What should hotel management software do for your property?

Start with the inventory you actually sell

A private room is normally sold as one room with a guest capacity. An individual dormitory bed is a different sellable unit. A property with four private rooms and eight dorm beds should keep those quantities distinct; a total of twelve does not describe twelve interchangeable rooms.

Ask a vendor to show a stay across several nights, including a room or bed that becomes unavailable partway through. Capacity on each night does not automatically mean the same physical unit is available for the whole stay. Any required move should be explicit before the reservation is accepted.

Follow one reservation through the whole stay

Evaluate a complete sequence: quote, reservation, allocation, arrival, check-in, charges, payment recording, departure and cleaning. Changing a date or extending a stay should update the relevant inventory and amounts together, with any price change shown clearly.

The front desk also needs a way to handle exceptions. Ask what happens when the guest has not left, a room develops a maintenance issue or an imported booking cannot be assigned. A useful workflow keeps the obligation visible and gives a staff member a next action.

Connect reception, housekeeping and staff work

Vacant, clean and available are different states. A departing guest may have left a room that still needs cleaning; maintenance may make a clean room unavailable. Ask to see who can mark each state and whether the front desk can distinguish them.

For staff management, check the actual scope: role permissions, rosters, overnight shifts, attendance corrections, leave and assigned tasks. A housekeeping task list does not automatically include staff attendance or payroll. Keep sensitive employee and financial records limited to the people who need them.

Review billing with your own property examples

Bring examples of a deposit, a part payment, a cancellation and a refund to the demonstration. Check how the guest balance, payment evidence and issued document relate to each other. A booking confirmation or a successful browser return should not be treated as proof that money was received.

For an Indian property, request sample INR documents and have your adviser confirm the applicable tax treatment, invoice details and correction process. A software feature list is not evidence that your property's financial policy has been approved.

Confirm integrations and operating cost separately

A PMS, a guest booking engine and a channel manager serve related but different purposes. If you need OTA connectivity, confirm the specific provider route, property authorization, room and bed mapping, supported changes and recovery process. A logo on a marketing page does not establish working access.

Compare setup, recurring software fees, third-party services, training, backups, support hours and data export. Ask who handles an incident and what happens if internet access or an external service is unavailable. These answers matter as much as the initial monthly price.

• Record the must-have workflows and the staff role responsible for each.
• Use synthetic reservations to test normal stays and exceptions.
• Keep demonstrated features, planned work and external dependencies in separate columns.

Where AU-PMS stands today

AU-PMS has a local demonstration covering private rooms, individual dorm beds, reservations, billing, housekeeping and staff workflows. It is being prepared for a first rollout in Varanasi, with first-client onboarding upcoming. The public AU Nexus site is a product introduction, not a live hotel booking service.

Live operating acceptance and the relevant external integration approvals remain pending. Use the AU-PMS product page to understand the current scope and the evaluation checklist to prepare your own acceptance examples.

Questions to work through.