Hotel technology buying has undergone a quiet transformation. A new emphasis on verified customer feedback and transparent ranking systems has started to level the playing field.
Instead of relying solely on vendor claims, operators increasingly look to peer-generated data to validate performance.By Jordan Hollander, Co-founder of HotelTechReport – 9.23.2025
Choosing hotel software has always been fraught with risk. The stakes are high—systems influence revenue, guest satisfaction, and operational efficiency—yet buyers often lack the data to distinguish between strong products and weak ones. Economists call this dynamic a “lemon market”: when quality is hard to observe, bad products can crowd out the good.
For years, hotel tech stack decisions from dynamic pricing software to verticalized CRMs were shaped by glossy brochures, sales dinners, and word-of-mouth. Legacy providers dominated not necessarily because their systems were the most innovative, but because they had the largest sales teams and deepest relationships. AI innovations are on the cusp of delivering industrial revolution level efficiency gains but this has led to a ton of noise in the market so it’s more important than ever to have transparency and access to unbiased and unfiltered information .
A Shift Toward Data-Driven Decisions
Over the past decade, however, hotel technology buying has undergone a quiet transformation. A new emphasis on verified customer feedback and transparent ranking systems has started to level the playing field.
Instead of relying solely on vendor claims, operators increasingly look to peer-generated data to validate performance. This trend mirrors what consumer travel experienced two decades ago, when platforms like Tripadvisor began influencing booking decisions by surfacing authentic guest reviews.
The Role of Independent Benchmarks
One of the clearest examples of this shift is the rise of the HotelTechAwards, now in their tenth year. Unlike awards decided by panels or sponsorships, these rankings are determined by verified hotelier reviews, aggregated into a proprietary scoring system that weighs factors like customer satisfaction, integrations, and vendor reach.
The scale has grown quickly: more than 60,000 verified reviews across 100+ countries now feed into the dataset, creating what some in the industry describe as a “global scoreboard” for hotel software.
By surfacing both customer sentiment and ecosystem strength, the awards have helped move the conversation away from marketing claims and toward outcomes that matter for operators.
A New Breed of Vendor
One of the most striking results of this increased transparency is the emergence of a new generation of hotel software providers. Compared to the legacy incumbents of the past, today’s leading companies share three traits:
- Customer-Centricity: They prioritize onboarding, support, and long-term adoption, knowing reviews will quickly reveal gaps
- Rapid Innovation: Cloud-based infrastructure and open APIs allow them to roll out new features and integrations far faster than older systems.
- Global coverage: With the awards dataset spanning dozens of regions, vendors are building with international customers in mind from the outset leading to an ecosystem with more resources for innovation than one composed of fragmented hyper local players (e.g. 700+ Hotel PMS vendors globally is far too high of a number) struggling to make the investments required to keep hotels competitive.
Transparency hasn’t just informed buying decisions—it has changed how products are built and how service is delivered.
The Bigger Picture
For hoteliers, this shift is significant. It means technology buying is no longer just about minimizing risk. With clearer signals in the market, hotels can approach tech selection as an opportunity to build a competitive advantage—choosing systems not just to replace old workflows, but to actively unlock new revenue streams and efficiencies.
For the industry, it suggests that the era of the lemon market may finally be ending. Verified feedback loops and unbiased benchmarks are rebalancing incentives, rewarding the vendors who deliver the most value and penalizing those who over-promise.
Looking Ahead
As artificial intelligence, automation, and personalization accelerate, the stakes in hotel technology buying will only grow higher. Choosing the right partners will be critical. Transparent, community-driven ranking systems will play an even greater role in separating signal from noise.
Jordan Hollander is the co-founder of HotelTechReport, the hotel industry’s app store where millions of professionals discover tech tools to transform their businesses. He was previously on the Global Partnerships team at Starwood Hotels & Resorts. Prior to his work with SPG, Jordan was Director of Business Development at MWT Hospitality and an equity analyst at Wells Capital Management. Jordan received his MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management where he was a Zell Global Entrepreneurship Scholar and a Pritzker Group Venture Fellow.
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Source: hoteltechnologynews.com
