There are humans in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” a film now 57 years old but still seems ahead of its time. The central character in the film is not of flesh and blood, but rather an AI, named HAL, derived from the rather longish “Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer.” HAL turned out to be friend and foe, so lifelike that it talked and sounded like, well, an actual human, which is kind of the gist of artificial intelligence, right? In the movie, HAL had a very important job: It controlled the systems of the spacecraft and interacted with the astronaut crew, giving them instructions and, sometimes, fun banter. Never mind that (spoiler alert) in the end it turned on them; the cat was out of the bag: a machine can do the job of a human—sometimes better.
Hotels are not unlike spacecraft, having to navigate their way 24/7 through a universe of asteroids and smooth air, alike. It takes manpower; it also takes intelligence at its core. That intelligent kernel is the Property Management System or PMS, which streamlines and centralizes critical hotel operations, including reservations, guest check-in/ out, room management and housekeeping, to name some functionality. It’s no stretch to say a PMS runs the hotel: Who not among us has arrived at a hotel only to be told, “I’m sorry our system is down at the moment.” That’s HAL taking a break.
There are myriad PMSs in the marketplace to choose from, each with its own distinction. It can be hard to decide on one, and it’s not always the best one, but the best (and right) one for a business. And when it comes to deciding on a PMS to employ, it’s up to the company operating the hotel to make the choice. Unsurprisingly, there are certain traits to consider. Remington Hospitality, one of the bigger third-party management companies in the U.S., looks for the same attributes within a PMS, regardless of the hotel brand, said Zach Cunningham, VP of analytics and business intelligence. He said that, typically, there are two types of PMSs on the market: a full suite PMS with multiple functionalities or another that is more barebones but offers interfaces with other systems. “We tend to focus a bit more on the PMS that provides the enhanced connectivity pieces and the ability to access data, ideally through an open API,” he said.
Charlestowne Hotels, which mainly operates independent properties, takes a contrasting approach. “We look for systems that offer scalability and flexibility to adapt to different property sizes and types, as one size certainly doesn’t fit all in our company,” said Max Spangler, VP of technology at the company. The tech matters, but it’s when things go south that matters enormously to Matt Schwartz, CTO of Sage Hospitality, because, sometimes, things break down. “The single-most-important factor when selecting a PMS platform is the vendor’s commitment to a mutually beneficial partnership,” Schwartz said. “It’s all hugs and high fives when the PMS is operational; what distinguishes a partner from a vendor is the quality of the relationship when the PMS is not operational.”
It’s through this prism that we highlight six PMSs we think offer quality, consistency and the ability to deliver exponential revenue growth. They go by many names, none of them HAL.
Mews
HQ: London
Find them @: mews.com
Mews was founded in 2012 by Richard Valtr, but it feels recently that the PMS outfit has burst on the scene. At this past HITEC, in Charlotte, the Mews crew was out in full force donning pink Mews-branded jackets while traipsing through the tradeshow floor. The hotel industry has taken notice. The PMS has grown to more than 5,000 customers and counting globally. Though its connected hospitality cloud integrates with over 1,000 tech partners, simplicity remains at the heart of everything it does, said Mews CEO Matthijs Welle, himself a ubiquitous presence on LinkedIn, commenting on all things hospitality related. “The guest should be at the heart of a modern PMS,” he said. “By simplifying hotel operations, a PMS can remove friction and empower hoteliers to focus on guests.” Welle uses TikTok and Instagram as examples of what Mews is not looking to achieve. “Their goal is to hold people’s attention for as long as possible; we try to do the opposite; we want hotel employees to spend more time talking to guests and creating remarkable hospitality experiences; we’re on a mission to achieve ‘zero screens’ to truly focus on the guest,” he said. In the meantime, Mews’ cloud-native PMS allows access to it from anywhere and on any device and its open APIs and unlimited integrations help hoteliers build their ideal tech stack. It’s also delving into AI with Smart Search, which allows staff to find reservations and other information using natural language or commands. “We will see a trend where Large Language Models will allow us to truly understand guests better,” Welle said.
Stayntouch
HQ: Bethesda, Md.
Find them @: stayntouch.com
There are several things that make for a “good” PMS, according to Nicole Dehler, VP of product management at Stayntouch, whose customers include Sage Hospitality, HEI Hotels & Resorts, Pod Hotels and TWA Hotel at New York’s JFK Airport. 1) A good PMS should be cloud-native with extensive integrations and mobile flexibility; 2) A good PMS provides comprehensive automation and multi-property management capabilities; 3) A good PMS can fully train a front-desk agent in a matter of two days; 4) A good cloud PMS ensures continuous service, reducing maintenance costs and integrating upgrades without additional fees; 5) Above all, a good PMS helps increase revenue and profitability. Luckily, Stayntouch’s tool has it all. And, as Dehler further pointed out, a good PMS can simultaneously be simple to use and robust. “Nothing prevents a full-featured PMS from also being intuitive and easy to learn,” she said. As example, its Multi-Property Dashboard allows users to instantly switch between a bird’s eye view of their entire portfolio to the PMS instance of an individual property. Stayntouch’s PMS can also run via tablet, allowing agents to interact with guests beyond the front desk. One of its latest additions is its UpsellPRO solution, a built-in upselling tool that is powered by Attribute-Based Selling (ABS) and dynamic pricing. ABS allows guests to book individual room features based on specific attributes, such as room layout, views or even proximity to the elevator. “It offers a highly personalized stay for guests while creating more revenue opportunities for hotels,” Dehler said.
Oracle Hospitality
HQ: Austin, Texas
Find them @: oracle.com/hospitality
Oracle Hospitality and its OPERA Cloud PMS have been a perennial leader in the hotel operations space. Its partners, which include some of the largest brands in the world, are testament to it, when they include the likes of Marriott International and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. In September, Oracle signed a global agreement with Hyatt, which, in a statement, said the decision to move to OPERA Cloud was “to provide our operators and colleagues with a modern, secure platform to deliver better data insights and elevate their roles with more ease and efficiency.” Sure, it sounds boilerplate, but there is truth: Oracle delivers results. Part of its success is that while OPERA Cloud is not cookie-cutter, it’s built to be able to work across different types of properties equally. “One size doesn’t typically fit all, but that is actually the case with OPERA Cloud,” said Tanya Pratt, VP of strategy and product management for Oracle Hospitality. “Our solution has been proven to work well for any number of hotels, from small bed and breakfasts to luxury resorts, thanks to its customizations and scalability.” Another differentiator is providing access to data and APIs— like a very own iTunes Store. Through the Oracle Hospitality Integration Platform (OHIP), Oracle Cloud customers have access to hundreds of pre-built integrations from more than 700 partners. “The future of the hospitality industry is in the cloud,” said Pratt. “A cloud PMS provides a centralized source from which to pull data across one or more properties, which is a critical feature for a successful AI application. With AI, we can look at hundreds of micro-segments to provide an intelligent offer to guests based on behavioral data collected.”
Cloudbeds
HQ: San Diego
Find them @: cloudbeds.com
Cloudbeds sounds like an ethereal, welcoming sleep product rather than a robust PMS, but it’s the latter that has put it on the map with a global portfolio of partner hotels. Now more than a decade in the making, Cloudbeds began as a “back of the napkin” idea by its co-founders, Richard Castle and Adam Harris, who while traveling in Brazil realized the difficulty in booking local accommodations. From serviette to a company with 650-plus employees across more than 40 countries. Harris, who is CEO, views the PMS as the hotel’s central hub of operations, a system that should facilitate the seamless flow of information, while supporting and enhancing other technologies through open APIs. Also, easy to use: “Users shouldn’t spend excessive time searching for functions; instead, the system should allow them to instinctively locate reservations or guest information,” he said. Good UX is paramount and Cloudbeds has put time into understanding how customers actually use the system. “This research informs our design, ensuring that the system is intuitive and easy to navigate,” Harris said, calling Cloudbeds “obsessed” with optimizing and automating hospitality workflows. “The goal is to minimize the steps required to move from point A to point B,” he said. AI is now becoming more embedded in the process. Cloudbeds users can ask simple, human-phrased questions and receive useful answers. “Intelligence that improves our customers’ hospitality businesses is here and more is coming,” Harris said.
Maestro
HQ: Markham, Ontario
Find them @: maestropms.com
Like an orchestra conductor, Maestro’s PMS seeks to direct the entire hotel operation. Earlier this year, it unveiled its development roadmap for 2025 that included enhancements requested by its customers, from payment processing to document management and refreshed interfaces. And while a robust PMS with all the latest bells and whistles is a pursuit by Maestro and its competitors, no technology tool is complete without human backup, something Audrey MacRae, EVP of Maestro, calls crucial. “Hotels’ most significant struggles are not around operational components; instead, most hotels face difficulty accessing support, particularly from knowledgeable live agents,” she said, while also, in a nod to AI, underscoring the usefulness of AI attendants and chatbots (“If an AI can be trained to provide answers to user queries, it can help operators perform often tricky tasks, such as making a shared reservation or adding a guest’s meal to their folio”). “Hoteliers deserve to receive full support for the tools they invest in.” MacRae said that defining what a good PMS is not a uniform exercise but a bespoke answer. Naturally, a city-center hotel will have different requirements from a resort property, and within those segments, a golf resort’s needs will differ from a convention destination. But “All PMS software must work consistently, be mature, offer stability, and provide choice,” she said. “Having the option to deploy the hotel PMS over the cloud or using an on-premises installation is essential to some operators. There is no one-size-fits-all technology application in hospitality.”
OTA Sync
HQ: Belgrade, Serbia
Find them @: otasync.me
Great businesses often begin with a flicker of an idea. Such is the case of OTA Sync, an upstart in the PMS marketplace, where seven years ago two friends on vacation came up with a then amorphous plan to build out a tool to serve a market gap, motivated to help hotels and short-term rentals improve their business performance through a “make it simple, make it strong” ethos. The best PMS solutions don’t just help hotels manage rooms—they help them optimize operations, enhance guest experiences and drive profitability, said Djordje Jevtic, co-founder and CEO of OTA Sync. “As technology evolves, hotels that embrace next-generation PMS solutions will stay ahead.” How? The last few years have brought significant improvements to PMS technology, Jevtic said, including automation and AI-driven insights, embedded payment solutions, guest-facing tech, hyper-personalized guest profiles and open API ecosystems. The future could be brighter. “Artificial intelligence and machine learning will continue shaping the future of PMS technology,” Jevtic said. Expect: more predictive analytics, smarter automation, voice and IoT integrations and deeper personalization. Here’s a thought: The PMS will become so robust, so intuitive that “the back office will slowly disappear,” Jevtic said.
