Introduction
Many factors influence a hospitality technology decision, but few people think of their hospitality technology decisions as just “software” decisions.
Your hospital technology decision will ultimately impact the way guests experience your hotel (guest experience), the way your hotel is managed (operation), how much data goes into how guests experience your hotel (data), and just as often, who you partner with to make the decision (vendor/integration).
As a group of hotels, a hospitality start-up, or a hospitality professional upgrading your infrastructure /technology stack, sooner or later, you will have to choose between two paths:
- Do I develop an application/technology in-house?
- Do I buy “off the shelf” SaaS technology or an existing product from someone else?
- Do I work with a company to develop my software with a tailored solution made just for my business?
In this article, we’ll outline some of the advantages and disadvantages of each option (cost, speed, customization, and long-term ownership), while providing you with a simple way to compare the solutions based on what you really want to achieve.
We will keep it as simple and practical as possible. Why? The biggest surprises associated with hospitality technology are not related to the actual software you are purchasing, but to the actual integrations, deployment, and long-term management of the software that you purchase.
To put this in context, my experiences at Appricotsoft developing and deploying solutions across multiple industries and countriesrelates to my development of solutions where I am proud to have created solutions that are simple, practical, and transparent withregards to their capabilities.
The real question: what are you trying to “own”?
When determining what aspect of business to “own,” the biggest question is: how are you going to determine if you are a ‘winning’?
Defining a win: having a clear definition of what a successful outcome looks like for your business is critical to the processes you will implement.
Software in hospitality has traditionally been defined as having two simple categories of software or technology;
A. Ancient/Commodity systems are mature categories that already have developed solutions available in the marketplace that you would not normally want to be reinvented:
- PMS
- Channel Managers
- Booking Engines
- Revenue Management
- POS Systems (sometimes)
- Standard CRM/e-mail Marketing Tools
In these types of categories, it’s usually best to ‘purchase’ a solution to implement into your ‘logical and reasoned’ business option unless you are embarking upon an entirely new way to run your business.
B. Unique/differentiated layers of technology (Ultimate Differentiator for your Business)
In these types of tech solutions, you would truly be able to create a ‘point of difference’:
- Guest Experience App for Hotels (Pre-arrival, in-house, post-departure)
- Digital Concierge App
- Mobile Check-in/Out Workflow Components that are tailored to meet your specific operations
- Hotel Upselling App Logic (based on Timing/Segmentation/Packaging)
- Service Request Orchestration (Housekeeping/Maintenance/Room Service)
- Cross Property Loyalty Experience
- Operational Dashboard creations based on KPI’s
It is in these types of categories where you will need to think much harder about your build/partnering opportunities.
Option 1: Develop internally (full ownership, full liability)
Developing internally is attractive when:
- You want complete ownership
- You think it’s a significant IP
- You have had negative dealings with vendors.
What Are The Benefits?
✅ You Have Full Ownership and Control
- You are in control of the future direction of the product (i.e., you create the roadmap, source code, data model, etc.), as well as having the ability to make decisions.
- No more vendors telling you, Wee are not going to develop that.”
✅ You Have Total Customisation Ability
- You can design your processes to fit your property’s workflow, brand standards, or local laws.
- You can design unique workflows (e.g., long-term stays + mixed billing + custom security rules).
✅ You Have Good Long-Term Leverage (if you invest properly)
- If you keep good talent, you could have an asset that has compounding value.
- The Drawbacks You Have To Accept
❌ Speed: Developing internally is slower than expected.
For example, it may take a long time to hire resources, and in the hospitality industry, all products generally need
- Developing products for iOS and Android platforms.
- Developing backend and integration for a large number of products.
- Conducting QA testing on actual devices and actual property networks.
- Completing a release process that does not disrupt day-to-day operations.
❌ The “Unseen Team Issue.”
Even a “small” size product for the hospitality world requires different resource roles.
- There needs to be product ownership and prioritisation.
- A need for QA Testing and release management capabilities.
- There needs to be DevOps support (i.e., system monitoring of application up-time).
- There needs to be ongoing Support procedures.
- There needs to be security and incident response procedures.
If any of the above job functions are missing, delivering your product becomes chaotic.
❌ Integration depth is expensive
Hospitality stacks are integration-heavy:
- PMS integration services,
- booking engine integration
- channel manager integration
- hotel payment integration
- messaging/telephony, door locks, kiosks, loyalty, etc.
Even if your UI is simple, your “plumbing” won’t be.
When building in-house usually makes sense
- You’re a large group with a budget and long-term commitment.
- You’re building a strategic platform (not a single feature).
- You can retain a team and maintain a clean architecture over the years.
- Your differentiation is core to how you compete.
Option 2: Purchase a SaaS Solution
Purchasing a SaaS solution is appealing because you feel like you can bypass the hard parts of implementing a solution.
You can, in many cases, particularly if you are using standard operating procedures.
What you get:
1. Speed
- You can implement a SaaS solution in weeks and sometimes days.
- The implementation process for SaaS solutions requires replacing the development process.
2. Lower upfront costs
- The cost of a subscription is spread out over the contracted service period.
- SaaS solutions allow organizations to avoid hiring and long implementation cycles.
3. Vendor maintenance
- Your vendor provides maintenance for ongoing upgrades, security, hosting, and feature enhancements.
The trade-offs are:
1. Limited customization (and possibly a workflow mismatch)
Because all SaaS solutions are designed to work for an average type, and there are many properties that are not average in the hospitality industry.
The issues with property types, service offers, and property staffing require that the property make changes to their operations to fit the tool,l and the tool does not fit their operations.
2. Vendor lock-in
Your vendor’s roadmap may not meet your future needs (there is potential for your needs not to align with their future needs).
Pricing risk also exists since, as you add more properties, modules, people, and methods of payment, there is the potential for your costs to increase.
3. Integration challenges
SaaS solutions on their own can be a challenge to implement,t outside of the normal issues ofYour
- ur property management systising older than the SaaS solution
- your properties are noticeably different in many ways
- Your technology ecosystem is complex
Integration standards exist, but “standards” in hospitals still involve interpretation, mapping, and edge cases. HTNG (under AHLA) publishes guidance on next-gen hospitality infrastructure to help the ecosystem align, but integration still takes work in real life.
When do SaaS solutions typically make sense:
- the issue(s) covered are well defined and covered by the many options in the market
- you need speed and not differentiate yourself from your competition
- you accept that the solution will only be 80% of what you want in order to reduce complexity
- You are seeking to standardize processes across your properties
Option 3: Partner with a dev company (speed + customization, with shared ownership)
Most of the time, partnering is the best option for companies that are looking for:
- the speed to market
- the ability to customize
- and the capacity to grow with their product.
When selecting a partner, they must be more than just “extra hands” and provide a delivery system that will reduce the overall risk of your project and help keep your project from being a “black box”.
The advantages of working with a partner are:
✅ Faster time-to-market than Building In-house – You can hit the ground running with an established team and process to deliver your solution without having to wait through months of hiring.
✅ Custom Fit – Wherever you’re looking for
- a tailor-made guest experience app for independent hotels delivering on-brand and operationally aligned,
- customized upsell logic,
- unified service request flows,
- a dashboard that aligns with your key performance indicators.
✅ More Predictable Delivery – When done properly, you are not only purchasing code, but you are purchasing a repeatable process for demonstrating code.
At Appricotsoft, we use an AI-first delivery framework called Unison that’s built around predictable progress: weekly demos, visible risks, scope control, and quality built in – not postponed to the end.
Trade-offs of Partnering (Be Honest)
❌ You must remain engaged in the project – When your partner’s client goes missing from the process, partnering fails. The development of a hospitality product requires making specific decisions (i.e., which integrations to include first, what your minimum viable product is, etc.) to ensure that all required integrations and features are developed.
❌ You will own the code and intellectual property based on the contractual relationship and governance structure. To ensure that you are clear on your understanding and requirements around the ownership of the code and intellectual property, establish who owns the documentation and requirements, service level agreements, and support model, and what will occur in the case that the vendor is no longer viable.
If your partner is unwilling to answer these items, go elsewhere!
Key Trade-Offs That Impact Founders & C-Level Executives
This section will compare building in-house, buying a SaaS solution, and partnering with a third-party vendor based on decisions that founders and C-level leaders care about.
Cost (not pre-implementation price)
1. Assess the total cost of ownership over a 2 to 3-year time frame vs. the first month after the solution goes live.
- Build – relatively high upfront cost; potentially the lowest total cost of ownership if the team remains intact and no re-work on the project.
- Buy (SaaS) – low upfront cost; total cost of ownership will be significantly higher with business growth.
- Partner – mid-range cost compared to building, but typically results in a lower organizational cost and more customization options.
2. Integrations and rollout/deployment costs on the two projects will often exceed initial budget estimates, regardless of the selected option.
Speed
- Buy SaaS = Fastest day 1 speed.
- Partner = Fastest to find the right solution.
- Build (in-house = Slowest speed unless a team exists that is familiar and has successfully deployed solutions of a similar type).
Customization
- Build and Partner allow for a significant degree of customization.
- Buy SaaS solutions are limited by the capabilities of the SaaS solution purchased.
Long-Term Ownership
- Build gives the highest degree of ownership.
- Partners provide a high degree of ownership to the buyer if structured properly, by providing code access, documentation, decisions log, and a clean hand-off.
- Buying SaaS may provide the least amount of ownership; you lease and only have access to use capabilities on a month to month basis.
The Decision-Making Process for Hospitality Leaders
Use these eight questions to determine whether you should buy a SaaS solution, build it in-house, or partner with a provider. A positive answer indicates how to proceed:
When to Buy SaaS:
1. The problem that requires a solution is commonly shared within your own company.
2. You can accept up to 80% of the workflow as an acceptable fit.
3. You have very few or no integrations to existing systems already in place (minimally or already supported).
4. You need something to go live quickly, thus allowing you to stabilize your current operations.
When to Build In-House:
1. This is a critical solution to your strategy, and its success will set you apart from other competitors in the market.
2. You will have the required budget to fund and retain staff on this team for a minimum of 2 years.
3. You want full control over the direction of the product and database structure, etc.
4. You are prepared to provide and continue providing both implementation and customer support.
When to Partner:
1. You want a solution that creates a custom experience for your guests and integrates with other systems.
2. You want to implement quickly without building out a full-time employee base internally.
3. You want ownership of the solution without being burdened with hiring.
4. You want a predictable delivery schedule and governance around the delivery of your solution.
Hospitality Examples of Where Things Generally Go (And What To Do)
Example A – Digital Concierge App
Need a digital concierge ASAP!
Ideal Solution = Buy or Partner
- So if You Can Use A Standard Concierge Tool For Your Processes –> Buy
- If You Need Custom Upsell Flows, Loyalty Logic, multi-property identity, Deep PMS Integration, etc., –> Partner
Example B – Guest Experience App Matching Our Brand/Service Model
Ideal Solution = Partner
Differentiators Will Be:
- Journey Design
- Segmentation
- Messaging Timing
- Service Order
- Integration
If Scaling Out Across Properties, The Way The Architecture Is Built Will Matter – Particularly The Issues Of Identity, Reservations, Audit Trails, Reliability, Etc. (To Learn More, See Appricotsoft’s Guide on Structuring Scalable Hotel App Architecture.)
Example C: PMS Integration Across Multiple Systems (Need Integration With Multiple Systems)
Ideal Solution = Partner
Integration Work Is Rarely Just An “API Call”. Standards Help (HTNG And HTNG Express Are Working Together To Make PMS Integration Easier), But The Real Work Of Mapping This Out In The Real World Will Take A Disciplined Approach.
Example D: Get Security & Privacy Right
Ideal Solution = Most Likely Partner Or Build With Strong Security Processes
Hospitality Apps Deal With Sensitive Guest Information,n So When Building Custom Experiences,don’tt Treat Security As An Afterthought! (To Learn More, see How To Protect Guests’ Data)
How to Partner Without Losing Control
If you’re considering the possibility of starting a partnership, this is the most significant part of the process for you to understand:
A partnership does not mean you are outsourcing your responsibility. Instead, you are structuring how you deliver your service so that you remain in control while getting your products or services out quickly.
Below is a simple governance checklist we believe should help guide your project to success:
Partnering Checklist (copy and paste)
Delivery
- Weekly demos of working software (rather than status reports)
- Shared backlog, including acceptance criteria
- Clear definition of done (QA, testing, documentation as necessary)
Scope and budget
- Change log including trade-offs (scope/time/budget)
- Decision log (this avoids having the same argument over again)
- Risk register (integration risk, roll-out risk, vendor dependencies)
Ownership
- Code ownership and access to repository
- Documentation and architecture notes
- Clear handoff plan (even if you’ll never use this)
This single-source-of-truth method is what Unison is able to formalize: client priorities + execution discipline + AI-assisted efficiency = humanOwnership of outcomes.
A realistic path most hospitality teams take (and why it works)
A pattern we see working well:
- Buy core systems (PMS, channel manager, booking engine, etc.)
- Partner to build the differentiation layer (guest experience, upsell, orchestration, analytics)
- Keep ownership of the custom layer so you can evolve it over time
This avoids reinventing mature tools, while still letting you compete on what guests actually feel.
How Appricotsoft is different and better than other hospitality software developers
Appricotsoft was originally a product company, and we transitioned to services. This was the cornerstone of our value system: we care about delivery, but we also care about the outcome of your project once it’s actually launched (not just “delivered”).
We have three simple values:
- Honesty & Responsibility (No Drama/No Guessing)
- Quality (We will build WOW)
- Accountability (Owns It)
If you are trying to determine whether to buy vs. build vs. partner, we can help you do that by providing you with an unbiased ,honest evaluation – NOT by convincing you to do custom dev, but by mapping out:
- What you should purchase
- What you should develop
- What needs to be integrated and will be just fine
Final Thoughts
Deciding whether to build, buy, or partner should be based on business factors rather than just philosophically based decisions. The key factors that help determine which decision to go with are:
- How quickly do you need this? Equally important, is it worth doing quickly?
- Will what you need to customize be a good fit for your guest experience/operation?
- You should expect to pay “tax” for all of the ways that your hospitality system needs to integrate with other systems. Always plan for that.
- Owning something as part of your overall strategy rather than an “either/or” proposition.
If you want to standardize, you should buy. If you want to have a level of strategic differentiation from your competition with long-term control of your ssystemem then you may want to build (if you’re capable) or maybe you want to partner (if you need speed and some amount of ownership) but aren’t ready to invest time and effort into building an entire internal organization.
Appricotsoft is happy to help you select the right path for your budget/timeline/long-term roadmap through a second opinion on your specific situation.