Hospitality Management
Hospitality PMS Checklist for Vacation Rentals
A hospitality property management system should connect what a guest sees on your booking website with what your team sees in reservations, operations and accounts. Ask a vendor to take one stay through the whole process.
The demo walkthrough
What to test.
Test the website and the calendar together
Choose two properties with different rates and a blocked night. Search as a guest, open a listing, and check what happens when your selected dates include the blocked night. Then reopen an eligible date from the staff calendar and verify how it appears to the guest.
Separate a booking request from a confirmed stay
Ask the reservations team to receive a request, collect a partial payment, review proof and confirm the booking. Walk through a second request where proof is declined. Check what the guest can see at each stage and whether the team can find the reason for the decision.
Walk through arrival and departure
Open tomorrow’s arrivals as an operations user. Review directions and access instructions, record check-in, and check what happens when a booking has an outstanding balance. After checkout, check how the team handles turnover and follow-up.
Reconcile one owner statement
Use a sample reservation to trace the guest payment, commission, owner share and payout request. Ask which figures an owner can see in their portal and which actions are reserved for the accounts team. Include a cancelled or refunded booking in the sample.
Agree on integrations and data ownership
List any booking channels, payment providers and messaging tools you depend on. Ask the vendor to demonstrate each integration that matters to your team, then agree on what data can be exported and who can access it.
Before the walkthrough
Bring these to the demo.
- Two sample properties with different rates
- An owner block and one booking request
- A partial payment and a refund example
- An owner statement or payout scenario