Comments on: IT BUDGETS – Hotel IT questions, and a couple answers about PMS

By: Michael Hraba

Michael Hraba — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 07:41:00 +0000

I am at least 5 years out from a proper Opera quote, but I would say somewhere around $125 – 150K depending on options and modules. It definitely depends on the size of the property. Smaller props can’t come close to affording an operating system like that. There are wonderful options in the $12K – 20K range, like http://www.miragehotelsystem.com/ – they’re not flashy, but they’re solid, and the best customer service I have ever seen. Maestro by Northwind will be around $55 – 90K depending on the modules. It’s all about size, really…. I can give better info from there?

By: Robert O'Mara

Robert O'Mara — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:19:06 +0000

Finally! Some information on prices. I’m carrying out a project for a course I am undertaking in foreign trade and I have been trying to price various hotel management systems, with very little luck. I have rarely come across an industry with so little transparency, attempting to obtain any kind of figures is a slow, frustrating, and unrewarding process.
For references purposes only, and without quoting(!), could you confirm Micros Opera prices for me, I would be immensely grateful, as I really don’t want to talk to these people over and over again.

Many thanks.

By: Michael Hraba

Michael Hraba — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:48:10 +0000

I notice a lot of PMS and tech sales going through the motions, talking the talk to get you to buy… then the back end falls far short with little responsiveness or customer service. Maestro has not been like that. Mirage Hotel Systems is probably one of the best, with a PMS that isn’t that flashy, but they can and will do anything to make it work better, and to make you happy. I can’t speak to Par/SMS because it has been quite some time, but I do know people are always frustrated with Micros Fidelio Opera and their Point of Sale. Jadeon Aloho’s POS also has the same backend responsiveness problems.

Micros bought TIG, and since then I have noticed issues with both companies.

By: Peter

Peter — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 13:23:59 +0000

I have an experienced with Infrasys POS, I choose this product instead Micros POS because the PMS is Fidelio v.7, Micros Fidelio charged us with crazy price for the interface double than normal price and charged the maintenance annual fee in advaced and must paid 100% (no term payment).

So be carefull for the user who use the Fidelio PMS, they’re cheating and so unfair business.

And if you received the quotation from them.. please read carefully and make sure for every detail with confirmation if the quotation is a whole system already.

By: Michael Hraba

Michael Hraba — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:46:11 +0000

I have heard of it, but no direct experience. Thanks for asking tho…. Cheers.

By: Asneem

Asneem — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:43:28 +0000

Have you had any experience with Infrasys F&B

By: Ahmed Mahmoud

Ahmed Mahmoud — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 08:53:08 +0000

This still will depend on the operation and it’s needs, but it is true the most common system used is Opera & Delphi, where they give about 99 % of the operation needs .

By: Erik Munoz

Erik Munoz — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:52:46 +0000

Hi Michael,

Good post on a topic close to my heart (read: hip pocket).

I haven’t heard about Mirage (I presume they’re a US-centric supplier), but I echo your sentiments on the value of outstanding customer service and responsiveness. For some hoteliers, a PMS is a commodity item, so after sales service should be looked at closely.

In terms of global view of PMS suppliers, I would add the following systems into the mix:

Protel: Very strong in reports, built for multi-property deployment, good support for German-speaking European countries.

Amadeus: Emerging PMS supplier, the PMS was originally called Hogatex and their Revenue Management system was also a 3rd party system called Optims.

Epitome by SoftBrands: Supports .Net (cloud computing) environment as well as traditional client-server deployments. Multi-lingual, including double-byte character set (a must for Northern Asia, eg. China, Japan, Taiwan and Korea). Strong after-sales support.

roomMaster: Started life as a low-cost, low-end PMS for very basic functionality. Current version of the system looks cluttered (it was never designed to service larger and more sophisticated operations). For a small hotel, it provides good ‘bang for your buck’ value.

Disclosure: I have worked for Micros, HIS and SoftBrands in the past (and about to re-join SoftBrands). In the past 8 months, I have partnered with roomMaster, Protel, OPERA, Agilysys, Epitome, Medallion, PORTfolio and a number of other PMS systems, during an integration project with the EZyield.com Channel Management system.