What hotel management software actually costs in India

Ask three vendors what hotel management software costs and you will get three numbers that cannot be compared, because they are not measuring the same thing. Before the number matters, the model matters — and two of the four common models get more expensive precisely when your hotel starts doing well.

The four pricing models

1. Per room, per month. Scales with the property, predictable, and the most common international model. Watch for a minimum room count that makes a 20-room hotel pay for 40.
2. Per user, per month. Looks cheap in a demo with two logins. It taxes you for hiring a receptionist, and the usual result is shared logins — which destroys the audit trail you bought the system for.
3. Commission per booking. Common with booking-engine-led products. It is the OTA model wearing different clothes: the better your direct channel performs, the more you pay for it.
4. Flat per hotel, per year. One number for the property, usually banded by size. Predictable, and it does not punish a good season or a new hire.

StayFlint uses the fourth: quoted per hotel on room count and on which modules you actually run, as a yearly price. No per-booking cut, no per-user licence.

What is usually charged extra

The licence is rarely the whole cost. Before comparing two quotes, ask each vendor which of these is included and which is a line item:

• Onboarding and setup — configuring rooms, room types, rates and taxes.
• Data migration — moving your existing bookings, rates and guest history across.
• Training — and whether it is a video library or a person.
• Support — response time, and whether it is chat, e-mail, phone, or a ticket portal.
• The booking engine — often a separate product with its own fee or commission.
• Payment gateway charges — usually the gateway's own cut, not the vendor's, but ask.
• AI features — increasingly metered per message or per token, which is a bill that grows quietly.

The comparison that actually matters

Software cost is only half of the equation. The other half is what the system saves or earns, and for an independent Indian hotel there is usually one dominant line: OTA commission on guests who arrived with intent. Work out a year of commission on repeat and direct-intent bookings and compare it to a year of software. For most properties in the 20-to-80 room range the first number is a multiple of the second — which is why a commission-free booking engine is usually the fastest part of the payback.

The second line is time. A month-end that takes three days of somebody's attention because tax, the register and the books live in different places is a real cost, and it is the cost GST built into the ledger removes.

What we charge, and why we do not print it

StayFlint is quoted per hotel because the honest number depends on two things: how many rooms you run, and how much of the system you switch on. A 20-room property running the front desk and the booking page is not paying for the corporate ledger and the travel-agent module it does not use.

What is fixed: it is yearly, there is no commission on your direct bookings, there is no per-user licence, and AI usage sits inside the plan price rather than on a meter. Send a room count on WhatsApp and you will get a number rather than a call sequence.

Three questions that separate a real quote from a pitch

1. Can I open the product right now, without booking a call? If the only way in is a calendar link, you are evaluating a salesperson.
2. What happens to my price if I hire two people or have a great season? The answer tells you which model you are really on.
3. What am I locked into, and can I export my data? Bookings, guests, folios and tax reports should be exportable on the day you ask.