Customer relationship management (CRM) software for the hospitality industry helps hotels, bed and breakfast homes, restaurants, and event venues market operate their businesses. Hospitality CRM software come equipped with features for obtaining online customer reviews and guest surveys, scheduling reservations, and deploying automated marketing campaigns. The best CRM software for hotels include those capabilities and other essential CRM features.
We evaluated dozens of hospitality CRM systems small businesses can use and identified the top eight providers:
- Guesty: (Overall) Best for short-term rentals
- HotelRunner: Best for managing online bookings
- Revinate: Best for luxury hotels
- Freshsales: Best free hospitality CRM
- Hapi Guest: Best for Salesforce users
- dailypoint: Best central data management platform
- Guestware: Best for managing overall hotel operations
- innRoad: Best for hotel performance monitoring
Best CRM Software for Hotels Compared
Provider | Free Plan? | Free Trial/Demo | Our CRM Rating Out of 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ✕ | N/A | $16 per listing per month | 4.92 |
 | ✕ | Trial and demo | Custom pricing | 4.56 |
 | ✕ | Demo | Custom pricing | 4.35 |
 | ✓ 3 users | 21-day free trial | $9 per user per month | 4.29 |
 | ✕ | Demo | $5 per room per year | 4.23 |
 | ✕ | Demo | Contact provider for a quote | 4.20 |
 | ✕ | Demo | $112 per month | 4.06 |
 | ✕ | Demo | Contact provider for a quote | 4.01 |
Guesty: Best for Short-term Rentals & Vacation House Owners
Why I Like It
- Ability to connect a listing imported from Airbnb
- Affordable starting price for 1 to 3 listings at $16 per month per listing
- Includes reputation management and marketing automation features
Where It Falls Behind
- No features to upsell or upgrade rooms
- Lacks guest surveys or feedback forms
- Payment processing and website builder require additional fees
My Expert Opinion
Guesty topped our list of the best CRM software for hotels because of its affordability and strong property management features. This platform allows short-term rental or vacation house owners to connect a listing imported from Airbnb, Booking.com, Rentals United, and Agoda. Your vacation rental business can benefit from its broad range of CRM features like reputation management, marketing automation, robust accounting, and direct bookings.
Plans | Lite | Pro | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
Annual Pricing (per Month) | $16 per listing | Contact provider for a quote | Contact provider for a quote |
Monthly Pricing (per Month) | $23 per listing | Contact provider for a quote | Contact provider for a quote |
Listings | 1 to 3 | 4 to 199 | More than 200 |
Multichannel Distribution | Airbnb, Booking.com, and Vrbo | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Reservation, Property, and Guest Management | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Review and Fraud Management | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Revenue Management and Personalized Guest Quotes | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Full Tech-stack Customization | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
- Multichannel distribution: Across all plans, Guesty allows short-term rental or vacation house owners to integrate their accounts with multiple channels, including Airbnb, Booking.com, and Vrbo. That way, they can manage all listings in one, centralized location, saving them time and effort and focusing more on bringing in more guests.
- Homeowners portal: Guesty offers a separate website that allows homeowners to view their occupancy and earning data. This helps property managers save time, as owners will be able to log in to reserve bookings directly and monitor performance data.
- Revenue management: Short-term rentals like vacation houses require different rates for different rites. With Guesty, you can create custom or dynamic pricing strategies that can be applied across all distribution channels with a single click. Plus, you can offer coupons, promos, and flexible plan rates to increase new bookings and build loyalty among previous guests.
Guesty revenue management feature with pricing rules for recurring days (Source: Guesty)
HotelRunner: Best for Online Bookings
Why I Like It
- Powerful booking engine with online payment integration
- Advanced built-in online marketing, analytics, and reporting tools
- AI-powered reputation management capabilities
Where It Falls Behind
- Lacks transparent pricing
- Lacks transparent pricing
- No phone and live chat for customer support
My Expert Opinion
HotelRunner is one of the best CRM software for hotels because it offers a powerful booking engine to manage rates and availability. It also has advanced marketing, analytics, and reporting features, helping hotel sales teams generate more leads, make smarter decisions, and promote more bookings. Hoteliers can use this platform’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered reputation management capabilities to personalize guest responses to reviews.
Contact the provider to schedule a free demo, sign up for a free trial, or get a custom quote based on your specific business needs.
- Seamless booking engine: Hotels can connect their websites to their HotelRunner inventory and display their rates and room availability in real time. You can integrate payment systems into your hospitality website for reservations with security, speed, and reliability.
- Marketing and analytics: HotelRunner has advanced online marketing, analytics, and reporting features that enhance your hotel’s online performance and increase bookings. It also has AI-powered reputation management capabilities that generate personalized responses to guest reviews within seconds.
- Guest Relationship Management (GRM): Gain an edge over your competitors by staying connected with your guests before, during, and after their stay. Leverage automated emails that are personalized according to their preferred language, schedule, and unique needs.
HotelRunner booking engine with sample room options (Source: HotelRunner)
Revinate: Best for Luxury Hotels
Why I Like It
- Offers omnichannel communication and engagement through email marketing, text messaging, phone, and online resources
- Supplemental call center service takes bookings when hotel staff are at capacity or offline and away from their phone
- Robust reputation management features for collecting guest feedback and posting online reviews
Where It Falls Behind
- Lacks transparent pricing
- No event management features
- Does not offer point-of-sales (PoS) capabilities built-in or by integration
My Expert Opinion
Revinate, an industry-specific CRM software, is best for luxury hotels looking to provide customized service to their guests. Throughout each marketing campaign, the system will collect data on targeted audiences to help enrich customer profiles, segment customer lists, and ultimately optimize campaigns for more bookings and revenue. You can leverage its AI features to send text messages to guests, manage requests, and upsell.
Plans | Starter | Pro | Custom |
|---|---|---|---|
Pricing | Contact provider for a quote | Contact provider for a quote | Contact provider for a quote |
Hospitality CRM and PMS Segmentation | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Campaign Automation and Revenue Analytics | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Room and Amenity Upselling | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Database Insights and Guest Preferences | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Advanced Segmentation and Transactional Emails | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
- AI CRM: Revinate is one of the best hotel CRMs because teams can use its AI feature to text guests and manage routine customer requests. They can also offer personalized upselling based on the customer profile.
- Reputation management: Revinate’s built-in tools and integration options enable a robust reputation management system. This allows a hotel to request and manage online reviews from one interface.
- Omnichannel communication and marketing: Revinate is a data platform and marketing automation tool built into one product. It comes with omnichannel communication options to engage and nurture customers via telephone, text message, email marketing, or through the hotel’s website.
Overview of Revinate’s AI content generation and email features (Source: Revinate)
Freshsales: Best Free Hospitality CRM
Why I Like It
- Free and low-cost paid plans available
- Excellent CRM features, including contact management, built-in phone system, email marketing, and task management
- Highly customizable modules and fields to let users design for any hotel or hospitality operation
Where It Falls Behind
- Not an industry-specific CRM for hospitality businesses, so users need to customize the system before using its features
- No hospitality tools for events management or booking reservations
- Does not offer reputation management features
My Expert Opinion
Freshsales has free-forever features suitable for hotel owners who want to test basic features without spending money. This CRM is a customizable, general-use CRM system that can be tailored to meet the needs of a restaurant, small hotel, or event-hosting venue. Though not ideal for operations and facilities management, the platform is great for sales, marketing, and guest service activities.
Plans | Free | Growth | Pro | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Annual Pricing (Per User, Per Month) | $0 3 users | $9 | $39 | $59 |
Monthly Pricing (Per User, Per Month) | $0 3 users | $11 | $47 | $71 |
Contact, Deal, and Account Management | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Email Templates and Built-in Phone | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Workflows and Rotten Deal Indicator | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Auto-assignment Rules and Sales Sequences | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Forecasting Insights and Holiday Call Routing | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
- Lead and customer management: Freshsales’ free plan offers excellent lead and customer account management features. Its communication features allow you to engage with customers through live chat, email, telephone, and messenger apps, like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
- Customizations: Freshsales’ Pro plan includes custom fields and advanced CRM customizations to tailor it according to your hospitality business needs. You can customize landing pages and the navigation bar. The Enterprise plan also lets you create up to 10 custom modules that are specific to hotel management.
- Workflows and Automation: Hotels and hospitality businesses can leverage Freshsales’ automation features and native integrations (Freshmarketer and Freshservice) to streamline marketing tasks. You can also build personalized customer interactions, sales sequences, and customer responses.
Freshsales account management module with related contacts, conversations, tickets, and deals (Source: Freshsales)
Hapi Guest: Best Hospitality CRM for Salesforce Users
Why I Like It
- Seamless integration with Salesforce to synchronize data into Salesforce Cloud products for sales, marketing, and service
- Scalable pricing based entirely on the number of hotel rooms
- Customizable guest flows to help create customer journeys and marketing campaigns
Where It Falls Behind
- Exclusive CRM integrations to Salesforce only
- Platform only serves data management functionally—CRM capabilities require Salesforce
- Must integrate with third-party property management system (PMS) products to get hotel and property management capabilities
My Expert Opinion
Hapi Guest is the best CRM software for hotels using Salesforce. This CRM centralizes data from PMS and hotel management applications that can be easily connected and used in Salesforce. As it collects data, hotel businesses can create insight-driven marketing campaigns and automate customer service strategies to give guests the best experience based on their history and priorities.
Cost: Starting at $5 per room, per year
The Hapi Guest requires a subscription to Salesforce Sales Cloud. It is compatible with Salesforce Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Marketing Cloud Engagement. You can download and integrate Hapi Guest from the Salesforce AppExchange marketplace.
- Native Salesforce integration: Since Hapi Guest is a software native to Salesforce, it lets hotels collect, track, and map customer data and then synchronize it into the Salesforce Sales, Marketing, or Service Clouds. Once integrated, teams can use all of the Salesforce features for analytics and to run their marketing campaigns, manage sales activities, and assist hotel guests.
- Personalized customer journeys: One of the main features is that the guest data flows within Hapi Guest. This lets you design customer journeys that consider the channels they use, their transaction history, and their profiles.
- Customization: Hapi Cloud allows you to customize its deployment with Hapi Connect’s flexible configuration settings and component-based architecture.
Hapi Guest sample flow builder for matching guests (Source: Salesforce AppExchange)
dailypoint: Best Central Data Management Platform
Why I Like It
- Cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) for centralized data management (CDM)
- Massive app integration like Airangel, Cendyn, Mews, and Medallia, available in its marketplace
- All advanced features for hotel CRM system are available, including a voucher system
Where It Falls Behind
- No pricing info available
- Support channels are limited to phone and email ticketing system
- No mobile app
My Expert Opinion
Hotel CRM dailypoint is the best central data management platform designed for hotels with intelligent data management features like SmartWireless. This CRM hotel tool collects, cleans, and consolidates hotel data in a single Central Guest Profile. The platform also has loyalty and voucher systems for direct referrals and marketing purposes.
There is no available information on dailypoint’s pricing. You may contact the provider to book a demo and get a customized quote.
- Centralized data management: dailypoint is a dedicated cloud-based CRM software for hotels. You can choose from any of its 16 modules, which include data laundry, campaign manager, and loyalty program, to effectively manage core hospitality business operations. Complement these modules with almost 200 best-of-breed tool integrations, like Airangel for secure hotel Wi-Fi and Arvato direct services for custom loyalty programs.
- Advanced customer journey management: Improve every guest’s journey with dailypoint, equipped with marketing automation, reputation management tools, upsell/upgrade rooms, and guest surveys or feedback forms. dailypoint’s voucher system and loyalty program also support cross- and upselling efforts. The SmartWireless features intelligent data management and turns hotel Wi-Fi into a profit center by providing access to online activities.
- Basic Sales Module: dailypoint’s Basic Sales Module can help you optimize hotel revenues through clear account and sales account management and sales opportunity tracking. You can also automate contract and approval processes, as well as synchronize email communications via its Outlook Add-in.
dailypoint’s sample customer central profile (Source: dailypoint YouTube demo)
Guestware: Best for Managing Overall Hotel Operations
Why I Like It
- Offers guest response features for incident tracking, response management, and automated dispatch
- Platform includes facilities management tools like preventive maintenance tracking, mobile inspections, and housekeeping management
- All-in-one sales and operations management tool
Where It Falls Behind
- Relatively expensive starting price
- Loyalty program management is not available in lower tier
- CRM module is locked in with Guestware Suite plan
My Expert Opinion
Guestware is a robust CRM for overall hotel operations. Because of its facilities management tools and guest response features, Guestware can be a reliable hotel sales software for managing hotel operations. This CRM empowers hotel service teams to effectively respond to guests by automating guest service requests, housekeeping, work orders, and repeat guest recognition.
Plans | Select | Suite |
|---|---|---|
Annual Pricing (Per Month) | $112 | $200 |
Monthly Pricing (Per Month) | N/A | N/A |
Guest Requests and Incident Tracking | ✓ | ✓ |
Preventive Maintenance and Work Orders | ✓ | ✓ |
Inspections, Defect Reporting, and Analytics | ✓ | ✓ |
Loyalty Management | ✕ | ✓ |
PMS Integration | ✕ | ✓ |
- Hotel operations management: Guestware is equipped with a robust set of features for overseeing multiple parts of hotel operations. These include guest and incident management, facilities maintenance, and marketing activities through email marketing, loyal program management, and pre-arrival planning.
- Property Management System (PMS): Because Guestware also acts as a hotel PMS, it’s the best CRM for running hotel operations. For example, there are engineering preventive maintenance features where teams can conduct mobile inspections of the premises and schedule updates to prevent infrastructure problems down the road. Optional interactive voice response (IVR) tools allow guests to request housekeeping or incident response services.
- Loyalty management: GuestWare’s loyalty management module includes a database where you can maintain guest profiles and proactively plan for the arrival of return guests. You can also tabulate each guest’s loyalty points based on their stay history.
Guestware rapid response dispatch monitor for guest requests (Source: GuestWare)
innRoad: Best for Hotel Performance Reporting
Why I Like It
- Advanced reporting with dozens of preloaded helpful reports
- 24/7 customer support
- Upsell or upgrade feature availability
Where It Falls Behind
- No free trial or plan available
- No marketing automation and guest survey features
- Not user-friendly group reservations and hotel channel manager
My Expert Opinion
innRoad is a PMS solution that can generate detailed reports of your hospitality business’ performance. With innRoad, you can view current performance and operational data (Daily Flash), helping accurately monitor and optimize the hotel’s performance. This CRM for hotels also has upselling features to increase booking revenue. Hotel businesses can use this platform to track occupancy rates and book more guests, with the full support they can get from a CRM provider.
Plans | Essentials | Customized Pricing |
|---|---|---|
Annual Pricing (Per Month) | N/A | N/A |
Monthly Pricing (Per Month) | Starting at $150 | Contact provider for a quote |
PMS and Booking Engine | ✓ | ✓ |
Revenue Management and Hotel Performance Reporting | ✓ | ✓ |
24/7 Phone Support | ✓ | ✓ |
Country-specific Training and Partner Integrations | ✕ | ✓ |
- Hotel performance reporting: innRoad comes with batch reporting capability for various business areas, such as financials, property management, reservation details, and guest compliance. Users can customize, filter, save, and share reports for quick reference. Monitor your hotel’s performance in terms of occupancy rate, revenue, and other top metrics.
- Upselling and room upgrades: Not all CRM software for the hospitality industry has an upsell or upgrade feature. innRoad hotel CRM streamlines your guest reservation with its upsell or upgrade feature, which allows booking more guests based on the results of its robust reporting capabilities. Hence, hotel staff can quickly answer customer inquiries about room availability, schedules, and other booking-related concerns.
- 24/7 customer support: innRoad can help you any time of the day. You can reach customer support through innRoad’s toll-free number, email, or support portal.
innRoad sample property performance report (Source: innRoad)
Methodology: How I Evaluated the Best CRM Software for Hotels
To determine the best CRM for hotels, I evaluated the specific features and product attributes relevant to the hospitality industry. Guest data contact management, for instance, provides hotels and rental businesses with a centralized database of all their leads, contacts, and customers. I also looked at other critical hotel CRM attributes, such as price, customer support, ease of use, and niche features like reputation management and guest feedback.
The tabs below provide insight into our evaluation process of the best CRM software for the hospitality industry:
30% of Overall Score
I first looked at overall features we feel are crucial to any CRM software, regardless of its primary purpose. Having a mobile application, for example, lets hospitality teams manage customers and sales activities, all while on the go. Additionally, we looked at the reporting, guest management, range of outside integrations, and customization capabilities of each CRM.
15% of Overall Score
Pricing considered free plan availability and various scalable pricing options businesses could afford as they grow. I also looked at the availability for a subscriber to either pay monthly or save by paying annually. Finally, I examined the costs of specifically using the hotel and hospitality management features.
25% of Overall Score
I examined each CRM in-depth regarding niche CRM capabilities that can add value to hotel and hospitality businesses. For example, features for booking reservations, obtaining guest feedback, and managing customer online reviews are specifically helpful for a hotel, restaurant, or event-hosting venue. Additionally, automated marketing lets businesses personalize campaigns to customers for a better experience and hopefully, a boost in positive online reviews.
15% of Overall Score
Extensive customer support prevents poor user experiences while using the best CRM for the hospitality industry. I wanted to see if the providers offer multiple service channels, including phone, email, and live chat. I also looked at self-service resources like knowledge base guides and community forums and the hours of customer support availability.
15% of Overall Score
In addition to first-hand experience with these hospitality CRMs, I evaluated what actual users say about the products according to online reviews. This allowed me to thoroughly understand how customers feel about the general and niche CRM features and whether they’re worth the cost. It also helped me gauge product usability in terms of navigating the interface, operating the features, and setting up the modules.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
HotelRunner is one example of a CRM in the hospitality industry. It offers a superb booking engine and advanced marketing, analytics, and reporting features. These capabilities help hotel sales teams manage occupancy rates, generate more leads, increase bookings, manage reputation, and make smarter decisions.
Yes. While a general CRM system, such as Freshsales, can be customized into a hospitality CRM, most hotel and hospitality software products are industry-specific, including lodging, recreation, travel and tourism, and food and beverage. In other words, the provider designed them to offer features for the particular vertical it serves.
While you can use a general CRM and customize it into a hospitality CRM, that can take time and doesn’t guarantee the features will adequately meet your unique needs. Hospitality CRMs have features, like reputation and reservation management, and data fields within the system that are specifically useful for a hospitality business. By keeping all workflows and data in one system, you can stay better organized and keep sales, marketing, and operations activity all in one interface.
Bottom Line
Hospitality and hotel CRMs are industry-specific platforms that let users manage reservations, events, guests, customer service, and marketing campaigns in one system. While Guesty was our pick for the best overall CRM for hotel businesses, other products on this list could be better suited for your business, depending on your needs. HotelRunner, for instance, is the best CRM for online bookings, while Revinate is better suited for luxury hotels.
