6 Best Hospitality & Hotel CRM Software for 2023
This article is part of a larger series on CRM.
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 systems come equipped with features for obtaining online customer reviews and guest surveys, scheduling reservations, and deploying automated marketing campaigns. The best leisure and hospitality software includes those capabilities and other essential CRM features.
We evaluated dozens of hospitality CRM systems small businesses can use and identified the top six providers:
- Best overall: Revinate
- Best for hotel operations management: Guestware
- Best free hospitality CRM: Freshsales
- Best for Salesforce users: Hapiguest
- Best event management system: Tripleseat
- Best hotel marketing software: eInsight by Cendyn
Best CRM Software for the Hospitality Industry Compared
Provider | Our CRM Rating | Starting Price* | Key Features | Customer Support |
---|---|---|---|---|
4.63/5 | Must contact for pricing | Omnichannel communication and reputation management | Online resources plus email and phone support | |
4.51/5 | $112 per month | Facility maintenance and guest response features | Online resources center plus phone and email support | |
4.32/5 | Free to $15 per user, monthly | Free phone system and contact management tools | Self-service plus 24/5 support via phone, chat, and email | |
4.28/5 | $4.80 per room, per year | Two-way data sync with Salesforce for personalized guest experiences | Online resource library plus 24/7 email support | |
4.22/5 | Must contact for pricing | Built-in event planning module plus payment and document processing | Online help desk and knowledge base plus email support | |
4.14/5 | Must contact for pricing | Email marketing automation and personalized guest journeys | Online articles and videos, global customer phone, live chat, and email support | |
*Based on annual billing; monthly billing is also available for slightly higher rates.
Revinate: Best Overall Hospitality & Hotel CRM Software
Pros
- Industry-specific CRM built specifically for hotels
- Offers omnichannel communication and engagement through email marketing, text messaging, phone, and online resources
- Supplemental call center service takes bookings when hotels are at capacity or offline and away from their phone
- Robust reputation management features for collecting guest feedback and posting online reviews
Cons
- Lacks transparent pricing
- No event management features
- Does not have point-of-sales (PoS) capabilities built-in or by integration
Revinate is an industry-specific hotel CRM software designed to engage hotel customers at every lifecycle stage. The system 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. Throughout each 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.
Revinate is the best hotel CRM because of its sophistication and supplemental services. For example, teams can use Ivy, the artificial intelligence (AI) feature, to text guests, manage routine customer requests, and offer personalized upselling based on the customer profile. The built-in tools and integration options also enable a robust reputation management system where a hotel can request and manage online reviews for Google, Booking.com, and Tripadvisor, all from one interface.
One issue with Revinate is there aren’t any built-in payment processing or point-of-sale (PoS) systems within the platform, nor is there any third-party integration that would allow a hotel to manage and handle payments from the CRM. Tripleseat is the best alternative for adding payment processing applications to the CRM platform.
Revinate revenue and campaign dashboard (Source: Revinate)
What Users Say About Revinate
Online reviews show users particularly like the audience segmentation and email marketing features for creating email campaigns. They also feel that managing guest reviews is simple and helps grow their business. However, one issue is users dislike the reporting features—indicating that while useful, some features are not intuitive to operate.
Guestware: Best for Managing Hotel Operations
Pros
- 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
Cons
- Starting pricing is expensive
- Loyalty program management not available until Guestware Plus plan
- CRM module isn’t offered until Guestware Suite plan
Like Revinate, Guestware is a hotel management software for small hotels and larger ones. Between the three available plans that are priced based on the number of rooms at the facility, hotel teams can oversee multiple parts of the operation. These include guest and incident management, facilities maintenance, and marketing activities through email marketing, loyal program management, and pre-arrival planning.
Because Guestware also acts as a hotel property management system (PMS), it’s the best CRM on the list for running hotel operations. The platform offers modules specifically for handling guest requests and maintenance. 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.
Guestware’s CRM features aren’t available until the Guestware Suite plan starting at $200 per month. Also, while the system will manage and store the customer data, the communication features are limited to email marketing, which isn’t built in and demands integration with an external marketing automation platform. Freshsales is the best alternative on this list regarding standard and built-in sales and marketing CRM capabilities.
Guestware Pricing at a Glance*
- Guestware Select: $112 to $513 per month
- Guestware Suite: $200 to $775 per month
- Guestware Plus: Contact for pricing
*Pricing based on annual billing; monthly billing is also available for a higher cost. The monthly cost is based on the number of rooms in the hotel, ranging from 50 to 500 rooms.
Guestware preventative maintenance management (Source: Guestware)
Freshsales: Best Free Hospitality CRM
Pros
- Free for up to 3 users and low-cost paid plans
- 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
Cons
- 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
Freshsales 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. Teams can store contact records of their guests, keep them automatically up to date with profile enrichment, run automated sales sequences, and engage customers through live chat, email, telephone, and website apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Google Business messenger.
Even with its excellent lead and customer management features, Freshsales is known for its free plan. Hospitality businesses can access some Freshsales features, including a built-in phone, task management, contact management, and AI chatbots, at no cost. Additionally, those free-forever features are available to an unlimited number of users.
Because Freshsales is a generic CRM, it does not come pre-packaged with hospitality modules such as facility maintenance, reputation management, or events management features. Users who prioritize those capabilities should look to Revinate as a great alternative for hotels, or Tripleseat as an excellent specialized CRM for restaurants and event venues.
Pro tip: Generic CRMs offering many customization options for layouts, modules, automations, and data fields let you convert any CRM into an industry-specific, specialized platform. Check out our picks for the top customizable CRM systems to find solid products you can tailor to your unique operation.
Freshsales Pricing at a Glance*
- Growth: $15 per user, per month
- Pro: $39 per user, per month
- Enterprise: $69 per user, per month
- Free trial: 21 days
Add-ons:
- Configure, Price, Quote: $19 per user, monthly for quote document templates, invoicing synced to deals, and document activity tracking
- Additional bot sessions: $75 for 1,000 bot sessions per month for automated customer or lead support
*Pricing is based on annual billing; monthly billing is also available for a higher cost.
Freshsales creating a sales sequence (Source: Freshsales)
Want to learn more? Check out our Freshsales CRM review with deep insights on product features, usability, pricing, and best-for circumstances.
Hapiguest: Best for Salesforce Users
Pros
- 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
Cons
- Exclusive CRM integrations to Salesforce only
- Platform only serves data management functionally—CRM capabilities require Salesforce
- Must integrate with third-party PMS products to get hotel and property management capabilities
Hapiguest, a native software to Salesforce, 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 activity, and assist hotel guests. Hapiguest centralizes data from PMS and hotel management applications that can be easily connected and used in the sophisticated CRM.
For instance, one of the main features is the guest data flows within Hapiguest. This lets you design customer journeys that consider the channels they use, their transaction history, and their profiles. 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.
Since Hapiguest is only a data collection, mapping, and flow-generating tool, users must use the integration with Salesforce to create marketing campaigns, handle service inquiries, and oversee sales bookings. Revinate is a better alternative for hotels that want those features built into the system.
Hapiguest Pricing at a Glance*
- Hapiguest subscription: Starts at $4.80 per room, per year
- Implementation costs: $5,000 for optional implementation services
- Free trial: 30 days
*Pricing does not include costs required to subscribe to Salesforce Cloud products.
Hapiguest customizable guest flows (Source: Salesforce)
Tripleseat: Best for Events Management
Pros
- Hospitality CRM software for numerous verticals like hotels, restaurants, caterers, and event venues
- All-in-one sales, event management, marketing, payments processing, and reservations system
- Highly intuitive interface and modules
Cons
- Lacks transparent pricing
- Most lead generation and marketing capabilities require third-party integration
- Online payments integrations require the Tripleseat+ plan for a la carte subscription add-ons
Hotels, restaurants, wedding planners, trade associations, caterers, and any other organization responsible for hosting and managing major events would extract significant value from Tripleseat. The platform uses built-in features and outside integrations to help guests book reservations, receive and sign sales orders, and complete online payments. Additionally, there are extensive reporting capabilities for sales revenue, bookings, and event planning progress.
The best module we found in Tripleseat was the event management system. Teams can receive new event requests, track point of contact data, store invoices and order documents, create and assign tasks, and monitor outstanding payment balances all from a single event record. Users can also fully manage bookings and reservations from the platform, regardless of whether they’re running a hotel, restaurant, or event-planning business.
Tripleseat is an excellent, all-around CRM for hospitality management in that it can help restaurants, hotels, caterers, and unique venues plan intricate events. However, users need to integrate with outside apps such as Mailchimp, Facebook, and Constant Contact to actually market and generate sales leads for those events. Freshsales is the best option for teams that want to handle sales and marketing activities within the CRM software.
What Users Say About Tripleseat
The most consistent positive attribute users describe in the reviews is the platform’s usability. Most users say customizing and setting up the CRM and operating the CRM tools and functions is highly intuitive. As for the negatives, users feel the financial and payment processing features tend to be glitchy and that communicating internally through the platform is often difficult.
Tripleseat events management (Source: Tripleseat)
eInsight Hotel CRM by Cendyn: Best for Hotel Marketing Features
Pros
- Marketing automation features are very easy to use
- Excellent visualization capabilities for presenting business intelligence and marketing data
- Offers customizable automated customer lifecycle journeys to get the right content to proper segments
Cons
- Primarily a marketing platform, not ideal for operations, events, or guest service management
- No transparent pricing
- Does not offer a mobile application
The eInsight CRM platform is a marketing-heavy solution that focuses on helping hotels develop awareness and drive brand loyalty. It comes with single guest views, which show entire profiles of customers with insights on their contact data, likes, dislikes, history, and customer lifetime spending. Hotels can use that information to personalize guest experiences, deploy automated marketing campaigns, and give customers VIP treatment.
Regarding marketing capabilities, eInsight CRM allows you to design customer journeys that help automate campaigns based on their actions, interests, and content preferences. Users can also create and deploy mass email campaigns using customizable email templates from the CRM system. Finally, campaign data can be collected and analyzed using Microsoft Power BI, then presented on stunning visual dashboards to help marketing teams create or adjust strategies.
While eInsight provides excellent solutions for creating hotel brand awareness and generating interest with its marketing capabilities, it does not offer any features for hotel operations management. Guestware is the best alternative for overseeing hotel maintenance, guest request, and property management activities from the CRM platform.
What Users Say About eInsight CRM
Users of eInsight CRM love the email designer and marking tools—saying they are simple to use through its drag-and-drop functionality and intuitive system for setting up email automation triggers. Some users, however, struggle with customer loyalty management features, specifically when managing personalized guest data and trying to engage customers.
eInsight CRM email marketing template (Source: Cendyn)
How We Evaluated the Best CRM for Hotels & Hospitality Businesses
To determine the best hospitality CRMs, we evaluated the specific features within the platform helpful in managing and marketing a hotel or other hospitality-style service. For instance, reputation management and customer feedback features let hotels easily obtain online customer reviews that could interest potential customers to book a location. Additionally, we assessed product attributes such as price, support availability, and what users say about each product.
We found Revinate to be the best CRM software for hotels. It offers sophisticated features, including reputation management and an AI text messaging system for automated marketing, upselling, and supporting hotel customers. Additionally, there are omnichannel communication options that use customer data to deliver personalized campaigns and enrich guest profiles. Finally, Revinate offers a call center service that accepts room reservations using their agents when a hotel becomes overflowed or unavailable.
The tabs below provide insight into our evaluation process of the best CRM software for the hospitality industry:
30% of Overall Score
We 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.
25% of Overall Score
Extensive support and service help prevent poor user experiences and outcomes users may encounter while using these hotel CRM systems. Help and support were evaluated in terms of customer service hours and the availability of support via phone, live chat, and email. We also looked at self-service and help center resources users can access, like tutorials, forums, and training modules.
20% of Overall Score
We also 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 range of outside integrations each CRM had, as well as each platform’s customization capabilities to tailor a system to any unique operation.
15% of Overall Score
In addition to firsthand experience with these hotel and hospitality CRM products, we evaluated what users say about each product. These criteria consider how customers feel based on their reviews. It allows us to gain more insight into value for the price paid, ease of use when operating the system, and how users feel about the CRM’s features.
10% of Overall Score
Pricing considered free plan availability and various scalable pricing options businesses could afford as they grow. We also looked at the availability for a subscriber to either pay monthly or save by paying annually. Finally, we looked at the costs of specifically using the hotel and hospitality management features.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is a hotel & hospitality CRM?
A CRM for hotels and hospitality businesses, such as restaurants, event venues, or caterers, is a platform that helps improve sales and marketing activities, operations, and the guest experience. For example, it would contain tools to help book reservations, maintain the facilities, obtain customer online reviews and feedback, and create personalized automated marketing campaigns.
While a generic CRM system, such as Freshsales, can be customized into a hospitality CRM, most hotel and hospitality software products are industry-specific. In other words, they are designed by the provider to offer features for the particular vertical it serves.
What are the benefits of using a hospitality CRM system?
While you can use a generic 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 on 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 Revinate 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. Freshsales, for instance, is the most cost-friendly CRM solution, while Tripleseat is better suited for other verticals within the hospitality space, such as restaurants and event planners.