Host Hotel Systems builds hospitality management software for small to mid-sized independent hotels and national chains. The platform covers property management, point of sale, CRM, booking engines, and data analytics. Host is the market leader in Portugal, serving 1,000+ hotel properties.

““We were considering a three-year plan. “You can imagine the impact when it happened in six months.”“

When Banyan Software acquired Host in August of 2025, the business was in a strong position. Market leader in Portugal, steady growth, loyal customer base. The leadership team had identified three strategic pillars over the next three years: launching integrated payments, building a data lake to commercialize their hospitality data, and expanding internationally. Juan Correia, who joined initially as CFO in July 2025, transitioned into the CEO role to lead this next chapter.

Payments: live in six months, not three years. Host had identified payments as a growth opportunity but was still in early conversations with potential partners. After the acquisition, a European-level payment partner deal gave Host competitive terms it couldn’t have reached independently. An investment in a  dedicated payments specialist, partnering with Banyan’s Head of Payments drove go-to-market strategy from day one. From initial discussions in December to a live customer in March. Host now has 11 deals closed onboarding.

The data lake went from concept to revenue. Host was in the early stages of conceptualizing a data lake to underpin future roadmap and open up new adjacent opportunities from organizations and industries who value the wealth of hospitality data within the Host ecosystem. The acquisition unlocked the investment and engineering capacity to accelerate this significantly. Strategic oversight from Banyan’s Head of AI has fundamentally enhanced, accelerated and future-proofed the solution. . Host now has paying customers for its data product, including hotels and adjacent industries who don’t use Host’s core solutions.

For Juan, this is the foundation everything else gets built on. “We represent one of if not the  most important sources of truth for hotel data in Portugal. That’s a very strong thing to be able to say. I can build a lot of products on top of that information.” Two of his next three strategic pillars are now built on this layer.

International expansion, reimagined. As a standalone company, Host might have pursued one acquisition to enter a new market. Now they’re evaluating 15+ potential tuck-in targets across Spain, with conversations extending into Germany, Brazil, and South Africa. “It’s like being able to look up while you’re running,” Juan says.

Platform modernization, accelerated. Host’s core PMS runs on legacy architecture. An engineering team is arriving in April to begin rewriting the core product, compressing what was a two-year internal plan into six to twelve months. For Juan, this was the missing piece. “I can focus on strategic development instead of worrying about my product structure. When they told me they’d help us do it in six months instead of two years, it was transformative.”

Structure and financial discipline. Host established a board of managers and vertical departmental structure for the first time. Monthly close discipline gives the team sharper visibility into KPIs, bookings, and recurring revenue. A dedicated portfolio lead engaged weekly provides a strategic thinking partner who understands the business at a granular level.

Juan is already planning the next set of strategic pillars. The first three are underway. He expects the next round, heavily connected to AI, to follow the same pattern: designed as a three-year plan, delivered in one.

He describes the experience with Banyan like this: “It’s like Banyan stocked the kitchen for us, and we just get to focus on being great chefs. If you’re ambitious and clear on what you need, you’ll have all the support you need.”

And for other software leaders weighing their options, his advice is simple: “Do you want to survive, or do you want to grow? If you want to survive and keep doing what you’re doing, this isn’t the right fit. If you want to scale, this is absolutely the place to be.”