Travel · head to head
Little Hotelier vs Protel
Little Hotelier
Travel
SiteMinder owned front desk and distribution system for properties under twenty rooms
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
Protel
Travel
German hotel property management system, now owned and sold by Planet
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Little Hotelier the product is capped by design at small properties, so a hotel growing past roughly twenty rooms faces a migration rather than an upgrade, usually into SiteMinder plus a separate PMS.; 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: Little Hotelier covers Simplified front desk, 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 Little Hotelier and Protel actually diverge.
| Attribute | Little Hotelier | Protel |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android | Web, Windows, iOS, Android |
Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), 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 Little Hotelier
- Simplified front desk
- Channel management
- Direct booking engine
- Payments
- Mobile app
- Guest communication
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.
Little Hotelier
- A ten room guesthouse where the owner works reception and wants OTA sync without a separate channel manager contractnot Protel
- A hostel needing reliable Booking.com and Hostelworld connectivity more than deep property management featuresnot Protel
- A rural B and B replacing a spreadsheet and manual OTA extranet updatesnot Protel
- A small property already comfortable with SiteMinder support and wanting one bill for distribution and front desknot Protel
Protel
- A German or Austrian hotel needing fiscal and tax compliance handled natively rather than bolted onnot Little Hotelier
- A property with substantial conference and banqueting business that a rooms-only PMS cannot handlenot Little Hotelier
- An existing Protel on-premise site deciding whether to move to the cloud edition or change vendornot Little Hotelier
- A group wanting PMS and card acquiring from one supplier under a single contractnot Little Hotelier
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Little Hotelier
- The product is capped by design at small properties, so a hotel growing past roughly twenty rooms faces a migration rather than an upgrade, usually into SiteMinder plus a separate PMS.
- Reporting is limited to basic occupancy and revenue summaries, which leaves owners exporting to a spreadsheet for anything an accountant or lender asks for.
- Rate and package logic is simple, so properties with seasonal packages, meal plans or complex tax handling end up adjusting rates manually.
- The non-distribution integration list is short, so accounting, door lock, POS or CRM tools outside the small supported set have to be handled by rekeying data.
- Pricing is banded by room count and paid monthly per property, so an operator with three small properties pays three subscriptions with no consolidated view worth the name.
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
Little Hotelier
On request- Little Hotelier$undefined/month
- Monthly subscription banded by number of rooms
- Booking engine and channel manager included
- Card processing charged per transaction
Protel
On request- protel PMS by Planet$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 Little Hotelier if
- You need simplified front desk.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want channel management.
Choose Protel if
- You need front desk and reservations.
- You work on Web, Windows, iOS, Android.
- You also want conference and banqueting.
Questions people ask
- Is Little Hotelier or Protel better?
- Neither clearly leads. Little Hotelier starts at On request and Protel at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Little Hotelier or Protel?
- Little Hotelier starts at On request and Protel at On request.
- Does Little Hotelier or Protel run on more platforms?
- Little Hotelier runs on Web, iOS, Android. Protel runs on Web, Windows, iOS, Android.
- What is Little Hotelier best used for?
- Little Hotelier is most often used for a ten room guesthouse where the owner works reception and wants ota sync without a separate channel manager contract, a hostel needing reliable booking.com and hostelworld connectivity more than deep property management features, a rural b and b replacing a spreadsheet and manual ota extranet updates, a small property already comfortable with siteminder support and wanting one bill for distribution and front desk. Of those, a ten room guesthouse where the owner works reception and wants ota sync without a separate channel manager contract and a hostel needing reliable booking.com and hostelworld connectivity more than deep property management features are not what Protel is typically brought in for.
- What can Little Hotelier do that Protel cannot?
- Little Hotelier covers Simplified front desk, Channel management, Direct booking engine, Payments. Protel covers Front desk and reservations, Conference and banqueting, Cloud and on-premise editions, Integrated payments.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Little Hotelier: Who owns Little Hotelier?
SiteMinder. It is the small property product line of the same company that sells the SiteMinder channel manager.
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.
Little Hotelier: What happens when the property outgrows it?
Most operators move to a fuller PMS and keep SiteMinder for distribution. Expect a data migration rather than a plan change.
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.
Little Hotelier: Does it include a channel manager?
Yes, built on the SiteMinder network, which is the main reason to choose it over other small property tools.
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.
Little Hotelier: Can one login manage several properties?
Each property is a separate subscription and the multi-property view is thin, so operators of more than two or three properties usually look elsewhere.
Protel: Where is Protel strongest?
German-speaking Europe and the Middle East, where its interface catalogue and fiscal compliance are deepest.
Related pages
More on Little Hotelier
Other head to heads
- Little Hotelier vs Sirvoy
- Little Hotelier vs Roomsy
- Little Hotelier vs ThinkReservations
- Little Hotelier vs Hotelogix
- Little Hotelier vs Cloudbeds
- Little Hotelier vs WebRezPro
- Little Hotelier vs Hostaway
- Little Hotelier vs RoomRaccoon
- Little Hotelier vs Smoobu
- Little Hotelier vs Lodgify
- Little Hotelier vs Bokun
- Little Hotelier vs Apaleo
- Little Hotelier vs Amadeus Selling Platform Connect
- Little Hotelier vs BCD TripSource
- Little Hotelier vs Boostly
- Little Hotelier vs Center
- Little Hotelier vs Chekin
- Little Hotelier vs Clock PMS+
- Little Hotelier vs Mews
- Little Hotelier vs Opera PMS
- Little Hotelier vs Shiji
- Little Hotelier vs Careem
- Little Hotelier vs Regiondo
- Little Hotelier vs Grab
- Little Hotelier vs Travelport Smartpoint
- Little Hotelier vs Wheelhouse
- Protel vs Sirvoy
- Protel vs Roomsy
- Protel vs ThinkReservations
- Protel vs Hotelogix
- Protel vs Cloudbeds
- Protel vs WebRezPro
- Protel vs Hostaway
- Protel vs RoomRaccoon
- Protel vs Smoobu
- Protel vs Lodgify
- Protel vs Bokun
- Protel vs Apaleo
- Protel vs Amadeus Selling Platform Connect
- Protel vs BCD TripSource
- Protel vs Boostly
- Protel vs Center
- Protel vs Chekin
- Protel vs Clock PMS+
- Protel vs Mews
- Protel vs Opera PMS
- Protel vs Shiji
- Protel vs Careem
- Protel vs Regiondo
- Protel vs Grab
- Protel vs Travelport Smartpoint
- Protel vs Wheelhouse