Walk into any independent boutique hotel in Bali, or a 40 bed hostel in Bangkok, and ask the owner what they pay for software every month. The answer is almost always a wince.
The big PMS and channel manager platforms charge per unit, per month. Seventeen to twenty nine US dollars per room. For a 25 room property, that is four hundred to seven hundred dollars every single month before a single guest walks through the door.
Why does this model exist?
It is a holdover from the enterprise hotel software industry. The big incumbents built tools for 200 room chain hotels in North America, where per unit pricing made sense because the customer had deep pockets and the software vendor wanted to share in scale.
That model got copied straight into the vacation rental boom (Hostaway, Guesty) and then exported to markets where the buyers are very different. A husband and wife team running a 12 room guesthouse in Ubud has nothing in common with Marriott. But they pay for software priced the same way.
What it does to your growth
Per unit pricing actively punishes the thing you want: adding more rooms. You just signed a lease on a new villa? That will be another 24 dollars a month, thank you, and the meter keeps ticking with every unit after it, with no conversation and no agreed number.
It also taxes experimentation. Want to try a property type that might fail? The fixed per unit cost kicks in on day one, whether you get one booking or a thousand.
The all inclusive alternative
An all inclusive plan decouples price from features. Every tool is in the plan, so the bill does not climb each time you switch on the channel manager, the inbox, or the AI concierge, and you can predict next month's software cost before the month starts.
That is how Qontaktly prices. Small properties pay one all inclusive monthly plan with every feature in it. When you outgrow it, you do not move onto a per room meter: larger properties and portfolios get one quoted plan, agreed up front, with nothing sold as an add on.
What to look for in a fair software deal
- A monthly plan you can predict before the month starts, not a per room meter or a bill that grows with every feature you switch on.
- No OTA style commission on direct bookings through your booking engine.
- Core features (channel manager, inbox, AI) included in the plan, not sold as add ons.
- A published price for small properties, and a clear written quote for larger ones.
- A free trial long enough to actually set the product up.
If a PMS vendor's pricing makes you dread adding a room, that vendor has the wrong business model.