How to sell to Heads of Sales at Hospitality companies
Heads of Sales in the hospitality industry are primarily measured on revenue growth from bookings. They respond to outreach that demonstrates an understanding of their unique challenges, such as fluctuating demand and the need for effective sales strategies to optimize occupancy and table turnover rates. Tailoring your message to these specific pain points will increase your chances of engagement.
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
- high customer churn
- ineffective sales promotions
- underutilized booking channels
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent occupancy drops
Use data from industry reports or local tourism boards to find hotels or restaurants that have recently reported occupancy declines. This indicates a potential need for improved sales strategies. Compile a list of these establishments to target your outreach.
- 02
Research seasonal promotions
Look for hospitality companies that are currently running or have recently completed seasonal promotions. This can signal their interest in boosting sales. Tailor your messaging to highlight how your solution can enhance their promotional efforts.
- 03
Analyze customer feedback trends
Dive into online reviews and customer feedback for targeted hotels or restaurants. Identify common complaints related to service or booking processes. Use this insight to position your outreach as a solution to these specific issues.
- 04
Reach out post-industry event
Follow up with heads of sales who attended recent hospitality trade shows or conferences. Mention the event in your email to create a connection. This timing can increase the likelihood of a response as they may be evaluating new ideas.
- 05
Offer a competitive analysis
Prepare a brief analysis comparing the sales performance of your target company against local competitors. Highlight specific areas for improvement. Present this information in your outreach to demonstrate your understanding of their market landscape.
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
- Boost your occupancy rates
- Insights on seasonal promotions
- Improve your sales strategy
Questions
- Why do heads of sales in hospitality ignore cold outreach?
- Many heads of sales in hospitality receive numerous cold outreach messages, making them selective. They often prioritize communications that address their immediate challenges, such as increasing bookings or improving customer retention. If your message doesn't clearly align with their current pain points, it is likely to be overlooked.
- What sales metrics do heads of sales focus on?
- Heads of sales in the hospitality sector often focus on metrics like revenue per available room (RevPAR), average daily rate (ADR), and customer acquisition costs. These metrics help them evaluate the effectiveness of their sales strategies and identify areas for improvement.
- How can I effectively engage heads of sales in hospitality?
- Engagement can be enhanced by demonstrating a clear understanding of their industry-specific challenges, such as seasonal demand fluctuations. Providing tailored insights or solutions that address these challenges can make your outreach more compelling and relevant.
- What common objections do heads of sales have to new sales solutions?
- Common objections include concerns about implementation costs, disruption to existing processes, and skepticism about ROI. Addressing these objections directly in your outreach and providing case studies or testimonials can help alleviate their concerns.
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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