How to choose a hotel management system: the questions to ask before you switch

Start with your own week

Before you watch a single demo, write down what a normal week at your hotel looks like: where the bookings come from, who cleans which rooms, how guests pay, what your accountant asks for at the end of the month — and what goes wrong today. A system is good for you if it takes work off that list, not because it has the longest feature list.

Booking channels

• Does it connect to the channels you actually sell on through a real two-way connection, and not only through calendar links (iCal)?
• When a night sells on one channel, how fast does it close on the others? And if two channels sell the same night anyway, are you told at once?
• Do prices, minimum stays and closed arrival days go out from one place, or do you still log in to every extranet?
• Can it handle a room type with several identical rooms, and a non-refundable rate next to the flexible one?

Our article on avoiding double bookings explains why the first question matters most.

Payments

• Can guests pay by card on your own booking page, and does the money go straight into your own account?
• Does the provider take a commission on your direct bookings, on top of the card fee?
• Are deposits, balances, refunds and cash recorded per stay, so you can always see who still owes?

Invoicing and the accounts

• In Costa Rica: does it issue Hacienda’s comprobantes in version 4.4, signed with your own key, and does it fetch Hacienda’s verdict for each one? Which documents does it issue today?
• Elsewhere: does it produce invoices with your company details, your VAT and an unbroken number series?
• Can your accountant get the month’s files, or their own limited access, without your password?

In Costa Rica, read our guide to electronic invoicing for hotels before you ask.

Housekeeping and the team

• Does every check-out create its cleaning task by itself, and can a housekeeper tick it done from a phone?
• Does everyone sign in with their own account and see only their part? A housekeeper does not need to see the money.
• Does it speak the languages your team and your guests speak?

Reports

• Can you see occupancy, average rate, revenue by channel and the month’s result without exporting to a spreadsheet?
• Is each channel’s commission shown as a cost, so you can see what that channel really leaves you?

Support and reliability

• Who answers when something breaks on a Saturday in high season — a person, in your language? How do you reach them?
• Is there a public status page? And what happens when the internet at the property is weak?
• Where is your data stored, who can see it, and is it backed up?

The price, in writing

• Is the price published, or only given after a sales call? A price you can read at 11 p.m. is a price you can plan with.
• What exactly is it charged per: room, room type, property or booking? What happens to the price when you add rooms?
• What costs extra: channels, payments, the website, messages, invoicing, more users?
• Is there a minimum contract, and what does it cost to leave?
• Can you try it with your own hotel before you pay?

Moving your bookings over

The part of switching that worries owners most is the future bookings sitting in the old system. Ask:

• Can you import your bookings from a file (CSV or Excel) and see a dry run — duplicates, clashes, unknown rooms — before anything is saved?
• Can the channels move over without closing them for a day?
• And the other way round: can you export all your data any day, without asking anyone?

When you do switch, pick a quiet week, move one channel at a time, and check the first new bookings by hand.

Test it with your own hotel

A demo with a sample hotel shows you the screens. It does not show you your week. Before you decide, put in your real rooms, your real prices and a real week of bookings, and then do the five things you do every day: take a booking by phone, move a guest to another room, check who still owes, look at tomorrow’s cleaning, and answer a guest. If any of them takes longer than it does today, ask why.

Slow down if you notice any of these along the way:

• The price changes after the sales call, or depends on how many add-ons you are talked into.
• Your data can only be exported on request, or for a fee.
• Connecting the channels takes weeks, or the provider cannot say how long.
• Nobody can tell you who answers when something breaks.

Where Staywarden stands

You should hold us to the same list. Staywarden puts booking channels, the calendar, payments, guest messages, housekeeping and tasks, the team, invoicing and the accounts in one system, in English and Spanish. Our prices are published: monthly, in US dollars, per room type rather than per room, with no lock-in. Free while you set it up. Card when you go live, first payment after 7 days.

Moving in starts with a dry run of your bookings, from a file or from your calendar links, and you can take all your data with you in one file, any day. The switching guide shows each step. There is a public status page, and people answer, in English and Spanish.