...Although it's a bit harder for us, since we're knee-deep in things. On-going, I'm with you guys. A service I can perform that is out-sourced will usually end up being more expensive cash-wise over the long-run...

BUT, if you're looking at the bigger picture, time is money. Especially if you hire a bunch of pricey IT gurus to support your real-time reservations database and all of it's perks for your customers, and they end up putting out fires for internal resources. You're not getting the value that you're paying for, so get rid of it. Even if those pricey IT guys end up sitting around a bit, they're there, focused and AVAILABLE.to reduce or remove any negative impact on your customers, which has it's own cost. It's not something we can easily see, though. (Of course, whether this is REALIZED or not is a debate of it's own! )

In this day and age, look at the PlayStation 3. Superior hardware, software and better pricing structure... But Microsoft has 'won out' with consumers because they've better delivered the service aspect. It might not make sense, but you follow where the money goes...