For IT leaders who sense their infrastructure is broken but need a strategic path forward
The Architecture Problem No One Wants to Talk About
You already know something is wrong.
Every new initiative requires custom integration work. Guest data lives in seven different systems that don't talk to each other. Your PMS vendor controls more of your technology decisions than you do. And when someone asks about AI capabilities, you have to explain that the foundation isn't there to support it.
This isn't a technology problem. It's an architecture problem. And it's costing you more than inefficiency. It's costing you the ability to transform.
According to recent industry research, 65% of hoteliers worldwide cite software integration as their top operational challenge. Another study found that 69% of hospitality professionals say integrating new technology with legacy systems is their biggest obstacle. Deloitte reports that 45% of hotels say fragmented technology and data prevent them from achieving a unified view of customers and operations.
These numbers describe the symptom. The disease is architectural: an outdated paradigm where the PMS sits at the center of everything, vendors control your options, and you're perpetually locked into decisions made a decade ago.
There's a better way. But it requires you to take back control.
The PMS-Centric Paradigm and Why It's Failing
For decades, hospitality technology was built around a simple assumption: the Property Management System is the center of the universe. Everything connects to the PMS. Everything flows through the PMS. The PMS is the source of truth.
This made sense when the PMS was essentially the only system that mattered. Check-in, check-out, billing, room inventory. Simple.
But luxury hospitality in 2025 isn't simple. You have:
- Booking engines for accommodations, dining, spa, activities, and events
- Customer relationship management systems
- Marketing automation platforms
- Revenue management systems
- Point of sale systems
- Guest messaging platforms
- Reputation management tools
- Business intelligence and analytics
- And now, AI capabilities that need access to all of it
The PMS was never designed to be a data platform. It was designed to manage rooms. Forcing it to be the architectural center creates predictable problems.
Data gets trapped. Guest information lives in the PMS, but so does information in your CRM, your marketing platform, your spa system, and your F&B system. None of it connects cleanly. You have partial views everywhere and a complete view nowhere.
Integration becomes a nightmare. Every new tool requires custom work to connect to the PMS. Those connections are fragile, expensive to maintain, and create dependency on whoever built them. Want to change your spa booking system? Good luck untangling the integrations.
Innovation gets blocked. When a vendor controls the center of your architecture, they control what's possible. Their roadmap becomes your constraint. Their integration partners become your only options. Their limitations become your limitations.
AI can't function. Artificial intelligence needs unified, accessible data to deliver value. When your data is scattered across silos with no coherent architecture, AI initiatives fail before they start. This is why point-solution chatbots disappoint. They can't answer questions because they can't access the information needed to answer them.
The PMS-centric model served hospitality for 30 years. It cannot serve hospitality for the next 10.
The Shift to Composable Architecture
The solution isn't a better PMS. It's a fundamentally different architecture.
Enterprise businesses figured this out years ago. Retail, banking, healthcare. They moved from monolithic systems to composable architectures. Instead of one vendor controlling everything, they assemble best-in-class tools into flexible ecosystems where data flows freely and components can be swapped without rebuilding the whole stack.
Hospitality is 10-15 years behind enterprise in technology maturity. What's standard practice in retail feels like magic in hotels. But that gap is closing. Forward-thinking hospitality brands are adopting composable approaches and seeing transformative results.
Composable architecture means building your technology ecosystem from independent, interchangeable components that communicate through well-defined interfaces (APIs). Each component does one thing well. Components connect through standard protocols. You can replace any piece without disrupting the others.
The MACH Alliance (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless) has codified these principles. While the acronym comes from e-commerce, the concepts apply directly to hospitality:
- Microservices: Individual services that handle specific functions independently
- API-first: Everything connects through documented, open APIs
- Cloud-native: Built for modern cloud infrastructure, not legacy on-premise constraints
- Headless: The user interface is separated from the underlying logic, enabling flexibility in how you present information
Brands like citizenM, Limehome, and Placemakr have embraced these principles. They can deploy new properties in hours instead of weeks. They can plug in new tools and channels without massive integration projects. They can innovate at a pace that legacy operators simply cannot match.
This isn't theoretical. It's happening now. The question is whether you'll lead or follow.
The Hub-Spoke Data Model
At the center of composable architecture is a fundamental shift in how you think about data.
Instead of the PMS at the center, put your data at the center.
This means implementing a hub-spoke model where a data warehouse (or similar central repository) serves as the hub, and all systems connect to it as spokes. The PMS is still important, but it's a spoke, not the hub. Same with your CRM, your booking engines, your marketing platform. Everything feeds into and pulls from the central data hub.
What this enables:
Single source of truth. Guest profiles, booking history, preferences, interactions. All unified in one place. When the front desk looks up a guest, they see everything. When marketing segments an audience, they have complete data. When AI needs context, it can access it.
Real-time synchronization. Data flows continuously between systems. A booking in one channel instantly reflects everywhere. A preference captured at the spa immediately appears in the guest profile. No batch updates overnight. No manual reconciliation.
Analytics and intelligence. With unified data, you can actually analyze your business. Revenue patterns, guest behavior, operational efficiency. Business intelligence tools have something meaningful to work with.
AI readiness. This is increasingly the critical capability. AI needs accessible, structured data. A hub-spoke model provides exactly that. Your knowledge base can draw from comprehensive guest information, operational data, and organizational content. AI becomes possible in ways it simply isn't with fragmented data.
The technology:
The specific tools matter less than the architectural approach. Data warehouses like Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, and Redshift can serve as the hub. Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) like Segment, mParticle, and hospitality-focused options handle guest profile unification. iPaaS platforms (MuleSoft, Workato, Boomi) and data engineering tools (Fivetran, Airbyte) manage the connections.
What matters is that you decide the architecture. You select tools based on your needs. You maintain control over how data flows and who can access it.
This is data sovereignty: the principle that you own and control your data architecture, not any single vendor.
Open Over Closed: The Vendor Question
Here's where things get uncomfortable for some vendors.
Legacy hospitality technology companies have built their business models on lock-in. They create closed ecosystems where everything connects through proprietary methods. They build "hospitality-specific" versions of tools that exist in far better forms outside hospitality. They use fear: "Only we understand your industry. Standard tools won't work for you."
This narrative serves vendors, not properties.
The reality is that most technology needs in hospitality are universal business needs. You need a content management system. Banks need content management systems. You need a customer data platform. Retailers need customer data platforms. You need marketing automation. Every industry needs marketing automation.
Best-in-class tools built for universal business needs will outperform inferior "hospitality-specific" versions almost every time. The question is whether the tool is genuinely hospitality-unique (PMS, Revenue Management) or a universal capability wrapped in hospitality marketing (CRM, CDP, CMS, marketing automation).
When hospitality-specific makes sense:
- Property Management Systems (core operations, room inventory, check-in/check-out)
- Revenue Management Systems (hospitality-specific yield optimization)
- Housekeeping and facilities management workflows
- F&B management with hospitality-specific requirements
When best-in-class universal tools make sense:
- Content management and omni-channel publishing
- Customer data platforms
- CRM and marketing automation
- Business intelligence and analytics
- Integration and automation platforms
- AI and knowledge base infrastructure
The litmus test: "Do banks, retailers, and healthcare companies need this capability?" If yes, choose best-in-class universal tools. If no, hospitality-specific may be appropriate.
Choosing open, composable systems means:
Evaluating vendors on API quality and documentation. Can external systems connect easily? Is the integration well-documented? Are there restrictions on what you can access?
Preferring open standards over proprietary methods. Standard protocols mean more options and easier evolution.
Avoiding vendors who refuse to integrate with competitors. This is a red flag for dependency-building behavior.
Assessing architectural flexibility. Can you replace this component without rebuilding everything else? Or are you locked in the moment you implement?
You may face resistance from existing vendors when you start asking these questions. That resistance tells you something important about whether they're serving your interests or theirs.
Governing Your Technology Architecture
Composable architecture requires something many hospitality organizations have never had: active technology governance.
When a single vendor controls your stack, governance happens by default. You accept their decisions because you have no alternative. With composable architecture, you gain freedom, but that freedom requires someone to make decisions.
You must govern:
Architecture standards. What principles guide technology selection? What integration patterns are acceptable? How do we ensure components work together?
Vendor evaluation. How do we assess whether a tool fits our architecture? What criteria matter most? Who makes the final decision?
Data architecture. What is the source of truth for each data type? How does data flow between systems? Who owns data quality?
Integration management. Who maintains connections between systems? How do we handle when integrations break? What's the process for adding new integrations?
Security and compliance. How do we ensure data protection across multiple vendors? Who is responsible for compliance in a multi-vendor environment?
This doesn't mean you need a massive IT department. It means someone must own these decisions. For many luxury resorts, this is where a strategic transformation partner adds value: providing the expertise to make these decisions well without requiring you to build the capability internally.
The key principle: You may not build it yourself, but you must understand it. You must own it.
Governance means you can articulate:
- What systems comprise your technology ecosystem
- How they connect and exchange data
- Why each was chosen and what it would take to replace it
- What your architecture enables that competitors' architectures don't
You are the author of your technology outcome. Vendors execute. Partners advise and guide. But the authority and ownership remain with you.
The Foundation for Everything Else
Technology architecture isn't an end in itself. It's the foundation that enables everything else.
Visibility. When AI engines search for properties to recommend, they need structured, machine-readable data. That data comes from content systems connected to your data architecture. Without proper architecture, you can't implement the structured data that makes you visible.
Commerce. Conversational commerce requires real-time access to availability, pricing, and inventory across all your booking systems. That access depends on your systems being integrated and your data being accessible. Without proper architecture, you can't enable the booking experiences guests increasingly expect.
Guest experience. Personalization requires unified guest profiles with complete history and preferences. Those profiles require data flowing from every touchpoint into a central hub. Without proper architecture, your AI and personalization initiatives will fail because they lack the data foundation to succeed.
Operational efficiency. Workflow automation requires systems that can trigger actions across departmental boundaries. That requires integration. Knowledge bases for staff require accessible, structured information. That requires content architecture. Without proper architecture, operational AI will disappoint.
Every capability you want to build, every innovation you want to pursue, every AI use case you want to implement rests on the foundation of your technology architecture. Weak foundation, weak results. Strong foundation, transformative possibilities.
This is why technology architecture isn't an IT concern. It's a strategic concern. It determines what your organization can become.
Progressive Transformation: You Don't Need Everything at Once
The path forward isn't a massive, multi-year, rip-and-replace project. That approach rarely works and often fails spectacularly.
Instead, transformation happens progressively:
Start with assessment. Understand your current architecture. Map your systems and integrations. Identify where data lives and how it flows. Document the pain points and gaps. This baseline reveals where transformation creates the most value.
Identify high-impact opportunities. Not everything needs to change at once. Where are the biggest pain points? Where are you losing the most value? Where would architectural improvement unlock new capabilities? Focus there first.
Build foundation incrementally. Each initiative should deliver immediate value while strengthening the foundation for future initiatives. Implement a data warehouse while solving a specific analytics need. Improve content architecture while enabling AI visibility. Every project does double duty.
Prove value quickly. Transformation requires organizational support. Support requires demonstrated results. Structure your roadmap so early initiatives show measurable impact. Quick wins build credibility for larger investments.
Maintain architectural discipline. As you build, ensure each component follows the architectural principles you've established. Don't let urgent needs create new technical debt. Short-term compromises become long-term constraints.
The goal is sustainable transformation: continuous improvement in your capabilities driven by progressive strengthening of your foundation. Not a project with an end date, but an ongoing evolution.
What IT Leaders Should Do Now
If you're an IT leader at a luxury resort or travel company, here's where to start:
1. Assess your current architecture honestly.
Map your systems. Document integrations. Identify where data lives and where it doesn't flow. Understand your dependencies. Be honest about what's working and what isn't. This assessment is the foundation for everything else.
2. Evaluate your vendor relationships.
For each major system, ask: Is this vendor enabling our evolution or constraining it? Are their APIs open and well-documented? Can we access our own data freely? Would we choose them again today? The answers may be uncomfortable but necessary.
3. Identify your data sovereignty gaps.
Where is critical data trapped in vendor systems you can't easily access? What would it take to establish a central data hub? What are the dependencies that would need to change? Understanding these gaps reveals the work ahead.
4. Build internal understanding.
Technology architecture decisions affect marketing, operations, and finance. Ensure other leaders understand why architectural choices matter. Connect technology decisions to business outcomes they care about. Build the coalition needed for transformation.
5. Find the right partner.
Few hospitality organizations have the internal expertise to guide architectural transformation alone. The right partner brings enterprise-grade transformation experience, hospitality-specific understanding, and the ability to lead, not just advise. Choose carefully. This partnership will shape your organization's capabilities for years.
The Stakes Are Higher Than They Appear
This isn't about technology for technology's sake. It's about what your organization can become.
Luxury hospitality is built on unforgettable experiences. Creating those experiences increasingly requires technology: to know guests deeply, to personalize at scale, to free staff from administrative burden so they can focus on human connection.
Properties with strong technology foundations will deliver experiences others cannot match. They'll attract guests who expect sophistication. They'll attract staff who want to work with modern tools. They'll attract partners who enable innovation.
Properties with weak foundations will struggle. AI initiatives will fail. Guest expectations will go unmet. Staff will fight their tools instead of using them. The gap will widen.
The technology decisions you make now determine which future you're building toward.
You are the author of that outcome. No vendor can make these choices for you. No consultant can take this responsibility off your shoulders. The ownership must be yours.
But you don't have to figure it out alone.
The IT Foundation Assessment
For IT leaders ready to take strategic control, Sherpera's IT Foundation Assessment provides a structured starting point.
What the assessment reveals:
- Current architecture mapped and documented
- Integration chaos quantified and prioritized
- Data sovereignty gaps identified
- Vendor dependency risks assessed
- Foundation requirements for AI and transformation defined
- Quick wins that prove value immediately
- Strategic roadmap for progressive transformation
What you'll have afterward:
A clear understanding of where you are, where you need to go, and how to get there. Not theoretical recommendations, but a practical path forward aligned with your business objectives.
This isn't about buying technology. It's about taking ownership of your technology future.
Ready to take strategic control of your technology architecture? The IT Foundation Assessment is designed for IT leaders who sense their infrastructure is broken and want a strategic path forward. [Contact us to explore what's possible.]
