Why 72% of Hotels Trust External IT Providers

Six years ago, 35% of hotels managed their IT entirely in-house. Today, fewer than 28% still do. That's not a coincidence and not a short-term trend. It's the result of an industry that has recognised a hard truth: IT infrastructure has become too complex, too critical, and too personnel-intensive to handle as a side task. The DaPhi Connectivity Study 2026 surveyed 178 hotels. The answers are clear.

External IT providers in hospitality: what the numbers show

Since 2020, the share of hotels relying on external IT providers has grown from 65% to over 72%. Seven percentage points over six years sounds modest. In an industry known for slow change, it's remarkable. And the reasons hoteliers give aren't vague gut feelings. They're concrete, understandable, and felt daily across hundreds of properties.

Three factors dominate the responses: a shortage of skilled IT staff, growing system complexity, and the requirement for 24/7 availability. None of these factors will disappear in the coming years.

Skills shortage: the problem you can't organise away

Finding a qualified IT technician is tough already. Finding one willing to work for a single hotel or small group, with limited career development and a salary that can't compete with tech companies, is even harder still.

External providers solve this structurally. Instead of one person who has to know everything, there's a team behind the service. Networking, security, hardware, helpdesk. Each area covered by specialists. For a hotel dealing with three IT incidents a month, that's economically smarter than a full-time position spending the rest of the time on standby.

System complexity: when PMS, booking engine, and guest solutions stop talking to each other

A modern hotel doesn't run one system. It runs an ecosystem. Property management system, booking engine, digital guest solutions, payment systems, access control, WiFi management. All of these need to communicate with each other. Seamlessly. In real time. Around the clock.

Anyone who's experienced a PMS update suddenly breaking the interface to the booking platform knows how fast a technical problem becomes an operational one. Guests can't check in. Bookings aren't transferred. Front desk staff stand in front of a system that does nothing. In exactly those moments, it becomes clear whether a hotel has a partner who knows the system or whether someone is calling a software vendor's hotline and waiting on hold.

External IT providers who specialise in hospitality know these system landscapes. They've configured the interfaces before, seen the errors before, and built the solutions before. That saves not just time. It saves revenue and, in the worst case, guests who don't come back.

24/7 availability: what no internal team can sustainably deliver

Hotels don't sleep. Guests check in at 2am. WiFi fails when the technician is on holiday. A security incident doesn't follow business hours. Internal IT teams structurally can't cover this without significant additional costs for on-call arrangements, night shifts, and holiday cover.

An external managed service provider delivers this availability as part of the contract. Monitoring runs automatically. Alerts trigger before the guest notices the problem. Support is reachable when it's needed. That's not a luxury for large hotel chains. It's the standard today for any property that takes its reviews seriously.

What actually gets outsourced

The study also shows which tasks hotels actually hand over to external providers. Cyber security leads clearly at 76%. That's no surprise: security is the area where in-house expertise is rarest and where a mistake is most expensive. Monitoring follows at 51%, managed workplace at 47%. Cloud and infrastructure as well as helpdesk round out the picture.

What stands out: these are exactly the areas that are time-critical and knowledge-intensive. Nobody outsources what works well internally. What gets outsourced is what doesn't scale in-house.

DaPhi takes on exactly these tasks for hotels in Berlin and Brandenburg: from cyber security and proactive monitoring to full managed IT service. Not as a faceless provider, but as a partner who knows and understands the hotel's system landscape.

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FAQ: External IT providers in hospitality

Why are more hotels turning to external IT providers?

The three most common reasons according to the DaPhi Connectivity Study 2026 are: a growing shortage of IT specialists, increasing system complexity from connecting PMS, booking engines, and digital guest solutions, and the difficulty of ensuring reliable 24/7 availability with internal teams. External doesn't mean uncontrolled. It means structured and scalable.

What does an external IT provider cost for hotels?

Costs vary significantly depending on hotel size, number of systems, and required scope. Managed service providers typically work with monthly flat rates covering monitoring, support, and defined response times. For many hotels, this is more cost-effective than a full-time position, because only the capacity actually needed is paid for. A concrete estimate is best discussed directly.

Which IT tasks should a hotel outsource?

Outsourcing makes most sense for tasks requiring specialist expertise or round-the-clock availability: cyber security monitoring, network infrastructure, helpdesk, and system updates. Tasks closely tied to daily operations and requiring physical presence often stay in-house. The right balance depends on the individual property.

How does a hotel find the right IT provider?

Industry experience is decisive. A generalist IT provider may not know hospitality specifics like PMS interfaces, HSIA standards, or guest WiFi requirements. A partner specialising in hospitality brings that experience and doesn't need to learn how a hotel works first. References, clear SLAs, and a transparent onboarding process are further strong indicators.

Does a hotel lose control of its IT by outsourcing?

Not if the provider works transparently. A good MSP documents all systems, delivers regular reports, and keeps the hotelier informed about all relevant developments. Outsourcing means delegation, not relinquishing responsibility. Strategic IT decisions stay with the hotel.

The trend is no accident

72% of hotels already trust external IT providers, and the reasons for that aren't getting weaker. Skills shortages, system complexity, and 24/7 requirements are structural challenges, not temporary problems. Those still hesitating today are usually doing so out of habit rather than conviction. If you want to understand what an external IT partnership could look like for your property, the DaPhi team is happy to talk.

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