In a small independent hotel, the owner and the operator are often the same person. Almost everywhere else, they are not. One party owns the building and carries the financial risk. Another runs the hotel day to day: a management company, a brand, or a general manager and team employed to do it. Both have a say in software, and they want different things from it.
Vendors tend to sell to whoever took the first call, which is usually the operator. The deal then stalls at approval, and the reason given is budget. The real reason is that the pitch answered one side's questions and not the other's. This article puts the two side by side.
Who is who
The owner holds the asset. That may be a family, an individual investor, a property company or a fund. They judge the hotel as an investment: profit, cash flow and what the property is worth.
The operator runs the hotel. They are judged on revenue, guest scores and whether each shift goes smoothly. Under a management contract, the operator's fee is typically linked to the hotel's revenue and profit, so their interests overlap with the owner's without being the same.
Owner and operator, side by side
Question | Owner | Operator |
|---|---|---|
What they are measured on | Profit and asset value | Revenue, guest scores, smooth operations |
Time horizon | Years, often with a sale in mind | This season, this month, tonight |
First question about software | What does it cost and what does it return? | Will it work on a full house with my team? |
Biggest fear | Paying for something that changes nothing | A failed switch during a busy period |
Contact with the product | Rarely logs in, reads the reports | Uses it every shift |
View of switching | A line on the proposal | Weeks of retraining and risk |
Proof that works | A financial result at a similar property | A peer who runs it and will take a call |
What a long contract means | A liability if they sell | Stability and less change |
Where the two collide
Cost against workload
An operator will champion a tool that saves the front desk an hour a shift. To the owner, that hour is invisible unless it shows up as fewer staff hours, more revenue or better reviews. A saving that stays inside the operator's day never reaches the owner's report, and the owner is the one approving the spend.
Standard against specific
A management company wants the same systems in every hotel it runs, for reporting and for training. An owner with one property wants whatever is best or cheapest for that property and may resent paying for a group standard. If you sell to managed hotels, you will meet this argument in both directions.
Term against flexibility
Operators tend to prefer longer contracts, because they do not want to switch again. Owners who may sell the hotel or change operator in a few years want short terms and clean exits. A three-year contract can look like stability to one and an obstacle to the other.
Who pays against who benefits
In most management arrangements, software is an expense of the hotel, so the owner pays for it while the operator chooses it and uses it. When the buyer is not the payer, every purchase needs a second sale.
What each side says, and what it means
What you hear | From | What it usually means |
|---|---|---|
We need to check with ownership | Operator | I like it, and I have nothing to show the owner |
It is not in the budget | Operator | I have not asked, or I asked without a financial case |
What is the payback? | Owner | Give me a number I can compare with other uses of the money |
My team is happy with what we have | Operator | The switch looks riskier than the problem |
Can we do one year? | Owner | I may not own this hotel, or keep this operator, for three |
The same words can carry different meanings depending on who says them, which I covered more generally in the language gap between hotel tech vendors and operators.
How to sell to both
Find out the structure early. Ask in discovery who owns the property, who operates it and who approves spending above what amount. It is a normal question and hoteliers answer it readily.
Build two cases from the same facts. For the operator: how the switch happens, who is trained and what happens on a bad night. For the owner: one page with the cost, the expected return and how long until it pays back.
Give the operator the owner's page. Your champion will usually present to the owner without you. Hand them something they can forward, written in the owner's terms.
Match the proof to the person. A general manager who will take a reference call for the operator, and a financial result at a similar property for the owner.
Offer terms both can accept. For example, a longer term with a clause that covers a sale of the property.
The operator's side of this is easier to get right once you understand their week, which is the subject of what a hotel general manager does all day. The wider buying group, including the people who never join a call, is covered in how hoteliers actually buy software.
When owner and operator are the same person
At a small independent, one person holds both views and moves between them in a single conversation. They will ask about the night audit and the monthly fee in the same breath. The comparison still applies. Answer the operating question first and the financial question second, because an owner-operator will not consider the return until they believe the product will not break their week.
The takeaway
Owners and operators are not in conflict about software so much as looking at it from different distances. The operator sees the shift. The owner sees the year. A vendor who answers only one of them has done half a sale, and the other half is usually where the deal is lost.
If deals are stalling at approval and you are not sure why, the 12-point leak audit takes about twenty minutes and shows whether conversion is your most expensive leak or one of several.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a hotel owner and a hotel operator?
Who decides on software in a managed hotel?
Why do hotel software deals stall at owner approval?
Who pays for hotel software, the owner or the management company?
How should a vendor pitch software to a hotel owner?
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