Hotel Management Software in Kenya for Bookings, Billing & Housekeeping Automation

Hotel management software is a platform that helps you run a hotel, lodge, guest house or serviced apartment day to day: online bookings, room availability, guest records, check-ins and check-outs, housekeeping, billing, receipts and payments. Microstation delivers this as a web-based platform, so there is nothing to install.

Not M-Pesa only. Besides M-Pesa STK Push, the platform also accepts credit and debit card payments (Visa, Mastercard and other major cards), plus bank transfers, cash and other methods at the desk. Guests can pay from their phone or with a card when booking online, and front desk staff can also prompt for payment at check-in or check-out. A confirmed payment can automatically move a reservation into confirmed status, which reduces booking conflicts and manual reconciliation.

Yes. The software is designed for Kenyan hotels, lodges, guest houses and serviced apartments. You can define your own room types and rates, so the platform works for a small guest house with a few rooms as well as larger properties with multiple room categories.

Yes. The system is 100% web-based, so your front desk, housekeeping and management teams can sign in from any computer, tablet or phone with a browser. Guests do not need to install an app to book — they simply use the online booking portal.

Yes. The guest booking portal lets guests browse available room types, submit reservation details, pay by M-Pesa STK Push, credit card or debit card, and retrieve their booking information without staff intervention. The system checks availability in real time and prevents conflicting allocations.

Housekeeping teams can assign cleaning tasks, track room readiness, update maintenance issues, inspect completed work and keep room statuses accurate at all times. Room statuses stay synchronized with the booking calendar so the front desk only sells rooms that are actually ready.

Managers can monitor occupancy, arrivals, departures, revenue, RevPAR, VAT, late fees and overall operational performance from management dashboards. User roles, permissions, staff invitations and audit logs protect sensitive booking and billing activity.

Contact Microstation to arrange a demo and a walkthrough for your property. You can also use the full system free for 60 days before deciding to buy, then move onto a paid plan when you are ready. Setup is a one-time fee — connect your existing website, or we build a starter site for you if you don’t have one — graduated to your property size in the same room bands as the monthly plans (Starter, Pro, Business or Enterprise). You then choose a monthly plan sized to your room count that includes hosting, maintenance, security and support.

Yes. Before making the decision to buy, you can use the full hotel management system free for 60 days — that is the complete platform, not a limited demo: live bookings and availability, front desk, housekeeping, billing and receipts, M-Pesa STK Push plus credit and debit card payments, reports and staff roles. Use the 60 days to run your real workflows and see how the system fits your team, with no obligation to buy at the end. There is no need to pick a plan up front; when you are ready, your one-time setup fee and monthly subscription begin and you confirm the plan that matches your room count. One exclusion applies: connecting a channel manager is separate paid work and is not part of the trial. It only applies if you already sell on OTAs, and if you do, your existing channel manager keeps running untouched while you trial the app — nothing is set up or switched until you approve the connection work separately.

For clients without a website, the setup includes an exact starter scope: up to 5 pages (Home, Rooms & Rates, Gallery, About and Contact), up to 10 property photos, your own domain and branding, a mobile-friendly responsive design, live M-Pesa and card checkout, a contact form, secure HTTPS with basic SEO, and 1 month of post-launch support. The one-time build fee is graduated to your room count — from KES 45,000 for up to 20 rooms, from KES 105,000 for up to 50 rooms, and from KES 155,000 for up to 150 rooms — with larger or multi-property properties quoted separately. Anything above this scope — extra pages, custom designs, additional photos and special features — is quoted separately before work begins. App and database hosting are included in the monthly plan, but domain hosting and domain registration (and their renewals) are not included and are billed separately.

OTAs like Booking.com and Airbnb are a strong visibility channel, and you can keep them listed to bring in new guests. They do charge a commission on each booking, however. Our web-based booking portal is your own direct channel — guests can browse live availability, book and pay with M-Pesa, credit card or debit card, and you keep the full rate. Many Kenyan hotels run both together: OTAs for discovery and initial traffic, and the direct portal to convert returning guests into commission-free, loyal bookings.

Security is built in across three areas. Payment security: card details go through secure, encrypted checkout and are never stored in plain text, while M-Pesa and card transactions are confirmed directly with the payment provider before a booking is confirmed. Database security: guest and payment records live in a managed database with access controlled by the application, encrypted while the data travels and while it is stored, with regular controlled backups. User security: role-based access limits what each staff member sees, staff accounts are invited and controlled, passwords are stored hashed (never plain text), and every sign-in and sensitive action is recorded, so you always know who did what.

Yes. Credit and debit card payments are fully supported alongside M-Pesa. This is especially valuable for international travellers, corporate guests and clients who prefer card payment — your property never has to turn away a guest because they do not use mobile money. Card transactions are recorded against the booking just like any other payment, so your billing, receipts and reconciliation stay accurate.

A channel is simply anywhere you sell a room — your own website, Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb, or a guest walking in at the desk. A channel manager is separate software you subscribe to from a specialist provider, and it exists for one job: keeping all of those channels, their rates and their availability in step with each other. So you only need one if you take bookings from travel sites such as Booking.com, Expedia or Airbnb. If you do not sell on OTAs, you do not need one: your own booking portal is your channel, it takes direct bookings and M-Pesa or card payments, and it carries no OTA commission. There is nothing to buy and nothing extra to subscribe to.

Yes, if your provider exposes a documented two-way API — the technical link that lets two systems exchange data — and authorises our access. We connect your channel manager and the app, both ways: rates and availability flow out, and reservations, modifications and cancellations flow back into your front desk automatically. It starts with a technical assessment at KES 10,000 — credited against the work if you proceed — so you know in writing whether a full two-way connection, an availability-only sync, or no connection at all is possible before you commit significant money. Integration setup is from KES 25,000 one-time, then KES 3,500 per property per month to keep the connection running: it stays switched on day and night, is updated whenever your provider changes something, retries anything that fails, and includes 2 hours of support a month.

No. We are not a channel-manager reseller, and we do not mark up a licence. You buy your channel manager directly from whichever provider you choose, and it stays yours — if you change provider later, your hotel software does not change with it. We only build and maintain the connection between your channel manager and the app, and we charge for that work as a service. That also means you are never locked in on our side: if you ever stop working with us, your channel manager licence is unaffected.

Some providers are closed systems: no API, no partner programme, or terms that do not allow a third-party connection. We find that out during the assessment, before you spend anything significant, and you get it in writing. Then you choose. Either we connect using the safest method your provider allows — usually a calendar link the two systems read on a schedule, rather than a live connection, which keeps availability in step but cannot guarantee rate changes, instant confirmation, or real-time speed — or you move to a provider that can be connected, on your own schedule, and we connect it at the standard setup fee when you are ready. Either way the app and your own booking portal keep working normally, so a provider choice you made years ago never locks you out of direct bookings.

Two different things, and it is worth knowing which is which. We support the connection itself: keeping the two systems talking, the mapping of your rooms and rates across it, sync failures, retries and alerts, and diagnosing why a rate or booking did not flow. Your provider supports their product: their own uptime, their channel certifications and their commercial relationship with each OTA. In practice that means we may need access to your channel manager account to diagnose a problem, so we ask for that up front. The monthly connection fee includes up to 2 hours of support; anything beyond that is billed at our standard rate.

No, and it is important to be clear about that. A channel manager automates the connection — it pushes rates and availability out, pulls reservations and cancellations back in, and prevents overbooking. It does not change your commercial agreement with an OTA, so OTA commission on OTA bookings still applies. What it protects is your time and your inventory. Commission-free revenue still comes from your own booking portal, which is why we recommend running both: OTAs for discovery and reach, your direct portal for margin and the guest relationship.

Your total cost is a one-time setup fee plus an all-inclusive monthly subscription sized to your room count — there is no per-booking fee. For up to 20 rooms, setup is from KES 15,000 to connect your existing website or from KES 45,000 if we build the website for you, with a monthly plan from KES 10,000. Up to 50 rooms: from KES 35,000 or from KES 105,000 with a website build, and KES 20,000 per month. Up to 150 rooms: from KES 60,000 or from KES 155,000 with a website build, and KES 40,000 per month. Larger and multi-property properties are quoted individually. The monthly fee covers app and database hosting, maintenance, security updates, backups and support, and every new property can use the full system free for 60 days before committing to those figures. Channel manager connection is the one exception — it is separate paid work and only applies if you sell on OTAs.

The platform is 100% web-based, so there is nothing to download or install on any computer, tablet or phone — your team signs in from a browser. Instead of a limited free version, every new property can use the complete hotel management system free for 60 days: live bookings and availability, front desk, housekeeping, billing and receipts, M-Pesa and card payments, reports and staff roles, all included, with no obligation to buy at the end. When you are ready, you move onto a paid plan sized to your room count.

Look past the demo screens and compare five things: whether the system checks live availability and prevents double bookings; whether guests can pay at the moment of booking by M-Pesa and card; whether the price is a flat monthly plan or a per-booking cut; whether online bookings land in the front desk and housekeeping board automatically without double entry; and who supports the system locally, who owns your data and how backups and access control work. Our guide to the best hotel management software in Kenya walks through each of those checks in detail.

Yes. The Enterprise tier is designed for properties with 150+ rooms and for multi-property groups, and it is quoted individually, so tell us how many properties and rooms you run and we will price it around that. Channel manager connection is billed per property for OTA sellers, with a multi-property rate for groups managing three or more properties under one account.

No. If you already have a website, we integrate the live booking engine into the site you have, and your domain, branding, email and search visibility all stay yours. If you do not have a website yet, we build a starter site as part of setup — and in that case the domain name and its hosting are billed separately, because they are registered in your name, not ours. Either way, nothing about your existing online presence is taken away from you.

Setup covers configuring your room types, rates, tax settings, payment workflow, branding and staff roles so the platform matches how you already operate. Bringing across historical records from another system or from spreadsheets depends on what your current provider or files can export, so we will tell you what is possible and quote any data work separately before it starts — nothing is migrated without your approval. Your guard against disruption is the 60-day trial: you can run the new system alongside your current process first.

Every plan includes email and phone support, plus app and database hosting, maintenance, security updates and backups. Setup includes configuring the platform and go-live training for your team, so front desk, housekeeping and management staff all know their part before you switch over. Support is local and you are dealing with the same company that built the software — Microstation has been operating in Nairobi since 1995. Channel manager connection, where it applies, includes two hours of support a month; anything beyond that is billed at our standard rate.

Yes. Invoices, receipts, balances, partial payments, late fees and VAT configuration are set up to match your accounting and reporting practice during implementation, and VAT appears in the management reports alongside occupancy, revenue and RevPAR. Every payment — M-Pesa, credit card, debit card or cash at the desk — is recorded against the booking, so what your manager sees in the report matches what actually arrived.