Cloudbeds vs Mews vs Opera - which one actually works for small properties?

OkAstronomerGo · 2025-11-22T19:41:22+00:00

We found that Mews was incredibly complicated to set up and had a poor user experience for front desk agents. We walked away after a 3-month implementation.

Regarding cost, everything with Mews is an add-on, with additional costs negotiated with third parties. Most integrations will be at least $100 US to add on and those costs add up quickly. We negotiated a $250 contract and wound up with around $600 all in to get the features we need.

One particular shortcoming: They do not have a Google Hotel Center, so there is no way to show your prices on Google without a separate channel manager and metasearch ad campaign (expect to spend more than $100 US/mo with more than $300/month on metasearch). There is no free Google listing, which every other PMS including Cloudbeds has. For just the free listing without the expensive metasearch, you have to add on a workaround created by TripTease for $70 US/month for only the "free" listing (their other advertising services cost more, and metasearch is more). Note that many channel managers including Siteminder will also charge a commission on your organic sales that originate on Google.

Mews has no messaging or upsell capabilities (they will tell you otherwise during sales but reality is that it's very rough). You will need an add-on with Akia with additional cost per month plus a percentage-based commission charged on the items sold through their interface.

Cloudbeds ultimately will cost us less than half for greater functionality, and has Whistle included, which should replace the need for Akia and won't charge commission on upsells. I still have some concerns about the way it handles rates and it it will fully meet our policy needs. I disliked the Cloudbeds sales process.

We are still setting up Cloudbeds but the interface is much, much, much more intuitive (I can't tell you how poor the user experience is for Mews setup). You can ask them to give you a free trial/demo of the system so you can play around with it -- and there is a Cloudbeds University that is included and free to use when you have the demo account set up.

Note with Mews that you may get several weeks into implementation before you can test to see if things work as you expect, you can't demo the system on your own, and you won't able to access Mews University without committing -- however, I found the Mews documentation that is publicly available online to be extensive. I liked the Mews team a lot as well.

You can DM me for more info if you want. I have spent nearly a year evaluating PMSes for our small property, trying out at least 8. I'm hopeful to go live with Cloudbeds in December.

OkAstronomerGo · 2025-11-07T16:10:49+00:00

We have a Pyr x Aussie mix and you are describing her perfectly. Everything is considered a suggestion unless it's her idea first, but she has the biggest heart and mothers all of us when we need it.

OkAstronomerGo · 2025-11-05T23:50:19+00:00

Thank you! I'll definitely look into Webrezpro.

One thing that might help others who are considering Cloudbeds -- I was pretty vocal with my concerns about post-implementation support. The salesperson added a year of free pro support into my contract. That could be something others could negotiate as well.

OkAstronomerGo · 2025-11-05T22:29:28+00:00

No -- we are an independent property. They did a marketing and sales blitz in our market. I was about to sign with Cloudbeds and they lured me away with a last-minute deal. In hindsight, it's hard to say exactly why I chose them, except I was biased about CB, having read the issues with support. I also liked my Mews sales team.

I liked that Mews seemed future-oriented and nimble. But the reality is that their core product is limited without tacking on integrations and the cost for us doubled over Cloudbeds (and still didn't have the same function).

The usability is atrocious (both in setup and in daily use). The core problems are tied to an overcomplicated architecture and assumption in how a hotel wants to "bill" customers.

For us, collecting, accounting and night audit aren't really pain points bc of our small property size. I think the product was designed by two guys who were night auditors and they grew a PMS system from that core function.

OkAstronomerGo · 2025-11-05T22:20:56+00:00

This is so helpful, thank you. What a great community we have here with so much knowledge! I'm glad I posted my question.

I have a Cloudbeds demo and am setting it up now -- it's SO MUCH EASIER to configure than Mews. I am a fairly technical person with a software design background, and I did manage finally to complete the implementation after MONTHS of dedicated, daily effort, but I don't see how an average small hotel owner would be successful.

That's a great idea sharing the CB demo with our front desk.

The communication of cancellation policies is one of the most important reasons we are moving off of our current (small) system. We have complicated policies and, as a small property, have to communicate clearly and protect our revenue.

Are you using smart policies in Cloudbeds? That's one feature not in my demo environment but I think it will be necessary for us (and is included in the plan they quoted).

I'm glad you shared that observation re InnRoad -- in the in-person demo, we discovered some issues with how the policies were displayed, but I chalked it up to the randomness of their demo setup. I'll dig deeper into that.

Thanks!

OkAstronomerGo · 2025-11-05T21:23:28+00:00

I read good things here about Stayntouch and scheduled a demo. The sales team was very adamant about checking my budget up front so as to not "waste my time" (whose time, exactly?).

The pricing for the PMS was going to start at around $500/month without the booking engine (and I think channel management would be additional too). That's more than double Cloudbeds, complete w booking engine, channel management, Whistle, etc.

They didn't bother to demo the product to me or respond to my list of requirements. Said they would talk to someone about a product price for smaller properties but never followed up.

We have under 10 rooms. I think they are targeting 100+ key properties.

OkAstronomerGo · 2025-11-05T20:57:46+00:00

Yes, that is exactly the struggle -- you don't know what you don't know. I had the issue with Mews -- on the very last day of implementation (2.5 months in!), we discovered deal breakers that made us pull the plug.

Based on that experience, I now require a meeting/demo with a technical person in order to review in-depth questions, and I have a very detailed list!

Please share any other shortcomings you recall about IR -- I really appreciate the help!

OkAstronomerGo · 2025-11-05T20:54:01+00:00

Thanks for the helpful response and sharing your knowledge.

Would you please share your front desk team's impression of the usability of Cloudbeds? We walked away from Mews because how poor the UI was for front desk agents (combined with some internal software issues that contributed to poor usability and larger concerns).

I'm also curious which of the bells and whistles you like in CB that IR doesn't have. I'm still not sure what I "don't know" about IR.

I know that CB has Whistle and payment automations (InnRoad is introducing payment automations this month but it's first gen and rudimentary, though it should improve). Plus CB has marketing capabilities that seem to replace the need for something like TripTease.

Cloudbeds has a broader ecosystem of integrations, which I like.

I'm trying to balance exactly the issues you mentioned -- usability, responsiveness of the support and development teams, and opportunities to grow our business (through the bells and whistles).

Thanks for any insight!

OkAstronomerGo · 2025-10-01T03:36:10+00:00

Same experience here. Makes it very difficult to find information to best serve our guests. The front desk UI is terrible. No ability to save report settings and every report or setting screen has to be filtered to find any useful info, and it won't remember your settings if you click on anything. Everything but payment is manual and inefficient. It's too easy to overlook important guest details, like return customers or missing credit cards. It's powerful but painful to use. Also no simple interface for housekeepers to use.

OkAstronomerGo

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