Most hotel software companies run renewals the same way: a reminder fires 30 days before the end date, someone sends the renewal notice, and the property either signs or asks for a call. The call is where the surprise lives. The general manager has been thinking about switching since March, the owner wants a price cut, and nobody on your side knew.

A renewal playbook moves the work to where the decision actually happens, which is months before the date. This is a template. Copy the five parts into a document, fill in the blanks for your product, and assign each row to a person. It is written for a company with somewhere between 50 and 500 property contracts and one or two people who own accounts.

How to use the template

Fill in part 1 first, because the register is the whole system. Then set the timeline in part 2 as calendar tasks against every end date. Anything in square brackets is for you to replace.

Part 1: the renewal register

One row per contract, in whatever tool your team already opens every day.

• Property and group

• Contract end date and notice period

• Annual contract value and the current price per [room / property / month]

• Named decision maker and named day-to-day champion

• Date of last ownership or management change

• Last health check score and date (part 3)

• Renewal owner on your side

• Status: not started, in progress, agreed, at risk, lost

The ownership column earns its place. A sale or a change of management company is the most common reason a renewal arrives at a stranger's desk, as described in what happens to hotel software during an ownership change.

Part 2: the 180-day timeline

The 90-day step is the one most teams skip. A conversation before the proposal, with the person who signs, is where you learn whether the renewal is a formality or a fight.

Part 3: the day-120 health check

Answer yes or no for each item. Three or more no answers mark the account at risk.

• The champion has logged in within the last 14 days

• The property is using the [two or three] features that produce its main result

• No open support ticket is older than ten days

• The decision maker has heard a result from the product in the last quarter

• The property has not changed owner, brand or management company since the last renewal

• The property has not asked for pricing, a data export or an integration with a competitor

• The invoice has been paid on time for the last three cycles

If the first two items are no, the account is not renewing on its merits, whatever the register says. Signs your hotel tech company has a retention problem covers what to do when that pattern runs across the whole base.

Part 4: pricing rules

• Standard uplift at renewal: [x] percent, written into the contract and announced at the 90-day conversation, never in the contract email

• Uplift is tied to [new capability or support level], and the renewal owner can name it

• Discount authority: renewal owner up to [y] percent, [founder] above that, and every discount is recorded with the reason

• No discount in exchange for nothing. A lower price buys a longer term, a case study, a reference call or a second product

• Multi-property groups are priced on the group, not property by property

The second product deserves its own rule. A renewal is the natural moment to add one, and how to price a second product into an existing hotel account sets out the mechanics.

Part 5: the renewal conversation

Opening, at 90 days, with the decision maker:

Your contract runs to [date]. Before I send anything in writing, I wanted to check two things with you: whether the product has done what we said it would when you signed, and whether anything at the property has changed that we should plan around.

Introducing a price change:

From [date] the price moves from [a] to [b]. That covers [the capability or support level]. I am telling you now so that it is in your budget conversation and not a surprise in the contract.

When they ask for a reduction:

I can look at the price if we can change something else: a longer term, a second property, or a reference call for a hotel like yours. Which of those would be easiest for you?

When they say they are reviewing alternatives:

That is fair. What would the alternative have to do better for you to move, and what would the switch cost you in staff time during the changeover? If I cannot match the first, I will say so.

Filling it in for your product

The blanks that matter most are the health check features in part 3 and the uplift rule in part 4. Choose the features that predict renewal in your own data, not the ones you are proudest of.

The takeaway

A renewal playbook is a register, a timeline and a handful of scripts, owned by a named person. It does not need software. It needs the work to start at 180 days, when the hotel is still deciding, rather than at 30, when it has decided.

If renewals are where revenue leaks for you, the 12-point leak audit takes about twenty minutes and shows how retention compares with demand, conversion and activation on your own numbers.

Frequently Asked Questions