No commission
We don't take a percentage of your bookings, whether a guest books one night or a two-week retreat.
Small property but different needs
Thinking about moving from Little Hotelier? You're not the first small property to ask. Little Hotelier is built for properties of 1 to 30 rooms: bed and breakfasts, guesthouses, motels, and small hotels. It does that job well. Rooms go live across channels fast, setup is self-serve, and there is no sales call to get started. This page is for properties that have started selling something beyond the room and are running it by hand because the platform underneath was never built to schedule it. Bookinglayer was built as a reservation and operations software for overnight experiences. A room, a surf lesson, a dinner, and an airport transfer are all inventory on our platform, sold together in one booking.
Packages
Three ways to sell the room and the activities, or one
Not every guest books the same way. Some want the whole programme, some want a room and a couple of extras.
Bookinglayer
With Bookinglayer, you choose how to sell the room and the activities: as a programme with one price. A surf week or a yoga retreat: room, lessons, meals and transfer, sold together at one price, on fixed dates or with a flexible arrival. As a room plus add ons. The guest books the room, then adds a massage, a cooking class or a surf lesson on the side. As a bundle. A set of items sold together, like three surf lessons with board hire, added to any stay.
Every room and activity keeps its own availability, whichever way it's sold.
Little Hotelier
Little Hotelier sells the room. Its Package deal is a rate plan: one fixed price for a set number of nights, with inclusions attached. Anything else is a flat extra, like breakfast or a bike rental, priced per booking, per room or per person. Nothing in its help centre gives those extras their own availability.
Activities
Activities with a time slot and a limit
The cooking class seats ten. The eleventh guest should find out when booking, not when they arrive.
Bookinglayer
Bookinglayer's Session Planner shows every class and session with the instructor assigned. The Capacity Manager caps each one, so the surf lesson stops taking bookings at 8 people. Guests pick their session while booking and can move it later in the Customer Portal.
Little Hotelier
We found no activity scheduling in Little Hotelier's feature pages or help centre, and none of its reviewers on Capterra mention activities, tours or experiences. There is no place to set up a class at 7 am, cap it at 12 people, or assign an instructor.
Meals and the restaurant bill
Orders that reach the bill without being typed twice
If you run a restaurant or bar, every dinner and every drink has to end up on the guest's bill.
Bookinglayer
Bookinglayer connects to Lightspeed, so what a guest orders at the bar or restaurant can go straight onto their booking instead of being typed in again at checkout. Point of sale coming in Q1 2027 with Bookinglayer Pay.
Little Hotelier
Little Hotelier lets staff add meals and drinks to a reservation as extra items. What it doesn't do is take them from your restaurant or bar till: its website names no connection to a point-of-sale system, so each order is entered again in Little Hotelier.
Customer Portal
Task links, or one guest account
A check-in link and a QR code each do one job. A guest staying four nights with three activities needs somewhere to come back to.
Bookinglayer
Bookinglayer's Customer Portal is one account the guest logs back into, from booking until checkout. It holds the check-in form you built, with dietary needs or experience level, plus digital waivers, their activity times, upgrades, and pages you add yourself, like a packing list. If plans change, the guest moves Wednesday's surf lesson to Thursday on their own. Thanks to the Customer Portal, 27% of guests with portal access add something extra after booking.
Little Hotelier
Little Hotelier's Guest Engagement covers a lot before arrival. Guests fill in a check-in form that can include a document copy, a signature, and your terms to accept. They can browse a digital directory of your services and offers online or by QR code, and you can message them by email, SMS, or WhatsApp from one inbox. Each of these is a separate link for a single task, not one place the guest returns to throughout the stay.
Connecting other tools
An API that can act, or one that can only read
Your email tool, your accounting software and your website all need to know when something happens in a booking.
Bookinglayer
Bookinglayer has an API and webhooks. A webhook sends a message to your other tools the moment something happens, like a new booking, a payment or a completed form. So your email tool or your accounting software gets the update straight away, without anyone copying it over by hand.
Little Hotelier
Little Hotelier has no full API for building your own tools. It connects to other apps through SiteMinder’s app store, and its only API is a Direct Booking API that can read data- nothing more: your prices, availability, and property details- for example, to show prices on your own website.
Pricing
Cheaper to start, or built for what you sell
For a small property, price matters. So does what you pay for outside the platform.
Bookinglayer
Bookinglayer takes no commission on your bookings. Rooms, activities, packages and the Customer Portal sit on one platform, and every subscription includes a couple of advanced features of your choice.
Little Hotelier
Little Hotelier is cheaper to start, and for a property that only sells rooms that is hard to beat. It prices by room count and is built for properties of 1 to 30 rooms. The entry plan, Flex, adds a 1% booking fee. Some of its pages call that plan Basics.
When Little Hotelier is the better choice
We'd rather tell you we're not the right fit than onboard you and find out two months later. If you only sell rooms, Little Hotelier is hard to beat on getting started. It promises a one hour setup, a 30 day free trial and no long term contract. It connects to more than 450 booking channels, and every plan includes 24/7 chat and email support, with phone support on Pro. If almost all your bookings come from OTAs and you sell nothing but rooms, Little Hotelier is probably the simpler choice.
“Bookinglayer is a very complete and useful platform. It gives us a lot of flexibility to manage our bookings, packages and activities.”
Nabil S.
Founder @Salty Water Tribe
Comparison Table
How we compare at a glance
| Feature | Bookinglayer | Little Hotelier |
|---|---|---|
| Activities with a start time | Yes: Yes. Every activity can have its own time slots | No:No. Extras are priced per booking, room, person or night, and have no time |
| Limit on how many can book an activity | Yes:Yes, Capacity Manager | No:No capacity setting for extras |
| Guest picks a session while booking | Yes:Yes, time slot and variant at checkout | Partly:Extras can be added while booking, but there is no session to choose from |
| Packages | Yes:Rooms, activities and extras in one booking, each with its own availability | Partly:Package deal: one fixed price for a set number of nights, with inclusions |
| Session and instructor planning | Yes: Yes, Session Planner | No:Not available yet |
| Adding extras to a booking during the stay | Yes:Yes, even on a separate bill | Yes:Yes, as extra items on the reservation |
| Restaurant POS connection | Yes:Yes, Lightspeed | No:None named on their site |
| Online check-in with signature | Yes:Yes, check-in form and waivers in the Customer Portal | Yes:Yes, check-in form with signature and terms |
| Guest account to log back into | Yes:Yes, Customer Portal | No:No login. Guests use links in messages and a Concierge page for their stay |
| Commission on bookings | No:None | Yes:YES. 1% fee on Flex; Premium is free for 3 mos, then 50% off for 9 mos. |
| Several locations in one account | Yes:Yes | Partly:Each property is set up on its own, and staff need a user account at each one |
| API | Yes:Yes, with webhooks | Partly:Read-only Direct Booking API for rates and availability; no webhooks found |
| Channel manager | Yes:Yes, through Channex | Yes:Built-in, 450+ channels |
| Onboarding | Yes:Dedicated onboarding specialist on every account | Partly:Onboarding specialist on Pro, self-setup on Basics |
- Yes
- No
- Partly
Make the switch
1
Request a demo
We look at how you sell, your rooms, activities, and packages. If we're not the right fit, we'll tell you.
2
Onboard in two weeks
Most clients go live in two weeks, working one to two hours a day with a dedicated onboarding specialist.
3
Keep your data
Our technical team imports your guest data, so your history comes with you. Switchers also get a special discount.
Our pricing model
A fixed fee. No cut of your bookings.
Some booking software takes a percentage of every booking, so your bill grows with every guest you bring in yourself. Bookinglayer charges one fixed monthly fee, and what you earn is yours.
Know your cost upfront
One monthly fee, set by the size of your operation and the add-ons you choose.
No lock-in
No annual commitment and no cancellation fees. Stay because it works.
Our foundation
The core of Bookinglayer
The four core components are in every plan, at every size. They are not tiers. They are the foundation.
- Dedicated one-on-one onboarding
- 24/7 support
- Upgrade, downgrade, or cancel anytime
Comparisons
See how we compare
Four side-by-side comparisons, feature by feature. Where Bookinglayer is stronger, and where it honestly isn't. We'd rather you find out now than two months in.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Does either platform take a commission on bookings?
Bookinglayer takes no commission on your bookings. Little Hotelier adds a 1% booking fee on its entry plan, Flex, which some of its pages call Basics
What are the contract terms?
Bookinglayer has no annual commitment and no cancellation fees. Little Hotelier has no long-term contract. You can pay month to month, and it offers a 30-day free trial.
How does data migration from Little Hotelier work?
Data migration is part of onboarding on every Bookinglayer plan. Your onboarding specialist helps you bring over your guest data.
What support do I get?
Every Bookinglayer plan includes one on one onboarding with a dedicated specialist, and many clients go live in two weeks. Little Hotelier offers 24/7 chat and email support on its Flex plan. Its Pro plan adds 24/7 phone support and an onboarding specialist.
I only sell rooms. Do I need Bookinglayer?
Probably not. If rooms are all you sell and most bookings come from OTAs, Little Hotelier does that job well. Bookinglayer is for properties that sell activities, meals, or transfers with the stay.
Sources
- Little Hotelier pricing(opens in a new tab)
- Little Hotelier booking engine(opens in a new tab)
- Little Hotelier Guest Engagement(opens in a new tab)
- Create and manage extras(opens in a new tab)
- Rate plans and discounts(opens in a new tab)
- Reservation import guide(opens in a new tab)
- SiteMinder publishers (API)(opens in a new tab)
- Bookinglayer webhooks(opens in a new tab)
- Bookinglayer pricing(opens in a new tab)