By Samuel Johnson, Head of Operations, LodgIQ
If you have been following this series, you have already done the hard part. You know why manual processes are holding your commercial strategy back. You know what to look for in a system, and what to ignore. You may already have a shortlist of two or three vendors.
At this stage, the risk is no longer a lack of information. It is the opposite. Every vendor sounds capable. Every demo shows the same impressive dashboards. Without a structured way to compare them, the decision quietly becomes a guess based on which conversation felt most reassuring.
Two tools turn that guess into a decision: a structured RFP, and an implementation checklist.
Asking every vendor the same questions
Left to their own devices, every vendor will frame the conversation around their own strengths. One will lead with their pricing algorithm, another with their support team, another with their integration roadmap. Each conversation feels informative on its own, but comparing them afterward is like comparing answers to different questions.
A request for proposal solves this by putting the same set of questions in front of every vendor: how their integration with your specific PMS actually works, what onboarding looks like step by step, what the all-in cost is for your property’s size, and how their pricing engine explains its recommendations. A system that can explain its recommendations is one a team will actually use. When the reasoning is visible, trust builds over time. When it is not, even the best algorithm gets overridden. With every vendor now answering identical questions, their answers can finally be placed side by side.
Knowing what happens after you sign
The second source of uncertainty is what comes after the contract. Many hoteliers sign with a vendor having a clear sense of the product, but a vague sense of the weeks that follow. That gap is where frustration tends to build.
An implementation checklist removes that uncertainty by laying out the journey before it starts: the data quality checks and reference calls to complete before signing, and the week-by-week sequence after, from kickoff and PMS integration through data transfer, team training, and go-live in monitoring mode. Knowing this sequence in advance lets you plan staffing, set expectations with ownership, and recognize whether a vendor’s timeline is realistic before you commit to it.
The real test is how a vendor responds
These two tools do more than organize your evaluation. They reveal something about each vendor. A vendor who welcomes a detailed RFP, answers it thoroughly, and can walk through an implementation timeline without hesitation is showing you how they will behave once you are a customer rather than a prospect. A vendor who resists structure, or whose answers stay vague under specific questions, is showing you that too.
That is ultimately what separates a vendor from a partner: how they handle the questions that matter once the demo is over.
How to Select Your RMS: A Practical Guide for Hoteliers includes a ready-to-use RFP template and a full implementation and data readiness checklist, covering everything from pre-purchase preparation to your first ROI review. Both are designed to be used directly with the vendors on your shortlist.
To Get All the Tools, Download The Full Guide: How to Select Your RMS: A Practical Guide for Hoteliers
