Cloudbeds Reviews

Pros

Cloudebeds is a PMS you get with a channel manager and booking engine. All in one software. You could learn how to use it without any one help. It has learning videos for most of the functions. Now it has multi currency functions as well.

Cons

Easy to use and cost-effective invoicing solution with a great list of features.

Pros

First of all, it was a pleasant experience to engage with the first line officers from cloudbeds, IE the sales staff. The meeting was useful and concise. Most of my relevant concerns were handled. Those that weren't were handled by the appropriate technical colleague.

The migration was smooth although anyone who intents to perform all the data migration should get ready for a lot of work as the data might not be imported accurately albeit its not a major concern.

The part that i was most impressed with Cloudbeds would be the dashboard and the calender. From these 2 functions its easy to have a clear view of the check ins, out, as well as the occupancy. Of course there are more sub functions equally useful from the calender.

Another equally cool feature i'd have to say is the integration with a large pool of vendors to expand the basic HMS and cater it specifically to each hotel's operation.

For us, we integrated Cloudbeds with Assa Abloy's NFC enabled door lock, a Mobile Check in aplication which allows our guests to check in wthout accessing our front desk. This frees up our front desk staff and they have time to perform other tasks!
Guest can safely access their room with their mobile device.

Cons

Like any software or application, there are always ways and functions to improve.

I was rather disappointed after we have rolled out LIVE with Cloudbeds only to discover that the functions of its REPORTS ( this also include guests folios) are not as comprehensive or flexible as we initially thought.

There were also a couple of times when all our front desk terminals were not accesible and was later confirmed by Cloudbeds support personnel that they had some technical issues and needed some time to rectify the situation. (Fortunately it took less than 3 hours). And to be fair, since we've gone LIVE with Cloudbeds, it happened only twice.

The other issue is the lag, sometime my staff will complain to me that it can take more than 2-3 mins to load a page.

Alternatives Considered

OPERA Cloud Property Management

Reasons for Switching to Cloudbeds

Most of the products nowadays are cloud enabled and has similar functions, For me to decide on Cloudbeds, the key issues are definitely its cost competitiveness, scalability, expandability as well as the friendly support helpddesk!

Pros

Staff if great. The software is just inadequate. I ve been in this industry for 12 years and used 4 softwares. This one is by far the worst.

Cons

Absolutely the worst customer support I have ever experienced in this industry. It is NOT possible to get in touch with accounting or payments. It took 3 months to get my invoice adjusted and services I do not use removed, yet still not all credit due was recorded and accounting, nor a manager ever followed up.if this wasn't bad, it got worse! We use their payment processor, well big mistake as well... we just suddenly stopped receiving our payouts... no emails, no calls, just no payouts. I ve reached out to support, the live chat agent said we will get back to you "as soon as possible". I said, what does that mean??? We are not getting our money! You can't tell me when I will hear from someone??? I am sorry, but no. It has been TEN DAYS without payments now, no calls, no emails, still nothing... how many businesses can survive not getting thier payments for ten days and counting? And Noone to talk to???Their website is also a joke, it is a way to keep you hostage. Because they own it. I had to rebuild it completely myself after they built it for me. It is a terrible product, stay away, don't make a mistake I made. I can write an essay how terrible this product is. They do have some really great staff, that I feel sorry for... they are true professionals.

Pros

Google Hotels Integration was the primary reason for the move.

Cons

The worst part of Cloudbeds is the support. The people posing as support agents are mostly message takers. At best, they will Google an outdated support article and drop a link in the chat. You are on your own. You will need to troubleshoot all issues yourself.

The launch was disorganized. They turned the API on even though they had not finished our website, resulting in several duplicate bookings.

There was no team leader or project manager. Communication amongst Cloudbeds divisions was not good. Communication with us was worse. The site launched 3 days late. The developer had the contact info for another hotel on the site, there was no SSL certificate and the booking engine wasn't embedded. After days of trying to get support to fix the issues we jumped ship and had a site developed on Wix. It is a better solution.

As I write this, we have been "live" for two weeks. I can no longer run Google Ads because we are unable to configure a conversion. This seems to be related to the fact that the tag is in the booking engine (framed) and the website but I am unsure, and again, there is no assistance from Cloudbeds.

I am happy to be on Google Hotels which is something Lodgify was unable to do. This may help make up for the fact that we can no longer advertise on Google. The software is fairly intuitive and easy to use. Mapping the units in the API was easy.

There is some very basic pricing manipulation missing, even with the PIE add-on.

Alternatives Considered

Lodgify

Reasons for Choosing Cloudbeds

We moved to get listed on Google Hotels. Now that it is done I am glad I made the move. If I had to do it again knowing what I do, I would not switch. It was 2 weeks of heck.

Switched From

Lodgify

Reasons for Switching to Cloudbeds

Lodgify does not offer Google Hotels integration. I was not happy with Lodgify support. I had no idea how much worse it could get.

Pros

The software is Cloud based and therefore very easy to use anywhere at any time. Also the mobile version is extremely user friendly.
The reporting is easy to read and understand.
The interface of the booking calendar is extremely straight forward and easy to use.
Training with our staff and new coming staff go very fast.
It is possible to have an external daily backup of your data on your server.
There are several extra integration apps available to connect to the system like POS systems etc.
It is very easy to move around bookings in the calendar instantly.

Cons

Maybe a mobile app would be nice to have, however I understand they are currently working on that.

Maybe one small feedback which could be approved is in their booking engine when you select a room it would be nice if the selection could show up in "Accommodations" column at the right side so you can see a summary of what you are about to book and with the option to deleted rooms when necessary. Also once you click "book now" there is no way to make any adjustments to the booking anymore. A minor issue however maybe good to look into it...

Alternatives Considered

Frontdesk Anywhere

Reasons for Choosing Cloudbeds

The interface of Reservation Master Pro was getting outdated and upgrades where pretty expensive. A Cloud Based system has huge advantages over a network based one! Because even when our server goes down you still can access the system from anywhere. So far I don't think we had any interruptions in their system and when they were it was for a very short time. We first where a bit hesitating to make the step towards a cloud based system however, when we learned we could also create a daily automatic backup of our data we made the step right away.

Reasons for Switching to Cloudbeds

Price and user friendliness of their interface.

Pros

I like the easy calendar use. Setting up promotions, loading rates, online training information

Cons

I would like to see improved graphics for the direct booking site, to really show off Promotions or Special offers.

Pros

Cloudbeds works really well at organizing all of our reservations from different sources. It has a user friendly customer facing platform, and the platform we use is nice too. They are constantly making improvements and really listen to their customers' suggestions. I think the absolute best thing about Cloudbeds is their customer service. Really. I don't know that I've ever experienced such good customer service from a software company. Anytime I've had a problem or question, I've gotten help right away. They seem to really care about me and my business, even though we're small. They always follow up to make sure my issue is resolved and their agents have gone out of their way to help me on more than one occasion. Also, they've recently partnered with Google to put their customers' pricing and direct booking information at the top of hotel searches! I'm very happy about this as I think it will make a big impact on driving direct bookings for us. To me this shows that they are looking out for us as their customers.

Cons

There are a few clunky aspects to the software that could be improved. Setting up new base rates takes some time as you have to do it individually for each room type. Hopefully they'll find a way to improve that in the future. I've had a hard time setting up the system to automatically send a receipt to guests after they've checked out too. I'd also love it if our guests could choose add-ons when they book like adding a pet fee. It would be great if they could make this work with all of the different OTAs too, so that it's easier to collect a pet fee. Right now I have to manually go in and add this, which means the guest doesn't see their actual room price until they have checked in.

Alternatives Considered

ReservationKey and Little Hotelier

Reasons for Switching to Cloudbeds

I felt the overall platform was more professional and I was impressed by the customer service during our initial meetings. The price was competitive and their product seemed to be a good investment.

Pros

Really saves our time with its automised multiple booking channel management system especially its automatic rate management helps us to optimize our revenue by providing the optimal price for rooms over time. Offers a great number of booking channels, expecially integration with Expedia is really beneficial for us. Other great aspect of Cloudbeds is it is really easy to train the staff to start using it.

Cons

Acomos doe not have integration with the physical pos that we are using which costs us time in operations to manually input the credit card details. Additional languages and more multiple currency integration would be beneficial for the hotels which operate multi-national staff like us.

Alternatives Considered

Clock PMS

Reasons for Choosing Cloudbeds

Cloudbeds has a better pricing plan and number of OTA integrations, number of currencies and languages it supports is much more extensive then AxisRooms that's why we swithed to Cloudbeds from AxisRooms.

Reasons for Switching to Cloudbeds

Cloudbeds provides the greatest number of different OTAs integration, it supports much more number of multiple languages and multiple currencies. These factors are important for us and made CloudBeds a superior alternative in our desicion making process.

Pros

- East to learn
- Very intuitive
- Quick on boarding
- Great Channel Manager
- Excellent support

Cons

- Not available in German Language
- No Accounting integration
- Invoicing format is not customizable

Alternatives Considered

ibelsa.rooms and Clock PMS

Reasons for Choosing Cloudbeds

- No 24/7 Support - More Expensive - Old Software with no updates - We had 3 separate solutions PMS , Channel Manager and Booking EngineN, sometimes they didn’t communicate well and we had overbookings or errors in the system.

Reasons for Switching to Cloudbeds

The sales team did a great job - they took us by the hand and showed us exactly how to plan our strategy. We were impressed by their industry knowledge and it made our decision very easy. No pressure and excellent on boarding.

Pros

Seamless integration with third party channels. Would be nice to have less manual work in between each, but that is not something Cloudbeds could change easily, since it's also up to the 3rd party.

Online booking widget/site is very good. Customer friendly, haven't received nearly any calls for people unable to figure out how to book. Calendar is relatively simple to use and provides ~80%+ of the info I need on a daily basis.

Cons

NO integration with a credit card swiping device. Instead, any walk ins or changes to credit cards for existing reservations require you to manually input the credit card, which is both time consuming AND costs us thousands of dollars extra a year in fees (keyed in cards are 1% higher than swiped for us).

No mobile app, meaning you need to use their site which is not mobile friendly.

Poor item entry to a reservation. Adding items to the system is a breeze, but adding them to a reservation takes 7 clicks IF you're already on the reservation folio, otherwise it can take 10 from the calendar! Total waste of time, especially when we sell numerous small items from our on premise store.

Pros

Create a reservation and check out a guest

Cons

Reports and accounting. Balancing and occupancy reports

Pros

I was just changing the prices in 6 sites on my own. now its easier. nothing another channel manager wouldnt do.

Cons

constant bugs. the support instead of helping you out they just send you articles uppon articles

Alternatives Considered

iGMS

Reasons for Switching to Cloudbeds

price but this is also the reason i m going to drop it.

Pros

Helps with so many areas of the business it’s such a time saver once set-up and implemented.

Cons

If you are used to a one touch system like Square or other software, the learning curve is definitely a little longer with this system. So many steps to do the simplest of tasks instead of a one button click and ur done.

Alternatives Considered

Beds24 and Adventure Office

Reasons for Choosing Cloudbeds

To help streamline the whole process of taking reservations, managing channels, and provide a more professional experience for the customer .

Reasons for Switching to Cloudbeds

Cloudbeds Customer Support is top notch and very helpful with such a complex system .

Pros

Easy to useClear interface for calendar and booking systemComplete and detailed reservation processClear process for booking engine set upQuick response of the on-boarding and support team

Cons

Groupe module with some unclear features and restrictions

Pros

I manage a 25 room boutique hotel, and Cloudbeds offers everything that we need in a nice, neat little package. It's so easy to use, you can train yourself how to utilize all the features in less than a day. On each and every screen, there are instructional videos on how to operate the features of the current window you are viewing. They also offer "Cloudbed University" if you want to sit down and hammer through some more chronological training. I've never had an employee need more than a few hours to get the system down pat. The software is based around the guests more than it is based around the property, and they provide multiple tools to make the check-in process easier for both the guests as well as the staff. However, the support would have to be the most impressive thing about the company. While it is extremely rare to have an issue with the software, we actually experienced an enormous lag/outage in the middle of a Saturday afternoon. However, clicked on "Get Help" and in minutes I was chatting to a live representative about the issue I was experiencing. The followed up on it and emailed me directly once it was resolved. I couldn't say that about several larger companies I have worked with in the past. I would highly recommend Cloudbeds to anyone who needs simple, cloud-based, intuitive software to help manage their property.

Cons

I wish there was a way to store guest vehicle/license plate information. You can "Suggest a feature", which I have done, but it's the equivalent of an online suggestion box. You never know if anyone actually reads them, or even considers implementing them.

Pros

They have a turnkey solution, although many other PMS providers have it as well.

Cons

By far the biggest issues relate to very poor service. When you eventually reach a support person they are very nice but its so hard to reach anyone when you actually need help. Let me put it this way, we've used Cloudbeds for over two years and have spent the last three days trying to get help from Cloudbeds in merely identifying which report to use, and which line item to use to determine total gross revenue. A seemingly rudimentary question which takes hours of being on hold, finally reaching a junior rep who points us to room revenue (which is not total revenue), another points us to total payments, another points us to total debits, all of which have worked for the company for under 5 months. So when asked to respectfully transfer us to someone senior or experienced with cloudbeds we spend 25 minutes on hold only to be told that nobody is available. Its just so frustrating when trying to run 4 businesses and we can't even get a straight answer on our "total revenue" for a basic PL report we are trying to produce but have now spent 3 days trying to finish.

Pros

The software works wonders when it works. It's when there's a connectivity issue or bug in the system this firm fails. Online support does exist and they do offer quick feedback (not necessarily helpful, but it is fast feedback).

Cons

No phone number to call. No personal assistance. Lots of volumnes of help pages, but when your connectivity with an OTA goes faulty- guaranteed to get an email from customer service quickly saying you'll need to contact the OTA provider (who'll tell you to contact your channel manager). These guys sell them selves as the "professionals", but don't want to take care of the real immediate issues (any connection issue is an immediate issue when needing to sell rooms online).

Pros

Easy to use PMS, nice design. Automated payment processing work great.

Cons

Customer support. What you need to know is that after agreed on a price, they keep trying sell you upgrade on module, propose your trials for module you don't need without telling you the price, then make it very complicted to get a refund.
This high pushing sales method are normally for B2C, but they apply them for B2B that make using the software really unconfortable. Also they block all integration that could potentially compete with they own module, meaning you cannot chose for example your own yield management software, as no integrations with third party software is possible. It means this software is not apropriate when you own several hotel as your need to make all pricing manually. They own pricing software PIE is really not efficient, and not automated.
Invoice system is not compliant with EU regulation

Pros

This software is unbelievably user friendly and has made our property function at a high level. We have every tool necessary under one hood and my team feels comfortable navigating and enhancing the system as new features are announced. Cloudbeds understands how annoying the ecosystem of technology can be for an operator such as us (three independent properties) and has been a true partner helping our growth.

Cons

Cloudbeds is formally adding new integration partners to handle very "local" needs we have in Latin America related to government invoicing.

Alternatives Considered

Little Hotelier, SiteMinder and Mews

Pros

Easy to use and user friendly.Any non trained person can use it.It is so much like the easy calendar where we can view and manage the rooms for the guest simply by dragging it out.And mostly pricing the rooms are very much easier.Overall this software is made for professional or unprofessional personality as well.Try it and you will find it the best for use with ease.The team member are very supportive in the sense of billing support,technical help and they are real human behind this software.

Cons

Like least in this thing means there are no any software better than this software for hotel management.

Pros

Everything is available in 1 place, we have our entire bookings and reservation overview and easily keep track of agents

Cons

I wish there was the option to make invoices for outside guests/house account guests

Pros

real time synchronization
connect all OTA's
Credit card view function
email templates
reporting possibilities

Cons

There is nothing i don't like about the software.

Pros

Mostly it's good: (1) Appearance and use of the Calendar. (2) Set up to Channel connections. (2) Payment processing - the info is easy to access and it's all gone like clock work. (3) Email templates and schedules. (4) Notes on reservations. Easy to track email records. (5) Their support has been amazing.

Cons

(1) Have to manually apply balance owing payment. Wish this happened automatically. (2) the filters for searches is a bit cumbersome. You have to "submit" and then "apply" and even the look of the calendar drop downs took some getting used to.

Pros

Stripe integration. Custom email templates.

Cons

Doesn't send rate package information to OTAs. Lack of a mobile app - the website is NOT mobile friendly. Difficult to get long-term visual overview on a calendar. Reports lack functionality/customisation. Booking engine has a poor layout for the customer. Price overrides are not straightforward.

Pros

Had a lot of different features and functions that were very useful and some simple to use

Cons

The customer service is far too complicated and takes too long. There is no phone number so you can never just call a person and quickly get help over the phone. You need to log your problem by email then you have to wait for a confirmation then you have to wait for a response and all communication is done by email and sometimes the answer is not what you are actually looking for. This can take days which is just not use a friendly, and appropriate when you are running a busy business that needs problems sorted right away. Can cause a lot of stress!