Start with how you run today
Before you look at any software, write down one ordinary week at your property: where bookings come from, who takes them, how rooms are cleaned and released, how guests pay, and what the owner looks at each morning. A property management system (PMS) should fit that week. A list of 200 features you will never switch on is not a reason to buy.
Then note what goes wrong today. Double bookings, a month-end that takes days to reconcile, discounts nobody can explain: these are the problems a PMS has to fix, and they make the best demo script.
The 12 questions
| # | Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Can two people or two channels ever sell the same room for the same night? | Double bookings are the most expensive mistake a front desk makes. Ask how the system prevents them, not whether it does. |
| 2 | Does it handle my kind of inventory? | Hostels need bed-level inventory, serviced apartments need long stays and recurring charges, resorts need several outlets on one bill. |
| 3 | How flexible are rates? | Look for seasons, derived rates (for example non-refundable = BAR − 10%), occupancy pricing, minimum stay and CTA/CTD. |
| 4 | How does it connect to booking channels? | Ask how rates and availability go out, how reservations come back, and what happens to a booking that does not fit. |
| 5 | Can guests book direct and pay a deposit? | A booking engine with the payment methods your guests use turns website visitors into commission-free bookings. |
| 6 | Does billing match my taxes? | VAT and service-charge rules, compounding, split bills, multi-currency and exact decimal arithmetic instead of rounding drift. |
| 7 | What does the night audit do? | It should post room and tax charges, flag no-shows and lock the day, so yesterday cannot quietly change. |
| 8 | Can housekeeping work from a phone? | A live room board updated by attendants lets reception release rooms the moment they are ready. |
| 9 | Can I see who changed what? | Role-based permissions and an audit trail with before and after values stop silent discounts and deleted charges. |
| 10 | Which reports will I actually read? | Occupancy, ADR, RevPAR, a daily manager's flash, forecast and pace, exportable to CSV. |
| 11 | What does it cost in year one and year three? | Activation, monthly fees, minimums, payment and channel costs. Ask for a worked example with your own room count. |
| 12 | Who sets it up, and who answers at 2 a.m.? | Get names: who configures rooms, rates and taxes, who trains staff, and what support looks like in the first months. |
Red flags in a demo
- The demo uses only the vendor's sample hotel and cannot show your room types or rates.
- “Double bookings are rare” instead of an explanation of how they are prevented.
- Prices you have to call to find out, or a quote with no worked example.
- Channel connections that exist only on a sales slide or are described as “coming soon”.
- No clear answer on who owns your data and how you get it out if you leave.
How to run a useful demo
- Send your room list, two rate plans and one tricky real booking before the call.
- Ask the vendor to take a walk-in, move a guest to another room, split a bill and run the night audit live.
- Ask to see the screen a housekeeper uses and the report the owner gets each morning.
- Ask for the proposal in writing, with the setup steps and who does each one.
Working out the total cost
Compare the full first-year cost, not the headline monthly price. As an example with bedsKey pricing: a 20-room hotel with 31 or more bookings in a month pays 20 × USD 1 = USD 20 for that month. Over twelve such months that is USD 240, plus the USD 500 one-time activation: USD 740 in the first year. A month with 1 to 30 bookings is a flat USD 10, and a month with no bookings is USD 4. The pricing page has the exact rules and a calculator.
Then add what the software saves: hours spent re-typing bookings, commission on bookings you move to your own website, and the cost of every double booking that never happens.