"I genuinely feel they care about where we're trying to take it."
Aaron McGoona
Founder, TicketStop
Hotel CRM Development Company
Hotel CRM development
A hotel's guest data is spread across six systems. The PMS has stay history. The OTA extranet has contact details. The email tool has campaign engagement. A spreadsheet somewhere has corporate account notes. None of them talk to each other, so no one has a complete picture of any guest.
We build custom hotel CRM platforms that consolidate guest profiles from every source into one place. The front desk sees a returning guest's room preferences before check-in. Marketing segments by stay frequency, spend, and channel. Sales manages corporate accounts with full stay history. All from a single platform that integrates with your PMS and booking channels.
Single guest profile consolidating PMS stay history, OTA booking data, and direct channel records
Pre-arrival guest intelligence: the front desk knows a returning guest's preferences before they arrive
Segmentation and campaign targeting by stay frequency, total spend, room type, source channel, and more
PMS integration with Mews, Opera, Apaleo, and Cloudbeds for automatic data sync
Corporate account management with rate tracking, stay volume, and contract renewal visibility
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
Returning guest arrives and the front desk has no record of their preferences from last time?
02
Marketing team can't target past guests by stay frequency because the data lives in the PMS they can't export?
03
Sales team managing corporate accounts in a spreadsheet with no visibility into actual stay volume?
Plain answer
RaftLabs builds custom hotel CRM platforms for hospitality operators in the US, UK, Ireland, and Australia. We build identity-first: one guest record from PMS, OTA, and direct booking data, then segmentation, pre-arrival intelligence, and corporate account management. PMS integration with Mews, Opera, Apaleo, and Cloudbeds. A validated v1 ships first, then grows.
What to remember
- RaftLabs builds hotel CRMs identity-first: the guest-matching layer that unifies PMS, OTA, and direct booking data into one record comes before any dashboard
- PMS integration covers Mews, Opera, Apaleo, and Cloudbeds with real-time data sync
- Pre-arrival intelligence surfaces a returning guest's room preferences and stay history to the front desk before check-in
- Corporate account management tracks negotiated rate codes, contracted volume, stay history, and contract renewal dates
- City Break Apartments (serviced apartments, Dublin): direct revenue rose 25% and the booking and guest platform reached 580+ active users within two months, an adjacent hospitality build rather than a hotel CRM
- Fixed price agreed at end of week one; a validated v1 ships first, and the full platform grows from there
According to the Revinate and Hapi "Future of Hotel Data" report (2024), nearly 49% of hoteliers struggle to access the data they need for critical revenue and operational decisions, with 40% citing disconnected systems as the primary obstacle. A purpose-built hotel CRM eliminates that fragmentation by consolidating every guest data source (PMS, OTAs, direct booking, email, loyalty) into one record that the whole team can act on.
What the work looks like
- rise in direct revenue after we shipped City Break Apartments' booking and guest platform
- 25%
- RaftLabs case study · serviced apartments, Dublin
- active users on that platform within two months of rollout
- 580+
- RaftLabs case study
- client rating on Clutch
- 4.9/5
- Clutch, verified reviews
How we build a hotel CRM: identity first
Most hotel CRM projects stall in the same place. The team buys dashboards before it solves identity. The same guest is "Jon Smith" in the PMS, "j.smith@gmail" on Booking.com, and a line in a corporate spreadsheet, so the CRM counts one person as three. Every segment, every pre-arrival note, and every loyalty balance built on top is then wrong.
We build identity-first. The guest-matching layer ships before any reporting view, in four ordered layers.
- 1 · Sources
- PMS stay history, OTA extranet contacts, the direct booking engine, email engagement, and loyalty data come in through APIs, webhooks, or file export, whichever each system supports.
- 2 · Identity resolution
- Deduplication rules match the same guest across sources on email, phone, name, and card token, even when a field has minor variations. Everything downstream depends on this layer.
- 3 · Unified guest record
- One profile per guest: stay history, room and service preferences, total spend across room, F&B, and spa, complaint and service-recovery notes, loyalty tier, and campaign engagement.
- 4 · Activation
- The record is put to work: pre-arrival intelligence at the front desk, segments exported to the email platform, corporate-account rollups for sales, and loyalty earn calculations.
This matters more each year. Guests book direct one day and through an OTA the next, where the property pays commission on the booking and never owns the guest relationship. A CRM that resolves identity across both channels is how a hotel earns the second stay direct. The same unified record carries GDPR consent state, so outreach stays lawful.
CRM capabilities
What the platform covers
Single guest profile
One record per guest pulling data from the PMS, OTA extranets, the direct booking engine, the loyalty platform, and the email tool. Stay history, room preferences, spend data, complaint history, and campaign engagement in one view. Deduplication logic handles the same guest appearing under slightly different names or emails across sources.
PMS integration
Real-time sync with Mews, Apaleo, Cloudbeds, and Opera. New reservations create or update guest records automatically. Check-in and check-out events trigger profile updates. Room charges, F&B spend, and folio data are pulled after check-out to complete the stay record.
Pre-arrival intelligence dashboard
A daily arriving-guests view showing each guest's stay history, preferences, lifetime value, and any service recovery notes. Available to the front desk team and the duty manager. Direct PMS integration option puts preference notes on the reservation itself so the information is in the system the front desk already uses at check-in.
Segmentation and campaign export
Build guest segments from any combination of stay data, spend, channel, geography, or engagement. Export to Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Brevo, or any email platform via API. Scheduled segment refresh so lists stay current without manual work. Usage-based suppression removes recent bookers from acquisition campaigns automatically.
Corporate account management
Account records with rate code, contracted volume, actual volume delivered, revenue, and renewal date. Key contact management with stay history for individual travelers under the account. Account performance dashboard for the sales team showing which accounts are tracking against target and which are at risk.
Guest feedback integration
In-stay and post-stay feedback linked to the guest profile. A complaint from two stays ago is visible when a returning guest checks in. Marketing segments can exclude guests who had a recent service issue from promotional campaigns.
Loyalty program integration
Loyalty tier and points balance linked to the guest profile. Stay data from the CRM feeds into loyalty earn calculations. Marketing can target non-loyalty guests who have the stay behavior of a loyalty candidate but haven't enrolled.
Consent, GDPR, and data residency
A guest record is personal data under the EU and UK GDPR. Consent travels with the profile: marketing opt-in per channel, the lawful basis for each field, and a trail of where every value came from. Subject access and erasure requests are handled from one screen instead of six systems, and EU or UK guest data can be kept in-region.
How we work
From scope to a single guest record
We map every system that holds guest data, confirm PMS integration methods, and assess OTA and channel data availability. Fixed price agreed before development starts.
Guest profile schema designed. Deduplication rules defined. Segmentation fields confirmed. Dashboard and reporting views wireframed with the team who will use them.
Bi-weekly delivery. PMS integration tested end-to-end. Data consolidation logic validated against a sample of real guest records. Segmentation outputs verified before launch.
Historical guest data migrated from existing systems. Data validation confirms record counts and key field accuracy. Staff dashboard walkthrough. 8 weeks post-launch support included.
Overlaps are intentional — phases start before the previous one ends.
The first decision is not what to build.
It is whether software is the right answer at all. We use four possible recommendations before discussing a development scope.
- 01
Buy
Choose a maintained product when it handles the core workflow and the remaining gaps can be solved with configuration, a connector, or a small process change. Paying for software you do not have to maintain is often the better trade.
- 02
Repair
Keep the existing product when users still get value from it and the code can be understood safely. Start with evidence: where the code lives, how the data is organized, what is tested, which outside services it depends on, who can access what, and how updates go live.
- 03
Build
Own the system when the workflow shapes margin, customer experience, speed, or a product customers pay for. Start with one complete path and the system connections that path cannot work without.
- 04
Wait
Do not turn a changing policy into permanent software. Stabilise the rules, name the workflow owner, and measure the cost of the current process before paying for a product.
Not sure which path is yours? Bring it to a 30-minute call. Leave with the answer in writing.
Custom hotel CRM vs the off-the-shelf options
| Custom hotel CRM (RaftLabs) | Generic CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot) | PMS-bundled CRM | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data model | Stay history, room and rate, F&B and spa spend, folio | Sales pipeline, deals, support tickets | Guest profile tied to one PMS |
| PMS integration | Two-way sync with Mews, Opera, Apaleo, Cloudbeds | Add-on connectors, often one-way | Native to that PMS only |
| Cross-source identity | Deduplicates the same guest across PMS, OTA, direct, email | Manual or paid add-on | Blind to data outside the PMS |
| Corporate accounts | Rate code, contracted vs actual volume, renewals | Generic account object | Rarely covered |
| OTA and direct data | Both, in one record | Neither by default | Direct only |
| Best fit | Operators who want to own the guest relationship | Sales-led teams | Single property on one PMS |
Fit
What the custom build gives you
- 01
Hospitality data model, not a generic CRM
Salesforce and HubSpot are built for sales pipelines, not for stay history, room preferences, and F&B charges. A custom hotel CRM is built around the data that matters in hospitality, without the overhead of configuring a generic platform that wasn't designed for the industry.
- 02
PMS integration built in
The CRM is only as useful as the data feeding it. We integrate with your PMS so guest records update in real time rather than requiring manual export and import.
- Built with
- Mews · Opera · Apaleo · Cloudbeds
- 03
Fixed price, defined scope
Scope and cost locked before development starts, with eight weeks of post-launch support included in the project cost.
Proof
Delivery facts
- 01
Hospitality portfolio, not a first build
City Break Apartments (serviced apartments, Dublin): direct revenue rose 25% after we shipped their booking and guest platform, which reached 580+ active users in two months. Adjacent to a hotel CRM, but the same guest-data plumbing and the same integration points.
- 02
PMS integration from week one
We scope and assess the PMS integration in week one before development starts. It's not left as a late-stage dependency that surprises the project.
- 03
Fixed price before development starts
Scope and cost agreed in writing before we write a line of code.
- 04
8 weeks of post-launch support included
Data quality issues and query performance tuning after real usage starts. Included in the project price.
What it costs
Every project starts at $10000.
The first phase builds the single guest profile from your PMS and OTA data, with one segmentation and campaign export path.
Starting investment
Starts at $10000
Start with the guest data you already have but cannot use. After a 30-minute call, you get a written build, buy, repair, or wait recommendation plus first-phase direction. Free, whether or not you build with us.
Proof
What clients say about working with RaftLabs
Three-year average engagement. Founders and operators describing the work in their own words. No marketing varnish.
Their ability to translate my vision into a fully functional MVP in just 8 weeks was outstanding. Highly recommend!
Eric M.
Founder at Intrinsic Sales
Work with us
Ready to scope your hotel CRM?
30 minutes. You leave with a data source map, an integration plan, and a fixed cost. No commitment.
- 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.
Common questions
A hotel CRM consolidates data from multiple sources into a single guest record. Primary source is the PMS (Mews, Opera, Apaleo, Cloudbeds) for stay history, room type, rate code, F&B charges, and folio data. OTA extranet data is imported via API or file export where the platform provides it - Booking.com and Expedia both offer data export in various formats. Direct booking data from the hotel's own booking engine. Corporate account data from any existing account management system or spreadsheet. Loyalty program data where a loyalty platform is in place. Email engagement data from the email marketing platform (Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Brevo) so the CRM shows which campaigns a guest has engaged with. The consolidation process includes deduplication logic to match the same guest across sources even when the name or email has minor variations.
The CRM surfaces a guest's profile to the front desk before check-in via a pre-arrival dashboard or a direct integration with the PMS that adds profile notes to the reservation. The profile shows: previous stays (dates, room types, rate paid, length of stay), preferences noted during previous stays (high floor, quiet room, pillow type, dietary requirements), F&B and spa spend history, any complaints or service recovery incidents, loyalty tier if a loyalty program is in place, and the booking channel for the current stay. The front desk team sees this before the guest arrives rather than having to search retrospectively during check-in.
Yes. We integrate with Mews, Opera, Apaleo, and Cloudbeds via their respective APIs. For Mews and Apaleo, real-time webhook integration is available so the CRM updates as soon as a reservation is created, modified, or checked in. For Opera and older systems, we use scheduled API polling or SFTP export depending on what the system supports. The integration approach is assessed in week one and confirmed before development starts. PMS integration means the CRM always reflects the current state of reservations without a manual export or import step, which removes the lag that makes guest profiles unreliable at the front desk.
The CRM's segmentation engine lets marketing teams create guest segments based on any combination of: stay frequency (guests who stayed 3+ times in the last 12 months), total spend (guests who have spent above a revenue threshold across stays, F&B, and spa), room preference (guests who book a specific room type), source channel (direct bookers vs OTA), last stay date (guests who haven't returned in 6 months), geography (guests from a specific country or region), and campaign engagement (guests who opened the last email but didn't book). Segments are exportable to the email platform for campaign delivery or to the reservations team for direct outreach. Segment refresh is scheduled or on-demand.
Corporate account management tracks the hotel's negotiated rate accounts: the company name, negotiated rate code, contracted room night volume, actual room nights delivered to date, revenue generated, key contacts, and contract renewal date. The account manager sees at a glance which accounts are tracking above or below contracted volume, which contracts are coming up for renewal in the next 90 days, and which corporate guests are booked in the next 30 days. Stay history for guests traveling under a corporate rate is linked to the account so the full value of the corporate relationship is visible in one view. Renewal alert emails go out to the sales team automatically at configurable lead times, so contracts do not expire without action.
Chains with complex operations go Salesforce-integrated; boutiques and independents pick specialized tools like Revinate or Profitroom. The real buying axis is data platform versus marketing tool: generic CRMs lack PMS depth, and PMS integration (Opera, Mews, and the rest) is the number-one buyer gate. A CRM that cannot read your PMS is a mailing list, not a guest platform. Unified guest profiles come first; campaigns are the output, not the input.
Data platforms ingest hundreds of systems (PMS, POS, booking engine, WiFi, spa, restaurant) into one GDPR-compliant guest profile. This is the number-one buyer gate for a reason: fragmented data is a primary CRM failure cause, alongside poor integration and lack of internal ownership. Ask which systems the platform connects to natively and how identity resolution works: the same guest books direct, walks in, and dines. The system must know it is one person.
Track net direct revenue, not campaign opens. Define success metrics and ROI before buying. Segment campaigns with booking attribution so every email ties to revenue. Multi-channel journeys are the 2026 expectation: SMS and WhatsApp, not just email. And the adoption test: ease of use drives adoption; a complicated system means low adoption and inefficiency. If the front desk will not use it, it is not a guest platform.
Ask for the data-exit story: what happens to your guest profiles if you leave, and is export built in? Confirm GDPR and CCPA compliance is explicit, not assumed. Consent management must live in the guest profile. Check the integration list: which PMS systems connect natively, and which need custom work? And demand total cost of ownership, not the monthly fee: onboarding, integration, training, and the contract terms that decide whether you are locked in.
We lead with the smallest useful slice. A validated v1 (one PMS integration, the single guest record, and segmentation) is priced after the data landscape is mapped. From there the platform grows: multi-source consolidation, corporate account management, the pre-arrival intelligence feed, and loyalty tie-in. The fixed price for each phase is agreed at the end of week one, a data source mapping session with your PMS, reservations, marketing, and sales teams. The complexity of your data landscape drives the estimate, and we do not start the meter until you have signed off on the scope and the price.