Hotel Group Software: Vertical vs Custom Cost in 2026 (Montreal)

The verdict in three sentences

For 1 to 2 standard hotels, a vertical SaaS PMS at 30,000-60,000 FCFA/room/year covers the essentials with no capital outlay. Once you run 3 properties or more with a need for group consolidation and yield management, a custom build at 14-24M FCFA amortizes over 3 years. The decisive lever is the +6% occupancy from yield, which outweighs the software price.

Vertical vs custom: the comparison

A PMS (Property Management System) handles bookings, room planning, billing, payment and reporting. For a group, multi-property consolidation changes everything.

SaaS bills per room: across 150 rooms in 3 hotels, the annual bill quickly rivals a build's maintenance.

3-year TCO comparison (3 hotels, 150 rooms)

Median assumption: vertical at 45,000 FCFA/room/year, custom at 18,000,000 FCFA + 18% maintenance.

On raw cost over 3 years, the vertical stays 7.5M FCFA cheaper. But custom is justified by added revenue: yield and group consolidation generate far more than this gap, as the case below shows.

Operational gains and revenue

The real trade-off is added revenue, not software cost.

Mini case study

Marie, director of a hotel group in Montreal, runs 3 hotels, 150 rooms, for 300,000,000 FCFA/year in revenue. Group reporting is manual (12 hours/month) and she has no real yield. She picks a custom PMS at 18,000,000 FCFA + 3,240,000 FCFA annual maintenance.

With +6% occupancy from yield, she gains ~18,000,000 FCFA revenue/year. Adding 12 hours/month of reporting (~1,800,000 FCFA/year) and fewer unpaid bills, annual gains exceed ~20,000,000 FCFA. On a 21,240,000 FCFA net first-year outlay, break-even lands around 28 months, with a fully owned asset.

FAQ

From how many hotels is custom justified? From 3 properties with a need for group consolidation and yield; under 2 hotels, the vertical stays cheaper.

How much is the vertical for 150 rooms? From 4,500,000 to 9,000,000 FCFA/year depending on the per-room rate (30,000-60,000 FCFA/room/year).

Does yield really add occupancy? Yes: a well-tuned yield adds around +6% occupancy and +4% RevPAR, i.e. ~18M FCFA on 300M revenue.

Can we collect via mobile money? Yes, natively in the custom build, cutting unpaid bills by about 30% and smoothing check-out.

What is the go-live timeline? Budget 3 to 6 weeks for a vertical and 14 to 20 weeks for a multi-property custom build, including staff training.

Let's scope your project. Specify the number of hotels, rooms and your consolidation/yield needs, with an indicative budget, and we'll frame the most profitable PMS solution. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.