the most valuable strategic resource and tool in competition is the business reputation, as a stakeholder assessment of compliance with expectations and the real situation. The scientific novelty of the obtained results is determined by the generalization of the best business experience of the formation and maintenance of positive business reputation; improvement of factor analysis of the impact on business performance taking into account changing environmental conditions. The results of scientific research can be directly used or implemented in one or another sphere of psychological, social, economic or financial practice in individual industries. With the fullness of the hotel and restaurant business with qualitative services of the same type, the most important were non-obvious factors (intangible assets of hotels and restaurants): business reputation, including managers and managers; brands, a system of effective communications and a quality strategy for cooperation with target audiences.