Procurement — Photo by HN

The hospitality industry is continuously evolving, significantly influencing operations and guest experiences. Comparing procurement trends in the hospitality industry from 2024 to 2025 shows that procurement is no longer just an operational task. It has become a crucial part of driving innovation and sustainable growth. Trends like full automation, AI, open access to data, and strategic partnerships with vendors powered by P2P solutions are improving efficiency and creating value in new and transformative ways.

Here are the top five key emerging themes in global procurement that are transforming the hospitality industry as we move from 2024 to 2025:

Consolidating Fragmented Systems into Unified Platforms

What's Out: Isolated point solutions that result in data silos, hindering a comprehensive spending overview. Hotels often employ multiple systems to manage various procurement elements such as sourcing, purchasing, invoice approval, and payments, leading to fragmented visibility of expenditures.

What's In: Comprehensive procure-to-pay (P2P) platforms that offer complete transparency and organisational control. By integrating all procurement activities into a single cohesive system, these platforms provide real-time insights into spending. This holistic perspective empowers hotel management to detect inefficiencies and make informed, cost-cutting decisions.

Why it Matters: Consider a global hotel chain that transitioned from utilising an array of disparate systems to a streamlined, integrated procure-to-pay platform. This transformation has granted unprecedented visibility into spending through consolidated procurement data, enabling the hotel to pinpoint supplier overlaps and negotiate more favourable contract terms, which in turn delivers significant cost efficiencies.

Key Benefits:

  • Enhanced Spend Visibility: Real-time monitoring of expenditures across categories, departments, and locations.
  • Improved Compliance: Enforcing procurement policies and meeting regulatory requirements.
  • Cost Reduction: Better negotiation opportunities, prevention of unauthorised spending, and well-informed purchase decisions.
  • Increased Efficiency: Workflow optimisation, task automation, and error reduction.

Shift from Manual Processes to Automated Workflows

What's Out: Slow, mistake-prone manual tasks that lower productivity and increase costs. Traditional procurement involves manual data entry, paper approvals, and inefficient communication, often resulting in errors and delays.

What's In: Automated processes that improve procurement efficiency. P2P platforms automate purchase orders, invoices, and approvals, allowing teams to focus on important tasks like managing relationships and negotiating contracts. AI helps with tasks like spend analysis, enabling strategic decision-making.

Why It Matters: Imagine a boutique hotel adopting automated invoice processes, cutting the invoice cycle by 70% with P2P technology. This change reduces late and incorrect payments, allowing teams to focus on strategic areas like supplier management.

Key Benefits:

  • Elevated Productivity: Automation lets staff focus on valuable tasks.
  • Reduced Errors: Consistent processes reduce manual errors.
  • Accelerated Processing: Fast procurement cycles and delivery.
  • Enhanced Accuracy: Maintains data integrity and reduces costly mistakes.

From Data Silos to Data Democratisation

What's Out: Data silos that restrict access to key information, hindering decisions. In many organisations, procurement data is separated across systems, making it hard to access and analyse.

What's In: Data democratisation that allows stakeholders access to key procurement data. Modern P2P platforms provide self-service dashboards and reports, enabling real-time data interaction. This transparency improves collaboration and data-led decision-making across the organisation.

Why It Matters: Consider a global hotel chain with independent regional procurement departments. This often leads to redundant purchases and missed bulk discounts. By centralising procurement data through data democratisation, organisations can make better decisions on supplier contracts and cost-saving measures.

Key Benefits:

  • Informed Decision-Making: Stakeholders have access to accurate data.
  • Enhanced Collaboration: Better interdepartmental cooperation.
  • Heightened Transparency: Promotes accountable procurement practices.
  • Improved Insights: Better understanding of spend patterns to optimise.

From Reactive to Proactive Risk Management

What's Out: The old way was to deal with problems once they appeared, such as supply chain issues or price hikes. This could cause delays and hurt a hotel's reputation.

What's In: Using advanced procurement tools helps hotels plan for risks before they happen. This means monitoring suppliers and having strategies for handling outages. It protects their reputation and keeps finances on track.

Why It Matters: Imagine a hotel that faced delays due to unexpected supply chain issues. By planning ahead, they learned to spot potential problems with suppliers and created backup plans, avoiding costly holdups.

Key Benefits:

  • Stronger Supply Chains: Avoiding disruptions keeps things running smoothly.
  • Cost Savings: Avoiding expensive delays and related issues.
  • Better Reputation: Protecting the brand while ensuring customer happiness.
  • More Agility: Quickly adapting to changes and surprises.

From Cost Reduction to Value Creation

What's Out: Just focusing on cutting costs misses out on supplier quality and innovation.

What's In: A smarter procurement focuses on creating value and long-term supplier relationships. Hotels are shifting to strategies that go beyond saving money, aiming for lasting benefits and better guest experiences.

Why It Matters: A branded hotel saw growth limited by only focusing on cutting costs. They decided to shift efforts to strategic sourcing, long-term supplier partnerships, and fostering innovation. By building strong relationships with suppliers, they were able to unlock new opportunities, improve offerings, and create truly exceptional guest experiences.

Key Benefits:

  • Better Supplier Ties: Building trustworthy and cooperative relationships.
  • Increased Innovation: Using supplier insights to enhance offerings and customer experience.
  • Sustainable Practices: Promoting eco-friendly buying and reducing environmental impact.
  • Competitive Edge: Gaining a strategic advantage through effective sourcing and supplier networking.

Takeaways

The hotel industry is stepping into a new age of procurement with technology and data insights leading the way. Hotel leaders must adopt advanced technology that makes processes easier and provides valuable insights, build strong partnerships for efficient supply chains, and stay ready to quickly adapt to market shifts.

By investing in new procurement tools, your organisation can gain a competitive advantage, becoming more resilient, driving innovation, and leading in the industry. This change demands a forward-thinking approach, strategically considering each step, similar to a strategic game, to foresee and outpace the competition. By leaving behind outdated methods and embracing the future, your organisation is poised to lead the hospitality sector in 2025!

About FutureLog

FutureLog provides a fully integrated, cloud-based procure-to-pay platform for the hospitality industry. We facilitate an end-to-end procurement process from purchasing, through inventory management and up to invoice processing; all available in one platform to save you time and money. The FutureLog procure-to-pay platform is the foundation for seamless connectivity between Hotel Operations, Corporate Centres and Suppliers.

Suzanne Ward
Vice President Digital Marketing and Communication
+41 41 759 1861
FutureLog AG