Guesthouses and B&Bs
A guesthouse is not a hostel
The words get used interchangeably and they are different businesses. A lot of the software sold to guesthouses was written for bunk-bed hostels and translated afterwards. This was not.
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- SurnameBAREA MARTÍNEZ
- First nameJAN
- Document no.·······4R
- NationalityES
- Date of birth14 / 03 / 1988
Two businesses, one word
If you run a guesthouse and land on a page about shared dorms, bed turnover and Hostelworld, the product is not bad — it was simply written for somebody else. Here is where the line falls.
| Guesthouse or B&B | Hostel | |
|---|---|---|
| What you sell | The whole room, with its own key | One bed inside a shared dorm |
| How you charge | Per room, per night | Per person, per night |
| Who sleeps next door | Only whoever came with you | Other guests you have never met |
| Where bookings come from | Booking.com, mostly, and your own site | Hostelworld |
| How size is measured | In rooms, usually between 6 and 25 | In beds |
| How it is classified | An accommodation business with private rooms | A hostel, licensed and sold by the bed |
Sound familiar?
- The software you were shown cost like a hundred-room hotel and had screens you would never open
- The cheap alternative was a spreadsheet, the Booking extranet and a good memory
- You pay a setup fee and sign a lock-in before you know whether it works for you
- Every arrival means retyping the same details you already have
- You run the place yourself, and there is no IT person to hand the technical part to
What changes
A plan tailored to your guesthouse
A proposal in writing, tailored to your property. No setup fee and no lock-in.
Guests check in before they arrive
They photograph their ID from their phone and the fields fill themselves in. You review the record instead of typing it.
One place for your rates
Booking.com and 23 other channels take price, availability and restrictions from the same screen. No more three extranets for one long weekend.
Learned in an afternoon
No implementation project, no consultant, no manual. We load your rooms and your rates, and you sell from day one.
Small does not mean simple
A guesthouse with twelve rooms runs the same processes as a hotel with two hundred — arrivals, departures, rates, channels, invoicing, cleaning — but with one person doing all of them, usually while also checking somebody in.
That is why the answer is not a cut-down product with features removed. It is the same product with every screen opening on the job in front of you: the front desk sees who arrives today, housekeeping sees which rooms turn over, and nobody has to learn the parts they will never use.
And it is why the price is published. At this size the decision is made by the owner, on a Tuesday night, comparing two browser tabs — not by a committee after three meetings.
The same goes for setting it up. There is no implementation project: we load your rooms and your rates, connect your channels, and you carry on taking bookings while it happens.
Frequently asked questions
Is management software the same as a PMS?
Yes. “Management software” is what most people call it when they run a guesthouse, and “PMS” — property management system — is what the industry calls it. It is the same tool: the one that holds the room plan, the bookings from every channel, the rates, the guest registration and the invoicing.
Does Hostelum work for a hostel with dorm beds?
No. Hostelum manages rooms, not beds within a shared dorm: there is no per-bed inventory, no bunk allocation and no per-person pricing. If you sell individual beds, you need a different tool.
I have nine rooms. Is this too much system for me?
That is the size it was built for. The price does not depend on how many screens you open, and modules you do not switch on simply do not appear. A small guesthouse works with the planner, front desk, check-in and invoicing.
What if almost everything comes through Booking.com?
That is normal at this size. Booking is connected from day one. What matters is what comes next: the built-in booking engine charges no commission, so every reservation that arrives through your own site instead of the channel is margin you keep in full.
Can I keep my current website?
Yes. The booking engine works as a widget you drop into the site you already have, so you do not have to rebuild anything to start taking direct bookings.
What happens to the data I already have?
We migrate it. Rooms, rates, guests and future bookings come across before you go live, so you are not starting from an empty calendar in the middle of a season.
Does it work for a B&B or a small inn?
Yes. If you sell whole rooms with their own key, by the night, Hostelum fits whatever your property is called. The planner, online check-in, Spanish guest registration and invoicing work the same way.
How much does it cost?
We prepare a written proposal based on your rooms and the channels you use. No setup fee, no lock-in and no commission on bookings made through your own website. Before you sign, you know exactly what you will pay.
I run everything on paper or a spreadsheet today. How do I start?
That is the most common case. You send us your rooms, rates and existing bookings, and someone from our team sets it up with you. It runs in the browser and on your phone, with nothing to install, and we stay with you until you are selling.
Get it running this week
We migrate your rates, connect your channels and open you for sale. No setup fee and no lock-in.