Travel · head to head
Little Hotelier vs Skyscanner
Little Hotelier
Travel
SiteMinder owned front desk and distribution system for properties under twenty rooms
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
Skyscanner
Travel
Flight, hotel and car hire metasearch engine that compares prices across booking sites and earns referral fees rather than selling the ticket itself
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Skyscanner has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- 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.; Skyscanner because Skyscanner is not the merchant of record for most bookings, customer service, cancellations and fare accuracy responsibility sit with whichever partner site the traveller is referred to, not with Skyscanner itself.
- They diverge on capability: Little Hotelier covers Simplified front desk, Skyscanner covers Flight price comparison.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Little Hotelier and Skyscanner actually diverge.
| Attribute | Little Hotelier | Skyscanner |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | On request | Free |
| Pricing model | quote | Free for travellers, referral fees from booking partners |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android | iOS, Android, Web |
Identical on both: 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 Skyscanner
- Flight price comparison
- Flexible date and destination search
- Hotel and car hire comparison
- Price alerts
- Direct booking for select flights
- Multi-city and layover search
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 Skyscanner
- A hostel needing reliable Booking.com and Hostelworld connectivity more than deep property management featuresnot Skyscanner
- A rural B and B replacing a spreadsheet and manual OTA extranet updatesnot Skyscanner
- A small property already comfortable with SiteMinder support and wanting one bill for distribution and front desknot Skyscanner
Skyscanner
- A traveller wanting to compare flight prices across many airlines and agents quickly before deciding where to booknot Little Hotelier
- Someone with flexible travel dates wanting to browse the cheapest dates or destinations without a fixed itinerarynot Little Hotelier
- A traveller wanting hotel or car hire price comparison across multiple sites in one searchnot Little Hotelier
- Someone who wants a price alert on a specific route to book when the fare drops, before committingnot 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.
Skyscanner
- Because Skyscanner is not the merchant of record for most bookings, customer service, cancellations and fare accuracy responsibility sit with whichever partner site the traveller is referred to, not with Skyscanner itself.
- Prices shown in comparison results can occasionally be inaccurate or unavailable by the time the traveller reaches the partner site, since prices are pulled from partner feeds that update on their own schedule.
- Booking through a smaller, unfamiliar third-party travel agent surfaced in comparison results carries more risk around customer service quality and fare rules than booking directly with an airline or a well-known agency.
- The referral fee business model can create an incentive to surface partners paying higher commission prominently, and Skyscanner does not publish which listed results are influenced by commission versus pure price ranking.
- The newer direct booking option covers only some flights, so most bookings still route the traveller through a third-party partner site, meaning the core experience remains a redirect rather than a self-contained transaction.
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
Skyscanner
Free- SkyscannerFree
- Free to search and compare for travellers, no subscription or comparison fee charged
- Revenue comes from referral or affiliate fees paid by airlines, agents and hotel sites on completed bookings
- Skyscanner does not hold the payment or booking relationship for most results, the partner site does
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 Skyscanner if
- You need flight price comparison.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on iOS, Android, Web.
- You also want flexible date and destination search.
Questions people ask
- Is Little Hotelier or Skyscanner better?
- Neither clearly leads. Little Hotelier starts at On request and Skyscanner at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Little Hotelier or Skyscanner?
- Skyscanner has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Little Hotelier and Free for Skyscanner.
- Does Little Hotelier or Skyscanner run on more platforms?
- Little Hotelier runs on Web, iOS, Android. Skyscanner runs on iOS, Android, Web.
- Can I use Skyscanner for free?
- Yes. Skyscanner has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Little Hotelier starts at On request.
- 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 Skyscanner is typically brought in for.
- What can Little Hotelier do that Skyscanner cannot?
- Little Hotelier covers Simplified front desk, Channel management, Direct booking engine, Payments. Skyscanner covers Flight price comparison, Flexible date and destination search, Hotel and car hire comparison, Price alerts.
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.
Skyscanner: Does Skyscanner sell the ticket or hotel room?
For most results, no. It compares prices and refers the traveller to the airline, agent or hotel site to complete the actual booking and payment; it has recently added direct booking for some flights only.
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.
Skyscanner: How does Skyscanner make money if it is free to use?
It earns referral or affiliate fees from airlines, travel agents and hotel booking sites when a comparison click leads to a completed booking on their site.
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.
Skyscanner: Is Skyscanner the same kind of company as Booking.com or Expedia?
No. Those are merchants of record that process payment and hold the booking directly, earning commission or package margin. Skyscanner is a metasearch comparison layer that mostly refers travellers elsewhere to book.
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.
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 Expedia
- Little Hotelier vs Booking.com
- Little Hotelier vs Kayak
- Little Hotelier vs Hopper
- Little Hotelier vs TripAdvisor
- Little Hotelier vs Redeam
- Little Hotelier vs Corporate Traveller
- Little Hotelier vs myCWT
- Little Hotelier vs Protel
- Little Hotelier vs Revinate
- Little Hotelier vs Shiji
- Little Hotelier vs Spotnana
- Skyscanner vs Sirvoy
- Skyscanner vs Roomsy
- Skyscanner vs ThinkReservations
- Skyscanner vs Hotelogix
- Skyscanner vs Cloudbeds
- Skyscanner vs WebRezPro
- Skyscanner vs Hostaway
- Skyscanner vs RoomRaccoon
- Skyscanner vs Smoobu
- Skyscanner vs Lodgify
- Skyscanner vs Bokun
- Skyscanner vs Apaleo
- Skyscanner vs Amadeus Selling Platform Connect
- Skyscanner vs BCD TripSource
- Skyscanner vs Boostly
- Skyscanner vs Center
- Skyscanner vs Chekin
- Skyscanner vs Clock PMS+
- Skyscanner vs Expedia
- Skyscanner vs Booking.com
- Skyscanner vs Kayak
- Skyscanner vs Hopper
- Skyscanner vs TripAdvisor
- Skyscanner vs Redeam
- Skyscanner vs Corporate Traveller
- Skyscanner vs myCWT
- Skyscanner vs Protel
- Skyscanner vs Revinate
- Skyscanner vs Shiji
- Skyscanner vs Spotnana