A group of hotels has the problems of every single hotel plus one: nobody sees the whole picture. Each property has its own PMS login, its own spreadsheet of rates and its own monthly report in a slightly different format. The owner finds out that one property had a bad month when the accountant tells them.
What should be central and what should stay local
| Central (one place for the group) | Local (each property) |
|---|---|
| Guest profiles and history | Room assignment and housekeeping |
| Rate strategy and seasons | Daily check-in and check-out |
| Reporting: occupancy, ADR, RevPAR per property and total | Cash drawer and night audit |
| Users and roles | Maintenance and local suppliers |
| Billing of the software itself | Local city tax rules |
The mistake is centralising too much: a manager who cannot change a rate for a local event without asking head office will stop using the system.
Roles that match the org chart
A group needs at least four roles: owner (everything, all properties), manager (everything in their property, including overrides), reception (reservations, check-in, payments, but not reports or settings) and housekeeping (room status only, on a phone). Anything coarser means either reception sees revenue numbers they should not, or managers call head office for every change.
The reporting that matters
One table, one row per property, same definitions everywhere:
| Property | Rooms | Occupancy | ADR | RevPAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| City Centre | 48 | 82% | EUR 128 | EUR 105 |
| Airport | 120 | 71% | EUR 89 | EUR 63 |
| Seaside | 35 | 64% | EUR 142 | EUR 91 |
| Group | 203 | 72.4% | EUR 108 | EUR 78 |
The group line is weighted by rooms, not an average of percentages. A 35-room property at 64% should not pull the group as much as a 120-room one.
What it should cost
Enterprise PMS vendors price groups by custom quote, which usually means a sales call, an onboarding fee and a multi-year contract. For a group of 2 to 50 properties that is often more than the software is worth.
FrontDesk's group plan is self-serve and priced per property, with a lower per-property rate as the group grows, all on one invoice; see the pricing page for current figures. No setup fee, no contract length.
Moving a group onto one system
- Start with the property that has the worst tools today: it gains the most and becomes the internal reference.
- Import guests and future reservations from the old PMS export, not by hand.
- Keep the old system read-only for one month for history.
- Add the next property only when the first has closed a full month of night audits on the new system.
Simple hotel property management software for independent hotels, chains and groups.