Hospitality IT · Western North Carolina
Your brand mandated the technology.
Someone still has to run the project.
I manage brand-driven technology work for independent and small-group hotel owners: refreshes, lock systems, network builds, and PMS transitions, all from the ownership side of the table. Not as a vendor trying to sell you hardware.
Aaron Caudle · Hendersonville, NC
Why this keeps happening
A PIP is not a suggestion, and it arrives with a date on it.
Franchise brands run Property Improvement Plans on roughly a six-to-eight year cycle, and those plans increasingly bundle mandatory technology line items. Hilton’s Connected Room program alone is cited across the industry at $1,500–$3,000 per room in technology investment.
That isn’t a discretionary upgrade you can defer until it feels affordable. It’s a compliance requirement with a deadline attached. So the real question was never whether to do the work. It’s who will scope it, price it, sequence it, and hold six vendors to a date.
A group with forty properties has a corporate IT department for that. If you run one hotel, or four, you have yourself and whoever answers the phone.
What I handle
Six kinds of work, all of them deadline-shaped.
- 01
Brand conversions & openings
IT and vendor coordination for flag changes and new openings. Temporary server setups, opening-date timelines, and PMS cutover sequencing that has to land on the day it says it will.
- 02
PIP technology scoping
Reading the brand-issued Property Improvement Plan, separating the technology line items from the rest, pricing them honestly, and coordinating the remediation vendors who bring the property back into standard.
- 03
Electronic lock systems
Door lock replacements and upgrades with Dormakaba and ASSA ABLOY/VingCard, start to finish: RFQs, site surveys, contract review, install scheduling, and Digital Key configuration.
- 04
Guest & back-of-house networks
RFQ and installation management for property WiFi and network infrastructure, held to the brand’s published signal standards instead of the installer’s word for it. Network edge and firewall work too.
- 05
PMS transitions & acquisition IT diligence
The systems side of buying a hotel: what has to change in the PMS, payment processing, and network stack before and after closing. Better scoped before you sign than discovered in week two.
- 06
Vendor & contract management
Reading and negotiating scope, chasing the paperwork, managing procurement forms, and holding vendors to the install date they committed to. It’s the unglamorous part, and it decides whether a project lands.
The difference
I have sat on your side of this table.
Most people offering to help with hotel technology are selling something: locks, access points, a PMS, a managed services contract. My background is owner-side project management. I’ve run brand-mandated refreshes, lock upgrades, network builds, and PMS cutovers across IHG, Marriott, Hilton, and Best Western properties, accountable to the owner rather than to a quota.
That shows up in small, expensive ways. Knowing that a brand’s current WiFi signal standard is buried in a PDF the vendor isn’t quoting against. Knowing what a 209-door lock installation takes when it’s tied to a hard opening date. Knowing which line items on a PIP are genuinely mandatory and which are the vendor’s interpretation of mandatory.
- IHGHoliday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza, Staybridge Suites
- MarriottFour Points by Sheraton, Delta Hotels
- HiltonDoubleTree, Connected Room, Digital Key
- Best WesternAcquisitions and ownership transitions
Coverage
On-site, within about two hours.
Based in Hendersonville, North Carolina. This work doesn’t go well over email alone. Site surveys, install supervision, and cutover days want somebody physically in the building, so I keep the radius honest.
- Asheville & Western North Carolina
- Upstate South Carolina
- East Tennessee
- North Georgia
Questions
What owners ask first
Who will I be dealing with?
Aaron Caudle, directly. There is no account manager in between and no team to be handed off to.
What is a PIP, and why does it involve technology?
A Property Improvement Plan is the brand-issued list of work a franchised hotel has to complete, on roughly a six-to-eight year cycle. Those plans increasingly bundle mandatory technology line items, so the deadline lands on the systems side whether or not anyone has scoped it.
Do you sell hardware or software?
No. I work from the ownership side, which means no quota and no product to place. The vendors quote. I read the quotes.
Which brands have you worked with?
IHG (Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza, Staybridge Suites), Marriott (Four Points by Sheraton, Delta Hotels), Hilton (DoubleTree, Connected Room, Digital Key), and Best Western ownership transitions.
How far will you travel?
About two hours from Hendersonville, North Carolina: Asheville and Western NC, Upstate South Carolina, East Tennessee, and North Georgia. Site surveys and cutover days want somebody in the building.
Can you help before we buy a hotel?
Yes, and that is usually the cheapest time to look. What has to change in the PMS, payment processing, and network stack is better known before you sign than discovered in week two.
How do we start?
Call (828) 490-7720 or email aaron@hoteltech.consulting with what the brand is asking for and when it is due. The first conversation costs nothing and is usually the most useful one.
Have a PIP, a conversion, or an acquisition coming?
The most useful first conversation is usually the cheapest one: what the brand is asking for, when it’s due, and what it should cost. Call or email and we’ll start there.