Our tech stack at Comal Inn, and why we skipped the all-in-one

Here's what runs a 5-unit property, job by job.

1. 01The pricing tool sets the rate.PriceLabs picks a nightly rate and sends it to the PMS.
2. 02The PMS sends it everywhere.Eviivo pushes rates and availability to our booking engine and every OTA, so they all match.
3. 03A guest books.On our site or an OTA. Either way, the reservation lands in the PMS.
4. 04Payments and paperwork run on their own.ChargeAutomation collects the deposit, gets the guest to sign off on our policies, and collects their real contact info.
5. 05We stay in touch.TextMagic handles texts before arrival, during the stay and after checkout.
6. 06Arrival day.The guest gets their door code in the guest portal and checks in on their own.

This is where a separate payments tool earns its keep. Our deposit rules aren't the same on every channel:

• Direct and Expedia: 50% at booking, the other 50% seven days before arrival.
• Booking.com: 100% at booking. That was the only way to line up our cancellation policy with the deposit options Booking.com offers through our PMS.

ChargeAutomation applies the right rule to each booking automatically. Nobody on our end has to remember which guest owes what, or when.

It also solves a problem most owners don't notice until they need to call a guest. The OTAs protect guest contact details. Airbnb blocks them, Expedia and Booking.com send alias email addresses, and phone numbers often don't come through at all. Our check-in step asks for a real email and phone number, so we can reach guests during their stay and know who's calling when they need something.

The same tool sells early check-in for $15. Guests get a 1 p.m. check-in instead of 3 p.m.

I was surprised it worked. Big hotel chains often offer early check-in as a perk for rewards members, so I didn't expect guests at a boutique property to pay for it. They do. The numbers are in this note.

I've also pitched local businesses on selling experiences at the time of booking. No takers yet. That one is still a work in progress.

I've sat through demos of several big all-in-one systems, the kind that promise reservations, pricing, messaging, payments and upsells under one roof. I went in with high hopes every time.

They all looked great in the demo. Then we'd hit one feature that didn't fit how we actually run the property, and making it work meant changing our process to suit the software. Or the price came in well above what we pay now.

Two examples from those evaluations:

• Pricing wasn't flexible enough. We run separate rate plans for single nights, multi-night stays and extended stays of 5+ nights, and we price single nights higher on purpose to match demand. The built-in pricing couldn't handle that, so we'd still have needed our separate pricing tool.
• Upsells weren't fully automated. Early check-in could be offered at booking, up to a cut-off. But adding an extra night mid-stay, or filling an orphan night next to a booking, still meant changing the calendar by hand, charging the guest by hand and extending their portal access by hand.

The fees add up differently, too. Several of the systems I looked at charged around 1% of every reservation. We pay our PMS a flat 50 cents per transaction instead. On a $400 stay, that's 50 cents instead of $4. Across a year of bookings, the gap adds up.

Our payments tool charges 0.3% on what it processes, not 1%.

A pick-each-tool setup isn't free of downsides, and it isn't right for everyone.

• More logins and more vendors. Five companies to deal with instead of one.
• More connections to watch. When one tool changes something, another one can quietly stop working. Someone has to notice.
• More setup up front. Getting deposit rules, messages and upsells to line up across tools takes time.

For us, the savings and the fit are worth it. If you'd rather have one vendor to call, an all-in-one can still be the right choice.

1. 01List the jobs, not the tools.Reservations, pricing, messaging, payments, upsells, website. Write down how each one works today.
2. 02Start with the PMS.Everything else connects to it, so make sure it fits your property and connects to the tools you want.
3. 03Add tools only when a job hurts.If you spend hours on something every week, that’s the next tool. If not, skip it.
4. 04Check the per-booking fees.A small percentage on every reservation adds up faster than a flat monthly price.
5. 05Test a real day, not a demo.Walk one booking from start to checkout in the trial before you sign anything.