Hotels Should Treat Tech as Investment, Not IT Purchase, Investor Says

Hotel technology budgets should be judged on business impact, not features, according to Chris Hemmeter, Managing Partner at Thayer Investment Partners, who laid out his investment thesis in episode 96 of Matt Talks Hospitality.

The standard buying checklist — features, cost, adoption — misses the decisive question, Hemmeter argues. Owners should ask what a given investment makes possible for the business. The same lens applies to investors deciding which travel-technology companies deserve backing.

What changed during the pandemic?

When Hemmeter began investing in travel technology, hotels treated tech as a specialist concern. The pandemic ended that. Rigid systems and slow decision-making failed under pressure, and hotels were forced to experiment.

"The pandemic was an absolute step change in the pace of experimentation," Hemmeter said.

Technology shifted from a process tweak to a strategic tool for agility. Hotels needed speed to adjust prices, manage staffing and respond to changes in booking behavior. For owners, the assessment bar moved accordingly: a system must generate revenue, manage costs, improve decisions or speed response — without creating another disconnected workflow.

Can hotels capture spend beyond the room?

Hemmeter sees hotels positioned to play a larger role in the traveler's journey rather than simply selling rooms.

"They want to be more engaged in the traveler's experience and journey. That's part of delivering value, and it's also part of the opportunity to monetize and increase NOI (net operating income) for owners," he said.

That could mean surfacing relevant experiences and services during a stay, or giving teams better information to personalize offers. The point is not technology for its own sake. A good asset and a quality experience remain essential. Technology cannot manufacture those fundamentals, but it can help a hotel scale them.

Is hotel data ready for AI-driven search?

Travelers increasingly use AI tools to plan trips, describing the kind of place, location, nearby restaurants and group needs rather than browsing hotel listings. Not every chatbot becomes a booking channel; many will act as referral sources, sending travelers to book directly. Either way, a hotel must be considered in the first place, and that depends on showing AI the right data.

Hemmeter was blunt: "If you're sitting on old crappy data, it ain't gonna work."

The pressure falls on the quality and consistency of property information — websites, FAQs, facilities, reviews, local-area details — and on systems that can share it. His summary: "Job number one and two are clean up your data and get on a modern tech stack."

Why does integration discipline matter?

A closed system that makes integrations slow or expensive blocks adoption of services a property needs — "an opaque black box that won't talk to anybody," as Hemmeter described it. A modern foundation lets hotels experiment.

His investment in Mews, the hotel management platform, reflected that view: he saw room for a more open approach where legacy systems restricted innovation. He also stressed that product alone is insufficient. Mews paired its architecture with the discipline to build sales, service and support — the work that turns an idea into a sustainable business.

Buyers should apply the same test. A low-cost tool that creates manual work or limits future options may prove expensive in other ways.

What should owners do before budgeting?

Hemmeter's framework: introduce technology only alongside redesigned workflows, reducing administrative burden so staff spend more time with guests while owners watch labor and operating performance more closely.

Before setting next year's technology budget, owners can start with three questions:

• What commercial problem are we trying to solve?
• Do we have the data and flexible systems needed to solve it?
• Will this technology genuinely improve how the business operates?

The answers may point to AI, revenue tools, guest experience or operational software. The category matters less than the impact. Hemmeter's closing bet: the hotels best placed to benefit from what comes next will be those with a strong foundation, openness to experimentation and tools that move the business where it wants to go.