How to sell to CTOs at Hospitality companies
CTOs in hospitality companies are primarily measured on system uptime and performance, ensuring seamless guest experiences across digital platforms. They respond to outreach that demonstrates a clear understanding of the specific technology challenges they face, such as integrating booking systems with customer relationship management tools.
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
- system downtime during peak seasons
- slow integration of new tech
- data breaches impacting guest trust
- difficulty in managing multiple platforms
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent tech upgrades
Look for hotels or restaurants that have recently announced technology upgrades or new software implementations. Use news aggregators or industry publications to find this information. Target your outreach to the CTOs of these companies, as they are likely to be evaluating new solutions.
- 02
Highlight integration challenges
Craft your message to address common integration issues faced by CTOs, such as linking property management systems with third-party booking platforms. Mention how your solution can streamline these processes and reduce operational friction, ensuring smoother guest interactions.
- 03
Leverage industry-specific events
Research upcoming hospitality tech conferences or webinars where CTOs will be attending. Timing your outreach around these events can increase your chances of engagement. Mention the event in your email to create relevance and urgency.
- 04
Address security and compliance concerns
Anticipate objections related to data security and compliance with hospitality regulations. Prepare to explain how your approach ensures data protection and adheres to industry standards. This will resonate with CTOs who prioritize these aspects in their technology decisions.
- 05
Suggest a specific follow-up date
In your email, propose a follow-up call within a week after your initial outreach. This creates accountability and gives the CTO a clear timeframe to respond. Make sure to mention any relevant insights you've gathered from their recent tech initiatives to keep the conversation focused.
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
- Streamline your booking systems
- Tackle integration challenges
- Enhance guest experience with tech
Questions
- Why do CTOs in hospitality ignore cold outreach?
- CTOs in hospitality often receive numerous cold outreach messages that lack specificity. If the message doesn’t directly address their immediate technology challenges or industry trends, it is likely to be overlooked. Tailoring your communication to their unique pain points can improve your chances of getting noticed.
- What technology challenges do hospitality CTOs face?
- CTOs in hospitality frequently deal with challenges such as integrating various software solutions, ensuring data security, and maintaining system uptime during high-traffic periods. They also need to manage guest expectations for seamless digital experiences, which adds pressure to their technology decisions.
- How can I make my outreach more relevant to hospitality CTOs?
- To enhance relevance, focus on current trends in the hospitality industry, such as the rise of contactless services or AI-driven customer insights. Mention specific case studies or examples that relate directly to their sector, demonstrating that you understand their unique environment and challenges.
- What role does compliance play in a CTO's decision-making?
- Compliance is a critical factor for CTOs in hospitality, as they must ensure that their technology solutions adhere to regulations regarding data protection and privacy. Failure to comply can lead to significant financial penalties and damage to their brand reputation, making it a top priority in their decision-making process.
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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