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 crimson 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 constructing the fallacious alternative are excessive. Evaluations have develop into the primary filter of belief, and their absence speaks volumes.
The New Resort Tech Purchaser Journey
Right this moment’s lodge know-how patrons are self-directed and risk-averse. In line with Forrester, greater than 90% of B2B patrons belief friends of their trade greater than vendor content material. Analyst reviews, as soon as the north star of enterprise selections, are dropping relevance: solely 14% of patrons now seek the advice of them—a 60% drop from the earlier yr.
As an alternative, patrons flip to look validation. In reality, greater than three-quarters of enterprise software program patrons globally say they test opinions earlier than making a call. As Ian Bruce, VP at Forrester, places it: “Threat and belief loom giant within the minds of B2B patrons… Belief is the treatment to danger.”
For hoteliers, that belief is more and more constructed by way of platforms like HotelTechReport, which lately surpassed 60,000 genuine product opinions throughout PMS, RMS, CRM, and guest-facing options. As Mews founder Richard Valtr put it: “HTR has been a breath of contemporary air on this trade, making it a counterpart to TripAdvisor on the lodge tech facet.”
Lack of Evaluations = Perceived Threat
In an trade the place know-how contracts usually final years, patrons see no opinions as a warning sign. Forrester information exhibits that B2B patrons who lack peer validation usually delay or abandon offers. In hospitality, the place know-how instantly impacts visitor satisfaction and profitability, danger notion is amplified.
Accor CTO Ground Bleeker notes: “HotelTechReport is a good place for hoteliers like us to seek out up-to-date impartial opinions and sources 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?
Evaluations because the Tiebreaker
Even when distributors make it to a hotelier’s shortlist, opinions play a decisive position. Hoteliers more and more test assessment 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 primarily based on property measurement, location, and integrations, after which layer in verified buyer opinions, HTR permits apples-to-apples comparisons on the actual 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 opinions, awards, information, bulletins—all below one roof.”
Peer Evaluations vs Analyst Experiences
The steadiness of affect has shifted. Analyst reviews nonetheless have a job, however their authority has eroded as patrons choose peer validation. In line with Forrester, patrons that belief a provider are twice as prone to suggest them or pay a premium. That form of belief is never 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. Not like analyst quadrants or vendor self-claims, HTScore blends thousands and thousands of information factors: assessment high quality and recency, associate ecosystem energy, buyer centricity, and firm attain. For hoteliers, this gives a clear, real-time benchmark of how distributors carry out within the subject—not simply on paper.
Why Distributors Should Embrace Evaluations
For lodge know-how suppliers, opinions are not non-compulsory—they’re income drivers. Distributors with strong assessment profiles persistently see larger conversion charges, stronger model credibility, and sooner 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 opinions, and trade tendencies, all of which have broadened our understanding and formed our technique on this house.”
Evaluations don’t simply affect patrons—they appeal to them. HotelTechReport’s one-click quote requests, verified case research, and free purchaser’s guides flip opinions into motion, transferring hoteliers from analysis into buy. This creates a flywheel: extra opinions gasoline extra conversions, which gasoline extra opinions.
As Jordan Hollander, CEO of HotelTechReport, explains: “Software program is rarely a one-size-fits-all. Our 60,000+ verified person opinions mixed with proprietary information factors like function lists and integrations are what allow our platform to make personalised suggestions for hoteliers at scale.”
Conclusion: Evaluations Are the Minimal Bar for Belief
In 2025, on-line opinions aren’t an non-compulsory useful resource—they’re the baseline expectation. A lodge software program vendor with out opinions is sort of a property with no TripAdvisor itemizing: invisible at greatest, suspicious at worst.
Platforms like HotelTechReport, with its 60,000 verified opinions and personalised 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 constructive opinions, don’t signal.