Beyond the Pitch: What Hotel Groups Expect from Technology Vendors

After years of sitting on the buying side of these conversations, five things matter most to me.

1. First, prove you understand hotel operations. Not in theory, but in how your solution performs at 2 a.m. when a system goes down and guests are waiting at the front desk. Hospitality never stops.
2. Second, demonstrate measurable business value. Features are interesting, but outcomes matter more—better guest experiences, more efficient hotel operations, increased revenue, or lower costs.
3. Third, be transparent about integration. Every vendor talks about open APIs, but few demonstrate how their solution fits into a complex hotel technology ecosystem without creating unnecessary cost or dependency.
4. Fourth, show me evidence, not marketing. I want customer references I can speak to and a realistic view of implementation, support, and total cost of ownership—not just a compelling demo.
5. Finally, be honest about your limitations. A vendor who is clear about what their product does—and doesn’t do—builds trust from day one. In the end, we don’t choose vendors; we choose long-term partners who help us create value for our guests, hotel teams, and owners.

Operational fit, clean integration, solid data protection, and measurable value across our properties and markets — that's the minimum expectation. Beyond those fundamentals, here's what, in my view, signposts the start of a genuine partnership:

1.  Show us the product. Not a sandbox, not a video. We had a demo recently where the vendor's opening move was to play us a video of the product. Let us see it live, in a real environment, warts and all.
2. Balanced references. Not just the diehards — a few middle-of-the-road voices too, so we can form our own view.
3. Transparent, forward-looking pricing. Ideally a range, so we can plan and aren't caught out by costs climbing once we're locked in.
4. A roadmap grounded in delivered history. Show us the last few years alongside the pipeline ahead. We've heard "not yet, but soon" often enough to know it doesn't always land.
5. Genuine differentiation. Most pitches have an AI section now. Show us what's actually different, not existing technology with new branding and buzzwords.

From our perspective, before we seriously consider a technology vendor, we expect the vendor to demonstrate the following:

1. Clear understanding of hotel operations and the business problem being solved.
   The solution must address a defined operational, commercial, guest-experience, or compliance challenge. We look for vendors that understand the realities of hotel environments, including front-office workflows, back-of-house operations, property-level constraints, and the need to support both brand and ownership priorities.
2. Enterprise scalability and integration readiness.
   The product must be able to operate across a multi-property environment and integrate effectively with the existing hotel technology ecosystem, including PMS, POS, CRS, payment, identity, reporting, and service-management platforms. We expect vendors to demonstrate how their solution reduces complexity rather than creating additional technical debt.
3. Strong cybersecurity, data protection, and compliance maturity.
   Any technology partner must provide credible evidence of secure architecture, access controls, data-governance practices, incident-response capability, and compliance with applicable standards such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, GDPR, or equivalent frameworks, depending on the scope of the solution.
4. Measurable business value and transparent commercial terms.
   We expect a clear value case supported by measurable outcomes, realistic assumptions, and defined success metrics. Pricing must be transparent, including implementation, support, integration, licensing, scalability, and renewal implications, so that total cost of ownership and return on investment can be properly assessed.
5. Realistic implementation, support, and long-term partnership model.
   A strong product demonstration is not sufficient on its own. We look for vendors with proven deployment plans, references from comparable hotel organizations, clear SLAs, regional support capability where required, and an honest product roadmap. The most credible vendors are those prepared to act as long-term partners in operational success, not simply as software providers.

For Highgate, technology selection is not only a product decision; it is an operational, security, financial, and partnership decision. The vendors we consider most seriously are those that can deliver secure, scalable, and measurable value across a diverse hospitality portfolio while demonstrating a genuine understanding of how hotels operate.

There are five things I would expect a technology vendor to demonstrate.

1. First, a real understanding of hotel operations. Managing technology across different brands, properties and markets is complex, so the discussion should begin with the business problem rather than the product.
2. Second, clear and measurable value. I would expect credible evidence of increased revenue, improved efficiency, a better guest experience or reduced risk, together with full transparency on costs.
3. Third, the ability to integrate securely within our existing technology ecosystem. Data ownership, cybersecurity, privacy and regulatory compliance must be addressed from the outset.
4. Fourth, the ability to scale. A successful pilot in one hotel does not necessarily mean the solution will work across multiple countries, languages, properties and operating models.
5. Finally, the potential for a long-term partnership. Strong references, dependable support, a realistic implementation plan and an honest product roadmap all matter.

Ultimately, I look for vendors that understand our business, are open about what their product can and cannot deliver, and remain accountable for the outcomes they commit to.

The top five things which make a vendor stands out:

1. An understanding of the specifics of the hospitality company they are talking to. Talking to an Asian hospitality management company with specificities of Asian markets (let alone China) is not the same as talking to a hospitality company mostly based in the US, Europe or inside China.
2. Preliminary research on relevant use cases: not always the same if this is for mid-scale or luxury, for resort or city hotels…
3. A clear approach on how to make easier the integration with existing hotel ecosystem which is a big pain point hotels feel left alone once contract is signed
4. Adoption and change management at hotel level: hotels operate like SMEs with day to day operations making it difficult to change habits, Technology vendors come with solutions often overlooking the adoption part
5. A solution which is not just shiny but which stands through real users usage satisfaction whether on back of house or front of house, with cybersecurity in mind as well. Getting peers to testify on the good and where it also is not fit for ensures better chances for a successful long term partnership.

1. Transparency in pricing, risks, and timelines - it is always better to know upfront than to be surprised down the line
2. Delivery credibility - demonstrate willingness and ability to deliver consistently, on time and with quality
3. Proactive problem solving attitude - find solutions, rather than pointing fingers at other vendors or the client or anyone else. We want to fix the problem not the blame
4. Industry knowledge - very important to bring real knowledge of hospitality so that we can benefit from the knowledge and best practice baked into your offering - rather than being the ones to teach you about the industry
5. True partnership mindset - encapsulates all the above - and the real differentiator - be a partner who can work with a client for mutual success and benefit

This is probably one of the most frequently asked questions on CIO panels and over the years, my answer has remained the same:

1. A technology partnership is more than simply buying a service. It is a long-term relationship with responsibilities on both sides. We need to like working with each other, have a good cultural fit and have skin in the game on both sides.
2. Respect the organization’s internal structure and decision-making process. If you do not understand it, just ask. If the answer is no, respect it and use the opportunity to strengthen the relationship. Do not go around the IT team to the hotel owner, regional manager or anyone else who might listen. It wastes everyone’s time and makes future conversations more difficult.
3. Relationships matter, and they are often built over many years. Hospitality is a small industry, and people move around a lot. Contributing through thought leadership, industry associations, conferences and events is a worthwhile investment. It may not generate immediate leads, but over time it builds credibility, trust and connections.
4. We must own our data and be able to use it as we choose, without additional charges for us or the partners we want to connect. You are part of an ecosystem, and that ecosystem only works when everyone can work together openly.
5. Of course, we also expect scalability, alignment with our operating model, integration capabilities, open standards, security and AI readiness. But those are table stakes.

For the hospitality clients I work with, any Gen AI pitch is a big yawn. It’s a frill. We don’t care. Focus on your core PMS, POS, IBE, Spa, Leisure, M&E, Golf etc products. We’d rather you add useful features like waitlists, extra payment options, guest profile de-dups, GDPR compliant buddy lists (golf), enhanced allergy features, links to partners who major on swimming lessons (leisure), help with OTA email obfuscations, mobile friendly pages, event prospect tracking, etc. Also, we can slap a good BI tool on top ourselves for analysis.  We don’t want your closed, limited, expensive version of MS Power BI. Get your open APIs sorted and allow partners into your platform. We want best of breed, not your so-so mix of modules that you bought 10 years ago and still haven’t updated, bar slapping a new logo on top. In my reviews, I focus on:

1. chemistry (Can we work together long term? Will you support us well?),
2. functionality (Does it do what we want?),
3. interfaces (Does it link well to partners?),
4. costs (capex and opex, no hidden fees).
5. 5th would be a good roadmap. Show us what's coming next, but not just vague promises.

I have sat on both sides of this table. The times have changed the pitch itself. From the IT executive's chair, my top five are rooted in proofs, not promises. A tool that automates a few workflows can earn its place through demos and a pilot. Core AI that transforms the business cannot. There I want a forward-deployed engineer in my environment, a model proven in other industries: building on AI-native platforms beside my legacy systems, migrating workflows to them, not layering AI onto software built for human-to-human work.

My five:

1. One: workflow fluency, proven inside my operation.
2. Two: integration capability demonstrated against my systems, not a logo slide.
3. Three: trust by design. Governed workflows that are authorized, evidenced, reviewed, replayed, corrected, and improved.
4. Four: evaluation. Generic benchmarks are noise. Signal is a harness run against my real workflows, per property and per brand, proving value before rollout.
5. Five: partnership by structure, not sentiment. The contract is signed once but earned continuously, in delivery.

Not every purchase needs this. Low-risk point solutions can still be bought off a feature checklist. But AI in legacy workflows fails politely in demos and expensively in production.

1. For me the first thing is the product and the services around it. It has to be flexible and adapted to the hotel business, not adapted to it afterwards. But more important than the technology is the knowledge of the sector. This is where a vendor really shows its value: real experience in hospitality, with practical use cases.
2. On implementation, they have to be conscious that every hotel chain has its own way of doing things, and that hotels are a 24/7 business, 365 days a year. That means working in schedules that are not the usual ones in other industries.
3. On cost, again, the important thing is to have business metrics that fit how our business really works, taking into account that we have seasons and important fluctuations of volume.
4. Until here, this is what you need to be a good vendor. To be a partner you have to go one step further: continuous flexibility, continuous learning of both technology and business, the capacity to adapt fast to any situation, and the will to keep growing with us.