Why hotel technology is an investment decision, not an IT decision

Hotel technology is often judged as a purely operational purchase. The assessment checklist usually runs something like: 

• Does it have the right features?  

• How much does it cost?  

• Will the team use it?  

These are important questions, but they miss the biggest one: what will this investment make possible for the business? 

It’s a question that’s pertinent to both investors and hoteliers. For investors, it helps decide which companies are worth backing. For hoteliers, it shows which innovations hotels should adopt.  

Chris Hemmeter, Managing Partner at Thayer Investment Partners, has spent his career building businesses and investing in early-stage companies across travel and technology. In episode 96 of Matt Talks Hospitality, he shared what an investor’s view means for hotel owners and operators. 

From a nice-to-have to a business priority 

When Chris began investing in travel technology, tech was often treated as a specialist concern, rather than a priority for the wider business. 

That changed sharply during the pandemic. Hotels were forced to respond to a shock that exposed the limits of rigid systems and slow decision-making. As Chris puts it, “the pandemic was an absolute step change in the pace of experimentation.” 

Technology moved from something that might improve a few processes to a strategic tool for becoming more agile. Speed became essential when it came to adjusting prices, managing staffing and responding to changes in how guests book. 

For owners, that changes how technology should be assessed. The business case needs to go beyond features. Will a system help generate revenue, manage costs, improve decisions or help the hotel respond faster? And can it do so without creating another disconnected workflow? 

Look beyond room revenue 

Chris believes hotels have an opportunity to play a bigger role in the overall travel experience, rather than focusing only on selling rooms. “They want to be more engaged in the traveler's experience and journey. That's part of delivering value, and it's also part of the opportunity to monetize and increase NOI (net operating income) for owners.” 

That could mean understanding what a guest wants to do during a stay and making relevant experiences or services easier to discover and buy. It could also mean giving teams better information to personalize offers. 

Either way, the point is not to add technology for its own sake. It’s to make it easier to deliver value to guests and capture more of the spend that value creates. A good asset and a quality experience remain essential – technology can't manufacture those fundamentals, but it can help a hotel scale them. 

Get your data ready for the next kind of search 

As travelers use AI tools to plan trips, discovery is becoming more contextual. Instead of browsing pages of hotels, a traveler might describe the kind of place they want, its location, nearby restaurants or activities and the needs of their group. The tools may then recommend a short list. 

AI chatbots won’t all become booking channels. They may act more like referral sources, sending travelers to check and book directly with the hotels they recommend. Regardless, a hotel needs to be considered in the first place – and for that, you need to show AI the right data. 

That puts pressure on the quality and consistency of a property's information. Your website, FAQs, facilities, reviews and details about the surrounding area. As Chris says bluntly: “If you're sitting on old crappy data, it ain't gonna work.” 

For owners, this is a practical priority rather than a reason to chase every new AI product. Make sure property information is accurate and useful, and that the systems holding it can share it. In summary: “Job number one and two are clean up your data and get on a modern tech stack.” 

Choose technology that changes the work 

A closed system that makes integrations slow or expensive can block a property from adopting services that meet its needs. “An opaque black box that won't talk to anybody.” A modern technology foundation, however, allows hotels to experiment. 

Chris' investment in Mews was informed by this view of the market. He saw an opportunity for a more open approach in a landscape where legacy systems restricted innovation. But he also stresses that a clever product alone is not enough. Mews combined its product architecture with the discipline to build sales, service and support – the work needed to turn an idea into a sustainable business. 

The same principle goes for hotel buyers, too. Evaluate not only what a platform does today, but how it integrates with other systems, how it’s supported and whether the company behind it can keep pace with the market. A low-cost tool that creates manual work or limits future options may prove expensive in other ways. 

Introducing new technology without changing the way you work won’t give you results that move the needle. For that, you need to rethink and improve your existing workflows. 

For hotels, that means looking for ways to reduce the administrative burden that keeps people away from guests. Better technology should give teams more time for hospitality while helping owners keep a closer eye on labor and operating performance. 

Put the investment case first 

Before setting next year's technology budget, owners can start with three questions:  

1. What commercial problem are we trying to solve?  

2. Do we have the data and flexible systems needed to solve it?  

3. Will this technology genuinely improve how the business operates? 

The answers may point towards AI, revenue tools, guest experience or operational software, but the category matters less than the impact. A strong technology investment should support the property's strategy, help teams deliver great service and create a credible path to better financial performance. 

The hotels best placed to benefit from what comes next will be those that build a strong foundation, stay open to experimentation and choose tools that help the business move where it wants to go. 

To watch or listen to the conversation between Matt and Chris in full, check out the full episode. 

Watch the episode