Front desk systems and property management software

Has anyone compared the all reservation programs mentioned in this thread? I'd like to get a good idea which programs are really designed for hostels in mind? I really don't want to improvise the room numbers smartly, as I think it will become a problem with different reservation types down the road. ;)

Dear All,

I am looking for a hostel property management tools. I have seen your discussion but still not sure which one will be suitable for my requirement. Following is the list of the major requirements that need your advice.

1. We need the managment tools can be network online so that myself & my colleagues can access the platform from different locations.
2. We need to switch customer from one room to another room in order to have high occupency (Hostelworld can not do that.)
3. We will allocate double ensuite or 6 beds ensuite for a single ensuite customer if we don't have single room with the single room price.
4. We need different user level to access the system.
5. We need to have the room table to show that which rooms are occupied and which rooms are available.
6. We have different properties with different setting for monthly booking or for daily booking in different building.

Currently, our bookings are mainly from hostelworld, hostelbookers and own booking system call Rez Easy.

Question:
1. Do you have any suggestion that which one will have the features fit to above requirement?
2. Do you have any experience on Rez Easy, they just launch the property management system recently?
3. We have tried Hsotelworld but it has a lot of retriction that not fit to us. For example, we can't relocate the single ensuite customers to double or twin.

I do apreciate if you can give us advice!! Many thanks!!

I hate ASSD.

We use Gastro Dat but I wouldn´t recommend it to anyone who is not within driving distance of Salzburg (that´s where they are based) because you often need one of their dudes to come round to your place to fix problems.

We are basically very happy with it because it´s so simple that anyone can learn how to use it in one afternoon. The disadvantage is that it´s very slow if you haven´t got quite expensive hardware and lots of bandwith between your server and the hostels. It works perfect though if you only have it running on one computer in your reception... :rolleyes:

I think if anyone ever coughs up a decent software it´s going to be Hostelworld. They have a vital interest that as many hostels as possible use it and they have sufficient funds to do it. Backpack Online is heaps better than what they offered before but they still need to make a lot of improvements. They have added a room table now, but it´s still not quite what I want. The problem is that it´s still entirely based on HTML code which limits possibilities. Maybe it would be a good idea to sex it up with Java or something like that, so you can do things like drag-and-drop bookings. Let´s wait and see.

In the meantime, do not only look strictly for "hostel software". I heard a hostel in Sydney uses a software which was made to manage parking lots!

I had a lot of problems with the old (offline) version of Backpack. I've heard some people complaining about the new online version, but I don't know the specifics.

If I were going to open a hostel with over 100 beds I would probably go with Roommaster -- only because I am familiar with it. It's probably not the best program in most cases though. It does have some annoying qualities -- but maybe they all do...

i never really had any problems with backpack - i actually prefer it to backpack online, but i only tried the first version and apparently its been improved quite a bit.