Hotel software quotes in India have a pattern: the per-room price on the website is small, and the first invoice is not. Hoteliers have walked us through years of these quotes — and we built a competitor priced in the open — so here is exactly where the difference lives.
The six places pricing hides
1. Minimum billing floors
“₹250 per room” reads gently until the fine print says the minimum bill is ₹4,250 a month. A 10-room property pays for 17 rooms; a 5-room homestay pays for 17 rooms. The India-focused suites publish floors between roughly ₹4,250 and ₹8,985 a month depending on tier; the global one carries the same structure in dollars. Always ask: what is the smallest cheque I can write?
2. “Interfaces of your choice”
On the big suites, connecting things you assumed were features — the channel manager, a payment gateway, a kitchen printer — consumes “interfaces”, sold in bundles of three or six by tier. Choose wrong and the fourth connection is an add-on invoice. Count the connections you actually need before comparing tiers.
3. Booking-engine commission
The strangest one: at least one India suite charges up to 4% plus per-booking fees on bookings from your own website — the channel that exists to escape commission. Ask the percentage, in writing, including “payment handling” fees.
4. Setup, onboarding and training fees
One-time fees between ₹10,000 and ₹50,000 appear on quotes precisely because they don't appear on websites. Migration of your old bookings is often a separate line again.
5. Per-user and per-device charges
A front desk, a manager, a housekeeper with a phone, an accountant — “per user” pricing turns a 12-room hotel into 8 licences. The right number of staff logins is unlimited, because shared passwords are how audit trails die.
6. Year-two pricing
Introductory discounts expire; renewal letters arrive 20% heavier. Ask what happens to your rate at renewal, and get the answer in the agreement, not the sales call.
The checklist to send any vendor
- Smallest possible monthly bill for my exact room count?
- Which connections cost extra, and how much per connection?
- Booking-engine commission and per-booking fees, if any?
- All one-time fees: setup, training, migration?
- Are staff users and devices unlimited?
- What does my rate become at renewal?
- Is support the same on every plan, 24/7, in writing?
- Can I export all my data, any day, without asking twice?
Where we stand
We publish ours because we hate this dance as much as any buyer does: ₹199 / ₹299 / ₹449 per room per month, smallest possible bill ₹995, zero interface charges, 0% booking-engine commission, unlimited users, free migration, and a rate that's locked while you stay subscribed. If a vendor won't print their numbers, that is itself a number — and if you want ours defended line by line, bring this checklist to a demo.