The GM inherits the whole hotel, including the work a new tool quietly passes from one department to another.
A sales platform can make the DOSM happy and create extra cleanup for Conference Services. A reporting feature can impress leadership while somebody spends Friday afternoon fixing the export. Both belong in the scorecard.
I would evaluate the operation the tool creates, rather than stopping at the interface it sells.
Ask five operating questions
Can the buyer understand the recommendation? Can staff complete the intended work? Are property facts dependable? Is maintenance manageable? Does the benefit justify the full cost?
Give each question an owner and observable evidence. Buyer clarity can be checked by asking what is proposed and what remains unresolved. Staff work can be timed. Content accuracy can be reviewed against the authorized source.
The hotel organization structure helps identify the departments behind those answers. The GM should include the people who deliver the promise after sales makes it.
Inspect the work that moved
An illustrative pilot might reduce sales assembly time but increase content administration. That can be worthwhile if the shared updates benefit many inquiries. It can also be a bad trade if every response now needs manual repair.
Record changes on both sides. Include training, support, access management and corrections. Don’t label a task eliminated when it merely moved to someone with a different job title.
AHLA’s operating-cost survey offers broader industry context. The property’s own work and cost records determine the investment case.
Use a quality gate before a weighted score
Some problems should block expansion regardless of the average rating: the wrong room being proposed, an unsupported availability statement or private opportunity information appearing in public content.
Agree those gates in advance. Then assess improvements and trade-offs among the acceptable results. A beautiful buyer experience doesn’t cancel out an operationally material error.
Scale the review to the investment. A limited pilot needs a modest, practical check; a portfolio standard deserves more evidence.
Finish with a decision
The review should end with expand, revise, continue measuring or stop. Attach the reasons, unresolved dependencies and accountable next steps.
Keep verified expense reduction separate from estimated capacity and associated commercial value. HFTP’s USALI resource supplies accounting context for the financial review.
FOH Visual can be assessed on its current sales and discovery work without pretending it already runs booking, BEO synchronization or downstream operations. Scope clarity makes the GM’s decision easier.
A good scorecard asks whether the hotel became better at the work it actually performs. That is the question that survives after the demo tabs close.
Explore more leadership questions in Hospitality Field Notes.