Best Hotel Software for Small + Boutique Hotels India 2026
Founder & Lead Developer, Codingclave · 200+ projects since 2017
A 10 to 30 room hotel in India should be paying ₹2,500 to ₹8,000 a month in October 2026 for a complete stack: property management system, channel manager and direct booking engine. The nine products below all land in or near that band. Hotelogix starts at ₹250 per room per month with a ₹4,250 monthly minimum, eZee Absolute's full Champion bundle is ₹7,500 a month for up to 15 rooms, Mettastay charges ₹34,500 a year for PMS and booking engine, and our own Hotel Management Software is ₹2,500 a month or ₹1,00,000 one-time with source code. Anything quoted above ₹10,000 a month for under 30 rooms is selling you modules you will not use.
I have been building hotel software from Lucknow since 2017, and the under-50-room segment is the one where owners are most often sold the wrong thing. This guide is the one I send to them.
Disclosure: Codingclave makes the Hotel PMS, which is on this list. We ranked the products on their published monthly cost for a small property, the modules included and the size of hotel each one suits, and you can check every price on the vendor's own page.
Which hotel software is best for a small hotel in India?
Enterprise PMS like IDS FortuneNEXT and Oracle OPERA are built for 100-plus room properties with an IT team, a 3 to 4 month rollout and a front-office trainer. A 12-room stay in Coorg cannot absorb that. At the other end, Excel plus WhatsApp plus three OTA extranet logins works until the first long-weekend double booking.
Here is the short version for the in-between, ranked for 5 to 50 room properties. Prices are what the vendor or a public listing showed in October 2026; the source is named in each row and in the cost table further down.
| PMS | Best for | Price in October 2026 | Indian OTA sync | Setup |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| eZee Absolute | Budget 10 to 30 room hotels | ₹2,250 Classic to ₹7,500 Champion a month for up to 15 rooms, excl. GST (Techjockey listing) | MakeMyTrip, Goibibo, Booking.com, Agoda native | 1 week |
| Hotelogix | Small chains, 2 to 5 properties | ₹250 to ₹599 per room/month, ₹4,250 monthly minimum, channel manager from ₹1,200 extra (Techjockey listing) | All major Indian OTAs | 2 weeks |
| Djubo | Revenue-focused boutique stays | $80/mo Growing Hotelier on annual billing (djubo.com/pricing); India billed in INR plus 18% GST; 10-room minimum | Strong MakeMyTrip and Goibibo | 7 to 14 days (Djubo onboarding terms) |
| Mettastay | 10 to 25 room budget properties | ₹34,500/yr PMS + booking engine for up to 25 rooms, ₹20,700/yr channel manager, excl. GST (mettastay.com/pricing) | MakeMyTrip, Goibibo, Booking.com | 1 week |
| Stayflexi | Properties wanting POS and revenue tools in one | Quote tool; sample shown is $200/mo for 20 rooms on Accelerate, POS is a $200/mo add-on (stayflexi.com/pricing) | Indian OTAs plus global | 1 to 2 weeks |
| Cloudbeds | Boutique resorts with Airbnb and international mix | Quote only on all four plans (cloudbeds.com/pricing) | Via connectivity partners | 2 to 3 weeks |
| Little Hotelier | B+Bs and homestays under 20 rooms | $29/mo Basics, $109/mo Pro (GetApp listing) | Via SiteMinder connections | 1 to 2 weeks |
| RoomRaccoon | High direct-booking boutique hotels | From $188/mo (GetApp listing) | Via connectivity partners | 2 weeks |
| Codingclave Hotel PMS | Owners who want all modules at one price, or to own the code | ₹2,500/mo, ₹22,000/yr, or ₹1,00,000 one-time with source code | MakeMyTrip, Goibibo, Booking.com, Expedia, Agoda | 1 to 2 weeks |
Dollar prices convert at about ₹96 to the dollar (ECB reference rate via frankfurter.dev, 2 October 2026); these vendors bill in USD, so check the day's rate.
What does "small hotel" actually mean in India in 2026?
The market is not one thing. Each sub-segment has different software needs, and most bad purchases happen because an owner picks by room count instead of by profile.
Boutique resorts, 15 to 50 rooms. Goa, Coorg, Wayanad, Munnar. A mix of direct website bookings, MakeMyTrip and Booking.com. Usually a small restaurant. Needs a real channel manager, a booking engine, F+B POS posting to the room folio, and guest history.
Homestays and Airbnb hybrids, 3 to 12 rooms. Hill stations, beach towns, edge-of-city farms. Family-run, mostly Airbnb plus direct WhatsApp. Needs Airbnb sync, self-check-in, WhatsApp templates and light billing. Enterprise PMS is overkill here.
Heritage properties, 8 to 40 rooms. Rajasthan havelis, Kerala backwater villas, Himachal cottages. Higher tariffs, often above the ₹7,500 GST line, so the 18% slab and input tax credit matter. Bespoke check-in, travel-agent business, multi-outlet F+B.
B+Bs, 4 to 15 rooms. Pondicherry, Goa, Coorg. Direct booking dominant, owner-operated. Simplicity above everything.
Budget small hotels, 20 to 50 rooms. Tier-2 cities, highway stops, business travel. Volume play. Needs a fast channel manager, quick check-in, and GST billing that gets the 5% slab right every time.
A 9-room Pondicherry B+B and a 35-room Rajasthan haveli have nothing in common except room count. Pick by use-case.
How much does hotel management software cost for a small hotel in India?
This is the question that brings most readers here, so here is the honest band with sources, not a sales deck.
| Property type | Monthly all-in (PMS + channel manager + booking engine) | Products that fit | Where the figure comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo property, under 20 rooms | ₹2,500 to ₹8,000 | Codingclave (₹2,500), Mettastay ( |
Vendor pricing pages and Techjockey listings named above |
| Small chain, 2 to 5 properties, 30 to 80 rooms | ₹5,000 to ₹20,000 per property | Hotelogix, Djubo Pro Hotelier (~$110/mo on annual billing), Cloudbeds | djubo.com/pricing; Techjockey Hotelogix listing |
| Boutique or heritage premium | ₹10,000 to ₹35,000 | RoomRaccoon (from $188), Stayflexi All-in-one, Cloudbeds Experience | GetApp; Stayflexi quote tool; cloudbeds.com/pricing (quote only) |
| Own the software outright | ₹1,00,000 one-time plus hosting | Codingclave Hotel PMS licence with source code | Product page |
Watch the costs that do not appear on the pricing page:
- Setup and onboarding fees. Djubo's published terms include a 10% annual price increase, a 10-room minimum and 18% GST on top of the listed price. Several vendors charge ₹5,000 to ₹25,000 for onboarding; ask for it in writing.
- Per-channel fees. Some channel managers price per OTA connection after the first few. Count your channels before comparing.
- Payment gateway charges. Razorpay, PayU and Cashfree all take a percentage per transaction on the booking engine. That is unavoidable, but it is not a PMS cost.
- Metasearch and Genius-type programmes. Booking.com Genius Level 1 requires a 10% discount for Genius members on top of commission (Booking.com partner hub). Stayflexi's reputation manager and OTA messaging add-ons are $50 a month each on its pricing page.
- Training. Budget two half-days for the front desk. If the vendor charges separately, ₹3,000 to ₹10,000 one-time is normal.
If you want the full breakdown from ₹999 a month to a custom build, I keep it updated in the hotel management software cost guide.
Want the monthly all-in for your own property? WhatsApp me on +91 92771 84741 with your room count and the OTAs you use. We reply within 2 hours (Mon–Sat 10:00–19:00 IST); free quote in 24 hours.
What features does a small hotel actually need?
Strip away the enterprise feature lists. These twelve are the non-negotiables for a property under 50 rooms:
- Reservation calendar. Drag-and-drop room assignment, colour-coded by booking source.
- Channel manager. Two-way sync with at least MakeMyTrip, Goibibo, Booking.com and Agoda.
- Booking engine on your own website. Direct bookings at 0% commission.
- Online payments. Razorpay or PayU with UPI, because most Indian guests pay by UPI.
- GST billing that knows the 2025 slabs. 5% up to ₹7,500 a night without ITC, 18% above it with ITC, picked from the tariff actually charged.
- WhatsApp guest messaging. Confirmation, pre-arrival, checkout bill, review request.
- Housekeeping module. Clean, dirty, inspected status, simple enough for one supervisor on a phone.
- Guest profile history. Repeat guests, preferences, blacklist.
- Owner mobile app. Today's occupancy, arrivals and revenue from your phone.
- Basic reports. Occupancy, ADR, RevPAR, source of business.
- F+B POS integration. Room-service and restaurant charges posted to the folio, if you serve food. The restaurant POS for boutique hotels guide covers this piece on its own.
- Multiple rate plans. Corporate, walk-in, repeat guest, promotional, with a season calendar.
If a demo cannot show all twelve in 30 minutes, skip the product. You can run our 12-minute self-guided hotel PMS demo against this list before you talk to anyone.
Which features are you sold but do not need under 50 rooms?
Sales reps will push these. Decline politely:
- Revenue management AI. At under 50 rooms your own read of the weekend calendar beats the algorithm. Little Hotelier's Pro plan is $109 against $29 for Basics largely because of it, and Djubo and Stayflexi gate it to higher tiers too.
- Conference and banquet module. Unless you host events.
- Multi-currency. You bill in INR. Display-only conversion on the receipt is enough for foreign guests.
- Spa and wellness module. Unless you run a spa.
- Loyalty programme engine. Your repeat-guest WhatsApp list is the loyalty programme.
- Reputation dashboard. Google and TripAdvisor are free to read.
- HR module. Small properties run HR on a spreadsheet.
- Procurement and inventory for housekeeping. A paper register works at this scale.
Every module you decline saves ₹500 to ₹2,500 a month.
How does GST on hotel rooms work in a PMS after the 2025 change?
This is where most older guides, including the earlier version of this one, are now wrong. The 56th GST Council meeting on 3 September 2025 cut the rate on rooms up to ₹7,500 a night from 12% to 5%, effective 22 September 2025 (GST Council press release, 3 September 2025). The 12% slab no longer exists.
| Room tariff per night (actual charged) | GST rate | Input tax credit | Restaurant inside the hotel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to ₹7,500 | 5% | Not available | 5% without ITC (if the property is not "specified premises") |
| Above ₹7,500 | 18% | Available | 18% with ITC (property is "specified premises") |
Three things your PMS must handle, and that I check in every demo:
- Rate from the actual tariff, not the rack rate. A ₹9,000 room sold at ₹6,500 on a Monday is 5%. The same room on Diwali weekend at ₹9,000 is 18%. The invoice must follow the night, and a two-night stay crossing the line needs two tax lines.
- Specified premises logic. If any room in your property was sold above ₹7,500 a night in the previous financial year, the whole property is "specified premises" for that year and your restaurant bills at 18% with ITC instead of 5% without. Heritage properties near the line should decide deliberately, because declaring in gives you ITC on everything you buy.
- No ITC at 5%. If you are under ₹7,500, the GST you pay on the PMS subscription itself, on linen, on the new AC, is a cost. That changes the maths on a ₹10,000 a month subscription versus a one-time licence.
Our Hotel Management Software applies CGST/SGST or IGST by the guest's state and picks the slab from the nightly tariff. Ask any vendor to show you the same on a split-tariff two-night booking before you sign.
Which OTA integrations matter for a small Indian hotel?
Indian small hotels do not have the global OTA mix. Here is what actually matters in October 2026.
| Channel | Commission | Who connects natively | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| MakeMyTrip and Goibibo (MMT Connect) | Not published; negotiated per property. Budget 15% to 22% before visibility programmes and read your own contract | eZee, Djubo, Hotelogix, AxisRooms, Mettastay, Codingclave | One API covers both brands. Visibility programmes push the effective rate up. |
| Booking.com | 15% standard in India; Genius Level 1 adds a 10% member discount on top (Booking.com partner hub) | Every PMS in this list | Mandatory for inbound international and metro business guests. |
| Agoda YCS | Not published | eZee, Hotelogix, Codingclave | Matters for Southeast Asian inbound. |
| Airbnb | 15.5% host-only fee, mandatory for hosts using a PMS or channel manager; the worldwide migration finished on 13 April 2026 (Airbnb help centre; Hostfully) | Cloudbeds, RoomRaccoon, Little Hotelier lead; Indian PMS have basic support | The 3% split fee is gone for PMS-connected hosts, so price your Airbnb rate plan about 12 points higher than before. |
| Your own website | 0% | Any PMS with a booking engine | Only channel where the margin is fully yours. |
Two practical warnings. First, PMS that reach MakeMyTrip through a connectivity partner rather than a direct connection can lag on rate pushes, and a few minutes of lag on a sold-out date is how overbookings happen. Ask for the MMT connection in the demo, not a slide. Second, if you run OYO or Treebo franchise inventory, most generic PMS do not sync with those portals; confirm before you buy. The hotel channel manager guide compares the Indian connectors in more depth.
Why does a direct booking engine pay for the whole PMS?
Let me do the arithmetic on a 20-room boutique stay at ₹6,000 ADR and 65% occupancy.
- Room nights a year: 20 × 365 × 0.65 = 4,745
- Room revenue: 4,745 × ₹6,000 = about ₹2.85 crore
- If 70% of that comes through OTAs at an 18% blended commission: ₹2.85 crore × 0.70 × 0.18 = about ₹35.9 lakh a year in commission
Move 15 points of that mix from OTA to direct (so 55% OTA, 45% direct) and you keep about ₹7.7 lakh a year. The entire PMS stack in this guide costs ₹30,000 to ₹96,000 a year. That is why I treat the booking engine as the most important module, not an add-on.
What a small-hotel booking engine must do:
- Mobile-first, because most direct bookings in India happen on a phone
- UPI, cards and net banking through Razorpay or PayU with instant confirmation
- Multi-room and multi-night with the correct GST slab per night
- Promo codes for your repeat-guest WhatsApp list
- Automatic WhatsApp and email confirmation
- A Google Hotel Ads free-booking-link feed, so your own rate shows beside the OTAs on Google
eZee Reservation, Djubo Direct Book, Cloudbeds and RoomRaccoon's engine are all solid. Ours is included in every plan, and the hotel digital marketing guide covers how to send traffic to it.
How much does WhatsApp guest messaging cost a small hotel?
WhatsApp is where Indian guests actually read messages, and every small hotel should run confirmation, pre-arrival, checkout and review-request flows on it. The cost question has two layers.
Meta's own per-message price. Meta prices India per message, and its current INR rate card (effective 1 July 2026) is a download on the WhatsApp Business Platform pricing page. What you pay depends on which provider passes it through: on our PayPerWA rate card a marketing template is ₹0.86 and a utility template (confirmation, check-in details, bill) ₹0.115; Interakt lists ₹0.97 and ₹0.16; AiSensy lists ₹1.09 and ₹0.145 (each provider's pricing page, October 2026). Authentication is priced like utility, replies inside the 24-hour service window have been charged at the utility rate since 1 October 2026, apart from the first 1,000 a month on each business number, and Meta's charges and subscription plans attract 18% GST.
The provider's fee on top. Subscription providers charge before you send anything: Interakt's Growth plan is ₹2,799 a month and Advanced is ₹3,799, plus taxes (interakt.shop/pricing). For a 12-room hotel sending 800 to 1,500 messages a month, the subscription is most of the bill.
PayPerWA is the tool we built for exactly this volume: no subscription, ₹0.20 platform fee per message (GST included, charged on every message, replies too) plus Meta's charge, on the official Meta Cloud API. Worked example for a 12-room property:
| Message type | Volume a month | Meta charge | PayPerWA fee | Line total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Booking confirmation, pre-arrival, checkout (utility) | 1,000 | ₹115 | ₹200 | ₹315 |
| Offers to past guests (marketing) | 200 | ₹172 | ₹40 | ₹212 |
| Replies inside 24-hour window (service; free for the first 1,000 a month per number) | 400 | ₹0 | ₹80 | ₹80 |
| Total before GST on Meta's charge | 1,600 | ₹287 | ₹320 | ₹607 |
This assumes one business number, so all 400 replies sit inside Meta's 1,000 free service messages; beyond that they would cost ₹0.115 each at Meta. Total: ₹315 + ₹212 + ₹80 = ₹607. The PayPerWA fee already includes GST, so 18% GST is added only to Meta's ₹287: ₹287 × 18% = ₹52, and the hotel pays about ₹659 a month (₹607 + ₹52). Prices checked on 2026-10-18 for PayPerWA's fee and Meta's India rates. The same 1,600 messages on Interakt's Growth plan come to ₹2,799 plus about ₹350 in message charges, roughly ₹3,700 with GST. Connect it to the PMS by webhook and the flow runs itself: confirmation on booking, location pin and parking note 24 hours before arrival, bill summary at checkout, review request 6 hours later, and a birthday or anniversary note for repeat guests. The WhatsApp CRM integration guide has the template wording that passes Meta review.
What does a homestay plus Airbnb hybrid need from a PMS?
A growing share of "small hotels" in India are owner-run homestays listed on Airbnb with some direct WhatsApp business. Their needs differ:
- Airbnb sync is mandatory, and after the April 2026 move to the 15.5% host-only fee, the Airbnb rate plan must be priced separately from the direct rate in the PMS.
- Self-check-in with a smart-lock or key-box code generated per booking.
- iCal sync to the owner's Google Calendar.
- Message templates in the local language plus English.
- Light invoicing. Most homestay guests do not want a formal GST invoice, but the PMS still has to produce one when asked, at 5% for anything up to ₹7,500.
Cloudbeds, RoomRaccoon and Little Hotelier handle this profile best. eZee, Djubo and Hotelogix treat Airbnb as a secondary channel; it works, with a clunkier workflow. For a 4 to 8 unit homestay, Little Hotelier Basics at $29 a month (about ₹2,800) plus PayPerWA for WhatsApp is the cheapest viable stack I know, at about ₹3,500 a month all-in.
What we see in small-hotel projects
Codingclave has been in Lucknow since 2017, has shipped 200 or more software projects, holds a 4.9-star Google rating from 92 reviews and is Top Rated on Upwork. We build hotel software for anything from 9-room guesthouses to multi-property groups, and three patterns repeat.
The first ask is always the channel manager, the first win is always the booking engine. Owners come in because a double booking cost them a refund and a bad review. Six months later the number they talk about is direct-booking share, because that is where the money moved. One of the reviews on our product page is a 12-room boutique guesthouse owner in Goa who put it exactly that way: the booking engine saved the OTA commission.
Small hotels do not need less software, they need fewer screens. Failed small-hotel deployments are rarely missing a feature. The front desk has too many to find the one it needs at 11 pm with a guest waiting. We built our PMS so a new receptionist can take a walk-in, assign a room and print a GST bill from one screen on the first day.
Owning the software starts to make sense around ₹8,000 a month in subscriptions. At ₹2,500 a month a subscription is the right call for most properties under 20 rooms. Once a two-property owner is paying ₹8,000 to ₹15,000 a month for seats and modules, the ₹1,00,000 one-time licence with source code pays back in under a year and lets us add a custom module (a three-outlet F+B tax setup, travel-agent commission tracking, a heritage check-in flow) without a per-room fee attached. I wrote up the decision in custom vs SaaS hotel software so you can run the numbers for your own property.
When do you outgrow small-hotel software?
You have hit the ceiling on a small-hotel PMS when:
- You cross 50 rooms and the calendar view slows down
- You add a third property and multi-property reporting becomes a daily chore
- You need real revenue management with competitive-set tracking
- F+B crosses three outlets or 100 covers a day
- You hire a revenue manager who wants enterprise reports
- You start taking weddings and conferences and need a banquet module
- Direct bookings cross 200 transactions a month and you need a real CRM
Migration is painful. Budget 2 to 3 months, and pick the second PMS twice as carefully as the first. The multi-property path on our side is the multi-tenant hotel edition, which runs several properties from one deployment with isolated data per hotel.
How should a small hotel owner choose a PMS?
The order I follow with every owner who calls:
- Write down your channels and your tariff band. How many OTAs, whether Airbnb is in the mix, and whether any room ever crosses ₹7,500 a night. That alone eliminates half the list.
- Get the all-in monthly price in writing for your exact room count, with channel manager, booking engine, onboarding, training and any per-channel fees itemised. Prices on this page are a starting point; vendors quote per room.
- Run a 30-minute demo against the twelve-feature list. Make them show the MakeMyTrip connection live and a two-night booking that crosses the GST line.
- Test the offline behaviour if you are in a hill station or on a backwater.
- Check the WhatsApp path. Native integration, webhook, or nothing.
- Ask what leaving costs. Export format for guest history and bookings, and the notice period.
- Pick for the next three years, not the next three months. If a second property is a real possibility, choose a product with multi-property built in.
If you want a second opinion on your shortlist, WhatsApp me on +91 92771 84741 with your room count, OTAs and current pain. I will tell you in one call whether you need anything more than a ₹2,500 a month subscription.
Final picks by property profile
- Under 10 rooms, owner-operated, Airbnb heavy: Little Hotelier Basics ($29/mo) plus PayPerWA. About ₹3,500 a month.
- 10 to 25 room boutique stay, standard workflows: Codingclave Hotel PMS at ₹2,500 a month, Mettastay, or eZee Absolute Champion. ₹2,500 to ₹7,500 a month.
- 15 to 30 room revenue-focused property on MakeMyTrip: Djubo Growing or Pro Hotelier. About $80 to $110 a month on annual billing.
- 2 to 5 property small chain: Hotelogix from ₹250 per room per month plus its channel manager, or the Codingclave multi-tenant edition if you want one deployment you own.
- Boutique resort with international and Airbnb mix: Cloudbeds or RoomRaccoon. Quote-based; expect $188 a month and up.
- Heritage property above ₹7,500 a night with bespoke workflows: a one-time licence with custom modules (three-outlet F+B tax, travel-agent commissions, your own check-in flow), or Cloudbeds Experience on quote.
Pick by profile, not by feature count. Most small hotels overspend because they buy what big hotels buy.
About the author
Ashish Sharma is the founder of Codingclave Technologies, a Lucknow software studio that has built PMS, booking engines and hospitality CRM for small and boutique properties across India since 2017. Connect on LinkedIn or WhatsApp.
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Frequently asked questions
At October 2026 prices the cheapest complete stacks (PMS plus channel manager plus booking engine) for a 10-room property are our own Codingclave Hotel PMS at ₹2,500 a month with the channel manager and booking engine included, Mettastay at ₹34,500 a year for PMS and booking engine plus ₹20,700 a year for the channel manager (about ₹4,600 a month combined, mettastay.com/pricing), Hotelogix Premium at ₹250 a room with a ₹4,250 monthly minimum plus a channel manager from ₹1,200 (Techjockey listing, so about ₹5,450), and eZee Absolute's Champion bundle at ₹7,500 a month for up to 15 rooms (Techjockey). Djubo's Growing Hotelier plan is about $80 a month on annual billing with a 10-room minimum. All of these exclude 18% GST.
If you sell on more than one OTA (MakeMyTrip plus Booking.com plus Airbnb), yes. Updating three extranets by hand produces a double booking sooner or later, usually on a long weekend when it hurts most. If you take only direct WhatsApp bookings for 4 to 6 rooms, a shared calendar and a pay-per-message WhatsApp tool will carry you. Past 8 rooms or two OTAs, a ₹2,000 to ₹4,000 a month PMS costs less than one refunded double booking.
eZee Absolute, Djubo, Hotelogix, AxisRooms and Mettastay all connect to MakeMyTrip and Goibibo with two-way rate and inventory sync. Our Codingclave Hotel PMS channel manager also syncs MakeMyTrip, Goibibo, Booking.com, Expedia and Agoda. Cloudbeds, RoomRaccoon and Little Hotelier are stronger on Booking.com, Expedia and Airbnb and reach Indian OTAs through connectivity partners, so ask the vendor to show the MMT connection live before you sign.
Since 22 September 2025, following the 56th GST Council meeting, rooms priced up to ₹7,500 a night carry 5% GST without input tax credit and rooms above ₹7,500 carry 18% with input tax credit. The old 12% slab is gone. Your PMS must pick the rate from the actual tariff charged per night, not the rack rate, and must know whether your property counts as "specified premises" (any room above ₹7,500 in the previous financial year), because that decides whether your restaurant bills at 5% or 18%.
MakeMyTrip and Goibibo do not publish a rate card; the commission is negotiated per property, so budget 15% to 22% before visibility programmes and read your own contract. Booking.com's standard commission in India is 15%, and Genius Level 1 requires a 10% discount for Genius members on top (Booking.com partner hub). Airbnb finished moving every software-connected host worldwide to a single 15.5% host-only fee by 13 April 2026 (Airbnb help centre; Hostfully). Agoda does not publish its rates. A direct booking engine on your own site is the only channel at 0% commission.
Yes. Meta's WhatsApp Business API is priced per message in India. On PayPerWA, our own tool, the Meta charge is about ₹0.86 for a marketing template and ₹0.115 for a utility template such as a booking confirmation, plus 18% GST, and since 1 October 2026 replies inside the 24-hour service window are charged at the utility rate too once a number has used its 1,000 free service messages for the month. Subscription providers such as Interakt charge ₹2,799 to ₹3,799 a month plus taxes before you send anything (interakt.shop/pricing). PayPerWA has no subscription and charges a ₹0.20 platform fee per message, GST included, on every message including replies, so a 12-room hotel sending 1,600 mostly utility messages a month pays about ₹659 in all: ₹287 to Meta plus ₹52 GST on it, and ₹320 in PayPerWA fees. Meta charges nothing for its 400 replies, because they fall within Meta's free 1,000.
When the software forces you to change a workflow that is your brand: a heritage check-in ritual, three F+B outlets with different tax treatment, travel-agent commission tracking, or one guest history across several properties. For most properties under 20 rooms with standard workflows a ₹2,000 to ₹4,000 a month subscription is the right answer. If you want to own the software, a one-time licence with source code (ours is ₹1,00,000) avoids per-room fees and lets you add modules later.
Cloud PMS needs a connection to sync with OTAs, but check-in, billing and housekeeping updates can run offline and queue in eZee, Hotelogix and Djubo. A self-hosted licence running on a server inside the property keeps the front desk working through an outage and syncs channels when the line returns. For hill-station and backwater properties, test the offline behaviour during the trial, not after.