Restaurants and hotels have a lot in common. Both run on thin margins, high staff turnover and owners who cannot afford a system outage on a Friday night. The difference is that restaurant tech has a public company that reports its numbers every quarter. On 3 November 2026, Toast reported that annualised recurring run rate (ARR) grew 24% to $2.5 billion, total locations rose 21% to about 189,000 and gross payment volume reached $61.8 billion, according to its third quarter 2026 results.

Hotel tech vendors rarely get to study a peer in that much detail. Toast's filings, earnings calls and early metrics show how a vertical software company for hospitality operators grew, and where it chose to spend money. Below are nine lessons hotel tech founders can take from Toast and its neighbours, with the numbers as each source published them.

The Toast pattern: land with a low-margin door-opener, earn on the money that flows through the product, then expand with data products and bigger accounts.

Nine lessons from restaurant tech

1. Own the money flow, not only the workflow

Toast is not a pure software business. In its Q3 2025 prepared remarks, the company said payments ARR and SaaS ARR each passed $1 billion for the first time, and that its fintech net take rate was 61 basis points. Non-payments fintech, led by Toast Capital lending, added $58 million of gross profit in that quarter alone. A year later, subscription and fintech gross profit grew 29% to $630 million.

For hotel tech, the parallel is the money already moving through your product: deposits, guest payments, upsells, commissions. Vendors that sit in that flow can price on value rather than seats. If you are weighing that shift, read our breakdown of revenue share pricing for hotel software before you change the model.

2. Accept a loss on the door-opener, but set guardrails

Toast sells hardware and professional services at a loss. In Q3 2025, hardware and professional services gross profit was negative 10% of its recurring gross profit streams, and the CFO said Toast was leaning into customer acquisition while staying within guardrails for healthy payback periods. SaaStr's analysis of the 2021 IPO filing noted a historical CAC payback of 18 months, falling to 15 months by the IPO.

Hotel tech has its own door-openers: free data migration, discounted onboarding, waived set-up fees. They work when you know your payback period and stop when it slips. Our posts on the free migration offer and pricing professional services cover where to draw that line.

3. Win the prestige accounts, then point at them

In the same Q3 2025 call, Toast's CEO said fourteen of Bon Appétit's 20 Best New Restaurants for 2025 chose Toast, and that more than half of all Michelin-starred restaurants in the US run on its platform. Those are not its biggest accounts by revenue. They are the ones other operators copy.

Hotel buyers behave the same way. A respected boutique group or a well-known independent is worth more as proof than its contract value suggests. Build a deliberate reference property programme rather than waiting for logos to appear.

4. Dominate one core before you chase new markets

Toast told investors that about 95% of its ARR came from its core US SMB and mid-market restaurant customers. Enterprise, international and food and beverage retail were, together, only on pace to reach $100 million in ARR in 2025. Toast also said it took more than ten years to reach its first billion in ARR and just two years to double it.

Many hotel tech companies spread across independents, chains and management companies before they own any one of them. Pick the segment you can win most often, as discussed in choosing between independents, chains and management companies, and only then plan for a new country.

5. Staff for hands-on sales and hands-on support

At the time of its IPO, SaaStr counted 734 people in sales and marketing out of about 2,200 employees, and 669 in customer success. Its summary was blunt: 30% of the company does support alone. Restaurants needed humans to install terminals, train staff and pick up the phone during service.

Hotels are similar. Properties run around the clock, front desk teams change often and many have no IT staff. A lean, self-serve support model looks efficient on a spreadsheet and expensive in churn. See onboarding properties with no IT staff for what hands-on looks like at small scale.

6. Expect a long climb before the curve bends

SaaStr's review of the filing showed Toast grew from 3,000 restaurant locations in 2016 to 40,000 in 2020, after six or more years of slower progress. Net revenue retention was 114% at IPO, but it took four years to get above 100%.

Hotel tech founders often compare their early retention with public benchmarks and panic. Toast is a reminder that those benchmarks were reached, not inherited. Track the trend, and use net revenue retention for hotel software as the measure that tells you whether expansion is working.

7. Build multi-site features on top of an SMB product

Toast's enterprise push came after the core was strong. In Q3 2025 it said Nordstrom was rolling Toast out at nearly 200 dining locations, TGI Fridays was moving its US footprint to Toast, and investment in above-store and multi-location management had helped it land its two largest deals ever.

For hotel vendors, the equivalent is group reporting, central rate control and a rollout plan a regional director can sign off. Before you chase a chain, read what it takes to sell to hotel chains and how to run a multi-property rollout.

8. Turn operating data into the next product

Toast now sells AI and marketing products built on the data its customers already generate. It said more than 25,000 restaurants used Toast IQ over 235,000 times after its October 2025 rollout, and that one Florida customer, Pizza by the Sea, estimated $400,000 in peak season sales across four locations from Toast Advertising campaigns. In its November 2026 results, Toast said its Fall release added SEO, Reviews and Offers agents to Toast IQ Grow and introduced Toast IQ Team for labour management.

A PMS, channel manager or guest messaging tool holds years of booking, rate and guest data. The vendors that package that data into decisions a general manager can act on will have the easiest expansion conversations.

9. Partner for distribution, and watch who is consolidating

Toast announced an expanded partnership with Uber in 2025, including joint go-to-market efforts in the US and international markets. It also pays its own customers and partners to refer: its Toast Advocates programme offers up to $2,000 for a successful referral. Meanwhile, DoorDash agreed to buy SevenRooms for $1.2 billion in May 2025. Restaurant Dive reported that the deal extends DoorDash's reach to over 13,000 dining, hotel, nightlife and entertainment venues, with hotel clients including Marriott International, MGM Resorts and Mandarin Oriental Group.

Restaurant platforms are already selling into hotel food and beverage. Treat them as both potential partners and competitors, and decide early whether to build or partner for each integration.

What transfers to hotel tech, and what does not

The biggest difference is purchase structure. A restaurant owner often decides alone, while a hotel may involve an owner, an asset manager, a management company and a brand. Copy the playbook, but map who signs before you copy the pricing.

Every one of these lessons sits somewhere in the hotel tech GTM system, from pricing and proof to retention. If you want to know which of them would move your numbers first, start with a free GTM leak audit and see where revenue is slipping today.

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