Why Customer Collaboration is Key to Solving Hospitality’s Toughest Challenges

I’m writing this from my hotel room in London, in between a day of meetings with some of our most valued customers and industry partners. There’s something invaluable about sitting face-to-face with the people who rely on our technology every day – hearing directly from them about their challenges, their aspirations, and how we can better support them. At Otelier, we believe that our customers are more than just users of our technology; they are partners in an ongoing journey to solve some of the hospitality industry’s most complex problems. 

The Unique Complexity of Hotel Technology 

The hospitality industry presents a unique set of challenges when it comes to technology. Hotels operate with multiple stakeholders – owners, asset managers, brands, operators – each with their own objectives and technological needs. This fragmented environment is compounded by a sprawling array of systems that were never designed to work together, leading to disparate data sources, manual workarounds, and inefficiencies that hinder profitability and decision-making. 

At Otelier, we are building solutions specifically to address these challenges. Our focus is on breaking down silos and centralizing critical business data, so hotel companies can gain a 360-degree view of their operations without investing millions of dollars and years of effort to build in-house solutions. The value proposition is clear: we provide the integrations, data processing capabilities, and analytics framework that allow hotel leaders to focus on strategic decision-making rather than wrestling with fragmented data. 

The Value of Face-to-Face Meetings 

Technology is essential, but relationships are what drive meaningful progress. This is why I believe so strongly in traveling to meet customers where they are – whether it’s here in London, in Asia, or anywhere else in the world. Sitting across the table from customers allows us to have real, candid conversations about their pain points and what’s working well. It gives us immediate, unfiltered feedback that can directly impact product roadmap priorities and service delivery. 

Customer Feedback Shapes the Future of Hospitality Tech 

Every time I meet with customers, I have three key questions in mind: 

1. What’s working well? It’s important to understand where we are delivering value so we can double down on what’s effective. 
2. What’s not working? Constructive criticism is invaluable. If there are roadblocks, inefficiencies, or areas where we are falling short, we need to know so we can fix them.
3. How are our customers’ needs evolving? The hospitality industry is in a constant state of flux. The only way to stay ahead is by deeply understanding where our customers see their businesses going and ensuring our roadmap aligns with their future. 

Through these conversations, we refine not just our product but our overall approach to customer success. Whether it’s ensuring we have the right resources available in key global markets, enhancing our integrations to support new use cases, or improving service delivery, customer input is a driving force behind our growth and evolution. 

Why Building vs. Buying is a Critical Decision 

A topic that often comes up in customer meetings is whether hotel companies should build their own data platforms or leverage an existing solution like ours. The answer, time and again, comes down to cost, expertise, and speed. Building a custom data lake from scratch is a massive undertaking – hotels that have explored this path spend millions of dollars and years of time to develop what we can deliver off the shelf. Beyond that, the hospitality industry is unique in its complexity, and we’ve spent the last decade-plus fine-tuning our integrations, workflows, and analytics models to work within this environment. 

Our advantage is not just in the number of integrations we offer – over 450 and counting – but in our ability to rapidly deploy new connections as needed. Customers who choose to work with us benefit not only from our technology but from the collective expertise we’ve developed in solving some of hospitality’s hardest technological challenges. 

A Customer-Centric Future 

One of my core priorities as CEO at Otelier is to ensure we are building a winning culture that puts customers at the center of everything we do – that we become more “customer obsessed.” It is not enough to build great software; we must be deeply embedded in the day-to-day realities of our customers’ businesses. That means listening, adapting, and continuously improving how we serve them. 

As I head into more meetings tomorrow, I am energized by the conversations we’ve had so far. Hospitality technology is an ever-evolving landscape, but one thing remains constant: the best solutions come from true partnership. By working closely with our customers, we can continue to push the industry forward, making hotel operations more efficient, data-driven, and more profitable. 

To all our customers – past, present, and future – I look forward to continuing this journey with you. Please feel free to connect with me directly on Linkedin or by email.