Reserving a lodge with out checking TripAdvisor feels reckless. But each week, lodge homeowners and operators signal multi-year software program contracts with distributors which have little or no constant latest public buyer suggestions. In 2025, that’s a purple flag.
The lodge tech market is crowded: PMS, RMS, visitor messaging, POS, housekeeping automation—the record goes on. With know-how now on the core of visitor expertise and operational effectivity, the stakes of creating the improper selection are excessive. Opinions have develop into the primary filter of belief, and their absence speaks volumes.
The New Lodge Tech Purchaser Journey
As we speak’s lodge know-how consumers are self-directed and risk-averse. In accordance with Forrester, greater than 90% of B2B consumers belief friends of their trade greater than vendor content material. Analyst stories, as soon as the north star of enterprise selections, are dropping relevance: solely 14% of consumers now seek the advice of them—a 60% drop from the earlier yr.
As a substitute, consumers flip to see validation. In reality, greater than three-quarters of enterprise software program consumers globally say they verify evaluations earlier than making a choice. As Ian Bruce, VP at Forrester, places it: “Threat and belief loom giant within the minds of B2B consumers… Belief is the treatment to threat.”
For hoteliers, that belief is more and more constructed via platforms like HotelTechReport, which just lately surpassed 60,000 genuine product evaluations throughout PMS, RMS, CRM, and guest-facing options. As Mews founder Richard Valtr put it: “HTR has been a breath of recent air on this trade, making it a counterpart to TripAdvisor on the lodge tech aspect.”
Lack of Opinions = Perceived Threat
In an trade the place know-how contracts typically final years, consumers see no evaluations as a warning sign. Forrester information reveals that B2B consumers who lack peer validation typically delay or abandon offers. In hospitality, the place know-how straight impacts visitor satisfaction and profitability, threat notion is amplified.
Accor CTO Ground Bleeker notes: “HotelTechReport is a good place for hoteliers like us to seek out up-to-date impartial evaluations and assets about our crowded options panorama.” If a vendor doesn’t seem in that panorama, it raises doubts. Are they too new? Have they did not scale? Or worse, are they hiding poor buyer experiences?
Opinions because the Tiebreaker
Even when distributors make it to a hotelier’s shortlist, evaluations play a decisive function. Hoteliers more and more verify evaluation websites instantly earlier than demos or trials, utilizing peer insights as the ultimate tiebreaker between two or three shut contenders.
That is the place HotelTechReport’s dynamic shortlists and PMS Finder software show invaluable. By permitting hoteliers to filter software program choices based mostly on property measurement, location, and integrations, after which layer in verified buyer evaluations, HTR allows apples-to-apples comparisons on the precise second selections are being made.
As Canary Applied sciences’ VP of Strategic Initiatives Bryan Michalis put it: “HTR is the main lodge tech platform due to its multi-faceted and clear method. Thought management, product evaluations, awards, information, bulletins—all beneath one roof.”
Peer Opinions vs Analyst Reviews
The steadiness of affect has shifted. Analyst stories nonetheless have a job, however their authority has eroded as consumers choose peer validation. In accordance with Forrester, consumers that belief a provider are twice as prone to suggest them or pay a premium. That form of belief isn’t constructed by a elegant gross sales deck—it comes from the genuine voices of friends.
HotelTechReport’s proprietary HTScore™ rating methodology has emerged because the gold customary for lodge software program benchmarking. In contrast to analyst quadrants or vendor self-claims, HTScore blends hundreds of thousands of knowledge factors: evaluation high quality and recency, companion ecosystem energy, buyer centricity, and firm attain. For hoteliers, this gives a clear, real-time benchmark of how distributors carry out within the area—not simply on paper.
Why Distributors Should Embrace Opinions
For lodge know-how suppliers, evaluations are now not non-obligatory—they’re income drivers. Distributors with sturdy evaluation profiles persistently see increased conversion charges, stronger model credibility, and quicker gross sales cycles. Thibault Catala, founding father of Catala Consulting, highlights: “HotelTechReport has been instrumental in offering an enriched perspective of the lodge know-how market. It gives invaluable insights, detailed evaluations, and trade traits, all of which have broadened our understanding and formed our technique on this house.”
Opinions don’t simply affect consumers—they appeal to them. HotelTechReport’s one-click quote requests, verified case research, and free purchaser’s guides flip evaluations into motion, shifting hoteliers from analysis into buy. This creates a flywheel: extra evaluations gas extra conversions, which gas extra evaluations.
As Jordan Hollander, CEO of HotelTechReport, explains: “Software program is rarely a one-size-fits-all. Our 60,000+ verified person evaluations mixed with proprietary information factors like function lists and integrations are what allow our platform to make customized suggestions for hoteliers at scale.”
Conclusion: Opinions Are the Minimal Bar for Belief
In 2025, on-line evaluations aren’t an non-obligatory useful resource—they’re the baseline expectation. A lodge software program vendor with out evaluations is sort of a property with no TripAdvisor itemizing: invisible at finest, suspicious at worst.
Platforms like HotelTechReport, with its 60,000 verified evaluations and customized purchaser instruments, have develop into the trade’s belief infrastructure. They empower hoteliers to de-risk selections, save time, and in the end make extra assured, fiduciary-responsible investments of their tech stack.
For lodge homeowners and operators, the message is evident: should you don’t see a wholesome cadence of latest optimistic evaluations, don’t signal.
