Which booking engine should <em>sell your rooms direct</em>?
Every booking that comes through an OTA costs you a commission. A booking engine on your own website wins it back, as long as you pick the right pricing model and plug it into the same inventory as your channels.
A hotel booking engine is the "Book now" button on your website: guests pick dates, see what's available, pay or leave a card, and the reservation lands in your calendar. Nearly every vendor calls itself commission-free. The real differences sit elsewhere: the subscription price, card fees, how long you're locked in, and above all whether the engine syncs in real time with your PMS and channel manager. Without that sync, you sell the same room twice.
The short answer. You run a B&B or a small inn and want everything in one subscription from day one? eviivo, from $50 a month before tax, engine and channel manager included. You have fewer than 15 rooms and a tight budget? Sirvoy, free for one room, Pro from €41 a month with the channel manager. You're a North American property that wants a published per-unit price? WebRezPro, $10 per unit, $100 minimum, no booking engine fees. You already have a PMS you like? Look at SiteMinder, which plugs into it.
Prices come from each vendor's official pricing page, read in 2026. When a vendor publishes no number, we say so.
The ranking is editorial: a sponsored spot is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a score.
The right engine for your property
From $50 a month before tax, booking engine and channel manager in every plan, no commission
Under 15 roomsFree for one room, Starter from €11, Pro from €41 a month with the channel manager
Published per-unit price$10 per unit a month, $100 minimum, booking engine with no fees, no setup fee
6 hotel booking engines, side by side
The middle column answers the question vendors skip: what do you pay on top of the subscription? Two of the six publish no number at all; we say so rather than copy a price from a third-party site. Click a tool to read its card.
| Best for | What you pay on top | Free plan | Team size | Visit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | eviivo | All-in from day one | $0.50 per booking, only with the payments or messaging add-on | 4.0/5 | From $50/mo before tax | — | B&Bs, small hotels | Visit → |
| 2 | Sirvoy | Under 15 rooms | Text messages €0.06 to €0.10; +€20/mo per extra property | 4.0/5 | Free; Starter from €11/mo; Pro from €41/mo | ✓ | B&Bs, guesthouses, small hotels | Visit → |
| 3 | WebRezPro | Published per-unit price | No booking engine fees, no setup fee | 3.9/5 | $10/unit/mo, $100 minimum | — | Independent hotels and inns, 1 to 149 units | Visit → |
| 4 | SiteMinder | Keep your PMS | Commission on stays from metasearch; per-payment fees | 3.8/5 | Custom quote (no amounts shown) | — | Hotels that already run a PMS | Visit → |
| 5 | Cloudbeds | All-in-one on quote | Post-stay commission on metasearch | 3.7/5 | Custom quote (One plan for the engine) | — | Hotels of 15 to 60 rooms | Visit → |
| 6 | Beds24 | Cheapest pay-as-you-go | €0.55/mo per room-type-to-channel link; white label €19/mo | 3.6/5 | From €15.50/mo, no contract (payable in USD) | — | Hands-on operators | Visit → |
Prices read on official pricing pages in 2026, before tax where the vendor says so. None of these six engines takes a commission on direct bookings; card processing fees stay with you everywhere.
Is your tool missing from this page? Email us: hello@hackceleration.com
How we compared these engines
Search "best hotel booking engine" and look at what comes up. A big international ranking that grades price with dollar signs instead of dollars. Vendors ranking themselves first. Guides that explain what a booking engine is without naming a single price. None of them tells you what you'll actually pay each month, or what happens when your engine and your channel manager don't see the same inventory.
We read each vendor's official pricing page, then public hotelier reviews on the big review platforms, both general and hotel-specific. One rule decides who gets ranked: the vendor has to publish its billing model (subscription, usage or commission), and the engine has to share inventory with your PMS or channel manager in real time. Engines where we could find neither a price nor a billing model are covered further down, unranked, with what we do know.
We didn't open accounts with these vendors: we compared what they publish and what their customers say. Scores match our hotel PMS ranking for tools that appear on both pages.
- Real costWhat you pay each month to have a working engine: subscription, engine add-on, fixed fees. A public price counts for more than a "starting at" with no grid behind it.25%
- Commission and feesCommission on direct bookings, per-payment fees, per-booking fees, metasearch commissions. Winning back the OTA margin is the whole point of an engine.25%
- PMS and channel syncDoes the engine read the same inventory as your channels, in real time? If not, a room sold on your site can sell on an OTA at the same moment.25%
- Booking flowWhat the guest sees on a phone: a clear total, add-ons, languages, payment, and a clean fit with your website.10%
- Contract and supportContract length, notice period, and how responsive support is in hotelier reviews. That's where most nasty surprises start.15%
No affiliate link changes a score or a rank.
Booking engine pricing often shifts before peak season. Get the changes before you sign
eviivo
Every eviivo plan includes the booking engine and the website (or one of the two) plus the channel manager. You don't buy another module to keep your site and Booking.com on the same calendar, and that's the best protection against overbooking at this price. eviivo takes no commission on bookings.
One exception worth knowing: eviivo charges $0.50 per confirmed booking, but only if you switch on its payments or messaging add-on. Leave them off and you pay nothing per booking. The other add-ons are billed per room per month, from $1 to $3. On a twelve-room inn, three add-ons can double the bill, so do the math before you tick boxes.
The pricing page lists dollars before tax. On the free trial, the pricing cards and the FAQ don't say the same thing: ask in writing what you get at onboarding.
- Engine, website and channel manager in every plan
- No commission on bookings
- Per-room add-ons, pick only what you need
- ✓The clearest all-in price in this ranking
- ✓Engine and channels synced with no extra module
- ✓Multi-property plan available
- ✗Per-room add-ons add up fast
- ✗Trial terms differ between pricing cards and FAQ
- ✗Small public review base on the engine itself
Our first pick if you want to sell on your site and on OTAs from day one with a single subscription. Watch the per-room add-ons: they set the final price.
Sirvoy
Sirvoy is the only engine in this ranking with a free plan: one room, five extras, a small website and the booking engine, with automated emails. That's enough for a B&B starting out. From the second room, Starter costs €11 a month billed yearly. Sirvoy says it in plain words on its pricing page: "100% commission free, no hidden fees."
Read this part carefully: the channel manager only comes with Pro, from €41 a month billed yearly. It covers Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia, Agoda and Hostelworld. On Starter, your engine and your OTAs aren't connected, so you close dates by hand on every channel, and that's where double bookings come from. If you sell on Booking.com, budget for Pro from day one.
Text messages cost €0.10 each on Starter and €0.06 on Pro. The pricing page lets you switch currency; the amounts we read were in euros, and they rise with room count. Run your real numbers in the calculator.
- Free plan for one room, engine and website included
- Pro from €41 a month with channel manager
- Commission-free, stated on the pricing page
- ✓The lowest entry price among full systems
- ✓Public, readable pricing
- ✓Trial without a credit card
- ✗Channel manager only on Pro
- ✗SMS billed per message
- ✗Price climbs with room count
The best value for a small property, as long as you take Pro once you sell on OTAs. Past fifteen rooms, eviivo or WebRezPro handle the load better.
WebRezPro
WebRezPro, a Canadian vendor, is one of the few North American systems that publishes a real price grid: $10 per unit per month, with a $100 minimum up to 14 units, then flat tiers up to 149 units. The booking engine is part of the PMS and carries no booking fees, so every direct reservation lands straight in the same calendar the front desk uses.
There's no setup fee and users are unlimited, which matters when seasonal staff come and go. The catch is the contract: it's annual, cancellable with 30 days' notice. Put that date in your calendar the day you sign.
The minimum is the thing to watch for very small properties. A six-room B&B pays the same $100 as a fourteen-room inn. Under ten rooms, Sirvoy or eviivo usually come out cheaper; from about ten rooms up, WebRezPro's flat grid gets hard to beat.
- $10 per unit a month, $100 minimum
- Booking engine with no fees, part of the PMS
- No setup fee, unlimited users
- ✓Readable price grid up to 149 units
- ✓Engine and front desk on one calendar
- ✓Built for North American properties
- ✗$100 minimum hurts very small properties
- ✗Annual contract
- ✗Engine sold as part of the PMS, not alone
The clearest pick for a North American hotel of ten rooms or more that wants a PMS and booking engine with a published price. Very small B&Bs pay less elsewhere.
SiteMinder
SiteMinder isn't a PMS. It's a channel manager, and its SiteMinder Plus plan adds direct bookings (the booking engine), metasearch, a website builder and rate parity monitoring. It connects to your PMS, which makes it the natural choice when you don't want to change front-desk software. Engine and channel manager share the same inventory, which shuts the door on double bookings.
Price is the weak spot. The pricing page shows no amount, only a figure calculated for your size. On top come usage fees: a commission on stays from metasearch and the marketplace, a fee per payment, and possible setup fees in the contract. If your PMS is Opera, the OXI or OHIP connection costs extra.
In public reviews (4 out of 5, 450+ reviews), hoteliers praise its stability. The complaints are about contracts: a sales rep promising no contract, charges after cancellation. SiteMinder's own terms say no lock-in, 30 days' written notice, so keep proof of your cancellation.
- Engine, metasearch and website in SiteMinder Plus
- Plugs into your existing PMS
- No lock-in, 30 days' written notice
- ✓Rate parity control in SiteMinder Plus
- ✓Stability praised by hoteliers
- ✓14-day trial
- ✗No amounts shown, everything on quote
- ✗Usage fees on metasearch and payments
- ✗Cancellation complaints in reviews
The right call if your PMS works for you and you just want to sell better direct and across channels. Ask for a written quote that also prices the usage fees.
Cloudbeds
Cloudbeds puts its booking engine in the One plan, alongside the channel manager. Watch the entry plan, Flex: it has no engine, so you'd need to bring one. Cloudbeds states it adds no commission on bookings from its engine or its channel manager. Only metasearch, like Google, is billed on commission, after the stay.
Hoteliers are split on the engine itself. In software reviews, its online booking rating is 4 out of 5, below the overall 4.3. Some find it modern, others "not flexible enough" and a bit dated. One issue comes up for properties running ads: the engine loads in an embedded frame, and Google Ads conversion tracking struggles. If you buy ads, ask how tracking works before you sign.
No price is published. On the main consumer review platform the score is 3.3 out of 5, with support follow-through as the main complaint.
- Engine and channel manager in the One plan
- No added commission on the engine
- Commission only on metasearch, after the stay
- ✓Engine and channels on one calendar
- ✓Complete platform from a US vendor
- ✓Built-in payments
- ✗No public price
- ✗Flex has no booking engine
- ✗Google Ads tracking issues with the framed engine
A solid all-in-one if the quote works for you. Take One, not Flex, and check ad tracking if you run campaigns.
Beds24
Beds24 bills by usage: a base from €15.50 a month, then €0.55 a month for each link between a room type and a channel. The booking engine is included at no extra cost, and Beds24 says it never charges commission. No contract, no setup fee: the most flexible model in this ranking.
Here's what the grid gives you: five room types sold on two OTAs means ten links, so €5.50 more per month. The total stays under €25 a month. Add €19 if you want the engine on a subdomain under your own name rather than Beds24's.
The trade-off is the learning curve. The few public customer reviews (only 14, scoring 2 out of 5) mention a confusing calendar and slow support. The sample is small, but it matches the tool's reputation: powerful, deeply configurable, and not built for someone who wants everything to work on day one.
- From €15.50 a month, no contract
- Engine included, no commission
- €0.55 per room-channel link
- ✓Lowest monthly cost with a channel manager
- ✓No lock-in or setup fee
- ✓Highly configurable
- ✗Calendar called confusing
- ✗Slow support in reviews
- ✗White label costs extra
Unbeatable on price if you can configure a tool on your own. If you want hand-holding, pay a little more for Sirvoy or eviivo.
Which engine to pick based on what you already run
The useful question isn't "what's the best booking engine?" but "what do I already have?" An engine is only as good as what it shares with your PMS and channel manager. Here are the four cases we see most.
You have no PMS and no channel manager
Go all-in-one: engine, calendar and channels live in one database, and double bookings become close to impossible. eviivo (from $50 before tax), Sirvoy Pro (from €41 a month) and WebRezPro ($10 per unit, $100 minimum) cover this case. To compare the PMS side in depth, read our best hotel PMS ranking.
You have a PMS you're keeping
Look for an engine certified on your PMS, with real-time availability and rate sync. SiteMinder Plus connects to most PMSs, though an Opera connection costs extra. Always ask your PMS vendor for its list of certified booking engines before you sign anywhere else.
Most of your bookings come from OTAs
An engine alone won't fix that: guests need to find your site. Turn on Google's free booking links (see the tips), polish your Google Business Profile and put a visible "Book now" button on mobile. Keep the same rate as on OTAs at first: parity avoids contract trouble and makes direct booking credible. Offer a perk instead, like breakfast or early check-in.
You run a group or several properties
Public price grids stop mattering: you'll go through a quote. SiteMinder has a Groups and Chains plan, Cloudbeds an Enterprise plan, eviivo a Multi-Property plan from $125. D-EDGE, Profitroom and Exely also target this segment on quote (see below). Ask for a quote per property and per product so you compare like for like.
- Does the engine read the same inventory as your channel manager, in real time?
- What do you pay on top of the subscription: cards, bookings, metasearch?
- What contract length and notice period, in writing?
- Do you keep your domain, merchant account and data if you leave?
What a booking engine costs you over a year
Commission-free doesn't mean free. An engine is paid for in one of three ways: a flat subscription, a usage price, or a commission on each booking. Here's what the public grids add up to over twelve months, and how to compare them with a commission offer.
Subscriptions over twelve months
eviivo: at least $600 a year before tax, before per-room add-ons. WebRezPro: $1,200 a year at the $100 minimum (up to 14 units), $1,800 for 15 to 24 units. Sirvoy Starter: €132 a year billed yearly; Sirvoy Pro: €492 a year with the channel manager. Beds24: €186 a year for the base, plus room-channel links.
The fees that come on top
Card processing fees apply everywhere. eviivo charges $0.50 per booking if you use its payments or messaging add-on. SiteMinder charges per payment and takes a commission on stays from metasearch; Cloudbeds also charges metasearch commission, after the stay. Check when each fee hits (at confirmation, at payment, at arrival) and whether it's refunded when a guest cancels.
Subscription or commission: the math
A commission beats a subscription when you sell little direct, and costs more once direct sales take off. To decide, divide the monthly subscription by the commission rate you're offered: that's the monthly direct revenue above which the subscription is cheaper. With WebRezPro at $100 a month, it's $100 divided by that rate. Run it on three typical months: low season, a normal month, peak.
What the engine wins you
Every booking that moves from an OTA to your site saves you that OTA's commission. The engine pays for itself once a month's avoided commissions beat its monthly cost plus card fees. Track one simple number: monthly engine cost divided by direct revenue, times 100. Track card fees separately; they don't depend on the engine.
- Get a written quote for your real size, never a "starting at".
- Count card fees separately from the subscription.
- Model three months: slow, normal, peak.
- Check setup fees and PMS connector fees.
Other engines you'll come across, and why they're not ranked
These names show up in every big international list. Some are very good, especially for groups. What they lack is a price or a billing model published by the vendor, or a key point we couldn't confirm. We'd rather tell you what we know than rank them on guesswork.
D-EDGE: the engine of hotel groups
On quoteD-EDGE, a French vendor owned by Accor, operates in 22+ countries. Its booking engine scores very well with hoteliers on a hotel-tech review platform: 200+ reviews, between 4.5 and 4.6 out of 5, 91% would recommend, mostly from hotels of 10 to 199 rooms. Hoteliers praise support and distribution, and note they need help from support to set up new rates. No price or commission model is published: ask for a quote.
- Price
- On quote
- For
- Mid-size hotels and groups
Mews: the engine inside the PMS
On quoteMews's booking engine lives inside its PMS with real-time sync, upsells at booking (parking, upgrades, early check-in), hourly sales of parking spots or meeting rooms, and secure tokenized payments. It's included in the Pro plan, on quote. We found no official statement on booking engine commission, hence its spot here. It's ranked in our hotel PMS comparison.
- Price
- On quote, Pro plan
- For
- Hotels of 50+ rooms
Exely: the commission-based engine
CommissionExely bills its booking engine on commission, without publishing the rate, and its other products on subscription. No setup fee, no lock-in, 570+ OTAs and GDSs through its channel manager, 6,000+ properties in 65 countries. Its official calculator compares flat fee and commission, handy for the math above.
- Model
- Commission, rate on quote
- Lock-in
- None
Profitroom: the conversion-focused engine
CommissionProfitroom sells a commission-based booking engine on quote, with an optional channel manager. It's not a PMS: it connects to yours. We read no official price grid, so no rate here. It's a regular in rankings for mid-size hotels.
- Model
- Commission, on quote
- PMS
- No, connects to yours
Amenitiz: website, PMS and engine in euros
EuropeAmenitiz, founded in Barcelona, bundles a website, PMS, channel manager (150+ OTAs) and commission-free engine, from €42 to €125 a month according to its own comparison page, with card fees of 1.4% plus €0.25 per European card payment. It's built for European properties and prices in euros, which is why we cover it on our European pages rather than rank it here.
- Price
- €42 to €125/mo (vendor page)
- Card fees
- 1.4% + €0.25 (European cards)
Little Hotelier: SiteMinder for small properties
No official price readLittle Hotelier, from the SiteMinder group, targets B&Bs, guesthouses and hotels up to 30 rooms, and has run on a new platform since 2025 alongside its classic version. We could not read an official price list, so we publish no price. In public reviews it scores 4.4 out of 5 (770 reviews): easy for a B&B, with support slipping lately.
- Price
- Ask the vendor
- For
- Up to 30 rooms
What hoteliers wish they'd known first
These come from hotelier reviews and the buying guides we read. They prevent the costliest mistakes: double bookings, lock-ins found too late, and an engine nobody finds.
Turn on Google's free booking links
FreeGoogle shows free booking links to your website inside your hotel listing: no commission, no cost per click. You need a connectivity partner that sends your rates and availability to Google. Ask your engine vendor whether it's one before you sign. These links are less visible than paid Hotel Ads, but they cost nothing.
- Cost
- $0
- Requirement
- Engine is a Google partner
Book a room yourself on your phone
Before you signDuring the trial or demo, make a full booking on mobile: date search, promo code, total shown, deposit, then check the booking shows up in your PMS. If the total changes between screens or the booking takes a while to arrive, your guests will notice too.
- When
- During the trial or demo
Get the term and notice period in writing
Before you signPublic reviews of SiteMinder and Amenitiz tell the same story: a 12-month commitment or charges after cancellation, discovered too late. Ask in writing for the term, the notice period and how to cancel, and always cancel in writing and keep the proof.
- Get
- Term, notice, how to cancel
Keep control of your domain and data
Before you signWhen engine, PMS and website come from one vendor, leaving gets hard. Check that the domain is in your name, that you can export bookings and guest records, and who owns the merchant account that takes card payments.
- Check
- Domain, export, merchant account
Check conversion tracking if you run ads
If you buy adsAn engine shown in an embedded frame can break Google Ads conversion tracking, as some Cloudbeds users report. Before launching a campaign, make a trial booking from an ad and check it shows up in your ads account.
- Who
- Hotels buying ads
Never run two calendars side by side
AlwaysIf your engine isn't tied to the same inventory as your channel manager, a room sold on your site stays on sale on OTAs. That's the most common cause of double bookings. With Sirvoy, it means taking Pro rather than Starter as soon as you're on Booking.com.
- Rule
- One inventory for every channel
Need more than an engine? Go here
This page compares the "Book now" button on your site. If your question is about the whole front-desk system or another part of this page, these links take you there.
Hotel systems ranked by property size.
You're torn between subscription and commissionThe real-cost mathTwelve-month totals and the formula to compare.
Your vendor publishes no priceEngines on quoteD-EDGE, Mews, Exely, Profitroom, Amenitiz, Little Hotelier.
Hotel booking engine · FAQ
What is a hotel booking engine?
It's the module on your website that lets guests book and pay without going through an OTA. It shows available rooms and rates in real time, takes payment or a card guarantee, and pushes the booking into your calendar. Without that link to your calendar, it's just an inquiry form.What's the difference between a booking engine, a PMS and a channel manager?
The engine sells on your site, the channel manager pushes rates and availability to OTAs, and the PMS runs the front desk, calendar and billing. All three need to share one inventory. Many vendors sell them together; others sell just one piece.Is a commission-free booking engine really free?
No. You pay a subscription or a usage fee, and almost always card processing fees. Only Sirvoy has a $0 plan, limited to one room. eviivo adds $0.50 per booking if you use its payments add-on. Always ask for the total cost, card fees included.How much does a booking engine cost for a small hotel?
From $0 to about $100 a month for a small property, among vendors with a public price. Sirvoy is free for one room, then from €11. Beds24 starts at €15.50, eviivo at $50 before tax, WebRezPro at $100 minimum. SiteMinder and Cloudbeds are quote-only.Does a booking engine really cut OTA commissions?
Yes, but only on bookings that go through your site. Booking.com and Expedia still take their cut on what's booked there. To shift guests to your site, they need to find it: Google listing, Google's free booking links, and a visible book button on mobile.How do I avoid double bookings with a booking engine?
Tie the engine and the channel manager to the same inventory, updated in real time. All-in-one systems do this by default. With a standalone engine, check it's certified on your PMS. On Sirvoy, the channel manager is only on the Pro plan.Can I switch booking engines without switching PMS?
Yes, if your PMS connects to the new engine. Ask your PMS vendor for its list of certified booking engines, and check the new engine can carry over your rate plans and promo codes. Plan the switch for a slow week.Should my website show the same rate as the OTAs?
At first, that's the simplest route. To make direct booking worth it, you can add a perk on your site, like breakfast or early check-in, instead of undercutting OTA rates. SiteMinder Plus includes a rate parity tool to spot gaps between channels.