Skip to content
Harborby Signalry
Owner / assetThis renewal

Job brief

Prove a vendor paid for itself in 90 days

How and who for the hotel job—verified when attested.

When a contract is up and the deck is all logos, I want a 90-day proof so I can renew, cut, or renegotiate on a number the owner will read.

Usable on this screen

Scoped brief

Pick one contract. Rebuild the promise as a number you can observe in 90 days. Pull the baseline from the PMS or the utility, not from the vendor QBR. Ashcroft sits on the owner side. A kill is a successful job.

Outcome
A one-page ROI with a named baseline, a named window, and a caveat. Renew or exit written before the sales call.
Catalog budget band
$8–25k review. A worksheet range, not a quote.
Catalog timeline
2–4 weeks of evidence, not a new project. Not a promise.
  1. Step 1

    Restate the promise as a criterion

    If they sold ‘efficiency,’ write the labor hours or the kWh. If they sold ‘direct mix,’ write contribution after commission.

  2. Step 2

    Lock the baseline before the argument

    Same season, weather-normalized if energy, occupancy-held if mix. The vendor does not pick the baseline.

  3. Step 3

    Write the caveat on the same page

    What would have happened anyway. What you cannot attribute. Harbor will not list a proof without a caveat.

  4. Step 4

    Decide before the renewal call

    Renew, cut, or renegotiate. Shopping operators in the same breath is only leverage if you mean it.

Provider shortlist

  1. People

    Ashcroft Asset Advisors

    Owner asset management

    Catalog score 8.8. A post-job shape, not a verification. Stable id ashcroft.

  2. Software· demo

    Ledgerlight Accounting

    Hotel accounting & night audit export

    Catalog score 7.8. A post-job shape, not a verification. Stable id ledgerlight.

  3. People

    Sable Underwriting Desk

    Boutique acquisition underwriting

    Catalog score 8.9. A post-job shape, not a verification. Stable id sable-desk.

Leave a record

The next hotel starts from what you leave

Harbor by Signalry stays hotels only. A description, a claim, and a reported result each leave a stable id behind. Nothing here is a price, a customer, or a verification.

  • Buyer

    Describe your job

    No account. Harbor by Signalry opens the closest catalog brief, when not to buy, and a shortlist. A weak sentence stays on the catalog.

    Open a brief
  • Supplier

    Join as a supplier

    Company, jobs served, regions, and a hotel reference. The packet is queued as unverified pending. The form cannot mark it verified.

    Start a claim
  • Hotel

    Record a result

    A metric, before and after, and the dates. It is shown as reported until a person checks the evidence. Verified Outcome is not insurance.

    Record a result

AdviceNo baseline, no ROI. A percentage without a window is a brochure.

ClaimedMost ‘3x ROI’ slides skip the counterfactual.

Situation

What is actually on fire

A vendor QBR with a baseline the vendor picked. The IC wants proof it paid for itself. The house cannot name the start number.

Approaches

Two or three paths — with the give

Owner-picked baseline + 90-day criterion

When. You can freeze a number on day 0

You give. The vendor may refuse a fair test

Believe the deck

When. You want a slide

You give. You will re-buy the same story

Hold and write the baseline this week

When. The contract is not signed yet

You give. A delayed start date

Who to involve

  • · Owner / asset
  • · GM
  • · Controller
  • · Vendor (after the baseline is written)

First 7 days

YAML-shaped: day / theme / tasks / owner / risk / exit. Advice until a case is verified.

  1. day: 1

    Freeze the baseline

    • · Write the day-0 number the vendor did not pick.
    owner:
    Owner + controller
    risk:
    Vendor baseline
    exit:
    Signed start number
  2. day: 2

    Name the criterion

    • · 90-day done, inspectable, with a caveat.
    owner:
    GM
    risk:
    A vibe metric
    exit:
    Written criterion
  3. day: 3

    When not to buy

    • · Write the kill. Same page as the price.
    owner:
    Owner
    risk:
    No kill clause
    exit:
    When-not-to-buy line
  4. day: 4

    Evidence path

    • · What extract a third party could read. No PII.
    owner:
    Controller
    risk:
    A dashboard login as proof
    exit:
    Named extract
  5. day: 5

    Vendor call

    • · Worksheet. Must-pass questions first.
    owner:
    GM
    risk:
    Demo theater
    exit:
    Scored checklist
  6. day: 6

    Hold or hire

    • · If they fail must-pass, stop.
    owner:
    Owner
    risk:
    Sunk-cost yes
    exit:
    Go / no-go
  7. day: 7

    Store the intent

    • · Claim, evidence, caveat, price — locally.
    owner:
    GM
    risk:
    Nothing written
    exit:
    Harbor intent saved

Decision worksheet

Questions, red flags, bands

Take this to a vendor call. Budget bands are Advice — a Harbor shape, not a quote.

Ask the vendor

  1. 1. Who types the status / number — a person, or your product?
  2. 2. What would have happened anyway in 90 days without you?
  3. 3. Show a property of this size and stack. Demo-labeled categories do not count as proof.
  4. 4. What can your agent never do (folio post, mark clean, change a rate)?
  5. 5. What is the kill-switch if guest comments move?

Red flags

  • · Letting the vendor pick the window.
  • · Counting logins as value.
  • · An advisor paid by the vendor under review.

When not to buy. Do not hire the vendor to grade their own homework. A referral-fee advisor is not an advisor.

Do it in-house

Time and a named owner. No vendor. Use the 7-day plan first.

$8–25k review

Typical Harbor band for this job — advice, not a quote.

Full program

People + system + 90-day proof. Only if the 7-day plan already failed.

Vendor checklist

Score the call. Keep it on this browser.

Weighted questions — yes/no, scale, or text. Must-pass ids persist on this browser. Pass threshold 70. A no on a must-pass is a walk-away — not a maybe.

Brand
Stack shape — not a partnership
  1. property context · weight 2 · must pass

    Can they name your key count and whether you are independent, soft-brand, or major — without a discovery theater?

  2. property context · weight 2 · must pass

    Do they treat your PMS as a shape (Opera-class / Mews-class / Cloudbeds-class) — not a fake partnership slide?

  3. control · weight 3 · must pass

    Who types the status / number — a person, or your product?

  4. vendor · weight 2

    What would have happened anyway in 90 days without you?

  5. vendor · weight 2

    Show a property of this size and stack. Demo-labeled categories do not count as proof.

  6. vendor · weight 2

    What can your agent never do (folio post, mark clean, change a rate)?

  7. vendor · weight 2

    What is the kill-switch if guest comments move?

Does not clear

0 / 100

must_pass: prove-vendor-roi-90d-ctx-rooms, prove-vendor-roi-90d-ctx-stack, prove-vendor-roi-90d-q1

A must-pass failed. Walk away.

How

The brief

Pick one contract. Rebuild the promise as a number you can observe in 90 days. Pull the baseline from the PMS or the utility, not from the vendor QBR. Ashcroft sits on the owner side. A kill is a successful job.

  1. Step 1

    Restate the promise as a criterion

    If they sold ‘efficiency,’ write the labor hours or the kWh. If they sold ‘direct mix,’ write contribution after commission.

  2. Step 2

    Lock the baseline before the argument

    Same season, weather-normalized if energy, occupancy-held if mix. The vendor does not pick the baseline.

  3. Step 3

    Write the caveat on the same page

    What would have happened anyway. What you cannot attribute. Harbor will not list a proof without a caveat.

  4. Step 4

    Decide before the renewal call

    Renew, cut, or renegotiate. Shopping operators in the same breath is only leverage if you mean it.

Tradeoffs

  1. Owner-side 90-day memo

    You get. A number you can take to IC

    You give. Cash and a vendor who may not like the answer

  2. Vendor QBR

    You get. Lunch

    You give. The baseline

Pitfalls

  • · Letting the vendor pick the window.
  • · Counting logins as value.
  • · An advisor paid by the vendor under review.

Success criteria

  • · Baseline and window written before evidence pull.
  • · Caveat on the same page as the number.
  • · Renew/cut/renegotiate decided before the sales call.

Who

Ranked for this job

Rank is post-job score, then listed order. Not for sale. Software marked demo is an archetype.

Agencies & contractors

Systems

AI agents

None ranked in AI agents yet. Harbor will not invent a provider.

Loading the compare table…

Compare

When to pick whom

People do the work beside the desk. Software is a system — demo-labeled when it is a category shape. Agents draft; they do not post money or mark a room clean.

ProviderKindScoreFeePick whenWalk away when
Ashcroft Asset AdvisorsPeople
8.8
$25–60k engagement or $8k/month retainerOwners who want a second set of books that is not the manager's.Branded flags looking for a PIP vendor.
Sable Underwriting DeskPeople
8.9
$35–75k buy-side memoFirst-time or small-fund buyers of a single boutique.Institutional portfolios with an in-house desk.
Ledgerlight AccountingSoftware· demo
7.8
Demo · $250–600 / monthOwner-operators tired of a generic bookkeeper file.Multi-brand portfolios with a shared-service finance team.

Open graph

Hotels on this job

Evidence

Peer case studies

Nearby jobs