Paula Castro
Co-Founder, City Break Apartments
Ireland
RaftLabs delivered everything we asked for and more, going above and beyond to meet our expectations throughout the project.
Custom Hotel Property Management System
A hotel property management system built for your operation
A hotel property management system should match how your team runs, not the average hotel. Opera, Mews, Cloudbeds, and similar platforms handle the common case well. They struggle when your property has specific requirements: serviced apartment operators with weekly and monthly rate structures, boutique properties with custom check-in workflows, or hotel groups needing consolidated multi-property reporting. Configuration gets you part of the way. A custom PMS is built to match your operation, the reservation workflow, front desk screens, housekeeping logic, and reporting structure all defined by what your team actually does.
Reservations management with rate plan assignment and group block handling
Front desk check-in and check-out with folio management and payment processing
Housekeeping integration with real-time room status and maintenance routing
Multi-property dashboard with portfolio-level reporting and centralised rate management
Bring the problem, the current workflow, or the existing code. We reply with a practical next step within one business day.
Trusted by
The brief
Start with what is not working.
Good software decisions begin with the constraint, not a list of features or a preferred technology.
01
Forcing your front desk and housekeeping teams to work around an off-the-shelf PMS that doesn't match how your property actually runs?
02
Managing multiple properties with no consolidated view of reservations, occupancy, and revenue across the group?
Plain answer
A hotel property management system runs reservations, front desk check-in and check-out, room allocation, rate and revenue management, housekeeping, channel manager and OTA sync, night audit, and POS integration. RaftLabs builds custom hotel PMS software when Opera, Mews, or Cloudbeds can't match your operational workflows. We launch a validated v1 in about 12 to 16 weeks, then grow it, at a fixed cost agreed in writing before any build starts.
What to remember
- Channel manager sync pushes rate and availability changes to every connected OTA within 30-60 seconds, maintaining rate parity across Booking.com, Expedia, and Airbnb simultaneously.
- Contactless mobile key delivery integrates with Salto, Dormakaba, and Nuki smart locks for properties running keyless access at check-in.
- Multi-property builds give cross-property loyalty visibility and centralised rate management with per-property override, not available in most off-the-shelf multi-property modules.
- A single-property PMS runs $40,000-$90,000; a multi-property system with centralised reservations and cross-property loyalty runs $80,000-$200,000.
Proof
- of hoteliers say their PMS directly drives revenue growth
- 91%
- HotelTechReport 2026 PMS Impact Study
- growth in self check-ins for a serviced-apartment operator we built for
- 7x
- City Break Apartments, RaftLabs build
- average client rating across delivered projects
- 4.9/5
- Clutch, verified reviews
When your operation outgrows an off-the-shelf hotel PMS
A hotel property management system runs the daily operation: reservations, the front desk, housekeeping, rates, and reporting. Off-the-shelf platforms like Opera, Mews, and Cloudbeds handle the common case well. They resist the property that doesn't fit the template. The serviced-apartment operator on weekly and monthly rates. The boutique with its own check-in sequence. The group that needs one view across every property.
At some point the platform's model of how a hotel runs conflicts with how yours runs, and no amount of configuration resolves that. That gap is expensive. In the HotelTechReport 2026 PMS Impact Study, 91% of hoteliers said their PMS directly drives revenue growth and 89% said it saves their team hours every week. A system your staff fight all day works against both. A custom PMS means less training overhead, fewer workarounds, and a front desk that reaches for the tool because it helps.
Capabilities
What we build
- 01
Reservations management
Rate plan assignment at booking, group block allocation with rooming lists, waitlist management, and minimum/maximum stay enforcement by room type and period.
- 02
Front desk and POS
Contactless mobile key delivery and a full folio you can adjust on the spot. F&B and spa POS charges post straight to the guest folio. Payment runs through a PCI DSS-compliant processor, with express checkout for pre-authorised guests.
- Built with
- Salto · Dormakaba · Stripe
- 03
Rates and revenue management
Yield-based availability controls, plus channel manager and OTA sync that pushes rate parity across Booking.com, Expedia, and Airbnb within 30 to 60 seconds.
- Built with
- SiteMinder · RateGain
- 04
Housekeeping integration
Real-time room status sync, an automatically generated cleaning priority queue from the departure schedule, and maintenance fault routing straight from housekeeping staff.
- 05
Night audit and reporting
Automated audit sequence with rate verification and no-show processing, plus daily revenue and RevPAR reporting without manual reconciliation.
- 06
Multi-property management
Centralised reservations, cross-property loyalty visibility, and centralised rate management with per-property override for hotel groups.
How we work
From scope to a live v1, in about 12 to 16 weeks
- Week 101
Property and workflow scoping
We map your property type, current system, and the operational workflows it can't support. You leave week 1 with a written scope document and a fixed-price quote.
- Weeks 2-402
Rate structure and integration design
Reservation logic, housekeeping workflow, and channel manager integration designed against your actual operation.
- Weeks 5-1403
Build and integrate
Reservations, front desk, and reporting built in parallel, tested against real booking scenarios.
- Weeks 15-1604
Launch and staff training
Front desk, housekeeping, and finance teams trained on the workflow before rollout. The v1 goes live to validate the operation, then we iterate.
Why us
Why hospitality operators choose RaftLabs
- 01
Senior engineers build what they scope
The engineers who assess your operation also build the solution. No bait-and-switch, no offshore handoff after the contract is signed.
- 02
Fixed price before development starts
We scope the work, calculate the cost, and lock it in writing before any development starts.
- 03
A real hospitality build behind us
We built the booking and keyless check-in platform for City Break Apartments in Dublin: 7x growth in self check-ins, 250 smart locks live, 20+ staff hours saved a week. RaftLabs has shipped production software since 2015, including for Energia.
- 04
PCI DSS and GDPR handled at the design stage
Card data runs through a PCI DSS-compliant processor, so payment details never sit in your database. Guest records are structured for GDPR from day one, with consent, retention, and export handled for UK and EU guests.
- 05
We'll tell you when Opera or Mews is enough
Custom is justified by real operational mismatch, not recommended by default.
- 06
Built around your actual sequence, not a vendor's assumption
Front desk screens and housekeeping logic follow the pace your team already works at.
What clients say
What our clients say
Three-year average engagement. Founders and operators describing the work in their own words. No marketing varnish.
Testimonial 1 of 1: Paula Castro
Proof
Case studies
Online booking software and keyless technology for serviced apartments
Multi vendor marketplace software case study: Wendor, a wedding vendor booking app for couples and a CRM for vendors in Ireland
Multi vendor marketplace software for weddings in Ireland. Couples set up one profile, discover matched vendors, and book with a deposit. Vendors run bookings, packages, payments, and automated workflows from one CRM. Rebuilt from scratch after an earlier prototype.
How Energia Rewards cut support tickets by 80%
A 10-12 week Energia Rewards rebuild that migrated roughly 500,000 users, reduced support tickets by 80%, and replaced a WordPress platform that had reached its operating limit.
Useful next steps
More on hospitality & travel
Work with us
Work with us
Guest App Development for Hospitality
See the serviceTry it yourself
Try it yourself
Hospitality Software Cost Calculator
Hotel PMS, booking engine, POS. Honest cost range in 3 minutes.
Open the free tool
Article
How to Build a Travel Booking Platform Like Expedia (For Niche Operators)
Adventure travel operators, corporate travel managers, and regional tour packagers don't need to compete with Expedia globally. They need a vertical OTA that fits their inventory and audience. Here is what building one actually costs, what fails, and when custom beats white-label.
Read more
Article
Travel Review Platform Development: Build a Custom TripAdvisor for Your Vertical
Destination marketing organizations and travel brands building custom review and discovery platforms for specific verticals spend $70K-$180K over 12-20 weeks. Here is what that covers, where clone scripts fail, and how RaftLabs scopes these builds.
Read more
Article
Dog Daycare Software: Build vs. Buy for Franchise and Multi-Location Operators
Gingr works for single locations. Once you hit 3+ facilities, per-location pricing and white-label limits push franchise brands toward custom dog daycare software. Here is what it costs, when it makes sense, and what phases to build.
Read more
Article
Vacation Rental Management Software: Custom Build vs. Guesty, Hostaway, and Lodgify
Property management companies with 50+ vacation rental units hit a hard ceiling with off-the-shelf tools. This guide shows when custom vacation rental software pays off, what it costs, and what breaks when you try to grow past it.
Read moreCommon questions
When your rate structures or booking workflows don't map to what the platform supports, when you need integrations the platform doesn't handle well, when you're a multi-property group needing consolidated reporting the platform's module doesn't deliver, or when accumulated workarounds now cost more staff time than a replacement build would.
We integrate with your channel manager (SiteMinder, RateGain, Cloudbeds) via their APIs. OTA reservations create a PMS record and block real-time inventory; rate or availability changes push to all connected channels within 30-60 seconds.
Yes. At checkout, the full folio, room, F&B, spa, ancillary spend, passes to the loyalty engine to calculate and credit points, with tier status visible at check-in so front desk can apply benefits.
A single-property PMS covering reservations, front desk, housekeeping, night audit, and channel manager integration typically runs $40,000 to $90,000. A multi-property PMS with centralised reservations and cross-property loyalty typically runs $80,000 to $200,000. We launch a validated v1 in about 12 to 16 weeks, then iterate from there.
Work with us
Have a PMS project?
Tell us your property type, current system, and the operational workflows it can't support. We'll scope the right build and give you a fixed cost.
- Scope and cost agreed before work starts. No surprises. No obligation.
- Working prototype within 3 weeks of kickoff.
- Pay by milestone. You see progress before each invoice.
- 60-day post-launch warranty. Bug fixes, UI tweaks, and deployment support. No retainer.
- All conversations are NDA-protected.
Go deeper