David Manning
Fractional IT Director & Technology Adviser
Embedded enough to understand the business. Independent enough to challenge it. 15 years leading technology across hospitality, leisure and experience brands - now advising as a trusted, outside voice.
Where I add the most value
Engaged fractionally or by project - embedded enough to move fast, independent enough to tell you the truth.
Fractional IT Direction
Interim or part-time technology leadership for businesses that need senior direction without a full-time hire.
Stepping into a growing hospitality group as the senior technology voice in the room - running the roadmap, chairing supplier conversations, and giving the leadership team a straight answer instead of a sales pitch.
Systems Integration
Untangling the estate of PMS, POS, CRM and booking platforms so they actually talk to each other.
Mapping a multi-site operator's disconnected booking, till and guest systems into one integration plan - cutting manual double-entry and giving one true version of the numbers.
CRM, Data & Loyalty
Customer data strategy, loyalty design and the insight infrastructure that turns guests into advocates.
Designing the data model behind a loyalty proposition - deciding what “value” means for a guest, then building the reporting that lets the business act on it.
Digital Transformation
Programme and project delivery for change initiatives, PRINCE2-run, with the customer journey as the north star.
Running the governance behind a multi-workstream transformation programme - timelines, risk, supplier accountability - so delivery stays honest against the plan, not the optimism.
A career built inside the rooms you’re trying to change.
I spent the first decade of my career in-house - leading technology at organisations including The Doyle Collection, Soho House, YOTEL and BirchStreet - across hospitality, leisure and guest-experience businesses in the UK and beyond.
That gave me something most consultants don’t have: I’ve sat in the operator’s chair. I know what a Friday night service disruption actually costs, and what a loyalty programme looks like when nobody in the room agrees on what “success” means.
I now bring that experience to businesses as an independent adviser - close enough to the operation to understand it, far enough outside it to challenge it without an agenda.
Where I’ve led technology
A reverse-chronological look at the businesses I’ve led technology for, in-house and independently.
Independent Consultancy
Since founding Manning Technology Consulting in 2026, I’ve worked as a fractional IT Director and delivery partner to hospitality, leisure and experience-sector businesses - bringing senior-level technology leadership without the overhead of a permanent hire, across embedded board-level engagements and structured project delivery.
Recent engagements include a technology projects consultancy to Everyman Media Limited, one of the UK’s leading independent cinema groups, working directly with their Technology Director on a group-wide transformation programme.
The Roof Gardens
As Director of IT & Digital I held full technology ownership reporting to the CEO and board. The headline programme was a brand-new mobile app, delivered with a digital agency alongside internal full-stack and front-end resources, with deep integrations into Salesforce, Micros Simphony, and the venue’s events and restaurant booking platforms - putting membership, dining and event journeys into a single product.
I also oversaw the technology behind new restaurant and bar openings within the venue, from hardware and infrastructure through to software and payment systems implementation. Alongside the build work I stabilised a fragmented inherited IT estate and put in place the DR and BCP frameworks the business had previously lacked.
The Doyle Collection
As Group Head of IT, I held full technology ownership across The Doyle Collection’s ten-site UK, Ireland and US estate - eight luxury hotels plus two corporate offices - reporting directly to the CFO with full P&L accountability. I defined and executed a multi-year technology roadmap spanning three countries, and led a group-wide network refresh, including a site-to-site SD-WAN rebuild across every property that improved reliability and cut circuit costs.
The standout delivery was securing £1.5m in board and owner investment to replace end-of-life door locks across all eight hotels with Vingcard RFID Bluetooth locks - owning the full lifecycle from business case through vendor selection, Opera PMS integration and phased delivery across 400+ doors per property. I also led the cybersecurity and GDPR programme to a zero-critical-findings audit, and worked with Sales & Marketing to overhaul the CRM and customer data strategy - all while controlling CAPEX and IT P&L at group and hotel level.
Soho House & Co.
Engaged as Soho House’s senior technology programme delivery lead, I worked across 42 member clubs, hotels and offices spanning Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and Asia - reporting to the Head of Global Delivery and the CIO. I directed the launch of Soho House’s mobile app loyalty programme, using member data and personalised content to drive engagement and commercial outcomes globally.
Alongside that, I led programmes spanning network standardisation, cloud migration and security improvements across the estate, and delivered infrastructure consolidation and vendor renegotiations that realigned technology spend with strategic priorities - all without disrupting the day-to-day experience members and staff relied on across four continents.
BirchStreet Systems
As Programme Director, International at BirchStreet Systems - an enterprise SaaS provider of procurement and supply chain platforms for hospitality - I was the senior client-facing programme lead for two of its largest global accounts: Hilton Supply Management and Marriott International, across EMEA and global markets.
I owned end-to-end programme delivery and the full software DevOps lifecycle for both accounts - sprint planning, QA, release governance - while managing client-dedicated delivery teams across the US, Europe and India, maintaining client satisfaction and contract retention through structured governance against enterprise SLAs. It gave me a vendor-side view of hospitality technology most in-house IT leaders never get.
YOTEL
As IT Programme Manager for YOTEL’s global new-build programme, I owned the full IT delivery lifecycle for international hotel openings across nine properties on three continents - including San Francisco, Miami, Boston, London, Amsterdam, Istanbul, Dubai and Singapore - with every property opening on time and fully operational from day one.
I owned RFP, vendor selection and contract negotiation for the networks, telephony, CCTV and security systems behind each opening, and spearheaded integration of core systems - PMS, POS, payments and mobile - so every hotel could run data-driven from day one. I also developed the CAPEX/OPEX budgets and re-wrote YOTEL’s technology brand standards, setting the mandated hardware and configuration baseline for the entire global portfolio.
Appetite is not the problem. Capacity is.
Operators know what they need to build. What they rarely have spare is the senior delivery capacity to build it.
of hotel operators plan to invest in digital guest-experience technology within the next twelve months.
Source: Hotel Industry Customer Experience Statistics, 2026
of hotel tech budgets are still spent maintaining legacy systems - leaving little headroom for the strategic work.
of digital transformations fall short of their objectives. The determining factor is usually delivery, not technology.
Source: BCG, Flipping the Odds of Digital Transformation Success
Let’s talk about your technology.
Whether you’re a business looking for fractional technology leadership, or a recruiter with a role in mind - I’d like to hear from you.
Usually the fastest route - I read every message myself.
Your enquiry has been prepared for david@manningtechconsulting.com.