How to Choose a Hotel PMS: A 10-point Checklist

Short answer

To choose a hotel PMS, check ten things: rooms and rates (including seasons and meal plans), the room planner, reservations and groups, guest billing, housekeeping, the night audit and reports, the restaurant and bar link, the back office (purchasing, stores, accounting), payments and offline working, and your data and support. Then test the two or three best options with a real week of your own bookings before you decide.

Before you look at software

Write down how your property actually works: how many rooms and room types, how guests book (direct, agents, online), how they pay, who works at reception, whether you run a restaurant and bar, and who does the accounts. The best PMS for a 120-room conference hotel is the wrong PMS for a 12-room guest house, and the other way round.

The 10-point checklist

Rooms and ratesRoom types with capacity and extra-person prices; rate plans with seasons; meal plans (room only, B&B, half board, full board); agreed rates for companies and agents.
The room plannerA clear view of rooms by night. Can you move a stay by dragging? Does it refuse a clash and tell you which booking holds the room?
ReservationsSingle and group bookings, source and agent, deposits, cancellations and no-shows, other guests in the room.
BillingFolios with nightly posting, extras, deposits, split billing (room to the company, bar to the guest), invoices at check-out.
HousekeepingRoom status shared with reception, tasks at check-out, out-of-order rooms off the planner.
Night audit and reportsA nightly close with occupancy, ADR and RevPAR; arrivals, departures and in-house lists.
Restaurant and barCharge to room from the POS onto the folio; tables and split bills; offline tills.
Back officePurchasing, stores and accounting that share the PMS data instead of re-typing it.
Payments and internetMobile money, card and cash with references; what still works when the internet drops.
Data and supportA database per property, backups, roles, full export, support in your time zone, and a clear price for year two.

A simple score sheet

Point	Weight	System A	System B	System C
Rooms and rates	10
Planner and reservations	15
Billing and payments	15
Housekeeping	5
Night audit and reports	10
Restaurant and bar link	10
Back office	20
Data, support, price	15

Score each point from 0 to 5 and multiply by the weight. Change the weights to fit you: a lodge with long supply lines should weight the back office higher; a city guest house with no restaurant can weight it lower.

Test with a real week

Enter next week's real bookings and rates
Try to double-book a room
Check in a guest, charge dinner to the room and check out with a mobile money payment
Close the day and read occupancy, ADR and RevPAR
Find the stay, the dinner and the payment in the accounts
Ask a receptionist to do it without help

Red flags

The vendor won't let you try it yourself
Essential modules (POS, stores, accounting) quoted separately at the end
No clear answer on what works offline
No full export of your data
Prices that rise with every room you add

Ready to compare? Read the hotel management software buyer's guide, the best PMS for small hotels or book a Tivuzo demo.

Choosing a PMS

What is the most important feature of a hotel PMS?

Accurate availability with a clear planner: if the PMS can't stop double bookings and show who is where, nothing else matters.

How long should a PMS trial be?

Long enough to run one real week: usually one to two weeks.

Should my PMS include accounting?

For most independent properties, yes, or at least post to accounting automatically. Re-typing is where errors and lost time come from. See one system vs separate systems.

What questions should I ask a PMS vendor?

Show me a stay from booking to the ledger; what works offline; which channels you sync with; can I export everything; what year two costs.