Choosing B&B software: what to look for when you let guest rooms

Short answer: you compare B&B software on what makes a B&B different from a hotel or a holiday home. Can the system handle both individual rooms and room types? Does it charge a price per person, with breakfast and extras your guests can add? Does it put the right VAT and tourist tax per person per night on your website, your booking and your invoice? Is Booking.com and Airbnb really connected, so a room sold on one channel closes on the others at once? And can you set it up yourself, without a front desk, without an IT person and without an annual contract you cannot get out of? If a package scores on those points, it suits a B&B.

What a PMS actually is, you can read in what is a PMS for a B&B. This article is about the choice: nine points, in order of how often they make the difference in practice.

1. Rooms and room types

A B&B sometimes has five rooms that are all different, sometimes three identical double rooms and a family room. Good software handles both. If you sell identical rooms as one room type, your booking page shows "2 rooms left" and the system assigns the room. If you also let some rooms together, for example two rooms with a connecting door for a family, check whether you can create a combination that blocks both rooms.

2. A price per person, not only per room

A double room often costs a little less for one guest and a little more with a third person. Check whether you can set a base price for two people with a factor or supplement per extra person, and whether that price also goes to Booking.com and Airbnb. Otherwise every channel charges something different. In BedFlow PMS these are called occupancy prices; the guide rate management explains how to set them.

3. Breakfast and extras guests can add

Is breakfast included in the price, or do you charge it separately? Both should be possible. A B&B often sells something extra too: a bottle of cava on arrival, a late check-out, an extra bed. Check whether guests can add that to their booking themselves, and whether it then appears on the invoice automatically. If you have to add it by hand, one day you will forget.

4. VAT and tourist tax calculated correctly

In Belgium, accommodation falls under 12% VAT, and most municipalities levy a tourist tax per person or per room per night. Those amounts must be the same everywhere: on your website, in the confirmation, on the quote and on the invoice. Software that cannot do this leaves you doing sums in Excel afterwards. Your municipality's website tells you what the tax is in your town; how to set it up in BedFlow PMS is in VAT and tourist tax.

5. A real connection with Booking.com and Airbnb

This is where it goes wrong most often. An iCal link only exchanges booked or free, and with a delay. Two guests can then book the same room. A channel manager with a direct connection sends availability, prices and rules such as a minimum stay, and pulls in bookings straight away. So do not ask "can I connect Booking.com?" but "through iCal or through a real connection?".

6. Your own booking engine, with online payment

Every booking through your own website saves commission. Check whether the software has a booking engine you put on your site, using the same calendar and prices, where a guest can pay in full or pay a deposit straight away. An enquiry form you still have to answer yourself is not a booking engine.

7. Guest communication without copy and paste

A confirmation, a message a few days before arrival with directions and check-in, a thank-you after departure: every guest gets these. Let them go out automatically. Also check whether you can read and answer messages from Booking.com, Airbnb and WhatsApp in one place.

8. Invoices and accounting

When a business guest asks for an invoice in the company's name, it should be ready in a minute. In Belgium, invoices to businesses also have to be possible electronically, via Peppol. Check whether the software creates final invoices, whether they go to your accounting package and whether you can easily get the figures for Statbel out of it.

9. Does it suit a small business?

Software for hotels with a front desk has a lot you do not need. Watch three things. Can you set it up yourself in a few hours? Is there help in your own language when you get stuck, without paying per question? And how do you get out: how long does the contract run, and do you take your bookings and guest data with you? What you pay in total, including commissions and extra modules, is covered in what does a PMS for a B&B cost.

How to test it

During the trial, create your real rooms with your real prices. Then make three test bookings: one through your own website, one with a third person and breakfast, and one on a date with a minimum stay. Check whether the price is right, whether the room closes on every channel and whether the invoice is correct. That tells you more than a demo.

How BedFlow PMS does it

BedFlow PMS is built for B&Bs, guest rooms and small hotels. Room types, occupancy prices, breakfast and extras, VAT and tourist tax, a channel manager with direct connections, your own booking engine, automatic guest messages and invoices with Peppol are all included. Support is included on every plan. Prices are on our pricing page.

Want to try it yourself with your own rooms? Start your free 30-day trial at bedflow.eu. No credit card required.