How to choose a PMS for your hotel or holiday rental

Many comparisons fail because they start from the program's features and not from the needs of the business. Before asking for demos, write down how many units you have, what type they are (rooms, apartments, villas), whether you work with owners, whether you have a restaurant, bar or spa, how many people use the system and from which devices.

With that clear, you can tell the essential from the accessory. A hotel with food and beverage needs an integrated POS; a villa manager needs owner statements; both need to comply with regulation.

In Spain, a PMS should help you with guest registration and its reporting to the Ministry of the Interior platform. Ask which part of the process is covered and which remains manual. More on this obligation in the SES.HOSPEDAJES guide.

In the Balearic Islands, add the sustainable tourism tax: it should be configurable by category, with a high-season and low-season rate, and not force you to adjust it booking by booking. We explain it in the tax guide.

Regarding guest data, which is personal, ask where it is stored and who can access it. Hosting in the European Union simplifies GDPR compliance. And check that, if you have several companies or owners, each one sees only its own.

This is where programs differ most. Some are designed for hotels and treat villas as a complication; others do the opposite. If you manage third-party homes, ask them to show you a complete statement for an owner using your agreement model. If you have food and beverage, watch how a bill is charged to a room and how the cash desk is closed at the end of the day.

• Ask for a demo with your cases, not the salesperson's generic tour.
• Ask how long it takes new staff to learn to use it.
• Test the whole flow: booking, arrival, charge, invoice, departure and night audit.
• Check how cleaning and maintenance work from the phone.

Support is the part you miss most when it is absent. In the middle of high season, an unanswered issue costs money. Value having a close team that knows your context. As for migration, clarify which data can be imported, who takes care of it and how long it takes.

On price, do not stop at the monthly fee. Ask whether it is charged per unit, per user or per module, what it costs to add a feature, whether there are setup fees, and what happens to your data if you decide to leave. Avoid surprises by getting a proposal in writing.

The first is deciding on the monthly price alone, without adding modules, users or implementation costs. The second is trusting the salesperson's demo without testing your real cases. The third is leaving migration for the end: what looks trivial, such as importing future bookings or rates, can be what delays going live the most.

The fourth is forgetting the team. If the front desk, cleaning and administration do not feel comfortable with the program, no feature will make up for the resistance to change. Involve the people who will use it every day in the trial and listen to their objections before deciding.

PMS Balear is a cloud, multi-company PMS with data in the EU and support in Spanish from a Balearic team. It covers bookings, front desk, housekeeping, invoicing, cash desk, business units with POS, owner statements, reports and an AI assistant that proposes actions that you confirm. It includes reporting to SES.HOSPEDAJES from the booking and a configurable calculation of the sustainable tourism tax.

If you work with hotels, see PMS for hotels; if you manage holiday homes, holiday rentals. Our process is simple: a demo with sample data, setting up your company and launch with support. Compare it with your checklist and decide calmly.