The wrong PMS slows you down for years. 7 questions to ask before signing one.
Native integrations, per-unit pricing, data export, support SLA. A checklist to choose a PMS without regretting it six months later.
Choosing the Property Management System (PMS) is one of the most important, and most underestimated, decisions for a professional host. The wrong PMS slows you down for years; the right one becomes the backbone of your operations. Here’s how to choose well.
What a PMS actually does
The PMS is the core software that manages:
- Calendar and reservations across all channels (Airbnb, Booking, direct website)
- Channel management (price and availability sync)
- Guest communication (automated messages, digital check-in)
- Cleaning and maintenance (task assignment, turnover)
- Invoicing (or integration with a billing system)
If a PMS doesn’t cover at least 4 of these 5, it’s not a PMS: it’s a tool.
7 questions to ask before signing
- How many native integrations with main channels? Minimum: Airbnb official API, Booking.com XML, Vrbo, Google Vacation Rentals.
- Is pricing per unit or per reservation? Per-unit is predictable. Per-reservation explodes as you scale.
- Does it export your data? If there’s no API or automatic CSV export, you’re renting it, not using it.
- How long does onboarding a new property take? Above 30 minutes is a warning sign.
- What KPIs does it show natively? Many PMS stop at gross revenue. Profitability needs other tools.
- Is there a staging environment? To test changes without breaking live reservations.
- What SLA does support offer? A PMS down on a Friday afternoon costs you thousands in missed check-ins.
Red flags
- Annual contracts with no trial
- Setup fees above €500 (market norm has mostly moved past this)
- Commercial demos but zero public technical documentation
- No public changelog (if they don’t publish updates, they probably don’t ship many)
- Integrations available “upon request”, meaning manual
A PMS isn’t enough
One caveat: even the best PMS will never tell you how much you actually earn per unit. PMS systems track revenue, not allocated costs. Real business intelligence requires a layer on top of the PMS, and that’s exactly what Edoras does, integrating with the main PMS platforms and surfacing the financial truth the PMS can’t see.
Tell us about your current stack: we’ll tell you if Edoras is compatible.