HotelRunner Pricing 2026: Plans, Real Costs, and Is It Worth It?

HotelRunner looks cheap at the headline and gets more expensive as you sell.

The Essential Manage plan starts at about $19.95 per month, and the Essential Sell plan carries a minimum near $29.95 per month plus a 1.25% fee on realized booking revenue once it passes about $2,396 in a month.

That percentage is the part buyers miss: the more you book, the more you pay. For a busy mid-size independent hotel, the revenue fee alone can run $700 to $1,900 per month, well above the entry price.

Because the cost scales with your success, the model rewards HotelRunner as your bookings grow. roommaster builds a hotel channel manager into the PMS on a bundled quote, so distribution does not carry a percentage of every booking you win.

{{channel-manager-one}}

‍

HotelRunner Pricing Plans

HotelRunner sells online sales and management as tiered plans, and the important variable is the revenue fee attached to selling. The figures below combine HotelRunner's published prices with details reported by directories such as Capterra, GetApp, and PricingSaaS.

Essential Manage starts at about $19.95 per month: front-desk automation, basic reporting, up to 50 rate plans, and unlimited users and rooms. It is the operational base. Essential Sell starts at about $29.95 per month and adds the sales engine, connecting your rates and inventory to OTAs and a direct booking website, with the 1.25% fee on realized booking revenue above the roughly $2,396 monthly threshold. Higher tiers add more channels, metasearch, and payment tools, each expanding what you can sell and what you pay.

Because the sell side is priced on a share of revenue rather than a flat fee, the plan you start on matters less than how much you book through it. See where the model sits against rivals in our best channel manager comparison.

{{channel-manager-two}}

‍

HotelRunner Pricing Plans Compared

The plans look inexpensive on paper, so the real question is what each includes and where the revenue fee kicks in. Here is the plan-by-plan picture for an independent hotel.

Two things stand out. The 1.25% revenue fee on the sell side means the bill moves with your bookings, not with a fixed subscription. And the base plan leans toward online sales and light operations, so a property that wants deep front-desk, housekeeping, and folio depth often pairs it with a fuller system. Both shape the real total, which is next. For the underlying split, see channel manager vs booking engine.

‍

What HotelRunner Costs For Your Property Size

The headline price only helps once you apply the revenue fee to a real hotel's booking volume. The worked estimates below are reported market ranges, not official HotelRunner quotes, and they assume the Essential Sell model.

A 12-room boutique inn. At roughly $18,000 in monthly realized booking revenue, the 1.25% fee is about $225, so with the base plan you land near $250 per month. The best hotel booking engine and channel sync are included in that sell plan, but the cost rises with every extra booking.

A 45-room independent hotel. At roughly $60,000 in monthly realized revenue, the 1.25% fee is about $750, so the effective bill sits near $780 per month before any higher-tier add-ons.

A 100-room independent hotel. At roughly $150,000 in monthly realized revenue, the 1.25% fee is about $1,875, so you pay close to $1,900 per month, driven almost entirely by the percentage rather than the plan.

Use it as a template: take your monthly realized booking revenue, multiply the amount over about $2,396 by 1.25%, then add the base plan. The key point is that a good month costs you more, not less. A property comparing models by size can start with the best channel manager for small hotels shortlist.

‍

HotelRunner Hidden Costs

The $19.95 headline is the visible part. These are the costs that surface once you actually start selling.

• The 1.25% revenue fee. This is the real price. Because it applies to realized booking revenue over roughly $2,396 a month, your bill scales with success, the opposite of a flat subscription. That mechanism is why the pms channel manager difference is worth understanding before you sign.
• Operational depth. The base plan centers on online sales and light front-desk automation, so hotels with complex operations often add a fuller PMS or a higher tier, expanding the total.
• Payment and transaction fees. Routing cards and using HotelRunner Pay adds processing costs on top of the plan and the revenue fee.
• Add-on modules. Metasearch, extra channels, and marketing tools are billed on top, and directories report setup or add-on costs that vary by property size.
• Onboarding and channel mapping. Connecting and testing each OTA and the booking website takes configuration time, especially for larger inventories.

To be fair, HotelRunner earns good reviews for a low barrier to entry, an easy interface, and a genuinely all-in-one approach to online sales, with wide OTA coverage and a built-in booking website. For a very small property testing online distribution on a tight budget, the cheap entry and pay-as-you-sell model can be a fair starting point. Read what the connection layer does in our ota channel manager explainer.

{{booking-engine-two}}

‍

HotelRunner Pricing vs roommaster Pricing

The two price differently at the core. HotelRunner charges little upfront and takes a share of what you sell. roommaster bundles the PMS and distribution into one quote that does not rise with each booking.

{{payments-cta}}

‍

Why roommaster Is A Smart Choice For Independent Hotels

HotelRunner is cheap to start and takes a cut of every booking after that. roommaster is built to do the reverse: a bundled quote where a strong month is yours to keep, not a bigger invoice.

That design changes the math as you grow. Because the hotel booking engine and channel manager sit inside one PMS on a fixed quote, there is no percentage skimmed off your best weeks and no separate distribution bill. Reservations from the OTAs and direct bookings hit the same inventory in real time off one guest record, so you avoid the double-sold room and the reconciliation work of two systems. One vendor runs the front desk, the channels, and support, which for a lean independent means one predictable cost you can budget against occupancy. Match the platform to your property in our independent hotel software overview, and browse the connections in our roommaster integrations marketplace.

When is a standalone HotelRunner the better pick? If you run a very small or seasonal property with low booking volume, the cheap entry and pay-as-you-sell fee can cost less than a fixed subscription until you scale. Weigh the trade-off in our hotelrunner alternative roundup, and compare the fundamentals in channel manager vs pms vs crs.

‍

Bottom Line

HotelRunner is an accessible, all-in-one online sales platform, and for a small property with modest booking volume, the low base plan is genuinely affordable. The catch is total cost of ownership: the 1.25% revenue fee means the bill grows with your success, so a busy mid-size hotel can pay well over $700 per month, and operations-heavy properties often add a fuller system on top.

The smart move is to model it at your real volume. Take your monthly realized booking revenue, apply the 1.25% fee to the amount over the threshold, add the base plan, and compare that moving figure against one bundled quote that stays flat. If you are weighing others too, our siteminder pricing and best pms software independent hotels breakdowns apply the same lens.

{{cta-strip}}

‍

FAQs

1. How much does HotelRunner cost per month?

HotelRunner's Essential Manage plan starts at about $19.95 per month and Essential Sell at about $29.95 per month. The Sell plan adds a 1.25% fee on realized booking revenue once it passes roughly $2,396 in a month, so the real cost depends on how much you book.

2. Is HotelRunner a PMS?

Partly. HotelRunner is an all-in-one online sales platform with front-desk automation, a channel manager, and a booking website. Its focus is distribution and commerce, so operations-heavy hotels that need deep front-desk, housekeeping, and folio features often pair it with a fuller PMS.

3. What is the 1.25% HotelRunner fee?

On the Essential Sell plan, once your monthly realized booking revenue from all channels passes about $2,396, HotelRunner charges 1.25% on that revenue in addition to the base subscription. The fee scales with your bookings, so higher revenue means a higher bill.

4. What are the hidden costs in HotelRunner pricing?

The main extras are the 1.25% revenue fee, payment and transaction fees, add-on modules like metasearch and extra channels, and onboarding time. The base plan is low, but the revenue fee and add-ons drive the real monthly total.

5. Does HotelRunner have transparent pricing?

The base plans are published, which is more open than many rivals, but the 1.25% revenue fee makes the true cost variable and harder to predict. Buyers should model the fee at their own booking volume rather than rely on the headline price.

6. How does HotelRunner pricing compare to roommaster?

HotelRunner charges a low base plus a percentage of bookings, so the cost climbs as you sell more. roommaster bundles PMS and distribution into one fixed quote with no booking fee, which usually makes budgeting more predictable for a growing independent hotel.