Pricing is the part of buying revenue management software that vendors like to keep fuzzy. “Request a quote” is common, and when the quotes arrive, no two are structured the same way, so comparing them feels like comparing a taxi fare to a train ticket. This guide explains the usual pricing models, what’s often hidden in the small print, how to run the numbers with your own figures, and how to judge whether a price is fair for what you get. It won’t give you a table of exact prices, because they vary a lot by vendor, hotel size and market, and any figure I printed would be out of date or misleading. Instead, you’ll learn how to build your own comparison, which is more useful than a number from someone else’s hotel.
The common pricing models
Most vendors use one of four models. A fee per room per month is simple and predictable. It scales with your size and doesn’t change when business is slow. A share of your revenue, or of the extra revenue the system generates, ties the vendor’s income to your results, which sounds fair but can grow faster than expected once the system works. Tiered plans bundle features and room counts, and you move up a tier as you grow, so check where the tier boundaries are before you sign. And a flat subscription, regardless of size, tends to suit larger hotels. Many vendors mix these, adding setup fees or charges per channel connection. Whichever model you’re quoted, ask for the total monthly figure at your actual room count, including everything you’d really use, and get it in writing. Also ask whether the price is quoted per property or per room type, since that detail changes the total more than you’d expect for hotels with several room categories.
What’s often not in the headline price
The headline number is rarely the full bill. Setup or onboarding fees can be significant, so ask whether they’re one-off or recurring. Some vendors charge extra for each connected channel, each extra user login or each additional property. Premium support, training sessions and custom reports can be add-ons. Integration with your property management system may be included, or may be a separate paid connection, so ask directly. Contract terms matter too. A low monthly rate on a three-year commitment with automatic renewal and a price increase clause isn’t the same as the same rate on a rolling monthly plan. Ask what happens to the price at renewal, and what happens if your room count changes. A vendor who answers all of this clearly, in writing, is easier to trust than one who says “we’ll sort that out later”.
A worked example, with made-up numbers
Say you run a 40-room hotel at 70 percent occupancy, with an average rate of 100. That’s 28 rooms sold a night, about 840 room nights a month, and 84,000 in monthly room revenue. Vendor A charges 6 per room per month, so 240. Vendor B takes 1 percent of room revenue, so 840 a month. Vendor C charges a flat 300 but adds 40 for each extra channel connection and 50 for training, so with three extra channels it’s 470 in the first month, then 420. On a quick glance, B looks like a small percentage and C looks high. In practice, A is the cheapest by a long way, and B costs more than three times as much. These numbers are invented, so redo the sums with real quotes. And if B delivers much better results, it may still be worth it. That’s the question to ask.
Judging value, not only price
A cheap tool that gets ignored is the most expensive option, so think about value. What could the software realistically earn or save for you? Look at the dates you sold out too early and the slow ones you left too high, and estimate a modest improvement, not a miracle. Count the time saved on daily rate checks. Add the cost of mistakes avoided, like a rate that reached a channel late. Then compare that with the annual cost. If a tool costs 3,000 a year and plausibly adds 6,000 in revenue, it’s worth trying. If the honest estimate is a few hundred, it isn’t yet, and a spreadsheet may do the job for now. Be sceptical of anyone who promises a fixed percentage uplift before they’ve seen your data. Honest vendors say it depends, then show you how they’d measure it. Do the comparison on a single page. Seeing three totals in a row stops a clever sales pitch from doing the arithmetic for you.
Negotiating and comparing fairly
You can usually negotiate more than you’d think. Ask for a shorter initial term, a price cap on renewals, a free trial period or a reduced setup fee. Ask whether a booking engine or channel connections are included when you bundle products. Get every quote on the same basis: same room count, same modules, same term. Put the totals in a simple sheet with the monthly cost, the first-year cost, and the three-year cost. Then add a column for the notes that don’t fit in numbers: how clear the vendor was, how fast they replied, whether they’d let you trial the product on your own data. The cheapest number isn’t always the best deal, and the sheet makes that visible. Check your hotel room pricing strategy too, because the tool’s price should sit comfortably inside what it can improve.
When you’re comparing, remember the point of the exercise: a price you can justify against what the software realistically does for you. Aiosell lists its modules and options on its pricing page, and its revenue management software works with its property management system and channel manager, so you can see what’s bundled before you talk to anyone. Run the same worked example with real quotes from every vendor, ours included, and let the totals decide. If you can’t get a clear number from a vendor, treat that as an answer.
