Hotels and other businesses in the hospitality industry can greatly benefit from implementing customer relationship management (CRM) software to help manage guest data and operations from one hub.
These sales solutions can manage bookings, organize communication, and enhance guest satisfaction and loyalty. In an industry with a distinct focus on customer service, the right CRM tool can make all the difference when it comes to repeat customers and good recommendations.
While there is specialty software dedicated to back-office operations and hospitality functions, I found that the best CRM options for hotels or hospitality organizations are actually general CRM providers.
Providers like Pipedrive, Zoho CRM, and Freshsales all offer unique features that are meant for hospitality businesses, alongside their standard CRM operations.
Beyond just managing customer information, the best CRM software for stand-alone BnBs, hotel chains, and hospitality organizations also deploy marketing campaigns and ongoing communication to guarantee customer satisfaction.
It’s also important to consider scalability, integrations, communications, and, of course, CRM pricing. The providers I’ve listed below can all streamline operations, diversify online marketing campaigns, and guarantee data safety.
Out of all the CRM software I considered, Pipedrive can best be adapted into a hotel and hospitality CRM solution. Users can create custom pipelines that reflect their booking process while also recording data such as dietary and accessibility requirements for guests.
Booking processes and confirmations can be automated with SMS check-in reminders and stay information templates. After you send those, staff members can monitor email marketing campaigns, including opens and clicks.
Why I chose Pipedrive
Pipedrive continues to find its way onto my guides for niche industries because of its customization features and adaptability. With its simple onboarding process and highly visual pipeline management tools, users of any technical expertise can set it up to be a well-functioning sales solution. From landing page builders to website chatbots and lead segmentation, Pipedrive is a tool to help manage end-to-end sales.
One downside to Pipedrive is that it does not offer a free-for-life version of the CRM. If being able to try a free tool before committing to a premium subscription is more important to you than specific features, I recommend considering Freshsales or Zoho CRM first.
Oracle NetSuite CRM: Best for managing guest services
Image: Oracle Netsuite CRM
NetSuite CRM offers advanced customer service management tools. This enables businesses to have a complete view of customer data for improved satisfaction and lower service costs.
Oracle NetSuite’s cloud solution gives every team member, from sales to support to fulfillment, access to real time data. Specific guest support dashboards can track ongoing cases or inquiries, and even provide the guest with a front-facing portal to submit tickets.
Why I chose Oracle NetSuite CRM
As a product of Oracle, NetSuite CRM can be a very scalable solution for chain hotels or businesses that are looking to expand. Netsuite CRM’s visibility into quotes, finances, and fulfillment tracking make it a great post-deal management tool.
A major disadvantage Netsuite CRM has is the unique pricing structure without any upfront information. If you would prefer a more immediate solution with pricing disclosures, look into Pipedrive.
Pricing
Annual license fee: Contact for a quote. This premium license is based on three components: core platform, optional modules, and the number of expected users. There’s also a one-time set-up fee. Every user that accesses NetSuite CRM needs their own user license.
Features
Case management: Assign, manage, and route customer support cases from multiple channels into one dashboard for staff to address immediately.
Salesforce automation: Integrate and automate an entire sales process from opportunity to quote management by giving the entire staff visibility into all customer relationship transactions.
Campaign management: Create and track targeted marketing campaigns based on your ICP’s demographics, purchase trends, or reply patterns.
NetSuite CRM case management dashboard and tracker. Image: Oracle NetSuite CRM
Pros and cons
Pros
Cons
14-day free trial.
Real users report easy system integration.
Real users report functional, out-of-the-box features.
Outdated user interface.
Limited community and support resources.
No transparent pricing.
Zoho CRM: Best for streamlining communication
Image: Zoho CRM
Through Zoho CRM, businesses can completely streamline customer support and communications by automating booking updates for guests. Staff can provide timely information about check-in time slots, payments, or room upgrades. This can happen through different channels like telephone, social media, live chat, and email. Additionally, guests or clients can reach out and receive assistance on their preferred channel, making communication convenient for them.
Why I chose Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is a leading CRM tool offering a good mix of core and advanced features at an affordable cost. In addition to the 360-degree client profiles and omnichannel customer engagement, Zoho CRM has advanced automations and AI-powered tools.
Zia is Zoho’s AI assistant that can monitor client activity, forecast deals, generate marketing content, and even answer help desk calls.
The hospitality-specific functions available through Zoho are only in the Zoho CRM Plus tier. If that is too pricey for your business, I recommend Freshsales for this competitive cost and multiview dashboards for similar synchronized access.
Free CRM: Free for up to three users and comes with lead and document management and a mobile app.
Standard: $14 per user per month, billed annually, or $20 per user when billed monthly.
Professional: $23 per user per month, billed annually, or $35 per user when billed monthly.
Enterprise: $40 per user per month, billed annually, or $50 per user when billed monthly.
Ultimate: $52 per user per month, billed annually, or $65 per user when billed monthly.
CRM Plus: $57 per user per month, billed annually, or $69 per user when billed monthly.
Features
Communication workflow: Build automated sequences that engage and inform guests about their booking.
Data management: Protect sensitive data in one place with data privacy and compliance.
Guest profiles: Record and access important guest information in one hub, such as dietary requirements, accommodation preferences, or special requests.
Sample Zoho CRM communication workflow. Image: Zoho CRM
Pros and cons
Pros
Cons
15-day free trial.
900+ integrations.
Offers advanced AI-powered tools.
Only offers customer support during regular business hours.
Real user reports of interface learning curve.
More advanced features are only available in top premium tiers.
Capsule: Best for mobile guest management
Image: Capsule
The Capsule CRM mobile app enables users and hotel staff to complete tasks on the go without being tied to a desktop. Staff can complete tasks more efficiently anywhere on the hotel grounds. The app enables hotel staff to submit notes after concluding a guest call, capturing real-time guest information, such as requests, amendments, and additional bookings.
This is best for hotels or businesses that mostly depend on phone calls to communicate with guests, since it eliminates the manual data recording and minimizes any inaccuracies.
Why I chose Capsule
Capsule offers a good mix of sales and marketing tools that can help businesses attract and retain guests. Capsule tools prioritize enhancing your customer experience while also producing dashboards and reports that visualize the overall business performance. The interface and user experience are simple and easy to use, in addition to robust integrations for call recording, help desk software, and website bot chatting.
Capsule is a cost-effective tool for small businesses, but if you’re looking for a more scalable solution, I recommend considering Freshsales, NetSuite CRM, or Zoho CRM.
Free tier: Free for up to 250 contacts and 50MB of storage per account.
Starter: $18 per user per month when billed annually, or $21 per user when billed monthly.
Growth: $36 per user per month when billed annually, or $38 per user when billed monthly.
Advanced: $54 per user per month when billed annually, or $60 per user when billed monthly.
Ultimate: $72 per user per month when billed annually, or $75 per user when billed monthly.
Features
Task management: Prioritize tasks with daily reminder emails, plus link tasks to contracts, projects, or sales opportunities.
Quick search: Find key information about any given contact or guest within all notes, emails, or texts.
Dynamic content: Create content for specific groups of contacts to tailor your brand message.
Example Capsule task management tracker. Image: Capsule
Pros and cons
Pros
Cons
14-day free trial.
GDPR complaint.
Advanced access through Capsule mobile app.
Capped number of marketing integrations available.
Limited free plan.
No dedicated account manager.
How do I choose the best hotel CRM software for my business?
I recommend following general CRM best practices to learn how to adapt a hospitality or hotel CRM software and see real solutions for your business. Starting with the providers on my list above, consider signing up for free trials or product demos to map out their onboarding process.
Here are some questions I suggest asking before choosing hotel CRM software:
Does this CRM tool integrate with all of my existing tech tools?
Does this CRM tool offer the guest management tools that my business needs?
Are the core sales features offered by this software equipped enough to streamline my sales process?
Does this CRM fit my budget, or would a free CRM be better to start with?
How quick is the onboarding process to get started using this tool?
Can the CRM software scale up to adapt to my growing business?
Does this CRM tool have any in-market specialization for hospitality?
Methodology
To evaluate each provider on this list and their hospitality management tools, I used my in-house rubric reflecting CRM industry standards. After running each solution through this rubric, an algorithm calculates an overall rating. I use those individual scores and major feature callouts to assign each software an ideal use case that represents the software’s best offering.
Here’s the breakdown of my predefined criteria:
Cost: Weighted 25% of the total score.
Core features: Weighted 25% of the total score.
Customizations: Weighted 15% of the total score.
Integrations: Weighted 15% of the total score.
Ease of use: Weighted 10% of the total score.
Customer support: Weighted 10% of the total score.
