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7 min read

Check-Inn PMS pricing and what InnSoft costs a motel or small hotel per year

Check-Inn PMS pricing starts at $899 as a one-time license for up to 25 rooms, according to the price calculator on Innsoft's own site. That is only the entry ticket. Selling rooms on Booking.com and Expedia adds a $660 yearly service contract, a channel manager from $100 a month and a booking engine from $50 a month, so a 12-room motel that sells online pays about $3,000 in year one and $2,460 a year after that.

Front desk of a small inn in the evening with the room calendar open on a laptop

How much does Check-Inn PMS cost?

Check-Inn costs $899 to $1,399 one time, depending on room count, for the Windows desktop license. The service contract for support and updates is $660 a year, with the first six months included in the purchase. The Connect-Inn channel manager is $100 to $200 a month and the booking engine is $50 to $100 a month, both priced by rooms.

Innsoft labels these as starting prices, and the final quote comes from its sales team. If you only take walk-ins and phone bookings, the license plus an optional contract is one of the cheapest PMS setups in the US. The bill changes once you sell online, which is where most motels and small hotels now get their bookings. To set a cloud PMS with channels included next to your Check-Inn quote, open our live demo and compare the yearly totals.

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Check-Inn license price by room count

The license is a one-time payment that rises in steps with the size of your property. These are the tiers in the calculator on Innsoft's pricing page.

Rooms Check-Inn license, one time
1 to 25 $899
26 to 50 $999
51 to 100 $1,099
101 to 150 $1,199
151 to 250 $1,299
251 and more $1,399

The license covers the PMS itself: reservations, front desk, folios, housekeeping status and reports on the computers at your property. More workstations run through a separate network module, so ask what each extra PC adds to the quote.

The recurring fees that decide the real Check-Inn cost

Service contract at $660 a year

The Check-Inn service contract buys technical support during business hours and software updates. Innsoft states that a current contract is required for any online travel reservation interface, including the Connect-Inn channel manager, the Booking Button and Expedia, Booking.com or GDS connections. It is also required before you can buy most hardware or change your setup. In practice, a property that sells online pays it every year.

Channel manager from $100 a month

Connect-Inn sends your availability to the OTAs and brings their reservations into Check-Inn. Innsoft's calculator lists it at $100 a month for up to 20 rooms, $150 for 21 to 70 rooms and $200 for 71 to 200 rooms, with larger properties quoted on request.

Booking engine from $50 a month

The booking engine on your own website is listed at $50 a month for up to 20 rooms, $60 for 21 to 50, $70 for 51 to 70, $80 for 71 to 150 and $100 for 151 to 200 rooms.

Other line items on the price list

Add-on Price
Website design and hosting (needs the booking engine) $80 a month
Zeamster payment gateway setup for online bookings $200 one time
Emergency after-hours support call $75 a call
Advanced ID scanner $550
Signature pad $650 small, $850 large
Property name change $50

Card processing is billed by your processor on top, as it is with every PMS that takes cards.

Yearly Check-Inn cost for four property sizes

These totals use Innsoft's listed starting prices for a property that sells on the OTAs and its own website, with the channel manager and booking engine running all year. Year one includes the license and six months of the service contract; year two and later include the full contract. Innkeeper's public prices sit in the last two columns, with the channel manager and booking engine already inside the plan.

Property Check-Inn, year one Check-Inn, each later year Innkeeper paid monthly Innkeeper paid yearly
8-room motel about $3,029 about $2,460 $588 on Inn $288 on Inn
20-room motel about $3,029 about $2,460 $1,788 on Hotel $888 on Hotel
40-room hotel about $3,849 about $3,180 $5,988 on Boutique $2,988 on Boutique
60-room hotel about $4,069 about $3,300 $5,988 on Boutique $2,988 on Boutique

The honest read: Check-Inn gets cheaper per room as a property grows, because the license and contract do not scale much. At 40 rooms and up it beats our monthly Boutique price, and it stays close to our yearly price. At 8 to 30 rooms the monthly add-ons for channels and the booking engine are what tip the balance, and a 20-room property selling online pays about $1,570 a year more on Check-Inn than on our Hotel plan paid yearly.

Over five years, that 20-room motel spends about $12,870 on Check-Inn ($3,029 in year one plus four years at $2,460) against $4,440 on Innkeeper's Hotel plan paid yearly.

What about Absolute, the Innsoft cloud PMS?

Yanolja Cloud bought Innsoft in 2023 for $8.3 million, and innsoft.com now points to Yanolja Cloud Solution. The same pricing page lists a cloud PMS called Absolute at $40 a month for up to 5 rooms, $60 for 6 to 10, $80 for 11 to 20, $90 for 21 to 30, $110 for 31 to 50, $120 for 51 to 70, $160 for 71 to 100, $180 for 101 to 150 and $200 for 151 to 200 rooms. The channel manager and booking engine appear as separate cards in the same calculator, so ask whether they are included or billed on top before you compare it with any other system.

If you are on Check-Inn today and the vendor offers to move you to Absolute, treat it as a new system: a new interface, a new data import and a new contract. That is the moment to compare it with other cloud PMS options on equal terms.

Costs that do not show up on the calculator

The PC at the desk

Check-Inn runs on Windows computers at your property. Budget for replacing the front desk PC every few years, a Windows license, antivirus and a battery backup, plus the network module if you want a second station in the back office.

Backups

Innsoft's support article on Check-Inn backups recommends a manual daily backup to a USB drive on top of the twice-daily automatic backup, and warns that a badly configured cloud backup can damage Check-Inn files. Someone on your staff has to own that routine.

Card payments and the books

Card fees and the gateway are separate from the PMS on every system. The deposits still have to reach your accounting, and if your bookkeeper works in QuickBooks, you can turn the bank statement into a QuickBooks file instead of typing each deposit by hand.

Remote access

Checking tonight's arrivals from home means remote desktop software or a VPN to the front desk PC. A cloud PMS opens in a browser wherever you are.

Questions to ask Innsoft before you sign or renew

  • What is the license price at my exact room count, and what does each extra workstation cost?
  • Is the $660 service contract price fixed for next year, and what happens to my OTA connections if it lapses?
  • Which OTAs does Connect-Inn connect to at my channel manager tier?
  • Is the booking engine price per property or per room tier, and is there a setup fee?
  • How long will Check-Inn receive updates now that Absolute is the cloud product?
  • How do I export reservations and guest history if I leave?

Our guide on how to choose a PMS for a small hotel lists twelve vendor questions and what a good answer sounds like.

When a cloud plan with channels included beats a one-time license

Check-Inn is a sound choice for a motel that sells mostly walk-ins and phone bookings, needs card lock or ID scanner interfaces, or runs more than 80 rooms. Its US-based support team gets strong reviews on Capterra.

For an owner-run motel, inn or small hotel with 4 to 80 rooms that sells on Booking.com, Expedia and its own website, one plan price is simpler to budget. Innkeeper lists every plan on its hotel PMS pricing page: Inn at $49 a month for up to 10 rooms, Hotel at $149 for up to 30 rooms and Boutique at $499 for up to 80 rooms, with the channel manager software, the commission-free booking engine, invoices and the housekeeping board included and no setup fee, no service contract and no lock-in. Our InnSoft Check-Inn alternative page compares the two side by side and shows how to move your reservations in four steps. If other vendors are on your list, read our RoomMaster pricing, SkyTouch pricing and WebRezPro pricing breakdowns next.

Check-Inn PMS pricing in short

  • License from $899 (1 to 25 rooms) to $1,399 (251+ rooms), one time
  • Service contract $660 a year, required for any OTA or channel connection
  • Channel manager from $100 a month, booking engine from $50 a month
  • A 12 to 20 room property selling online pays about $3,029 in year one and $2,460 a year after
  • Absolute, the cloud PMS from the same vendor, is listed from $40 a month
  • Innkeeper costs $49, $149 or $499 a month by room count with channels and booking engine included

See the full price and the product before any sales call

Open the live demo, run a week of walk-ins and OTA bookings on one calendar, and set the yearly total next to your Check-Inn quote.

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Hotel PMS blog with practical guides for small properties

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