How to sell to CFOs at Hospitality companies
CFOs in the hospitality industry are primarily measured on profit margins. They respond to outreach that demonstrates a clear understanding of their unique cost pressures, such as fluctuating occupancy rates and rising operational expenses. Showing you know how to optimize financial performance in a volatile market will capture their attention.
Written and maintained by the SoloRiff team, who build outbound software and run outbound with it. The figures below are our own: we measured 548 hospitality company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- fluctuating occupancy rates
- seasonal staffing costs
- budget constraints during off-peak
- integration issues post-merger
The playbook
- 01
Identify properties with recent renovations
Filter your list for hotels and restaurants that have recently completed renovations or expansions. These projects often lead to increased operational costs, making CFOs more receptive to financial solutions that can help manage these expenses.
- 02
Highlight seasonal staffing challenges
Research industry trends and identify CFOs facing seasonal staffing challenges, particularly during peak tourist seasons. Tailor your outreach to discuss how your solution can stabilize labor costs and improve efficiency during these high-demand periods.
- 03
Pinpoint recent mergers or acquisitions
Look for hospitality companies that have recently merged or acquired other businesses. CFOs in these situations are often preoccupied with integrating financial systems and may be open to discussing tools that streamline financial operations.
- 04
Address budget constraints from fluctuating revenues
Understand the impact of fluctuating occupancy rates on revenue. When reaching out, emphasize how your expertise can help CFOs navigate budget constraints, especially in off-peak seasons, to maintain profitability.
- 05
Follow up after quarterly earnings reports
Schedule your follow-up outreach shortly after quarterly earnings reports are released. CFOs are likely assessing financial performance and may be more open to discussing solutions that can enhance future profitability based on the latest results.
Can hospitality companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 548 hospitality companies, sampled evenly across company sizes, to see how many authenticate their own email. It matters in both directions: a domain that does not authenticate is a domain whose team is used to mail going missing — and if your own domain is in the gap, yours is the mail going missing.
Publishes a DMARC policy of quarantine or reject — the domain actually asks receivers to act on failures.
The gap is the finding: 15.6% of 1–10-person companies against 73% of the largest — 57 points apart. Small companies are where the unauthenticated domains are, and small companies are who most cold outreach is aimed at.
Where does your domain sit?
Same three lookups, run live against your domain. Nothing is stored and nothing is emailed to you.
How this was measured
Company domains were sampled within employee-count bands, then queried over public DNS for SPF (TXT at the apex), DMARC (TXT at _dmarc.) and MX. One domain per company, deduplicated. Anyone can reproduce any single row of this with dig.
DKIM is deliberately absent. A DKIM key lives under a selector that cannot be enumerated from outside the domain, so a company with flawless DKIM under a name we did not guess would be counted as having none. That would measure our guess list, not the industry.
Domains with no MX record are excluded rather than counted as failures — parked and redirect-only domains would otherwise drag every figure down and make the result an artefact of the sample.
Sampled within bands, so this describes the population of companies, not of employees: a 10-person company counts once, as does a 10,000-person one. Each band is at least 60 domains; bands below that are not published. Figures are percentages of the sample, not of the whole industry, and we publish no company names — only counts.
Measured 2026-09-03. Re-measured monthly.
The full census across every industry — sortable, with sample sizes, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
Subject lines that fit
- Managing seasonal costs
- Optimize your financial performance
- Navigating budget constraints
Questions
- Why do CFOs in hospitality ignore outreach about financial software?
- CFOs often receive numerous pitches about financial software, but they prioritize solutions that specifically address their industry's unique challenges, such as fluctuating occupancy and seasonal revenue. If your outreach doesn't connect directly to these pain points, it may be overlooked.
- How can I make my outreach stand out to hospitality CFOs?
- To stand out, focus on demonstrating a deep understanding of the hospitality sector's financial intricacies. Use specific examples related to cost management and revenue optimization that resonate with their daily challenges, rather than generic financial benefits.
- What timing is best for contacting hospitality CFOs?
- The best time to contact hospitality CFOs is typically after they have released quarterly earnings reports or during budget planning cycles. They are more likely to be open to discussions that can impact their financial strategies during these periods.
- What objections do CFOs in hospitality commonly have?
- Common objections from hospitality CFOs include concerns about the ROI of new financial solutions and the potential disruption to existing systems. Addressing these objections with clear, quantifiable benefits and case studies from similar businesses can help overcome resistance.
Or have it run itself
SoloRiff does every step above on its own — finds the companies, finds the people, writes each of them individually, and handles the replies. Drop your URL and watch it work before you sign up for anything.
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