Your Hotel Is Bleeding $50,000+ Per Year on "Mandatory" IT Services That Aren't Mandatory

For three years, the hotel had been paying $3,000 per month for a "mandatory" backup internet line. $108,000 in total waste. The kicker? The hotel already had multiple ADSL lines providing perfect redundancy.

When I questioned why we needed this expensive redundancy, I discovered my predecessor had been told it was "mandatory" by corporate. But when I dug deeper, there was no written policy requiring it. No documentation. No justification.

I eliminated the redundant line immediately. $36,000 in annual savings with zero impact on operations.

There was nothing mandatory about it. Just a $108,000 assumption that nobody bothered to challenge.

Because right now, as you read this, your property is likely hemorrhaging money on IT services you don't need, software you don't use, and contracts you've never properly reviewed.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Hotel IT Spending

After conducting security audits across 450+ hotels in three continents and personally managing IT operations for multiple properties simultaneously (including opening 7 new hotels from scratch), I can tell you this with certainty: The average hotel wastes 20-30% of its IT budget on unnecessary services.

That's not a typo. Nearly one-third of every dollar you spend on technology is pure waste.

For a typical 150-room hotel spending $80,000 annually on IT, that's $16,000-$24,000 bleeding out every year. Money that should flow to your bottom line instead flows to vendors who've mastered the art of selling you things you don't need.

The Six Ways Your Hotel Is Being Quietly Robbed

Why Smart Hotel Managers Fall for These Traps

You're not stupid. You're busy.

While you're managing guest complaints, staff schedules, and revenue optimization, your IT vendors are optimizing something else: extracting maximum profit from your property with minimum scrutiny.

They count on three things:

1. You're too busy to audit every line item in your IT budget
2. You lack the technical knowledge to challenge their recommendations
3. You're afraid to touch anything that "works" even if it's overpriced

This isn't your fault. You were hired to maximize guest satisfaction and revenue, not become an IT procurement expert. But ignoring this problem costs you real money. Money that could fund marketing campaigns, property improvements, or simply improve your profit margins.

The $108,000 Question

Here's what I want you to do right now:

Pull up your IT expenses from last month. Look at every line item and ask yourself: "Do I know exactly what this charge is for, and do we absolutely need it?"

If you can't answer "yes" to both questions for every single charge, you're being overcharged.

I didn't have special training when I found that $108,000 waste. I just asked one simple question: "Is this really mandatory?" Most of your "mandatory" IT expenses aren't mandatory at all.

What This Means for Your Bottom Line

Let's do the math on a typical 150-room hotel:

That's $100,000 that could have funded:

• A complete lobby renovation
• Two years of additional marketing budget
• Significant improvements to your profit sharing
• Or simply better margins for your ownership group

The Solution Is Simpler Than You Think

You don't need to become an IT expert. You need someone who can spot these problems in 30 minutes and eliminate them immediately.

Every hotel I audit reveals the same patterns of waste. The vendors are using the same playbook everywhere. Once you know what to look for, these problems become obvious.

The question isn't whether your hotel is wasting money on IT. The question is how much you're wasting and how quickly you want to stop.