Scaling Family Business into Data-Driven Hospitality

At the intersection of hospitality and technology sits Shane Middleton, Head of Strategic Alliances at M3.

With experience spanning both corporate hospitality finance and hotel operations, Shane brings a holistic perspective to partnerships. He understands how every role on a property, from the back office to the front desk, influences a hotel’s financial performance and overall success.

This industry insight shaped M3’s partner program. Moving beyond traditional transactions, Shane aligned individual goals with company objectives to build a framework that delivers long-term value and support.

Today, that approach ensures every M3 collaboration is built on shared goals, resilience, and a deep understanding of the hospitality community.

Why Human-Centric Technology Matters in Hospitality

There’s a common concern in hospitality that as technology advances, the human element will disappear. Shane, who transitioned from hotel operations into hospitality tech, sees it differently.

According to Shane, automation isn’t meant to replace people – it’s meant to eliminate repetitive work. He points to the traditional night auditor role, where hours spent on spreadsheets and manual reconciliations can now be streamlined with M3, creating efficiencies that benefit the entire property.

When general managers and department leaders spend less time behind a desk, they reclaim valuable time. This allows them to focus where it matters most, from engaging with guests and anticipating their needs, to strengthening teams through coaching and culture-building.

For hospitality tech providers, success requires the same service, empathy, and support that hotels give their own guests. That’s why Shane rejects purely transactional integrations, even as M3’s ecosystem grows to over 8,000 hotels.

“We look for partners that really deliver product and service together, end-to-end, with the same goals and the same level of service that we promise our customers every day.” – Shane Middleton

[Watch Shane’s full interview series on YouTube]

Beyond RevPAR: The Shift to Profitability and Asset Value

For years, hospitality focused on top-line revenue, but capped room rates have limited that growth. Today, Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) isn’t the only metric that matters. Shane challenges owners and operators to look beyond revenue and focus on profitability and Net Operating Income (NOI) to truly drive long-term value.

Hospitality is fundamentally a real estate business. When markets flatten, growing asset value and NOI means looking beyond rooms to maximize profitability across the entire property.

Shane believes the next growth frontier lies in everyday operational areas like parking, retail, and F&B. In uncertain markets, these steady revenue streams protect margins and boost cash flow.

“There’s a lot of revenue opportunities there that people don’t see. Sometimes your simple things are where the most opportunity is.” – Shane Middleton

With modern technology, hotel owners and operators finally have the real-time visibility and data needed to spot these opportunities and act fast.

Surviving a Fragmented Tech Landscape + AI

Hospitality technology is notoriously fragmented, forcing operators to juggle dozens of disconnected systems. Rather than one all-in-one platform, Shane believes the industry is moving toward a few deeply integrated solutions that reduce complexity.

“We’ve got to find a way to get 30 systems at a hotel down to 15, then to 10, and eventually to five. The next two to three years are going to be really interesting to see who starts working together.” – Shane Middleton 

Instead of rebuilding existing tools, he argues providers must focus on connected ecosystems – a philosophy enabled by the advent of AI tools and integrations.

For Shane, AI’s biggest opportunity lies in the back office. By organizing massive operational data and automating repetitive tasks, AI doesn’t replace staff; it frees managers from administrative burdens so they can focus on their teams and guests. 

The winners in the AI space will be those who solve real operational challenges while keeping hospitality centered on the human experience.

Building Partnerships Around the Customer Journey

For Shane, technical partnerships are about more than software integrations – they are about enhancing the entire customer journey. This philosophy drives M3’s curated ecosystem, which prioritizes quality and alignment over sheer volume.

True partnership brings teams together to work alongside their technology. When across-the-board teams, including Product and Customer Success, work as extensions of one another, they can easily uncover hidden operational friction points like manual workflows and unnecessary clicks.

Ultimately, Shane believes the strongest partners adapt their products and support models to hospitality’s unique needs. The payoff is better technology adoption, seamless customer experiences, and meaningful operational impact.

Join The Conversation

If you would like to share your perspective or be a guest on an upcoming episode of SpotOn, please reach out to Tiffany Gabriel at tiffany@getocra.com.

About Ocra

Ocra is the first AI-powered revenue management platform purpose-built for hotel parking assets. Hotels use Ocra to sell underutilized parking inventory to non-guest customers without adding labor or disrupting operations, increasing net operating income (NOI) while never compromising guest parking. 

25+ hotel groups partner with Ocra to achieve optimum yield of their parking assets – including MCR, Starwood Capital Group, Aimbridge, Stonebridge, Highwood Properties, Concord Hospitality, and OTH Hotels & Resorts. Ocra has raised $10M in strategic funding to date – $3.5M in an oversubscribed round in April 2024 led by MCR and Parker Technology, and $5M led by Trestle Partners with significant follow-on from MCR in August 2025. 

Ocra was named the winner of the 2026 ALIS Tech Challenge and was ranked #1 overall on Hotel Tech Report’s Global Best Parking Management software list in the 2026 HotelTechAwards.For more information, visit getocra.com or email info@getocra.com.