At Hotelagio, our mission is to help hotels, resorts, and hospitality businesses make smarter software decisions.
Whether you are choosing a booking engine, property management system (PMS), or guest experience tool, our review methodology is designed to guide you toward the most effective solution for your specific needs.

Our process combines industry expertise, hands-on testing, and in-depth research so you can trust that our evaluations are accurate, relevant, and unbiased.

1. Why You Can Trust Hotelagio’s Software Reviews

Our reviews are informed by deep knowledge of hospitality operations, software usability, and real-world business needs.

  • Hospitality Expertise: Our team includes professionals with years of experience in hotel management, technology implementation, and guest services. We know the challenges that hoteliers face — and what makes a solution truly valuable.
  • Real-World Insights: We’ve worked with a wide range of hospitality tools, from small boutique hotel platforms to enterprise-grade PMS solutions. We understand the difference between software that looks good on paper and software that actually improves operations.
  • Comprehensive Software Knowledge: We research and evaluate dozens of tools each year, giving us a broad view of the market and the ability to identify real strengths and weaknesses.
  • Focus on Practical Solutions: Every review is centered on solving real operational problems — whether that’s improving guest satisfaction, streamlining check-in, or optimizing room inventory.

2. How We Select the Software We Review

  • Market Analysis: We start by analyzing reputable software directories (e.g., Capterra, G2, HotelTechReport) and hospitality-specific sources to identify tools relevant to hoteliers.
  • Relevance & Demand: We focus on software that is widely used or has significant market growth, ensuring our reviews cover solutions that matter most to our audience.
  • Authenticity: Our priority is to review tools with genuine user feedback, strong industry adoption, and proven hospitality use cases.

3. How We Test Software at Hotelagio

We use a dual-approach methodology: hands-on testing whenever possible, combined with meta-review research for additional context.

Hands-On Testing

When possible, we personally test the software to evaluate:

  • Onboarding Experience: Signing up, setting up the system, and importing data.
  • Feature Evaluation: Assessing core features like room booking, channel management, reporting, and integrations.
  • Usability: Testing workflows from both staff and guest perspectives.
  • Realistic Scenarios: Simulating common hotel operations — from guest booking to payment processing — to see how the system performs in practice.

Meta-Review Analysis

When direct testing isn’t feasible, we:

  • Gather feedback from verified users on multiple platforms.
  • Identify recurring pros, cons, and performance patterns.
  • Exclude promotional or biased vendor content.

Vendor Communication

  • We may contact the vendor to confirm feature sets, learn about product updates, and ensure accuracy.
  • These discussions help keep our reviews current and fact-based.

4. Our Evaluation Criteria

We evaluate hospitality software using the following key criteria:

1. Features & Functionality

  • Core hospitality features (e.g., reservations, housekeeping management, rate management).
  • Performance in real-world hotel workflows.
  • Unique tools or differentiators that could give hotels a competitive advantage.

2. Usability & Onboarding

  • How quickly hotel staff can learn and use the system.
  • Availability and quality of onboarding resources (tutorials, guides, training).

3. Integrations

  • Compatibility with existing hotel systems (PMS, POS, channel managers, CRMs).
  • Ease of connecting to OTAs (Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb).

4. Support

  • Availability of live support (chat, email, phone).
  • Quality and responsiveness of help materials and customer service.

5. Pricing & Value

  • Overall value for the features provided.
  • Transparent pricing with no hidden costs.
  • Long-term scalability for growing hospitality businesses.

5. How We Ensure Relevance and Objectivity

  • Ongoing Updates: We regularly revisit and update reviews to reflect software updates, pricing changes, and industry trends.
  • Objective Assessments: Reviewers are instructed to provide honest, unbiased evaluations. Hotelagio does not accept payment from vendors for favorable reviews.
  • Hospitality Context: All reviews are framed within the realities of running a hotel, ensuring they are directly relevant to our audience.

Conclusion

Hotelagio’s review methodology is built to give hospitality professionals clear, actionable, and trustworthy insights. Our combination of industry expertise, hands-on testing, and rigorous research ensures that you have the information you need to choose software that genuinely improves operations and guest satisfaction.