Softwr

Travel · head to head

Lodgify vs Protel

Lodgify logo

Lodgify

Travel

Direct booking website builder and channel manager for vacation rental owners and small managers

From
$16/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: Lodgify the 1.9 per cent booking fee on Starter and Professional applies to direct reservations, the exact bookings you built the site to win, so an owner turning over 200,000 dollars direct pays around 3,800 dollars a year on top of the subscription unless they move to Ultimate.; 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: Lodgify covers Website builder, 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 Lodgify and Protel actually diverge.

Attributes where Lodgify and Protel differ
AttributeLodgifyProtel
Starting price$16/monthOn request
Pricing modelPer month by property count and planquote
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidWeb, 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 Lodgify

  • Website builder
  • Channel manager
  • Booking engine
  • Unified inbox
  • Automated messaging
  • Rental agreements
  • Multi-calendar
  • Damage deposits

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.

Lodgify

  • An owner with three holiday cottages who wants a branded site to cut Airbnb commissionnot Protel
  • A manager consolidating Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com calendars to stop double bookingsnot Protel
  • A rural property with weak OTA visibility that relies on repeat direct guestsnot Protel
  • A host adding rental agreements and deposit collection to bookings taken off-platformnot Protel

Protel

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

Where each one falls short

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

Lodgify

  • The 1.9 per cent booking fee on Starter and Professional applies to direct reservations, the exact bookings you built the site to win, so an owner turning over 200,000 dollars direct pays around 3,800 dollars a year on top of the subscription unless they move to Ultimate.
  • Operations tooling is thin: there is no real housekeeping scheduling, task assignment or owner statement generation, so managers past roughly twenty units outgrow it.
  • Prices shown are annual-commitment rates; paying monthly costs substantially more, which makes the headline figure misleading for anyone unwilling to commit for a year.
  • The website templates are constrained, and heavy design customisation means editing within a narrow theme system rather than having real control over layout or markup.
  • Payment processing is effectively tied to a small set of gateways, so operators in markets without local acquiring support may struggle to take payments in their own currency without extra cost.

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

Lodgify

$16/month
  • Starter$16/month
    • Billed annually, higher month to month
    • Website builder and booking engine
    • Channel manager
  • Professional$42/month
    • Billed annually
    • Payment automation
    • More integrations and higher limits
  • Ultimate$103/month
    • Billed annually
    • No booking fee on direct reservations
    • Priority support

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 Lodgify if

  • You need website builder.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want channel manager.
Lodgify 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 Lodgify or Protel better?
Neither clearly leads. Lodgify starts at $16/month and Protel at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Lodgify or Protel?
Lodgify starts at $16/month and Protel at On request.
Does Lodgify or Protel run on more platforms?
Lodgify runs on Web, iOS, Android. Protel runs on Web, Windows, iOS, Android.
What is Lodgify best used for?
Lodgify is most often used for an owner with three holiday cottages who wants a branded site to cut airbnb commission, a manager consolidating airbnb, vrbo and booking.com calendars to stop double bookings, a rural property with weak ota visibility that relies on repeat direct guests, a host adding rental agreements and deposit collection to bookings taken off-platform. Of those, an owner with three holiday cottages who wants a branded site to cut airbnb commission and a manager consolidating airbnb, vrbo and booking.com calendars to stop double bookings are not what Protel is typically brought in for.
What can Lodgify do that Protel cannot?
Lodgify covers Website builder, Channel manager, Booking engine, Unified inbox. Protel covers Front desk and reservations, Conference and banqueting, Cloud and on-premise editions, Integrated payments.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Lodgify: Does Lodgify charge commission on direct bookings?

Yes on the two lower tiers. Starter and Professional take 1.9 per cent of each direct booking; the Ultimate plan removes it.

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.

Lodgify: At what point is Ultimate cheaper than Professional?

Roughly once your direct booking revenue passes about 38,000 dollars a year, at which point the 1.9 per cent fee exceeds the price difference between the plans.

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.

Lodgify: Is Lodgify a full property management system?

No. It is a website, booking engine and channel manager. Housekeeping, task management and owner accounting are largely absent.

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.

Lodgify: Can it run a hotel?

It is designed for whole-unit vacation rentals. Room-level hotel inventory, folios and night audit are not part of the product.

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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