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Travel · head to head

PriceLabs vs Protel

PriceLabs logo

PriceLabs

Travel

Dynamic pricing and market data for vacation rentals and small hotels

From
$19.99/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: PriceLabs the market dashboard is a separate subscription from the pricing engine, so the widely quoted 19.99 figure is not what most serious users pay per listing.; 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: PriceLabs covers Dynamic nightly pricing, 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 PriceLabs and Protel actually diverge.

Attributes where PriceLabs and Protel differ
AttributePriceLabsProtel
Starting price$19.99/monthOn request
Pricing modelPer listing per monthquote
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 PriceLabs

  • Dynamic nightly pricing
  • Customisable profiles
  • Minimum stay automation
  • Orphan gap handling
  • Market dashboards
  • Neighbourhood data
  • Portfolio management
  • Direct channel and PMS sync

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.

PriceLabs

  • A manager encoding a single pricing policy across two hundred listings rather than tuning each onenot Protel
  • An owner in a seasonal market wanting automatic last-minute discounting without watching the calendarnot Protel
  • An operator filling orphan gaps that would otherwise sit empty between bookingsnot Protel
  • A small hotel on Cloudbeds wanting rental-style demand pricing without a full revenue management systemnot Protel

Protel

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

Where each one falls short

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

PriceLabs

  • The market dashboard is a separate subscription from the pricing engine, so the widely quoted 19.99 figure is not what most serious users pay per listing.
  • The revenue share alternative at one per cent of bookings is a poor deal for high average daily rate properties, where it can cost several times the per-listing price.
  • Market data quality collapses in destinations with few tracked listings, which is precisely where an owner has the least pricing intuition of their own.
  • It will happily discount to zero margin if the base price and minimum are set carelessly, and the tool does not know your cost base, so an inattentive user can lose money faster than they would manually.
  • It prices but does not distribute or manage; you still need a PMS or channel manager underneath, and rate push failures between the two systems are a recurring support burden.

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

PriceLabs

$19.99/month
  • Dynamic Pricing$19.99/month
    • Per listing per month at low volume
    • Volume tiers fall toward about 5.99 per listing past 100 units
    • Rate, minimum stay and orphan gap automation
  • Market Dashboard$9.99/month
    • Charged separately from the pricing engine
    • Competitor rates, occupancy and forward demand
    • Per market subscribed
  • Portfolio$499/month
    • Flat monthly rate for larger portfolios, roughly 60 units and above
    • All pricing features included
    • Alternative to per-listing billing
  • Revenue share option$undefined/month
    • One per cent of booking revenue instead of a per-listing fee
    • Suits low-rate or low-occupancy listings
    • Becomes expensive on high average daily rates

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 PriceLabs if

  • You need dynamic nightly pricing.
  • You also want customisable profiles.
PriceLabs 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 PriceLabs or Protel better?
Neither clearly leads. PriceLabs starts at $19.99/month and Protel at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, PriceLabs or Protel?
PriceLabs starts at $19.99/month and Protel at On request.
Does PriceLabs or Protel run on more platforms?
PriceLabs runs on Web. Protel runs on Web, Windows, iOS, Android.
What is PriceLabs best used for?
PriceLabs is most often used for a manager encoding a single pricing policy across two hundred listings rather than tuning each one, an owner in a seasonal market wanting automatic last-minute discounting without watching the calendar, an operator filling orphan gaps that would otherwise sit empty between bookings, a small hotel on cloudbeds wanting rental-style demand pricing without a full revenue management system. Of those, a manager encoding a single pricing policy across two hundred listings rather than tuning each one and an owner in a seasonal market wanting automatic last-minute discounting without watching the calendar are not what Protel is typically brought in for.
What can PriceLabs do that Protel cannot?
PriceLabs covers Dynamic nightly pricing, Customisable profiles, Minimum stay automation, Orphan gap handling. Protel covers Front desk and reservations, Conference and banqueting, Cloud and on-premise editions, Integrated payments.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

PriceLabs: What does PriceLabs cost for ten listings?

Around 19.99 US dollars per listing per month at that volume for dynamic pricing, plus about 9.99 per market for the dashboard if you want the competitor data.

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.

PriceLabs: Should I take the one per cent revenue share instead?

Only if your average nightly rate and occupancy are low. On a listing earning 40,000 dollars a year the revenue share costs roughly 400 dollars against about 240 for the per-listing plan.

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.

PriceLabs: Does it work for hotels?

It connects to Cloudbeds and similar systems and is used by small properties, but it is built around rental demand signals rather than hotel segmentation and forecasting.

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.

PriceLabs: Can I override the algorithm?

Extensively. Base price, minimum and maximum, seasonal profiles and day-of-week adjustments are all directly editable and reusable across a portfolio.

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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