Ten Support Questions to Ask Before You Sign a PMS Contract
Every PMS demos well. The difference shows up on a Saturday in month seven, which is exactly what the sales call never covers.
Before the demo ends, change the subject
A demo is a tour of the good day. Support is what you experience on the bad one, and almost nothing about it is visible in a product walkthrough. These ten questions are worth more than a second demo — and how readily they are answered tells you as much as the answers.
The ten questions
1. Who actually answers, and what do they know about hotels? A hospitality-literate first responder resolves in one exchange what a scripted agent turns into a four-email thread. Ask whether first-line support is in-house or outsourced.
2. What is your target response time, in hours, in writing? "Fast" and "excellent" are not answers. A number you can plan around is. Frontdesko publishes a four-hour email target; whatever the vendor says, get the figure.
3. Is there a faster paid tier? If yes, you are being quoted the slower one. Price the upgrade now, because that is the real cost of support at this vendor.
4. What are your support hours in my timezone? Vendors quote their own working hours. Convert them. "Business hours" in another hemisphere can mean nobody is reachable during your entire check-in window.
5. What happens at 9pm on a Saturday? Ask for the out-of-hours path specifically, and what counts as an emergency. Peak check-in is a weekend evening, which is when in-hours support is least likely to exist.
6. Who migrates my existing data, and what does it cost? Reservations on the books, guest history, rates and folios. Ask who does the work, how long it takes, and what the setup fee is — Frontdesko charges none.
7. How do I export everything if I leave? Ask for the format and whether it is self-service. A vendor confident in its service answers immediately; hesitation here is a lock-in strategy disclosing itself.
8. Is there a status page, and what is the incident history? A public status page is a commitment to being caught. Read the last twelve months rather than the uptime badge on the pricing page.
9. What is included in onboarding, and when does it stop? Some vendors cover a fixed number of sessions, then bill. Establish where the cliff is before you plan a go-live.
10. Can I talk to an independent property of my size using you today? Not the flagship reference account. A property with your room count and your staffing. The reaction to this request is itself an answer.
Reading the answers
Three patterns are worth noticing. Vague adjectives where a number belongs usually mean no internal commitment exists. Enthusiasm about a paid support tier means standard support is known internally to be insufficient. And difficulty answering the data-export question means the plan for retention is friction rather than quality.
None of that requires you to be technical. It requires you to keep asking after the demo has finished, which most buyers do not.
Where Frontdesko stands on these
Plainly, for the ones with objective answers: support is not a paid tier, so there is no faster queue to buy. The published email target is four hours, with a direct phone line and live chat listed on the contact page and a help centre for self-service. There are no setup fees, and the PMS, booking engine, guest app and POS are free forever with no room limit — paid plans add the channel manager and AI assistant, not access to help.
For the rest, ask us the same way you would ask anyone else. That is rather the point of the list.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most important support question to ask a PMS vendor?
Whether a faster paid support tier exists. If it does, the quote in front of you is for the slower queue, and the true cost of adequate support is the quoted price plus the upgrade.
How do I check a PMS vendor’s reliability before buying?
Ask for the public status page and read the last twelve months of incidents rather than the uptime figure on the marketing page. Absence of a status page is itself informative.
Should I ask about leaving before I have even signed?
Yes. Data export is the question that separates vendors relying on service from vendors relying on lock-in. Ask for the format and whether export is self-service, and note how quickly it is answered.
Does Frontdesko charge setup or onboarding fees?
No. There are no setup fees, and the PMS, booking engine, guest app and POS are free forever with no room limit. Paid plans cover the channel manager and AI assistant.