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Travel · head to head

Protel vs Smoobu

Protel logo

Protel

Travel

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

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Smoobu logo

Smoobu

Travel

All-in-one channel manager and PMS for hosts with a handful of holiday rentals

From
€29/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real 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.; Smoobu the Flex plan carries a 0.9% fee on every booking, which on an apartment turning over €40,000 a year costs more than the entire annual subscription saving, and the pricing page presents Flex as the cheaper option.
  • They diverge on capability: Protel covers Front desk and reservations, Smoobu covers Channel manager.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Protel and Smoobu actually diverge.

Attributes where Protel and Smoobu differ
AttributeProtelSmoobu
Starting priceOn request€29/month
Pricing modelquotePer unit per month
PlatformsWeb, Windows, iOS, AndroidWeb, 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 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

Only in Smoobu

  • Channel manager
  • Website builder
  • Guest messaging
  • Unified calendar
  • Invoicing and e-invoicing
  • Mobile apps

What people use each for

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

Protel

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

Smoobu

  • A host with three apartments in Berlin who needs Airbnb and Booking.com calendars kept in sync and wants a direct booking site to cut OTA commissionnot Protel
  • An owner wanting automated check-in instructions and pre-arrival messages sent per channel without logging into each extranetnot Protel
  • A small manager who needs guest invoices that meet German documentation requirements without adding a separate accounting toolnot Protel
  • A host testing dynamic pricing through the bundled trial before deciding whether to subscribe to PriceLabs separatelynot Protel

Where each one falls short

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

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.

Smoobu

  • The Flex plan carries a 0.9% fee on every booking, which on an apartment turning over €40,000 a year costs more than the entire annual subscription saving, and the pricing page presents Flex as the cheaper option.
  • Pricing is per unit, so a ten unit portfolio pays roughly €31.50 plus nine additional units at about €9.60, and the headline monthly figure covers a single apartment only.
  • Write access is charged per account beyond the included seats, so a cleaner, a co-host and an owner all needing to edit bookings turn into a recurring per seat cost.
  • There is no trust accounting or owner statement generation, so anyone managing units on behalf of third-party owners has to build payout reporting outside the system.
  • Housekeeping and maintenance dispatch is minimal compared with manager-grade platforms, so cleaning coordination happens in WhatsApp or a separate tool once you are past a few units.

Pricing, plan by plan

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

Smoobu

€29/month
  • Professional Flex$29/month
    • One unit included
    • 0.9% fee on every booking
    • Channel manager, website builder, messaging
  • Professional Prepaid$31.5/month
    • One unit included
    • No booking fee
    • Website builder, invoicing, chatbot, API access
  • Teams Pro+$49.5/month
    • Everything in Prepaid
    • E-invoicing
    • Two write-access accounts, extra accounts from about €12 each

Which should you pick?

Choose Protel if

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

Choose Smoobu if

  • You need channel manager.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want website builder.
Smoobu review

Questions people ask

Is Protel or Smoobu better?
Neither clearly leads. Protel starts at On request and Smoobu at €29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Protel or Smoobu?
Protel starts at On request and Smoobu at €29/month.
Does Protel or Smoobu run on more platforms?
Protel runs on Web, Windows, iOS, Android. Smoobu runs on Web, iOS, Android.
What is Protel best used for?
Protel is most often used for a german or austrian hotel needing fiscal and tax compliance handled natively rather than bolted on, a property with substantial conference and banqueting business that a rooms-only pms cannot handle, an existing protel on-premise site deciding whether to move to the cloud edition or change vendor, a group wanting pms and card acquiring from one supplier under a single contract. Of those, a german or austrian hotel needing fiscal and tax compliance handled natively rather than bolted on and a property with substantial conference and banqueting business that a rooms-only pms cannot handle are not what Smoobu is typically brought in for.
What can Protel do that Smoobu cannot?
Protel covers Front desk and reservations, Conference and banqueting, Cloud and on-premise editions, Integrated payments. Smoobu covers Channel manager, Website builder, Guest messaging, Unified calendar.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

Smoobu: Which plan is actually cheaper, Flex or Prepaid?

Prepaid, for almost anyone with real occupancy. The 0.9% booking fee on Flex exceeds the subscription difference once annual revenue passes a few thousand euros.

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.

Smoobu: How many properties does the entry price cover?

One. Every additional unit adds roughly €9.60 per month.

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.

Smoobu: Does it include dynamic pricing?

Only two months free on the Teams tier. Ongoing dynamic pricing means subscribing to PriceLabs or similar.

Protel: Where is Protel strongest?

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

Smoobu: Is there a contract?

Billing is monthly, yearly or two-yearly, with 30 days notice required to cancel; longer terms buy 10% or 20% off.

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