Problems › Our Sales Cycle Is Too Long › Hotels & Hospitality
Long cycles are usually the operator failing to build an internal case for the spend against fixed costs, not the seller failing to persuade. For independent hotels, this shows up in a particular place. The numbers that carry the answer are £124.75 and 67.8 %, and the complication specific to this industry is that £11.4 m capex need against £2.3 m annual free cash flow with fixed costs at £41.2 m. The general version of this problem and the one you are actually in have different first moves.
Long cycles are usually the operator failing to build an internal case for the spend against fixed costs, not the seller failing to persuade. For independent hotels, this shows up in a particular place. The numbers that carry the answer are £124.75 and 67.8 %, and the complication specific to this industry is that £11.4 m capex need against £2.3 m annual free cash flow with fixed costs at £41.2 m. The general version of this problem and the one you are actually in have different first moves.
A cycle that runs long is rarely stalled on interest. It is stalled at a specific point — a stage where the deal consistently sits — and that point is normally where the operator has to justify the decision to private shareholders who were never in the room and who see the £11.4 m capex need against £2.3 m annual free cash flow.
Which reframes the fix. Shortening a cycle is mostly a matter of giving the operator the material to win an argument you are not present for: the effect on RevPAR, ADR, GOP and occupancy against the £41.2 m fixed costs.
The other frequent cause is selling to an operator who cannot authorise the spend without shareholder approval. That does not lengthen the cycle so much as add a hidden one at the end.
These three together are the signature. One on its own usually points somewhere else.
✓ Deals consistently stall after the operator presents the numbers to private shareholders.
✓ Forecast dates slip repeatedly once the £2.3 m free cash flow and £11.4 m capex need are compared.
✓ The main competitor in lost deals is no decision once GOP and occupancy projections are reviewed against the £41.2 m fixed costs.
The move that usually makes it worse. Adding follow-up activity, which increases pressure on the operator without giving them anything new to take to the private shareholders.
It is for you if you run or finance an independent hotel and deals consistently stall at the same stage. It is the situation where the numbers are available but nobody has put them in an order that produces a decision.
It is not for you if Percision is the wrong tool if you already know the answer and only need execution capacity, or if the business is pre-revenue — then the constraint is evidence about the market, not analysis of your own figures. Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library. Also wrong if you need facilitation, politics, or someone to sit with a lender or buyer. Those are human jobs.
Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library.
Below is an excerpt from a real run of this analysis on an independent hotel. It is a sample profile rather than a customer, and it is unedited engine output — this is the format you get, on your own numbers.
The subject is Aldermere Hospitality Group, a sample company profile used for testing rather than a customer — £72.4 m total revenue from 1,980 rooms.
Excerpt from a real Percision run · Pricing Strategy · sample company profile
The move. Leverage existing central overhead and owned-asset scale to lock in 6–9 % supplier discounts and energy-price certainty, cutting the fixed-cost ratio from 57 % to 54 % within 18 months.
| Investment required | £180–220 k annual opex (two FTE analysts) plus £50 k one-time hedge setup and legal fees; funded from existing £2.3 m free cash flow. |
| Expected return | Payback within 4–6 months; 5.0–6.4× annual cash-on-cash return once fully ramped (conservative base case). |
| Revenue, year 1 | Cost reduction £0.7–0.9 m (phased implementation from Q2 2027); net GOP uplift £0.5–0.7 m after opex |
| Revenue, year 2 | Full run-rate savings £1.1–1.4 m; GOP margin 27–28 % |
| Revenue, year 3 | Margin sustained at 27–28 %; incremental £0.4–0.6 m cash available for capex or debt reduction |
| Exit criteria | Strategy should be reversed if, within 12 months of launch, (a) realised energy-cost inflation exceeds 10 % versus market or (b) supplier framework discounts fall below 4 % on an annualised basis, OR if cumulative programme opex exceeds £400 k without achieving at least £600 k in verified annual. |
This is one move out of a full analysis. Read a complete report — every page, no email required.
This question routes to Go-to-Market & Commercial Strategy, one of 29 engagements the platform runs. For independent hotels it works through £124.75, 67.8 %, 25.0 % and £18.1 m, then produces the sequence rather than a list of options — which move first, what it funds, and the observation that would say the sequence is wrong.
You watch the analysis get built before paying anything. Read a complete report here if you would rather see the depth first.
Find the stage where deals sit longest and work out what the buyer has to do there. It is almost always an internal approval, and the fix is material rather than persuasion.
It compresses the last step and does nothing to the stalls earlier in the cycle, which is where the time actually goes. It also teaches buyers that waiting is rewarded.
No, if the deal size and win rate justify it. It becomes a problem when the cycle is longer than your cash conversion allows, which is a financing constraint rather than a sales one.
Materially, yes. £11.4 m capex need against £2.3 m annual free cash flow with fixed costs at £41.2 m — which changes both the diagnosis and the order of the fixes. The metrics that decide it here are £124.75, 67.8 %, 25.0 %, and an answer built on industry-general benchmarks will usually point at the wrong one first.
Less than most people expect. Your last twelve months of revenue and cost split the way you already split it, plus whatever you hold on £124.75 and 67.8 %. The analysis is explicit about what it is assuming where your data stops, which is more useful than waiting for numbers you may never have.
Percision is the wrong tool if you already know the answer and only need execution capacity, or if the business is pre-revenue — then the constraint is evidence about the market, not analysis of your own figures. Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library. Also wrong if you need facilitation, politics, or someone to sit with a lender or buyer. Those are human jobs.
Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library.
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