Abstract The aim of this paper is to determine the incidence of internal corporate governance in Tunisian hotels. We use a stochastic analysis frontier model of a sample of 63 hotels between 2012 and 2013. We also explain the efficiency of the hotel industry in terms of internal corporate governance. The stochastic frontier approach is used to assess the efficiency and performance of firms, as well as factors determining performance. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the interrelations among ownership, board and manager characteristics and firm efficiency in a sample of the hotel industry. To maximise performance, these governance characteristics are operationalised in terms of board characteristics, ownership structure and chief executive officer (CEO) characteristics. Six performance measures, such as financial performance, social and human performance, organisational performance, commercial performance and global performance, are specified and used to estimate hotel efficiency. The results show a positive correlation between the proportion of independent directors on the board and hotel performance. We also find that hotel performance is viewed as a proxy for director effort; therefore, the director's tenure positively affects the firm's efficiency and performance.