Hotel software for small hotels: what you actually need

Hotel software is usually sold with a feature list long enough to fill a brochure. A hotel with twelve rooms does not need most of it on day one. It needs a small number of jobs done reliably, by people who also greet guests, answer the phone and carry bags.

This guide sets out those jobs, separates what you need now from what can wait, and lists the questions worth asking any supplier before you sign.

Start from the jobs, not the feature list

Every small hotel, whatever its style, has the same five jobs to do each day.

1. Take a booking and a payment from its own website.
2. Know which rooms are sold and which are free on any night, in one place.
3. Check guests in and out, and know which rooms are ready.
4. Produce a correct bill with the right tax.
5. Close the day so the numbers can be trusted tomorrow.

If a system does these five well, you can run a hotel on it. If it does fifty other things and one of these badly, you will feel it every day.

What you need now and what can wait

Job	What to look for	When you need it
Direct booking on your website	Guests book and pay without phoning; it works on a phone; your cancellation terms are shown before payment	From the start
One availability count	The website, the desk and every other sales route sell from the same number	From the start
Front desk and room plan	Arrivals, departures, room assignment, check-in and check-out	From the start
Housekeeping status	The desk can see which rooms are ready without asking	From the start, even if simple
Bills, tax and invoices	One bill per stay, the right tax on each line, numbered invoices	From the start
Daily close and basic reports	What was sold, what was paid and what is still owed	From the start
Channel manager	Keeps availability in step across online travel agencies	When you sell through more than one or two
Restaurant point of sale	Orders to the kitchen and charges to the room	If food and drink is a real part of the business
Automated pricing	Rules that move prices with demand	Once you have a season or two of your own figures
Loyalty and paid extras	Rewards for returning guests, add-ons at booking	When the basics run without your daily attention

The top six rows belong together. If they live in separate tools, somebody retypes bookings between them, and retyping is where double bookings and wrong bills come from.

For the housekeeping row, a simple shared list is enough to begin with. Our guide to a housekeeping room status system explains how to set one up.

Questions to ask any supplier

About the money

• How do you charge: a subscription, a commission on each booking, or both?
• What does setup cost, and what does it include?
• Who handles card payments, what do they charge, and when does the money reach our account?
• How long is the contract, and what happens if we leave?

Commission and subscription behave differently as you grow. A commission rises with every booking you take. A subscription stays the same in a busy month and a quiet one. Work out both against your own figures for last year before you compare offers.

About the product

• Show us one booking from the website to the closed bill, live, not on slides.
• Which parts can we use today, which are in trial and which are planned?
• Can housekeeping use it on a phone?
• What happens on the bill when a tax rate changes?
• Can we limit what each member of staff sees?

The second question matters most. A roadmap is not a product. A good supplier will tell you plainly which parts are in daily use and which are still being built, and will put that in writing.

About your data

• Where is our data kept?
• Can we export our reservations and guest records, and in what format?
• Does the guest's card number ever pass through the hotel's computers or yours?
• Is there a record of who changed a booking, a price or a bill?

About support

• Who sets the system up with us, and how long does it take?
• Who answers when the desk is stuck on a Saturday evening?
• In which languages can staff and guests use it?

Signs a system is the wrong size

Too big for you

• Changing a rate needs a consultant.
• The menus are full of departments you do not have.
• Training is measured in weeks.
• You pay for modules nobody opens.

Too small for you

• Bookings are retyped from one tool into another.
• Tax is worked out by hand.
• Availability is updated in two places.
• Nobody can say who changed a booking or why.

How to switch without putting bookings at risk

Changing systems worries most owners more than choosing one. It is safe if you do it in stages.

1. List what you use today. Include the spreadsheets, the paper diary and the notebook at the desk. They all hold something the new system must take over.
2. Move one part at a time. A new website booking page can be a low-risk first step, but only if the website and the desk sell from one availability count. While the desk still works in the old system, either enter each web booking there the same day, or name one system as the owner of availability and close the other to match, so the two never sell the same room.
3. Keep the old system running. Do not switch it off until the new one has been tested with your own bookings and your own staff.
4. Rehearse the import. Try a small sample first: a future booking, a guest in house, a departed stay, a cancellation and a part-paid stay.
5. Pick a quiet week. Agree who records late changes in the old system during the move, and when that stops.
6. Check afterwards. Compare balances, room assignments and sold nights with the old system before you trust the new one.

If your year has a closed period, that is the natural time to move. Our guide to running a seasonal resort has a pre-season checklist that fits well with a changeover.

A shortlist test on one page

Before you sign, you should be able to tick every line.

• We have seen a booking go from the website to a closed bill.
• We know which parts are in use today and which are not.
• We know every charge: subscription, commission, setup and payment fees.
• We can export our own data.
• Each member of staff sees what their job needs.
• There is a plan to move in stages, and our current system stays on until we accept the new one.
• We know who to call, and when they answer.

We build Hemmz, a hotel management platform for independent hotels and resorts, sold as a subscription with no commission on bookings; it is available to founding properties, and no property is live on it in production yet. See how it fits boutique hotels and small teams.