The AI Enhancement Audit · £997, fixed scope
An AI audit of your CRM stack. Read-only. Fixed price.
£997, fixed price, delivered in 10 working days. We built a live operating platform for a UK serviced-accommodation operator by reading the systems they already had, not replacing them. The audit is how that kind of work starts.
The story
A real build, told straight
The situation
A UK serviced-accommodation operator ran bookings through Hostaway, and Hostaway did that job well. Everything around the bookings was the problem. Monthly P&Ls were rebuilt by hand. Costs were reconciled late, and sometimes twice. Facilities jobs, guest issues, property setup and team responsibilities lived across spreadsheets, inboxes and disconnected tools, and nothing was tracked through to completion. None of that is unusual. It is what happens when a business grows past the point its spreadsheets were designed for, and growth was making the manual approach slower and more error-prone every month.
The decision that mattered
The obvious move, replacing the booking system with something that does more, was the wrong one. The booking system worked. The gap was everything it was never meant to cover.
The platform we built reads Hostaway and does not write to it. Reading only removes the risk.
What got built
Not a dashboard: an operating system for the whole business. Governed P&L and portfolio intelligence, defined once, so every screen gives the same answer. Facilities management tracked from expected cost to completion evidence. Guest messages and inspections routed into tracked work with clear ownership, so nothing dies in an inbox. A controlled property lifecycle, so no cost, document or history is lost. And a plain-English assistant that answers portfolio questions, with property names anonymised and guest data never sent to a model.
Honest by design
A property is only shown as profitable once its costs are actually recorded. Where data is missing, the platform says so, rather than reporting a better number than the evidence supports. Agreeing what each number means came before any dashboard was drawn. Unglamorous work, and the reason the reports are trusted.
Where it is now
Live, in production, in daily use. Role-based access, daily backups, an append-only audit trail, and hundreds of automated tests behind it. The operator's data now lives in a system the business owns and controls: structured, governed, portable. We host, maintain and support it; their team just uses it.
From that story to your stack
Your version is not serviced accommodation
It is a CRM that does not agree with the billing system. Marketing numbers rebuilt by hand for the board. A stack of HubSpot, Salesforce, Pardot and the spreadsheets standing in for systems, where the same customer is counted twice and nobody is quite sure which figure is right.
The pattern applies to any operations- or data-heavy business: connect what exists read-only, govern the numbers into one trustworthy set, then add the workflows the team actually needs. The domain changes; the shape does not. The audit is how you find out what that shape looks like in your business, before committing to any build.
What the audit is
The AI Enhancement Audit
A structured review of your existing CRM and marketing stack that maps what you have, what it would take to connect it, and what is worth doing first. You keep the systems you already own. You receive a written report, walked through with your team, covering three layers:
Connect
What your stack holds, where data is fragmented or double-counted, and what a governed single source of truth would take.
Comply
Where UK GDPR, the Data (Use and Access) Act and ICO guidance touch your intended use of AI, and where your team's sign-off must sit.
Accelerate
The two or three enhancements worth doing first, in order, with what each involves and depends on.
| In scope | Out of scope |
|---|---|
| A stack inventory: what you run, what it holds, how it connects | Any build work. The audit recommends; it does not construct |
| A data-flow map: where numbers are born, copied, and disagree | Legal advice. This is not a solicitor's opinion, and the report says so |
| UK GDPR / DUAA touchpoints for your intended AI use | Changes to your systems. Access is read-only; nothing is written |
| A prioritised enhancement list: two or three items, in order | An ongoing retainer. The audit is the whole engagement |
| A written report plus a walkthrough call | Performance promises. The report states what is true, not what sells |
De-risked
Built to be safe to say yes to
Read-only
We look at your stack; we do not change it. Nothing is written to your CRM during the audit.
Fixed price, fixed scope
£997, agreed before we start. No day rates, no scope creep, no surprise invoice.
Your sign-off, built in
The report states where your team's sign-off must sit in anything it recommends.
Honest boundaries
It is not a solicitor's opinion, and the report says so. Where legal advice is needed, it tells you to get it.
Why it worked then
And how the audit copies it
The booking system was left alone
Reading only removes the risk. The audit takes the same posture: read-only access wherever the platform allows it.
The definitions came before the dashboards
The audit's Connect layer does that definition work for your stack, on paper, before anything is built.
Nothing shipped without sign-off
The audit's report states where your team signs off in any process it recommends.
How it works
Three steps, two short calls
Book a discovery call
Pick a time directly in the calendar. If the audit does not fit your situation, we say so on the call.
Grant read-only access
You decide what we see.
Report and walkthrough
Connect, Comply and Accelerate, in writing, walked through with your team. What happens next is your decision, and the report works even if the answer is "nothing, for now".
Questions
Asked before saying yes
Did the platform replace their booking system?
Would this pattern work outside serviced accommodation?
What if the report says AI is not worth it for us yet?
When do the 10 working days start?
How much of our time does it take?
Do we have to commit to a build after the audit?
“A report that always recommends buying more is not a report; it is a brochure.”
Start where that story started
Every build begins the same way: a look at what you already have. One call establishes whether the audit fits.