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Travel · head to head

DPGO vs Protel

DPGO logo

DPGO

Travel

Dynamic pricing for short-term rentals with three billing models including pay per booked night

From
$18/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Protel logo

Protel

Travel

German hotel property management system, now owned and sold by Planet

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: DPGO the 0.5% and per booked night plans are invoiced every two weeks, which produces twenty six variable invoices a year and is awkward for anyone doing simple monthly bookkeeping.; Protel the vendor is now a payments company, so the economics of a deal run through card processing rates as much as software fees, and a hotel with good existing acquiring terms may lose more on processing than it saves on licence.
  • They diverge on capability: DPGO covers AI rate generation, Protel covers Front desk and reservations.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which DPGO and Protel actually diverge.

Attributes where DPGO and Protel differ
AttributeDPGOProtel
Starting price$18/monthOn request
Pricing modelPer listing per month, per booked night or percentage of booked pricequote
PlatformsWebWeb, Windows, 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 DPGO

  • AI rate generation
  • Price floors and ceilings
  • Orphan night handling
  • Channel push
  • Market dashboard
  • Three billing models

Only in Protel

  • Front desk and reservations
  • Conference and banqueting
  • Cloud and on-premise editions
  • Integrated payments
  • Interface catalogue
  • Multi-property operation
  • Night audit and reporting
  • Tax-free shopping links

What people use each for

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

DPGO

  • A host with a strongly seasonal cabin who wants pricing automation that costs almost nothing in the off seasonnot Protel
  • An Airbnb-first operator with eight listings wanting daily rate adjustment without paying a per listing fee for underperforming unitsnot Protel
  • A manager testing automated pricing against manual rates during a 30 day trial before committingnot Protel
  • An owner in a competitive city market who needs last-minute discounting rules rather than a static weekend upliftnot Protel

Protel

  • A German or Austrian hotel needing fiscal and tax compliance handled natively rather than bolted onnot DPGO
  • A property with substantial conference and banqueting business that a rooms-only PMS cannot handlenot DPGO
  • An existing Protel on-premise site deciding whether to move to the cloud edition or change vendornot DPGO
  • A group wanting PMS and card acquiring from one supplier under a single contractnot DPGO

Where each one falls short

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

DPGO

  • The 0.5% and per booked night plans are invoiced every two weeks, which produces twenty six variable invoices a year and is awkward for anyone doing simple monthly bookkeeping.
  • Market analytics are thin compared with larger competitors, so you get a recommended rate without much tooling to interrogate why or to define your own comparable set.
  • The integration list is shorter than PriceLabs or Wheelhouse, so operators on less common property management systems may have to push rates manually or not at all.
  • Recommendation quality drops sharply in low-density markets where there are too few comparable listings for the model to learn from, and there is little warning when this is the case.
  • It is a pricing engine only, with no length of stay optimisation across a portfolio or channel-level yield strategy, so professional managers usually run it alongside other tools rather than instead of them.

Protel

  • The vendor is now a payments company, so the economics of a deal run through card processing rates as much as software fees, and a hotel with good existing acquiring terms may lose more on processing than it saves on licence.
  • The Protel name persists on the product but the corporate identity has moved to Planet, which makes contract, support and roadmap ownership harder to pin down than it looks from the product page.
  • Hotels on the older on-premise edition face a migration to cloud that is a re-implementation rather than an upgrade, with the data and interface work that implies.
  • Nothing about pricing is published, so a buyer cannot benchmark against Mews or Cloudbeds without a full sales process.
  • Strength is concentrated in German-speaking Europe and the Middle East; support depth and partner ecosystem are noticeably thinner in North America and Asia Pacific.

Pricing, plan by plan

DPGO

$18/month
  • Pay as You Go$undefined/month
    • 0.5% of booked price
    • 30 day free trial, no card required
    • Invoiced every two weeks
  • Flat Fee$18/month
    • $18 per listing per month
    • 30 day free trial
    • All pricing and market features included
  • Fixed$undefined/month
    • $1 per booked night
    • Costs nothing on unbooked nights
    • 30 day free trial

Protel

On request
  • protel PMS by Planet$undefined/year
    • Quoted per property, no published rate card
    • Cloud and on-premise editions priced differently
    • Payment processing rates negotiated alongside the software

Which should you pick?

Choose DPGO if

  • You need ai rate generation.
  • You also want price floors and ceilings.
DPGO review

Choose Protel if

  • You need front desk and reservations.
  • You work on Web, Windows, iOS, Android.
  • You also want conference and banqueting.
Protel review

Questions people ask

Is DPGO or Protel better?
Neither clearly leads. DPGO starts at $18/month and Protel at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, DPGO or Protel?
DPGO starts at $18/month and Protel at On request.
Does DPGO or Protel run on more platforms?
DPGO runs on Web. Protel runs on Web, Windows, iOS, Android.
What is DPGO best used for?
DPGO is most often used for a host with a strongly seasonal cabin who wants pricing automation that costs almost nothing in the off season, an airbnb-first operator with eight listings wanting daily rate adjustment without paying a per listing fee for underperforming units, a manager testing automated pricing against manual rates during a 30 day trial before committing, an owner in a competitive city market who needs last-minute discounting rules rather than a static weekend uplift. Of those, a host with a strongly seasonal cabin who wants pricing automation that costs almost nothing in the off season and an airbnb-first operator with eight listings wanting daily rate adjustment without paying a per listing fee for underperforming units are not what Protel is typically brought in for.
What can DPGO do that Protel cannot?
DPGO covers AI rate generation, Price floors and ceilings, Orphan night handling, Channel push. Protel covers Front desk and reservations, Conference and banqueting, Cloud and on-premise editions, Integrated payments.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

DPGO: Which billing model is cheapest?

It depends on occupancy. At $1 per booked night you pay $18 only if a listing is booked eighteen nights a month, so low-occupancy listings should use Fixed or Pay as You Go and high-occupancy ones the flat fee.

Protel: Can you still buy Protel?

Yes. Planet acquired it in December 2021 and continues to sell it as protel PMS, though the corporate branding is Planet.

DPGO: Does it push rates to Airbnb?

Yes, directly, and to Vrbo and through supported property management systems.

Protel: Why does the payments ownership matter?

Because the vendor earns on your card volume. Evaluate the processing rate alongside the software price rather than treating them as separate decisions.

DPGO: Is there a trial?

30 days, with no card required.

Protel: Is the on-premise edition still supported?

It remains in the field with a large installed base, but new investment is directed at the cloud edition, so ask for an explicit support horizon in writing.

DPGO: Does it handle minimum stay rules?

It sets nightly rates and orphan gap pricing. Length of stay strategy is limited compared with a full revenue management system.

Protel: Where is Protel strongest?

German-speaking Europe and the Middle East, where its interface catalogue and fiscal compliance are deepest.

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