Most owners I talk to aren't happy with their hotel management software, and a lot of them are on Cloudbeds. The reports don't tell them what they need, the bill keeps creeping up with every add-on, and the calendar fights them every time they try to re-assign rooms. And yet they stay. Not because they like it, but because changing feels like a nightmare: lost bookings, angry guests, a week of late nights re-typing reservations.
I ran a large hostel in Thailand for years before I built HotelDesk. We were on Cloudbeds, and honestly, the reports drove me mad and it kept getting more expensive. I've sat on both sides of that decision. Here's what changing your PMS really involves, whether you're leaving Cloudbeds, Little Hotelier, Beds24 or a spreadsheet, and how to do it without losing a booking.
Why owners put it off
The fear is reasonable. Your property management system is the one place that knows who's arriving tonight, what they paid and which bed they're in. Get the move wrong and it shows up at the front desk, in front of a guest.
So the question isn't "is the new hotel management software better?" It's "can I move without anything going wrong on the way?" That's the part worth getting right.
What actually moves
When you change PMS, five things need to come across. Everything else you set up once and forget.
- Future reservations: every booking from today onwards, with dates, rooms, guests, prices and what's already been paid.
- Guests: names, contact details and history, so a returning guest is still a returning guest.
- Rooms and beds: your room types, room numbers and, for hostels, every dorm bed as its own place to sell.
- Rates and restrictions: what each room sells for, minimum stays and closed dates.
- Channels: your connections to Booking.com, Airbnb, Hostelworld, Expedia and the rest.
The good news: you don't need to re-type any of it. Cloudbeds, Little Hotelier, Beds24, Sirvoy and Mews all let you download your reservations and guests. You need to bring them across and check them.
Moving from Cloudbeds, step by step
Coming from Cloudbeds there are two ways in, and you pick one.
The easiest is to connect HotelDesk to Cloudbeds with an API key. HotelDesk reads your rooms and beds with their names, every booking in its own bed, your rates, minimum stays and room blocks. It's read-only: nothing in Cloudbeds changes, so your old system keeps running exactly as it is while you check the new one.
If API access isn't in your Cloudbeds package, download three exports instead (availability and rates, guests, reservations) and drop all three in at once. Each file is recognised by itself, and nothing is imported until you've seen the preview and pressed Import.
Check every night before you go live
This is the step people skip, and the one that matters most. Before the new system takes over, compare it with the old one, night by night:
- Is every future booking there, on the right dates?
- Is each one in the right room or bed, or waiting to be assigned?
- Do the totals and the amounts already paid match?
- Is every night that's still free actually open to sell?
HotelDesk does this check for you. After the import it compares every future night with your old system and tells you how many match, and every current and future guest has a room or a bed before you go live. If something doesn't match, you see it there, not at check-in.
Moving a hostel: dorm beds and dorm scheduling
Hostels have it hardest, because most hotel management software treats a dorm as one room with a number on it. Good hostel management software doesn't: every dorm bed is its own place to sell, so a guest is booked into bed 801B, not "somewhere in dorm 801".
That's how HotelDesk brings a hostel across. Each dorm bed gets its own row on the calendar, every guest lands in a specific bed, and anyone who can't be placed shows as Unassigned so you can assign them before you go live. After the move, dorm scheduling gets easier, not harder: the room assignment assistant keeps beds sellable and suggests where to re-assign guests so you can sell every night, and nothing moves until you press OK.
Connect the channels one at a time
Don't flip every OTA over at once. Connect them one by one, starting with the channel that brings you the fewest bookings. Check that availability and rates come through correctly, then move on to the next.
HotelDesk's channel manager connects to 135+ OTAs. Because each channel moves on its own, the rest keep selling as normal while you switch, and your calendar stays the single place every booking lands.
Pick a quiet day to switch
Go live on the quietest day you have, not the Friday before a long weekend. Brief the team the day before: where arrivals show up, how to check in, how to take a payment. Keep Cloudbeds, or whatever you're leaving, open and read-only for a week or two in case you need to look something up.
Try the move before you decide
You don't have to take any of this on trust. Two ways to see it for yourself:
- Try the migration simulator: go through a whole move from Cloudbeds, from the three exports to a calendar where every night matches. Nothing is saved.
- Have a click around the live demo. It's a working hotel and hostel with real-looking bookings: just a name and an email, no account or password, and nothing you click can break it.
What it costs
HotelDesk is $49 a property a month on Starter, $99 on Growth, or $449 a month flat on Pro for any number of properties and beds. Every module is on every plan: front desk, channel manager, booking site, housekeeping app, dorm scheduling, reports. Month to month, no setup fee. Have a look at the pricing, then add up what you pay now for your PMS, channel manager and booking engine together.
The honest answer
If Cloudbeds, or whatever you're on now, does everything you need for less, stay where you are. Changing your hotel or hostel management software for its own sake is never worth it.
But if you're putting up with it because moving feels too risky, it doesn't have to be. Bring your bookings across, check every night before go-live, connect your channels one at a time, and switch on a quiet day. If you want a hand, get in touch or start a 14-day free trial and I'll help you move in.
Mathew