Introduction
In today's video, I'm going to discuss whether you should build your own guest app for your visitor attraction or deploy something off the shelf. My name is Mark Locker, I'm the founder and CEO of Attractions.io and over the past several years we've worked with over 150 venues from theme parks to zoos to resorts and more. And in that time I've seen firsthand many attempts at building guest apps in-house. Now, this video isn't a sales pitch to try and tell you that Attractions.io is the right solution in every case.
Instead, I want to share what I've learned from watching partners go down the build path because I think it'll help you to make better, more informed decisions for your own venue. I've broken it down into five key areas that I think you should consider, so let's get into it.
1. The Control Paradox
The first thing to consider is what I call the control paradox. The most common reason people want to build is their control. We want to control the app and we want to own the intellectual property.
And I completely understand that instinct, especially if you're running a large operation with significant technical capability already. But here's what I've learned. Building gives you ownership of the code, but it doesn't actually give you control over the outcomes. Think about the software that you use every day.
Do you own the code to Microsoft Word? Do you own the IP for your email clients? Of course you don't. But does that stop you from controlling what you write or what you communicate with? No, because ownership of the tool and control over what you do with it are actually completely different things.
So the question becomes, is owning the IP of a guest experience app truly an asset or could it actually be a liability? Because here's the reality. When you own that IP, you also own the responsibility for maintaining it, updating it, securing it, and supporting it forever.
The best digital leaders I know, and I'm talking about CTOs and digital directors at major entertainment companies, they don't measure success by how much they own. They measure it by how much they enable.
And sometimes enabling means partnering strategically rather than building everything yourself.
2. Total Cost of Ownership
The second thing, and this is critical, is total cost of ownership. This is where the math breaks down for almost everyone, regardless of the company size. I've seen this happen with small operators and with major enterprise clients as well.
And here's what typically happens. Someone on your team looks at the annual cost of an off-the-shelf solution. They compare it to the cost of internal development and those resources, and they say, well, we could build this for less.
And on paper, over five years, that might actually look cheaper. But in my experience, the comparison is never actually like for like, because you're not accounting for the total cost of ownership.
Let me give you some examples of the kinds of things that often get missed.
GDPR compliance. Not just initially, but ongoing. You need to have legal review and documentation and processes.
Regular penetration testing and security audits. We're talking about guest data, payment information in some cases. You can't cut corners in that area.
You've got 24-7 support infrastructure. So guests use apps, of course, at all hours of the day. So who's answering when something breaks at 9 pm on a Saturday? And even if you've got a large team and you could handle that, is this really where you want them spending their time?
Managing iOS and Android implementation. Every time Apple or Google releases a new OS version, you're testing, fixing, updating. It's a relentless cycle.
And of course, ongoing feature development. Guest expectations evolve. They evolve constantly. Your app from two years ago isn't going to cut it today, so you'll need dedicated product resources continuously.
Then there's infrastructure and hosting at scale. When you've got hundreds or thousands or hundreds of thousands of concurrent users during peak periods, your costs can spike significantly, and having an infrastructure that can deal with peaks is quite costly. When you add everything up, the complete picture, it ends up dramatically higher than anyone anticipated at the start, and that's if everything goes smoothly, which anyone with experience managing complex projects like these would know that it rarely does.
3. Total Cost of Ownership
And that leads me on to the third thing to consider, because it's not just the total cost of ownership, it's also time to value and opportunity cost. Most boards want results immediately. They're not interested in a two or three year development project. They want to improve the guest experience, drive revenue, and show ROI quickly.
If you choose to build you're looking at a 12 to 18 month minimum to get your MVP out there, a minimum viable product. Then you launch and you actually start learning from the real world, and you iterate and go at that again and again.
And if you compare that to implementing a proven off-the-shelf solution. Where you can be live in weeks rather than months or years, and you're building on something that's already proven, so it's been iterated on from millions of real guest data points, you can see the contrast there. And in terms of opportunity costs, yes, you might have the technical resources to build, but what else could your team be working on instead?
What about the systems that truly differentiate your operation, your queue management, your revenue management, your unique guest journey analytics?
Those are the things that only you can build. Those are your actual competitive advantages. Building a guest app means dedicating significant technical resources to something that's become table stakes across the industry.
And every month, your team team spends building something like that is a month that they're not working on what actually sets you apart.
4. Hidden Complexity
The fourth thing to consider, and I've seen this catch out even sophisticated technical teams, is hidden complexity.
When your team looks at a guest app, what they see is the guest-facing interface, the map, the push notifications, the content pages, and they think, we can build that, how hard can it be?
But that's just the tip of the iceberg.
There's a massive infrastructure, beneath the surface, that you don't see until you're actually already committed.
Real-time mapping with beacon positioning, content management systems that need to work for non-technical staff, push notification infrastructure that scales, deep analytics about guest journey patterns, integration layers for ticketing, F&B, retail, queue time, show schedules, I could go on.
And then there's the edge cases.
What happens when connectivity is poor? How do you handle app versioning when guests don't apply? How do you support guests on devices that are 3 or 4 years old?
I've watched technical directors with 20 years of experience start this journey thinking it's straightforward, only to find themselves 18 months in, over budget, and still not live.
It's not that it can't be done, of course it can. The question is, are you fully aware of what you're committing to?
Because the complexity isn't just in building version one. It's in maintaining and evolving it year after year.
5. Integration and Ecosystem Complexity
The fifth and final thing to consider is something that particularly applies to enterprises, is the integration and ecosystem complexity.
And there's a real big gap here between expectation and reality. When most teams scope out building an app, they think about the app itself, the interface, the features, the user experience, but a guest app is never a stand-alone product. It's the front door to your entire digital ecosystem.
And to deliver a truly connected experience, the app needs to talk to everything. Your ticketing system, your point of sale, your queue management, your CRM, your loyalty programs, your booking systems, your operational data feeds, the list goes on. And here's what I've observed time and time again.
When teams get serious about building an app, they discover that the foundations aren't actually in place to deliver that connected experience. There's no unified guest identity across the systems, there's no middleware API layer connecting your different vendors, there's no centralised data infrastructure for a single view of the customer.
Guest data actually is siloed across five different platforms that don't talk to each other.
So now you're not just building an app, you're building the entire service layer underneath it. You're building identity management, and API gateways, you're building data integration pipelines, and negotiating legacy vendors who never designed their systems to be integrated. And what started as a, let's build a mobile app, project that has become a, let's rebuild our entire digital infrastructure project.
And that is a fundamentally different project in terms of cost, complexity, and timeline.
And here's the truth of it. I've had to share with clients this thing quite a few times. And it's the fact that investing in that service layer, proper identity management, a clean API, architecture that is centralised around guest data, that adds more strategic value than the app itself.
Because once you have that foundation, you can do anything. You can build an app, sure. But you can also personalise your website. You can power marketing automation. You can enable guest self-service. You can drive operational decisions with real-time data.
The app is just one interface into the guest experience platform. And if you don't have that platform, you're building on sand. So the opportunity cost question becomes even sharper. Do you decide your technical resources should be dedicated to building an app? Or do you partner on the app, with a vendor who's already solved the integration challenges, who has connectors to the major ticketing and point of sale systems, and instead focus your team on building the underlying data and API infrastructure that actually differentiates your operation?
Because that infrastructure, the service layer, that's something that only you can build. And that's where real competitive advantage lives. It's what enables you to be agile, to innovate quickly, and to deliver personalised experiences that your competitors simply can't match.
Conclusion
Look, I want to be clear about something as I conclude this video. I'm not saying that building is always wrong, or that you don't have the capability to do it. What I'm saying is, be honest about what you're taking on. Make sure you're going into it with your eyes wide open.
And these five things, the control paradox, total cost of ownership, opportunity costs, hidden complexity, and integrations, they matter. And they matter whether you are a small operator or a major entertainment brand.
The venues I've seen succeed at the highest level, they're ruthlessly strategic about where they invest their technical talent. They build only what they can build, and the things that create genuine competitive advantage. And they partner on infrastructure that's become standard across the industry.
Because your IP isn't the code that delivers a map or sends a push notification. Your IP is your brand, it's your operational excellence, the unique magic that you create for guests that no one else can replicate.
So before you make a decision really consider these five things. Talk to your board, talk to your technical team, make sure everyone understands not just the initial build but the five-year commitment you're making. And the question you really need to answer is, what's the best use of your team's time and talent? What will actually move the needle for your business over the next five years and is building really an asset or could it be a liability?
Thanks for watching.
