DaPhi Hotel Connectivity Study 2026: What We Found

For six years, we've been asking German hospitality the same question: where does the industry actually stand when it comes to IT infrastructure and connectivity? Not what vendors promise, not what associations report. What hoteliers genuinely experience, what they spend, who they work with, and how guests rate the result. The sixth edition of the DaPhi Connectivity Study is the most comprehensive to date. And the findings are clearer than ever.

Methodology: how the study was built

The study was conducted in Q1 2026. A total of 178 hotels were surveyed and over 600 datasets were analysed. The approach combines two distinct methods. Direct hotelier surveys covering IT budgets, service provider usage, and outsourced tasks. And an external data analysis based on Booking.com ratings, systematically evaluating WiFi scores and overall ratings across 168 hotels.

That combination is deliberate. Hotelier self-reporting shows what operators plan and prioritise. External review data shows what guests actually experience. Only together do they produce a complete picture. Using just one source always reveals only half the truth.

Why this is already the sixth edition

Studies on IT in hospitality are not hard to find. Most appear once, get cited, and disappear. What DaPhi does differently: we've been tracking the same core indicators continuously since 2020. IT spending as a share of revenue, use of external providers, outsourced task areas. That enables genuine trend statements, not snapshots.

The share of hotels working with external IT providers has risen from 65% in 2020 to over 72% in 2026. IT spending has grown from 3.2% to 3.9% of revenue. These aren't dramatic jumps, but they show a clear direction. An industry catching up, slowly but visibly.

DaPhi CEO Phillip Krey puts it directly:

"Over the past six years, we've observed a clearly growing awareness of IT in hospitality. Rising guest expectations around connectivity meets a complexity in regulations that is becoming increasingly difficult for hoteliers to manage without external help."

The 2026 focus topic: guest experience and WiFi ratings

Each edition of the study sets a thematic focus. For 2026, the question was how strongly WiFi quality influences the guest experience and, with it, a hotel's overall rating. The answer came out more clearly than we expected.

The average WiFi rating on Booking.com sits at 8.5. Almost all hotels land between 8 and 9, with just under 6% achieving a rating above 9.5. Stable WiFi is no longer an extra for guests. It's a baseline requirement. Deliver it and you don't get noticed. Fail to deliver it and you get remembered for the wrong reason.

More telling is the correlation with overall ratings. Hotels that perform well on WiFi also score better overall. Hardly any hotel with a weak WiFi rating manages an overall score above 8.0. That's not coincidence. WiFi is a visible indicator of the underlying IT infrastructure. Properties that get that right benefit across the board.

What the numbers say about the industry

Three findings stand out from the study. First: the IT budget gap is real. At 3.9% of revenue, hospitality remains significantly below the SME average of 5.8%. At the same time, 78% of hoteliers plan to increase their IT spending. The awareness is there. The execution is still catching up.

Second: external IT providers are no longer the exception in hospitality. 72% of hotels work with an MSP. The main reasons hoteliers give are a shortage of skilled IT staff, growing system complexity, and the difficulty of ensuring reliable 24/7 availability with internal teams.

Third: what gets outsourced is what causes the most damage internally when it fails. Cyber security leads clearly at 76%, followed by monitoring (51%), managed workplace (47%), cloud and infrastructure (40%), and helpdesk (35%).

DaPhi as publisher: why we run this study

We're an IT company, not a research institute. Why have we invested in this for six years? Because we're convinced that good decisions need data. Many hoteliers we speak with have no clear picture of how their property compares to the industry. Whether their IT budget is appropriate. Whether their WiFi rating is costing them bookings.

The study provides those benchmarks. Not as marketing material, but as an honest assessment of an industry in transition. If a hotelier reads the study and comes away with a clearer understanding of where they stand and what they can do, it has served its purpose. Whether they then speak to DaPhi or not.

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FAQ: DaPhi Connectivity Study 2026

What is the DaPhi Hotel Connectivity Study?

The DaPhi Connectivity Study is an annual survey of IT infrastructure and connectivity in German hospitality. The 2026 edition is the sixth. It combines direct hotelier surveys with external data analysis from Booking.com ratings, providing a data-driven benchmark that gives hoteliers genuine points of comparison rather than generic industry observations.

How many hotels were included in the 2026 study?

178 hotels participated in the study. In addition, over 600 datasets were analysed, including external WiFi and overall ratings from 168 hotels on Booking.com. The combination of self-reported data and external review data enables a more complete analysis than survey-only approaches.

What was the focus topic of the 2026 study?

The 2026 focus was the influence of WiFi quality on the guest experience and hotel overall ratings. The analysis shows a clear correlation: hotels with strong WiFi ratings also receive better overall scores. Hardly any hotel with a weak WiFi rating manages an overall Booking.com score above 8.0.

How can I access the full study?

The study teaser is freely available. The full edition can be requested via daphi.de. DaPhi makes the study available to hoteliers and industry stakeholders without charge. The goal is to give the industry reliable data, not to generate leads.

How long has the study been running and what has changed?

The first edition appeared in 2020. Since then, the same core indicators have been tracked annually, enabling genuine trend analysis. Over that period, the share of hotels with an external IT provider has risen from 65% to over 72%. IT spending has grown from 3.2% to 3.9% of revenue. The industry is developing, but the gap to the SME average remains.

Is the study available for download?

The study is available here (german only): Link

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Data the industry actually needs

The sixth edition of the DaPhi Connectivity Study is more than a collection of percentages. It's a benchmark for an industry in the middle of a real transition. IT has arrived in hospitality, but the path to a genuinely professional digital infrastructure isn't finished. If you want to understand where your property sits in that picture, daphi.de is the starting point.

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