- What a CHTP Actually Is
- Who Runs the Credential and How It Is Delivered
- The Three Assessed Sections
- Format, Scoring, and What Is Still Unverified
- Application Approval and Eligibility
- The Exam Bundle and Fee Mechanics
- Who Hires and Where a CHTP Fits
- Staying Certified: The Two-Year Renewal Cycle
- Sequencing Your Preparation by Domain
- Frequently Asked Questions
- A CHTP is a Certified Hospitality Technology Professional, a credential issued by Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP).
- The exam has three separately assessed sections, and you need 70% in each one to pass.
- Your application must be approved before you test; the approval window runs one year.
- The bundle includes 365-day access, two attempts per section, and unlimited practice-quiz attempts.
What a CHTP Actually Is
A CHTP is a Certified Hospitality Technology Professional: someone who has earned the professional credential for technology work in the hospitality industry. The designation signals that the holder understands how technology is selected, deployed, managed, and secured in hotels, resorts, restaurants, and related operations, and can connect those systems to what the business actually needs.
Because the acronym is shared by several unrelated credentials in other fields, it helps to be precise. The CHTP discussed on this page is the hospitality technology certification administered by HFTP. If you are weighing it against other options, our overview of what CHTP certification is and our explainer on what CHTP stands for cover the naming question in more depth.
The credential is built for people who sit between operations and IT. That includes hotel IT managers, revenue and distribution technologists, point-of-sale and property management system administrators, and vendor-side consultants who implement hospitality software. It is not a generic IT certification, and it is not a general hospitality management credential. It lives in the overlap.
Who Runs the Credential and How It Is Delivered
The certifying body is Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP), an association serving finance and technology professionals in the hospitality sector. HFTP sets the eligibility rules, approves applications, administers the exam, and manages ongoing certification.
Delivery runs through the HFTP Academy on the Canvas learning platform, with automated proctoring through Proctorio. In practice, this means you test remotely rather than traveling to a physical testing center, and the proctoring is automated and available around the clock. That 24/7 availability changes how you schedule: you are not bound to a narrow set of sitting dates the way you would be with a center-based exam, though you should still confirm current terms on our CHTP exam dates and scheduling guide.
The Three Assessed Sections
The exam is organized into three separately assessed content areas. Each is scored on its own, which has a practical consequence: strength in one area cannot rescue weakness in another, because you must reach 70% in every section.
Domain 1: Hospitality Applications
This area covers the software that runs a hospitality operation and how it supports guest-facing and back-of-house workflows.
- Property management, point-of-sale, reservations, and related operational systems
- How applications exchange data and support the guest journey
- Matching application capabilities to business processes
Domain 2: Technology Management
This area is about governing technology as a business function rather than operating individual systems.
- Planning, selecting, and evaluating technology investments
- Vendor relationships, projects, and organizational alignment
- Policy, risk, and ethical responsibilities of a technology professional
Domain 3: Core Technology
This area addresses the infrastructure foundations that every hospitality application depends on.
- Networks, connectivity, and guest-facing infrastructure
- Security fundamentals and data protection
- Hardware, systems, and supporting infrastructure concepts
One caution: the current official weighting of these three areas is not something we can state with confidence. Older question allocations exist, but converting them into present-day percentages would be guesswork, and the current largest domain is unknown. For a deeper walk-through of what each area contains, see our complete guide to the three CHTP exam domains.
Format, Scoring, and What Is Still Unverified
What is firmly established: the exam is split into three sections, each requires 70%, and the pass rate is not publicly disclosed. Anyone quoting you a specific CHTP pass rate is not working from published data. Our CHTP pass rate analysis explains what can and cannot be said responsibly.
What is not verified at the moment: the exact question count, the split between scored and unscored items, the item format, and the time allowed. Rules on open-book use, calculators, and adaptive behavior are likewise unconfirmed. Rather than guess, plan to confirm these details inside your HFTP Academy account once you are approved, and read the candidate instructions before you begin any attempt.
| Exam Element | Status |
|---|---|
| Number of sections | Three, each assessed separately |
| Passing threshold | 70% required in each section |
| Delivery platform | HFTP Academy on Canvas |
| Proctoring | Automated, 24/7, via Proctorio |
| Question count and duration | Unverified; confirm with HFTP |
| Scored vs. unscored items | Unverified |
| Open-book, calculator, adaptive rules | Unverified |
| Published pass rate | Not publicly disclosed |
The per-section 70% rule is the single most important structural fact. It means your prep should be balanced. For the precise mechanics, read our page on the CHTP passing score, and if you are trying to calibrate effort, how hard the CHTP exam is discusses difficulty without inventing numbers.
Application Approval and Eligibility
Unlike exams you can simply register for and sit, the CHTP requires application approval first. HFTP reviews your background before you are cleared to test, and once approved you have a one-year window in which to use that approval.
Historically, a 2016 eligibility structure used a 100-point system spread across three categories: education, professional experience, and membership. Alongside the points, applicants supplied two professional recommendations, employer verification of their experience, and evidence of their education. This is a historical description, and the current points matrix needs confirmation before you rely on it.
Our CHTP requirements guide goes through eligibility and prerequisites step by step, and it is the right companion to this section if you are deciding whether you qualify yet.
The Exam Bundle and Fee Mechanics
The exam is sold as a bundle rather than a single sitting. The current indexed bundle price is US$1,075. A member price is also offered, but the current member checkout figure is unverified. A historical January 2020 schedule listed US$675 for members and US$1,075 for nonmembers, which shows that membership has mattered to cost, though you should not assume those older figures are today's member price.
What the bundle contains is more useful to understand than the sticker price:
- 365-day access to the program, giving you a full year to work through the material
- Two attempts per section, so a miss in one area does not force you to repurchase the whole exam
- Unlimited practice-quiz attempts, which makes the built-in quizzes a low-risk way to find weak spots
The per-section attempt structure is quietly one of the most candidate-friendly features. Because sections are assessed separately, you can sequence them, and a shortfall in one does not invalidate the others. A full breakdown of what you will pay and what is not yet confirmed (including the current implementation or renewal fee, which is unverified) is in our CHTP certification cost guide.
Who Hires and Where a CHTP Fits
The employers that value this credential are the ones running complex, technology-dependent hospitality operations: hotel companies and management groups, resort and casino operators, restaurant organizations, and the vendors and consultancies that implement hospitality systems. Roles that commonly benefit include:
- Hotel and property IT managers and directors of technology
- Systems administrators for property management and point-of-sale platforms
- Hospitality technology consultants and implementation specialists
- Revenue, distribution, and data technology staff who work across departments
- Finance and technology professionals who bridge accounting and systems
The credential tends to matter most where a person must speak credibly to both operators and engineers. It does not by itself guarantee a title or a pay bump, and we deliberately avoid quoting salary numbers we cannot source. If you want to think through the career side, see CHTP jobs, the qualitative discussion in the CHTP salary guide, and the cost-versus-benefit framing in whether the CHTP is worth it.
Staying Certified: The Two-Year Renewal Cycle
Earning the CHTP is not the end of the obligation. Certification runs on a two-year renewal cycle. Historically, renewal required 60 maintenance points, structured like this:
| Maintenance Component | Historical Requirement |
|---|---|
| Total maintenance points | 60 |
| Minimum education points | At least 50 |
| Hospitality-technology education points | 15 of the education points |
| Ethics education points | Four of the education points |
| Membership points | Up to ten |
The structure rewards ongoing learning, with a deliberate emphasis on hospitality technology content and on ethics. The current implementation and renewal fee is unverified, so check HFTP before budgeting. If you are planning ahead, our CHTP training resources point to ways to accumulate qualifying education.
Sequencing Your Preparation by Domain
Because each section is separately scored and you get two attempts per section, the smartest preparation is staged around the three domains rather than a flat read-through. One practical way to sequence a window of roughly a month and a half:
Core Technology first
- Rebuild infrastructure fundamentals, since the other domains assume them
- Use the unlimited practice quizzes to expose gaps early
Hospitality Applications
- Map each major system to the workflow it supports
- Practice explaining how applications exchange data
Technology Management, then review
- Work through planning, vendor, risk, and ethics content
- Finish with full-section practice across all three areas
The logic: Core Technology is the foundation that makes application and management questions easier to reason about, so it goes first. Technology Management comes last because it is the most judgment-based and benefits from the context you built earlier. Adjust the order if your daily job already makes one area second nature.
Key Takeaway
Because 70% is required in every section, treat your weakest domain as the one that decides your outcome. Spend your extra hours there, not on the area you already know. Our CHTP study guide and one-page cheat sheet help you structure that review, and you can pressure-test yourself with questions on our practice test site.
For extra repetition outside the official platform, the full-length questions on the main practice exam let you check readiness in each domain before you spend an attempt.
Frequently Asked Questions
In this context it stands for Certified Hospitality Technology Professional, a credential from Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP). The acronym is shared by unrelated credentials elsewhere, so make sure you are looking at the hospitality technology one.
There are three separately assessed sections: Hospitality Applications, Technology Management, and Core Technology. You must score 70% in each section to pass, so a strong result in one cannot offset a weak one.
Yes. Your application must be approved before you test, and the approval window lasts one year. Historically the process weighed education, experience, and membership, and required two professional recommendations, employer verification, and education evidence.
The bundle includes 365-day access, two attempts per section, and unlimited practice-quiz attempts. The current indexed bundle price is US$1,075, while the current member price is unverified, so confirm it at checkout.
It renews every two years. The historical requirement was 60 maintenance points, including at least 50 education points with 15 in hospitality technology and four in ethics, plus up to ten membership points. Confirm the current rules and fee with HFTP.