The Otelier Community is where hoteliers, owners, asset managers, finance and revenue teams, and Otelier staff learn from each other. It exists to help you get more from your hotel data and from Otelier's products, including DigiAudit, TruePlan and IntelliSight.

By joining, posting or replying, you agree to these guidelines. They apply to every space in the community: forums, groups, events, direct messages and comments.

Our core values

Four values shape everything else in these guidelines.

• Hospitality first. Treat every member the way you would treat a guest: with warmth, patience and respect.

• Generosity. Share what you know. The best answers come from people who have solved the same problem at their own property.

• Trust. Protect the data, privacy and confidence of guests, colleagues and companies.

• Curiosity. Ask questions, including basic ones. Everyone here started somewhere.

Be respectful and professional

Disagree with ideas, never with people. Members come from independent hotels, brands, management companies and ownership groups, and all of them are welcome.

• Be courteous, even when you are frustrated with a product, a vendor or another member.

• Give feedback that is specific and constructive. Critique the work, not the person.

• Assume good intent. Many members write in a second language or are posting between shifts.

• Respect titles and seniority without deferring to them. A night auditor's insight counts as much as a CFO's.

• No harassment, personal attacks, threats, or discrimination based on race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability or any other protected characteristic.

• Keep politics and other divisive topics out unless they directly affect hotel operations, such as a new tax or labor regulation.

Share knowledge and help each other

A good post gets a good answer. A little context saves everyone a round of follow-up questions.

When you post:

• Search first. Your question may already have an answer.

• Pick the right space or product category, and use a clear title such as "TruePlan: forecasting labor for a seasonal resort".

• Include context: property type, size, region, and which product or integration you use.

• Anonymize screenshots and exports before you share them (see the next section).

When you reply:

• Stay on topic and answer the question that was asked.

• Share what worked at your property, and say what might differ elsewhere.

• Mark the reply that solved your question as the accepted answer, so the next person finds it quickly.

• Credit sources when you share someone else's template, report or idea.

Protect privacy and confidential data

Never post anything you would not want a competitor, a guest or a regulator to read. Posts are visible to other members and may be indexed by search engines.

Do not share:

• Guest data: names, emails, phone numbers, reservation or folio numbers, loyalty IDs, or payment card details.

• Employee data: payroll, schedules tied to named staff, or HR matters.

• Credentials: passwords, API keys, PMS or integration logins, or account IDs.

• Confidential business data: non-public financials, rate strategies, owner reports or contract terms, unless you have authority to share them and have anonymized them.

• Other people's private messages, without their permission.

Before sharing a screenshot or export, blur or remove property names, account numbers and personal data. If you post sensitive data by mistake, delete it and tell a moderator so they can purge any copies.

Keep it relevant

This is a place for learning, not selling. Vendors, consultants and partners are welcome as long as they contribute first.

• No unsolicited sales pitches, cold outreach or mass direct messages.

• Mention your own product or service only when it directly answers a question, and disclose your affiliation every time.

• Post job openings, events and announcements only in the spaces set aside for them.

• No spam, chain posts, affiliate links, or repeated posts of the same content across spaces.

• Do not use member contact details from the community for marketing lists.

Product feedback, ideas and support

Use the community for questions and ideas that others can learn from. Use Otelier Support for anything specific to your account, urgent, or involving your data.

Otelier staff read the community and take part, but a community post is not a support ticket and has no guaranteed response time. Sharing an idea does not mean Otelier will build it, and roadmap comments from staff are not commitments.

Prohibited content

Moderators will remove the following on sight:

• Hate speech, harassment, threats or bullying.

• Sexually explicit, violent or otherwise offensive material.

• Illegal content, or content that encourages illegal activity.

• Content that infringes copyright, trademarks or other intellectual property, including paid reports or software shared without permission.

• Malware, phishing links, or attempts to probe or bypass Otelier's security.

• Impersonation of another person, company or Otelier staff.

• Deliberately false or misleading information, including fake reviews of products or vendors.

• Discussion of competitor pricing aimed at coordinating rates, which may breach competition law.

Moderation and enforcement

Otelier's community team moderates the community and may edit, move or remove content that breaks these guidelines. Most issues end with a friendly note; repeated or serious breaches escalate.

1. Reminder: a private message explaining what went wrong.

2. Content action: the post is edited, hidden or removed.

3. Formal warning: recorded on your account.

4. Temporary suspension: posting is paused, typically for 7 to 30 days.

5. Permanent removal: your community account is closed.

Serious breaches, such as sharing guest data, threats or malware, may skip straight to suspension or removal. Community actions do not affect your Otelier product subscription unless the breach also violates your customer agreement. If you think a decision was wrong, reply to the moderator's message within 14 days to ask for a review by a different team member.

Reporting concerns and updates

If you see something that breaks these guidelines, report it rather than replying to it. Use the Report option on any post or message, or contact the community team directly. Reports are confidential, and retaliation against anyone who reports in good faith is itself a breach.

For anything involving exposed guest or payment data, report it immediately so the team can act within the same business day.

These guidelines sit alongside Otelier's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy; where they conflict, those documents govern. We may update these guidelines as the community grows and will announce material changes in the community.

Many companies depend on strong cross-functional teamwork and relationships to build a product that delivers real value to their customers. Interlock is no exception.

What is cross-functional teamwork?

The phrase “cross-functional” is most commonly used to describe a team made up of people with different functions or skills.

At Interlock, for example, our product teams include designers, programmers, and product managers, unique roles working together as one. Or you might hear the term used when teams from different parts of a business work together on a big project, like the launch of a new product or release.

The phrase “cross-functional” is most commonly used to describe a team made up of people with different functions or skills.

“For organizations to be truly effective, every team needs to consider itself as working cross-functionally all the time, not just on a project by project basis”

In both of these situations, a program or product manager takes the lead, operating as a kind of conductor, making sure all the instruments are in harmony and ensuring everyone knows their role,  timing, and goal.

The journey towards effective automation begins with a clear assessment of current workflows. Pinpointing the bottlenecks and time drains is essential. Companies that have embraced automation find that it's not about replacing the human element, but rather enhancing it, allowing staff to focus on strategic tasks that require a human touch — thus optimizing the overall workflow.

Implementing automation does not come without its challenges. It requires a thoughtful approach that considers the potential for disruption and the learning curve for employees. However, the payoff can be substantial. Businesses that successfully automate experience not only a boost in productivity but also often see an increase in employee satisfaction, as staff are relieved of mundane tasks and can engage in more meaningful work.

Our engineering principle, “shape the solution,” allows us to deliver better customer value and maintain a team of highly engaged, aligned, and motivated individuals. Shaping the solution means that we never blindly execute on requirements defined by others. We deeply understand the value of our work and help design solutions that efficiently deliver that value.

This is the sixth post in a series exploring our product principles. Here, Levent discusses our engineering principle “Shape the solution”.

Engineers are involved from the outset

In a lot of companies, the product development process is based around negotiation. A product owner, business analyst, or product manager articulates the customer’s requirements and passes them on to the engineering team. The engineers provide feedback, generally in the form of pushback, and the parties negotiate towards consensus.

“A truly high-performing, self-organizing team would never organize itself into silos”

Not only does this guarantee that, by design, only one person is empathetic towards the customer’s needs, but it’s the opposite of a culture of collaboration. A truly high-performing, self-organizing team would never organize itself into silos in this way.

At Interlock, our engineering team values marking out the qualities that we think make for great engineers. Engineers who shape the solution from beginning to end:

• Truly care about what they’re working on.

• Want a say in the outcomes they work towards.

• Understand the role collaboration plays in building great products.

Create a post to help us get to know you better. You can use these sample questions to start with:

• What is your current role?

• Share some of your skills and experience!

• What's your favorite thing about working with communities?

• What are your top 3 goals for your community?

• What have you learned recently about community building/community engagement?

Many companies depend on strong cross-functional teamwork and relationships to build a product that delivers real value to their customers. Interlock is no exception.

What is cross-functional teamwork?

The phrase “cross-functional” is most commonly used to describe a team made up of people with different functions or skills.

At Interlock, for example, our product teams include designers, programmers, and product managers, unique roles working together as one. Or you might hear the term used when teams from different parts of a business work together on a big project, like the launch of a new product or release.

The phrase “cross-functional” is most commonly used to describe a team made up of people with different functions or skills.

“For organizations to be truly effective, every team needs to consider itself as working cross-functionally all the time, not just on a project by project basis”

In both of these situations, a program or product manager takes the lead, operating as a kind of conductor, making sure all the instruments are in harmony and ensuring everyone knows their role,  timing, and goal.

The journey towards effective automation begins with a clear assessment of current workflows. Pinpointing the bottlenecks and time drains is essential. Companies that have embraced automation find that it's not about replacing the human element, but rather enhancing it, allowing staff to focus on strategic tasks that require a human touch — thus optimizing the overall workflow.

Implementing automation does not come without its challenges. It requires a thoughtful approach that considers the potential for disruption and the learning curve for employees. However, the payoff can be substantial. Businesses that successfully automate experience not only a boost in productivity but also often see an increase in employee satisfaction, as staff are relieved of mundane tasks and can engage in more meaningful work.