A PMS for an aparthotel or serviced apartments: what should you look for?

Short answer: compare a PMS for an aparthotel or serviced apartments on what makes apartments different from hotel rooms or B&B rooms. Can it sell identical apartments as one type and assign the unit itself? Does it let guests in without a front desk, with a personal code and a digital check-in? Does it reward long stays automatically, also on Booking.com and Airbnb? And does it produce an invoice in a company's name without manual work? For an aparthotel or a building with ten to a few dozen apartments, a PMS built for small accommodations can do all of that. For a chain with hundreds of units, in-house revenue managers and corporate contracts through travel agencies, you usually need a larger hotel system.

Below are the seven points, in order of how much they matter in practice.

1. Selling identical apartments as one type

An aparthotel often has eight studios, six one-bedroom apartments and two two-bedroom apartments. A guest on your website does not want to see sixteen separate cards, but three: studio, one bedroom, two bedrooms, each with the number still available.

Ask in every demo: does the booking page group units by type, and who decides which apartment the guest gets? In BedFlow PMS you switch on room types with multiple rooms: the guest sees one card per type, and BedFlow PMS assigns the apartment using a rule you choose. Why this also matters on Booking.com is explained in room types vs individual rooms.

2. Getting in without a front desk

The whole idea of serviced apartments is that nobody stands behind a desk all day. The software then has to do the front desk's job: the guest fills in their details in advance, gets their code and the wifi, and can still get in at eleven at night.

Ask which lock systems are connected and what the guest actually receives. BedFlow PMS works with TTLock and Salto KS: every guest automatically gets a personal PIN code that only works during their stay. With Bold locks via Home Assistant, the guest opens the door with a button on their guest page. See smart locks and keyless access and, for the trade-offs, self check-in with smart locks.

Also look at the guest register. As an accommodation provider you have to register your guests, and without a front desk that is best done online. In BedFlow PMS the guest fills it in on their own guest page, with a running sequence number.

3. Rewarding long stays automatically

In an aparthotel, guests more often stay a week or a month: a consultant on a project, a family renovating their home, someone between houses. You want those guests, because one three-week booking means fewer changeovers and less cleaning.

Ask whether the system can give a discount from a number of nights, and whether that discount also reaches the channels. In BedFlow PMS you create a length-of-stay discount, for example −10% from 7 nights and −20% from 30 nights. It applies on your own booking site, to phone bookings, in quotes and on your channels. More on the strategy in length-of-stay discounts for longer bookings. Long stays also raise the question of energy use: see passing on energy costs.

4. Invoices in a company's name

A large share of aparthotel guests travel for work. They need an invoice in their employer's name, with a VAT number, and sometimes the company pays afterwards. Ask whether you can put the invoice on a company without retyping the booking, and whether a regular business client can pay on invoice. In BedFlow PMS you fill in Invoice to on the booking; those details go to the customer record. More in business guests and invoices in a company name.

5. The right channels

You sell a holiday apartment on Booking.com, Airbnb and Vrbo. A city aparthotel also attracts business travellers. Ask which channels are available through the channel manager. Through the BedFlow PMS channel manager you connect Booking.com, Airbnb and Expedia among others, and for business travel in Germany, Austria and Switzerland also HRS.

6. Settings per apartment

Not every apartment is the same. One has a terrace, another allows dogs, the penthouse has a later check-in time. Ask whether you can set that per unit without filling in everything again for each apartment. In BedFlow PMS you only fill in the exceptions under per-unit settings; empty means the building setting applies. If you have apartments at several addresses, also read managing multiple properties.

7. Cleaning without phoning around

No front desk also means nobody who sees in the morning which apartment is coming free. Ask whether the cleaning team gets its own overview on their phone, with departures and arrivals per apartment. BedFlow PMS has a housekeeping portal and a planning view for that. How to build such a day is covered in cleaning schedule between check-out and check-in.

When something else is the better fit

To be fair: a PMS for small accommodations is not a hotel system for a chain. If you have hundreds of units across several cities, an in-house revenue team, corporate contracts with fixed rates through travel agencies and a front desk open 24 hours, you will end up with larger hotel software.

And if you rent apartments by the month or the year on a tenancy agreement, you are no longer an accommodation provider but a landlord. Different rules apply there, and property management software fits better.

A PMS like BedFlow PMS fits well with a human-scale aparthotel or serviced-apartment building, a B&B that has added a few apartments, or an owner with apartments in a few buildings. What it costs is on the pricing page, without detours. If you first want to understand how a PMS, a booking engine and a channel manager fit together, read the difference between a PMS, a booking engine and a channel manager.

How to test it in a week

Create two apartment types with two units each, set a weekly discount, connect one channel and make a test booking through your own booking page. Then check whether the confirmation, the guest page with the code, the invoice in a company name and the cleaning overview are all correct.

Want to try it with your own apartments? You can test BedFlow PMS free for 30 days, no card details needed.