- Report: Hoteliers lose 42 days a year to “toggle tax.”
- Unconnected systems waste 14 percent of operational expenses.
- Respondents cite consolidation benefits and admin time savings.
U.S. HOTELIERS LOSE 42 days a year to the “toggle tax” of disconnected systems, as teams switch platforms, duplicate tasks and manually consolidate data, according to Access Hospitality. The result is added workload across operations, reservations, guest communications, housekeeping, finance and reporting.
Toggle tax is a term coined to describe productivity lost when switching between digital systems.
Hotels use an average of five systems, with managers spending 78 minutes a day switching platforms or stitching data together, equal to more than 42 days lost annually per staff member based on a five-day workweek, the study found. The data shows fragmentation in hotel tech stacks: 15 percent of hotel operators mainly use one integrated system, while 46 percent use five or more systems. U.S. hoteliers report that 14 percent of operational expenses are wasted due to unconnected systems.
“The opportunity for hotel operators is not simply to add more technology,” said Nicola Longfield, Access Hospitality’s chief commercial officer for global accommodation and payments. “It is to remove complexity. Hotels do not need more disconnected dashboards or more manual reconciliation. They need one connected view of the business, one version of the truth, and systems that work together to reduce effort rather than create it.”
Respondents cite benefits of consolidating systems: saving time on daily admin tasks, easier staff training and onboarding, better visibility into business performance, and more accurate financial reporting.
Nearly a third of hotel respondents, 32 percent, said a key benefit would be a single view of the guest journey across rooms, dining and events. Operators also cite strategic benefits: 95 percent agree integrated technology could help scale their business, and 68 percent say real-time consolidated data supports faster decision-making.
The research also points to momentum behind AI, with 32 percent of businesses expecting it to improve customer experience and service quality, and 57 percent of consumers saying technology improved their overall experience.
A recent Hospitality Asset Managers Association study identified demand, the Iran conflict, and wage increases as top hospitality sector concerns. Recession worries have declined for a third consecutive year, with just over 16 percent expecting a U.S. recession in 2026.
