Our view is simple: most hotel software vendors should offer a guarantee, and almost none should guarantee the hotel's revenue. A good guarantee covers what your product and your team control, says plainly what the hotel must do in return, and offers a remedy the buyer actually values. A bad one is a marketing line that sales teams quote and finance teams dread.

This post argues that position for founders and revenue leaders at hotel tech companies, with real examples from software vendors who have put guarantees in public.

Why the question matters now

Hotel buyers have been burned before, and they say so. Gartner's report Why Software Buyers Experience Regret, covered by TechInformed, surveyed over 3,400 respondents and found 60% regretted a software purchase made in the last 18 months. The top product reasons were a higher than expected total cost (33%) and a slow or difficult implementation (32%). The top vendor reasons were a problematic handoff between sales and implementation (43%) and mismanaged expectations (42%). Of the customers who faced issues, 25% requested a refund.

Those are cross-industry numbers, but the causes will sound familiar to anyone selling into hotels. Nearly every one of them is about delivery, not the product's potential. That is the opening for a guarantee: it answers the buyer's real fear, which is that the rollout will not go as promised.

The case for offering one

The strongest recent example comes from outside hospitality. Sequence's account of Intercom's Fin pricing describes how Intercom asked customers what would make them comfortable trying an AI agent, and the answer was "we'll pay when it works." Intercom moved to outcome-based pricing and, according to the same account, offers two guarantees: a 90-day money back option for customers unhappy with Fin's performance, and a $1 million payout for customers in its performance programme.

The terms are specific. Fin's own comparison page states that Intercom pays $1M if Fin does not exceed a 65% resolution rate, and that Fin charges $0.99 per outcome. Sequence's write-up argues the guarantee changes the conversation from "What if it doesn't work?" to "What happens when it does?"

Hospitality-facing vendors are doing the same. Fini, an AI support platform, publishes a 90-Day Money-Back Guarantee in its hospitality guide: "90% resolution in 90 days, or you pay $0." On HotelMinder, the listing for Above and Beyond shows a "No Questions Asked" Money Back Guarantee tied to whether the hotel sees an uptake in bookings. And GoHotelify's terms of service promise new hotels a 72-hour go-live, a delivery guarantee rather than a revenue one.

Three things make these work. Each one names a measurable metric. Each one is measured by the vendor's own system or a simple count. And each one bets on something the vendor has strong evidence it can deliver.

The case against

The objections are real, and they are strongest for revenue-facing products.

• The hotel controls the inputs. A revenue management system can recommend a rate, but the hotel decides whether to accept it. A booking engine can convert better, but the hotel sets the rates and the content.

• The market moves. A soft season, a new competitor across the road or a cancelled event can erase any uplift your product creates.

• Measurement becomes a dispute. If the baseline is unclear, every renewal turns into an argument about what would have happened anyway.

• Cash risk. A refund promise on a large multi-property deal can wipe out a quarter's margin.

• It can attract the wrong customers. Buyers who choose you for the guarantee rather than the fit are often the ones least likely to do the work that makes the product succeed.

Intercom can measure resolution inside its own product. A hotel tech vendor promising RevPAR growth is measuring something produced by the hotel's whole operation. That is the difference that matters.

Our position: guarantee what you control

We think the right rule is to guarantee the parts of the result your product and team deliver, and to make the hotel's part of the bargain explicit. The table below sets out how that splits in practice.

How to structure a guarantee that holds up

1. Name one metric. Choose a single, measurable outcome rather than a bundle of promises.

2. Set the baseline in writing. Agree the starting figure and how it is measured before go-live, not at renewal.

3. List the hotel's obligations. Data access by a set date, named users trained, and, for pricing tools, a stated share of recommendations accepted.

4. Pick a fair window. Avoid measurement periods that sit entirely in peak or low season, or compare against the same period last year.

5. Choose a remedy that matches the risk. Service credits, an extended term at no cost, or the right to exit without penalty are often more useful to a hotel than cash. Full refunds suit lower-priced products.

6. Cap it. Limit the remedy to fees paid over a set period so a single account cannot hurt the business.

7. Make it easy to read. If the conditions run to a page of small print, buyers will treat it as marketing, not as a commitment.

A guarantee also has to survive the move from sales to delivery. The 43% of regretful buyers who blamed a problematic handoff are a warning: if the salesperson promises a go-live date the onboarding team never heard about, the guarantee becomes a liability. Our post on the sales to onboarding handoff covers how to close that gap.

When not to offer one

Do not offer a guarantee if you cannot yet measure the outcome reliably, if your implementations still vary widely, or if your margin cannot carry the remedy. In those cases a well-run pilot with agreed success criteria does more good. Our guides on why hotel tech pilots rarely convert and whether to offer a free migration cover alternatives that lower risk without a promise you cannot keep.

Guarantees also interact with pricing. Outcome-based or revenue share pricing already ties your fee to results, so a separate guarantee may be redundant. If you sell on a fixed subscription, a delivery guarantee is often the cleaner choice. Our overview of hotel tech pricing models sets out the options.

The short version

Offer a guarantee, but make it specific, measurable and within your control. Guarantee go-live, uptime or a product metric, list what the hotel must do, set the baseline early and cap the remedy. Leave hotel revenue out of it unless you control the inputs. Done well, a guarantee turns the buyer's fear of another bad rollout into a reason to sign, and it fits inside the convert stage of our hotel tech GTM strategy guide.

If deals are stalling at the final stage and you are not sure whether risk, price or proof is the cause, the free leak audit will show where buyers hesitate.

Frequently Asked Questions