Making the Case for IT Investment: Insights from Industry Leaders

Securing funding for IT projects is a critical but often challenging task for hotel technology leaders. During the final session of the Hotel Technology Forum on November 20, 2024, industry experts came together to share practical strategies for navigating budget constraints, aligning IT initiatives with leadership priorities, and proving the value of innovation. This engaging discussion provided attendees with actionable insights to tackle one of the most pressing issues in the industry: winning the budget battle.

Moderator Max Spangler, VP of Technology at Charlestowne Hotels, kicked off the session by addressing the universal truth that all technical innovations require resources—and securing those resources is often easier said than done.

Citing HT’s Lodging Tech Study Survey, Spangler brought up that 63 percent of hoteliers claim to lack a sufficient IT budget.

“You’d think listening to this group there would be no battle at all,” Spangler said. “Relative to other disciplines, it would seem obvious that IT drives incredible business velocity and is transformative for our industry. But every attendee here is going to have to go back and fight for funds relative to other departments.”

To help attendees of the Hotel Technology Forum gain a better understanding of how to advocate for IT dollars, Spangler spoke with Diane Li, CIO, JC Resorts LLC and Richard Tudgay, CTO, Remington Hospitality. 

Know Your Audience

To begin with, Tudgay made the simple but effective argument: know your audience.

When you work at a management company where there are multiple owners, “you have to approach each owner with the perspective that they only care about what they own. They don’t want to hear about other hotels and what they’re spending on technology because each owner has different priorities. Some are focused on innovation, some on security, some on the bottom line,” he explained.

That means that every IT budget proposal and meeting needs to be crafted specifically for what will appeal to that particular owner.

Li agrees, adding that not everyone has a head for technology. Many view it as “boring and overwhelming. So, you sometimes have to put high level technology projects into common sense terms so that they’ll understand what you’re trying to do and how it benefits them.”

Instill Confidence

In addition to crafting an IT proposal that resonates with leadership, Li explained that owners will only invest in technology if they’re confident that their money will be spent wisely.

“I came from Starwood. If you tried a technology that didn’t work out very well, it was okay. It was a big company, and that technology could be thrown down the drain and you could start with a new one. But with JC Resorts, there’s zero tolerance for wasting money.”

Interestingly, before Li joined JC Resorts, leadership was not interested in spending money on technology. 

“When I first joined JC Resorts 20 years ago, everything was broken. The email system was down every day, the server network was down every day. In fact, they intentionally didn’t show me the server room because they thought if they did, I wouldn’t take the job!”

But Li was able to convince leadership to make tech changes – such as upgrading their email system to Outlook – that delivered significant improvements right away and built that trust. 

“At one point, the owner told me – 'Diane, you’ve saved this company so much money and helped push us so far forward technically, that I’m not sure I’ll ever say no to you again when you ask for money for an IT project!'”

Now, Li regularly works on IT projects with million-dollar budgets, a far cry from what the company was paying for IT when she was first hired.

Before Pitching – Do Your Due Diligence

One piece of advice Li left attendees with was: Before pitching any new IT project to leadership, ensure you’ve done your due diligence.

“You need to be able to prove ROI during the pitch. Leadership hates it when they ask a question, and your response is always: ‘I’ll get back to you’ or ‘I don’t have that data.’”

Tudgay agreed, noting you can’t wing these conversations. You need to know your content inside and out and you have to try to think of every question you might be asked during that meeting so that you’re well prepared.

Additionally, Tudgay emphasized the importance of securing operations' buy-in on IT initiatives and ensuring they understand which projects will benefit them and deserve priority before any budget meeting. Why?

“The last thing you want is for someone from operations to say: ‘Actually, I think instead of spending money on this IT project, we should replace the carpets.’”