Pyramid Global Hospitality

Molly Preston

Hospitality Procurement Authority

Molly Preston has more than 20 years of experience in hospitality and procurement operations. Her work spans supplier relations, group purchasing programs, enterprise sales and procurement technology.

It’s been more than two decades since I began my hospitality career, making pizzas and sandwiches as a student at Texas A&M University. From there, I moved into food & beverage leadership on campus and spent time after college as a dining director before transitioning into procurement operations. This progression helped carve a path to leadership roles in supplier management and procurement technology, and ultimately lead me to my current role overseeing procurement for Pyramid Global Hospitality and its portfolio of more than 200 properties.

Looking Beyond the Lowest Price

Procurement is about much more than negotiating the best price or securing a strong contract. Purchasing decisions affect a significant number of operational considerations, such as labor, product consistency, compliance, sustainability, supplier reliability and, most importantly, the guest experience.

Sometimes the lowest-price option can turn out to be the most expensive choice when the full operating cost is considered. A product may initially be more attractive because of a lower upfront expense, but it could create excess waste, require additional handling or demand more labor from the property team. Similarly, if a supplier offers a great price but provides inconsistent delivery, a hotel might be left managing emergency purchases and business disruptions.

A negotiated program may look exceptional on paper, but it creates no value unless property teams can execute it consistently. Procurement work cannot end when a contract is signed. It must continue through implementation, adoption and accountability.

That means measuring value where the work happens. Does the product perform as expected? Can the team order it easily? Does it arrive reliably? Does it reduce waste or avoid extra steps? Is the warranty claim process a hassle or easy? Those answers help leaders compare total cost rather than unit price alone and reveal whether a contract is delivering value after it is signed.

At Pyramid Global Hospitality, we support a diverse portfolio of hotels, and applying that broader definition of value requires us to account for different operating realities, ownership priorities, brands, guests, and market conditions. We partner with Avendra, one of the best GPOs in hospitality, and they give our properties access to vetted suppliers, products and services with competitive bottom-line costs. Our role is to help translate those programs into practical value at the property level.

Turning Data and Technology into Action

Determining whether a procurement program is delivering that value requires visibility. Over the past decade, the industry has gained access to significantly more purchasing and operating data.  With emerging technologies accelerating that trend, it can sometimes feel like we are drinking from a fire hose.

Access to more information is valuable, but only if we have the technology and resources to turn it into actionable insights for our strategies and properties. Connecting purchasing, receiving, inventory, invoice and contract data helps identify missing purchase orders, pricing discrepancies, duplicate charges, off-program purchasing and unusual consumption. AI can highlight these exceptions and direct attention to areas requiring action.

The goal is to identify problems earlier, correct recurring pricing issues and prevent waste. Technology should reduce administrative effort and give property teams more capacity to focus on employees and guests.

One example is Checkbook, a dashboard within Pyramid’s proprietary data and analytics platform, NEO. It gives property leaders real-time visibility into performance by department and cost center, allowing them to identify variances and take corrective action earlier. Leaders can also drill down to invoice-level detail to understand what is driving performance. This turns data into something operational: a clearer view of where the property is tracking, what requires attention, and where action can protect the operating budget.

Balancing Sustainability and Reliability

Sustainability is another area where procurement decisions must balance multiple definitions of value. Guests and corporate travel buyers increasingly expect hotels to demonstrate measurable environmental practices.

Third-party sustainability certification is one way hotels can demonstrate that commitment. At Pyramid, we partner with Green Key Global to help properties pursue Green Key certification. The program gives hotels a structured framework to assess practices such as energy and water conservation, waste management, and responsible purchasing. Certification can also be displayed on property websites, giving guests and meeting planners greater visibility when making booking decisions.

Procurement’s responsibility is to keep pace with these expectations while ensuring sustainability initiatives work within the realities of daily hotel operations. A solution must be environmentally responsible, operationally practical and supported by a reliable supply chain.

Building a People-Centered Future

The opportunity to make a real difference for people is what has kept me in hospitality for more than two decades. At its core, hospitality requires heart, genuine care and a desire to make a difference in others’ lives. That human purpose should also guide how we evaluate technology and procurement decisions.

As AI and other technologies become a bigger part of hotel operations, people naturally wonder what that will mean for jobs. Technology will continue to change how we work, but hospitality remains fundamentally a person-to-person business. The best technology should give our teams more capacity to focus on the guest, not take the human element out of the experience.

My advice to future leaders in hospitality operations and procurement is to listen to the people closest to the work. They understand where processes break down, where products underperform, and where invisible labor is being absorbed. Bringing those perspectives into purchasing and operational decisions can reduce friction, improve consistency and give teams more time to focus on the guest. Ultimately, that’s what hospitality is about.