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Travel · head to head

Apaleo vs Smoobu

Apaleo logo

Apaleo

Travel

API-first hotel property management platform sold per room with a monthly floor

From
€8/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Smoobu logo

Smoobu

Travel

All-in-one channel manager and PMS for hosts with a handful of holiday rentals

From
€29/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Apaleo the €400 monthly floor means a property under fifty rooms pays well above the headline €8 per room, so a twenty five room hotel pays €16 per room and the advertised rate is misleading at the small end.; Smoobu the Flex plan carries a 0.9% fee on every booking, which on an apartment turning over €40,000 a year costs more than the entire annual subscription saving, and the pricing page presents Flex as the cheaper option.
  • They diverge on capability: Apaleo covers Open REST API, Smoobu covers Channel manager.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Apaleo and Smoobu actually diverge.

Attributes where Apaleo and Smoobu differ
AttributeApaleoSmoobu
Starting price€8/month€29/month
Pricing modelPer room per monthPer unit per month
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb, iOS, Android

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Travel).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Apaleo

  • Open REST API
  • Apaleo Store
  • Multi-property inventory
  • Apaleo Pay
  • Unit group model
  • Night audit and accounting export

Only in Smoobu

  • Channel manager
  • Website builder
  • Guest messaging
  • Unified calendar
  • Invoicing and e-invoicing
  • Mobile apps

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Apaleo

  • A serviced apartment group building its own branded check-in and access flow that needs full PMS control through an API rather than a vendor-built kiosknot Smoobu
  • A European hotel group standardising twenty properties on one system with central rate management and DATEV-ready accounting exportsnot Smoobu
  • A new-build lifestyle hotel operating with no permanent front desk, where door locks, kiosks and messaging come from specialists and the PMS is the record of truthnot Smoobu
  • A revenue team that wants to plug Duetto or IDeaS into live inventory without paying a per-connection interface feenot Smoobu

Smoobu

  • A host with three apartments in Berlin who needs Airbnb and Booking.com calendars kept in sync and wants a direct booking site to cut OTA commissionnot Apaleo
  • An owner wanting automated check-in instructions and pre-arrival messages sent per channel without logging into each extranetnot Apaleo
  • A small manager who needs guest invoices that meet German documentation requirements without adding a separate accounting toolnot Apaleo
  • A host testing dynamic pricing through the bundled trial before deciding whether to subscribe to PriceLabs separatelynot Apaleo

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Apaleo

  • The €400 monthly floor means a property under fifty rooms pays well above the headline €8 per room, so a twenty five room hotel pays €16 per room and the advertised rate is misleading at the small end.
  • Apaleo ships no point of sale, no spa or golf module and no conference and banqueting system, so full service hotels must buy and integrate three or four more products before the stack is complete.
  • Because the model assumes you assemble the guest-facing layer from the Store, the real monthly cost is the platform fee plus several third-party subscriptions, and that total is nowhere on the pricing page.
  • Support and documentation lean towards developers, so an operator without technical capacity or an implementation partner will find configuration and troubleshooting harder than with a conventional PMS.
  • The product and integration ecosystem is strongest in German-speaking Europe, and North American buyers will find fewer local integrations for payments, tax rules and accounting than a US-focused PMS offers.

Smoobu

  • The Flex plan carries a 0.9% fee on every booking, which on an apartment turning over €40,000 a year costs more than the entire annual subscription saving, and the pricing page presents Flex as the cheaper option.
  • Pricing is per unit, so a ten unit portfolio pays roughly €31.50 plus nine additional units at about €9.60, and the headline monthly figure covers a single apartment only.
  • Write access is charged per account beyond the included seats, so a cleaner, a co-host and an owner all needing to edit bookings turn into a recurring per seat cost.
  • There is no trust accounting or owner statement generation, so anyone managing units on behalf of third-party owners has to build payout reporting outside the system.
  • Housekeeping and maintenance dispatch is minimal compared with manager-grade platforms, so cleaning coordination happens in WhatsApp or a separate tool once you are past a few units.

Pricing, plan by plan

Apaleo

€8/month
  • Apaleo Platform$8/month
    • €8 per room per month
    • Minimum €400 per month regardless of room count
    • All APIs included at no extra cost

Smoobu

€29/month
  • Professional Flex$29/month
    • One unit included
    • 0.9% fee on every booking
    • Channel manager, website builder, messaging
  • Professional Prepaid$31.5/month
    • One unit included
    • No booking fee
    • Website builder, invoicing, chatbot, API access
  • Teams Pro+$49.5/month
    • Everything in Prepaid
    • E-invoicing
    • Two write-access accounts, extra accounts from about €12 each

Which should you pick?

Choose Apaleo if

  • You need open rest api.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want apaleo store.
Apaleo review

Choose Smoobu if

  • You need channel manager.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want website builder.
Smoobu review

Questions people ask

Is Apaleo or Smoobu better?
Neither clearly leads. Apaleo starts at €8/month and Smoobu at €29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Apaleo or Smoobu?
Apaleo starts at €8/month and Smoobu at €29/month.
Does Apaleo or Smoobu run on more platforms?
Apaleo runs on Web, API. Smoobu runs on Web, iOS, Android.
What is Apaleo best used for?
Apaleo is most often used for a serviced apartment group building its own branded check-in and access flow that needs full pms control through an api rather than a vendor-built kiosk, a european hotel group standardising twenty properties on one system with central rate management and datev-ready accounting exports, a new-build lifestyle hotel operating with no permanent front desk, where door locks, kiosks and messaging come from specialists and the pms is the record of truth, a revenue team that wants to plug duetto or ideas into live inventory without paying a per-connection interface fee. Of those, a serviced apartment group building its own branded check-in and access flow that needs full pms control through an api rather than a vendor-built kiosk and a european hotel group standardising twenty properties on one system with central rate management and datev-ready accounting exports are not what Smoobu is typically brought in for.
What can Apaleo do that Smoobu cannot?
Apaleo covers Open REST API, Apaleo Store, Multi-property inventory, Apaleo Pay. Smoobu covers Channel manager, Website builder, Guest messaging, Unified calendar.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Apaleo: What does Apaleo actually cost for a sixty room hotel?

€480 per month for the platform at €8 per room, plus payment processing from 0.6% and whatever Store integrations you add. Below fifty rooms you pay the €400 floor.

Smoobu: Which plan is actually cheaper, Flex or Prepaid?

Prepaid, for almost anyone with real occupancy. The 0.9% booking fee on Flex exceeds the subscription difference once annual revenue passes a few thousand euros.

Apaleo: Is API access charged separately?

No. All APIs are included in the per room fee, which is unusual in the PMS market where interface fees per connection are common.

Smoobu: How many properties does the entry price cover?

One. Every additional unit adds roughly €9.60 per month.

Apaleo: Does it include a channel manager?

No. You connect one from the Store, such as SiteMinder, and pay that vendor separately.

Smoobu: Does it include dynamic pricing?

Only two months free on the Teams tier. Ongoing dynamic pricing means subscribing to PriceLabs or similar.

Apaleo: Can it run a full service hotel?

Only with additional systems. There is no native POS, spa or events module.

Smoobu: Is there a contract?

Billing is monthly, yearly or two-yearly, with 30 days notice required to cancel; longer terms buy 10% or 20% off.

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