In today’s dynamic hospitality sector, Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs) have evolved well beyond simple buying alliances. They now serve as critical engines of strategic procurement, cost containment, and digital transformation, particularly through integration with SaaS P2P marketplaces. This shift is revolutionizing how everyone from global hotel chains to independent properties sources goods, manages supplier partnerships, and monitors spend, sustainability, and compliance.
The global GPO service market was valued at roughly USD 8.26 billion in 2024 and is forecast to nearly double to USD 16.84 billion by 2033, representing an 8.24% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the period (Market Reports World, 2025).
GPOs as Procurement Orchestrators in Hospitality
Global GPOs organizations such as Avendra, Foodbuy, Hilton Supply Management (HSM), Integra, and Accor’s Astore aggregate the purchasing volume of numerous hospitality businesses to negotiate competitive pricing and favorable terms. But with the constant pressure from GPO customers, these organizations are becoming far more than passive intermediaries. Faced with escalating demands for speed, transparency, compliance, sustainability and tighter cost control, they have been partnering with third-party SaaS P2P solution providers to build and deliver fully digital procurement ecosystems to their members.
This transition can be understood through the lens of Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) theory. Firms seek to minimize the costs of negotiation, coordination, and enforcement (Williamson, 1985). In the fragmented world of hospitality procurement, with its complex supplier networks and non-standardized practices, GPOs centralize operations, reduce transactional friction, ensure compliance, and helps to drive economies of scale for their members.
Digital Transformation Through SaaS P2P Marketplaces
To meet modern operational and technological demands, many GPOs have adopted cloud-based Procure-to-Pay (P2P) solutions on their services. These digital marketplaces integrate supplier catalogs; automate ordering, receiving, and invoice reconciliation and provide real-time data tracking creating a modern and easy platform for buyers to manage their procurement process.
A centralized P2P platform gives hoteliers access to a wide range of reliable suppliers via a custom-built portal that handles everything from FF&E to consumables procurement, while delivering spend analytics, inventory tracking, and automated reporting. This approach exemplifies Procurement 4.0, which emphasizes connectivity, automation, and data-driven decision-making (Bienhaus & Haddud, 2018), enabling hoteliers to control decentralized procurement without sacrificing local autonomy.
The partnership of GPOs and SaaS P2P platform delivers more than operational efficiency it generates strategic value by combining purchasing power with technological scalability. According to the Resource-Based View (Barney, 1991), sustainable competitive advantage arises from unique, valuable, and hard-to-replicate resources. For hospitality operators, these include real-time data, preferred supplier terms, and seamless workflows, all enabled by the GPO + SaaS P2P partnership.
One of the most compelling reasons for hospitality businesses to partner with GPOs and SaaS P2P providers lies in the Core Competence theory (Prahalad & Hamel, 1990). Hotels excel in delivering guest experiences not in managing supply chain network. By collaborating with GPO and a SaaS P2P solution, hoteliers can benefit from partner’s core competence, digitizing the process and allowing hotels to refocus on what they do best.
As Hagan (1996) notes, leveraging external competencies allows firms to reallocate resources toward innovation and customer-centric services. This model is evident in how GPO allows Hotels to manage expansive supply chains without losing focus on brand and service delivery.
A Triple Helix Approach to Hospitality Procurement
A powerful framework to understand the integration of GPOs, SaaS P2P providers, and hotel operators is the Triple Helix Model. Originally developed to describe collaboration between university, industry, and government (Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff, 1995). Adapted to hospitality, the model illustrates how value is co-created at the intersection of three expert domains:
- GPOs bring supplier networks, pricing leverage, and industry expertise.
- SaaS P2P Providers bring digital infrastructure, workflow automation, Invoice reconciliation, compliance, inventory control and spend analytics.
- Hospitality Operators bring real-world use cases, procurement demand, and operational insight.
This collaborative structure fosters continuous innovation. For example, hotel feedback support P2P product development roadmaps , while GPOs align supplier offerings to the evolving needs of operators. The result is a more resilient, responsive procurement network that improve and modernize the service in the hospitality key players.
Hospitality-Specific Outcomes of the Triple Helix approach
- Innovation Transfer: Knowledge from hotels drives P2P solution feature development (e.g., budget tracking, sustainability scoring), while GPOs streamline new supplier onboarding based on platform feedback loops (Hospitality Net, 2023).
- Data Visibility: P2P platforms let hoteliers centralize and benchmark spend, detect outliers, and forecast future needs, critical during inflationary or supply-constrained periods.
- Global Scalability: SaaS P2P partnerships enable multinational operators to localize procurement while maintaining group-level compliance and pricing through a corporate marketplace.
Looking Ahead: The Digital Procurement Hubs
As the hospitality industry faces rising operational complexity, sustainability requirements, and cost pressure, GPOs will play an increasingly vital role in enabling digital transformation. Through deepening partnerships with SaaS P2P providers, GPOs are no longer just procurement facilitators. GPOs are becoming hubs of innovation and strategic enablers of competitive advantage.
In this new era, the winning formula will belong to those who embrace the triple helix approach. Investing in procurement platforms, and aligning supplier strategy with data-driven decision-making. The future of the hospitality industry isn’t just about buying smarter, it’s about building smarter procurement ecosystems.
Author: Leo Costa, Solutions Consultant, BirchStreet