What does a fractional CTO for hospitality actually do?

A fractional CTO gives your hospitality business technology leadership a few days a month instead of as a full-time salary: setting direction, making the build-or-buy calls, holding vendors to account and unblocking the decisions that have sat in the too-hard pile for a year. For most groups under a certain size, it's the difference between having a technology strategy and having a collection of subscriptions.

What does the work actually look like?

Setting direction, not sitting in the weeds

Working out what the stack should look like in two years, what gets kept, replaced or bridged, and in what order. The days are spent on decisions and specifications, with your existing suppliers and staff doing the building. That's cheaper for you and the right use of everyone.

Owning the vendors

Contract renewals read before they auto-renew, integration promises tested rather than believed, and someone in the room who's heard every pitch before. Vendors behave differently when the customer has a technical adult at the table.

Being a sounding board

In the boardroom, in planning meetings, or on the phone before a decision that's hard to reverse. Twenty years of running venues and writing their software means the advice comes from having lived both sides, not from a framework.

When does fractional beat hiring?

A full-time technology lead makes sense when there's full-time technology work: a platform being built, a large estate, constant change. Most hospitality groups have intense bursts of technology need separated by long stretches where things just need to keep running. Fractional fits that shape: enough presence to keep direction and stay close to what's happening, without becoming another salary on the P&L. And when the time for a permanent hire comes, part of the job is writing that person's spec and helping you choose well.

Who this is for

• Multi-site groups whose technology decisions currently default to whoever shouts loudest
• Founders raising investment who need the technology story to withstand due diligence
• Operators with one indispensable contractor and no second opinion
• Businesses between technical hires, or unsure whether they need one at all

What it costs and what to expect

The common shape is a few days a month on a retainer you can cancel monthly, so it earns its place or it ends, plus defined projects when something specific needs doing. Every engagement is quoted after a free call because the honest price depends on the estate and the ambition. Expect the first weeks to produce a prioritised list rather than a grand strategy document; the grand documents are usually where momentum goes to die.

How to start

Book a free 30 minute call via the contact page. Bring the decision you've been putting off; that's usually the fastest way to find out whether this shape fits.