Does a free booking system actually work for a small hotel, or will it cost us double down the road?

We made a similar mistake eight years ago. We were thrilled it was free, but right in the middle of our first season, calendar sync lagged by two hours and we double-booked the same room to two different families. The difference we paid to relocate those guests to another hotel cost more than two years' worth of software license fees.

At 60% occupancy across 14 rooms, that's roughly 250 room nights a month. Say just 50 of those come through your own site at 90 Euro a night. A free booking engine taking a 4% cut will cost you 180 Euro a month. You're already paying the price of a fixed license in commissions.

Will payments go directly into your bank account through your own virtual POS, or are you forced to use their proprietary payment gateway? Most free models make their money off the inflated processing margins.

Nobody on the internet provides server hosting, security certificates, and customer support out of the goodness of their heart. There's zero legal guarantee they won't turn around and market other local hotels to your guest list later on.

If you can't budget for a fixed monthly fee, just put a simple booking inquiry form on your site. Manually emailing a confirmation and taking payment at check-in is still safer than using third-party plugins with hidden cuts.

the biggest issue with free platforms is support. if the system crashes on a friday night during peak season there's nobody to call u just submit a ticket and wait till monday.

our neighbor tried this for their campground. when a guest wanted to cancel the software company handled the refund process, took three weekks to release the funds, and ended up getting sued by the guest. totally not worth the headache.

Let me summarize the topic, since several different answers were given. If scope grows, either time or budget must grow. There is no third option.

Solutions that work at a small scale collapse when you grow; I learned this late.

This is exactly what we experienced. People defend habits, not processes. Resistance comes from there.

If I were you, I'd go this route.

Good call starting this thread. Processes without records never improve, because you don't know what to fix.

When we decide without measuring, we always end up in the same place.

Same here.

i have an objection here and access credentials should be opened in the company's name not personal accounts.

im also curiuos if anyone does it differently.

Quick summary for newcomers: People defend habits, not processes. Resistance comes from there.

Good luck with that.

theres also a measurement aspect to this then the cheapest quuote is usually the least thought-out one.

good luck with that.

theres one point Im curious about and honestly payment schedules should be tied to project phases, not calendar dates.

that's all sorry if I went on too long.

just a heads-up but honestly implementing a chage request process doesnt slow things down it speeds them up.

if I were you, Id go this route.

I'm a small business, let me explain from my side. Just because everyone does it doesn't mean it's right.

Processes without records never improve, because you don't know what to fix. Good luck with that.

We got stuck at the same point for a while. In legacy systems the most expensive thing is unknown dependencies.

Any unwritten clause becomes a point of disagreement later as both sides remember it differently. I'm also curious if anyone does it differently.