Hotel management software in Rwanda: 9 questions to ask before you buy

If you run a hotel, lodge or guesthouse in Kigali, Musanze, Rubavu or anywhere else in East Africa, you've probably been shown hotel software that was clearly built for somewhere else: dollar-only pricing, sign-in by SMS to a phone your night porter doesn't carry, and a system that stops working the moment the internet does.

Software is a decision you live with for years, so it's worth asking the awkward questions before you sign anything. Here are nine we think every owner or general manager should ask, whichever vendor you're talking to, including us.

1. Does it cover the whole hotel, or only the front desk?

Many "hotel management systems" are booking tools: reservations, check-in, check-out. That's useful, but the money and the mistakes are usually elsewhere: the kitchen, the bar, stock, housekeeping, maintenance, payroll.

Ask to see every department you actually run, in one system, using the same data. If the restaurant uses one tool and the front desk another, you'll be reconciling them by hand at the end of every night.

2. What happens when the internet goes down?

In much of East Africa this isn't hypothetical, it's a Tuesday. Ask the vendor to show you what a waiter can still do with the connection unplugged.

A good answer: orders can still be taken, saved on the device, and sent to the kitchen once the connection returns, with the right person's name on them. A good answer also admits what shouldn't work offline, such as closing a bill, because recording money blind is how cash goes missing.

3. How do your staff sign in?

Email codes and SMS codes assume everyone has a personal smartphone at work. Many hotels deliberately don't allow that on shift.

Ask whether staff can sign in on a shared tablet with a personal PIN, whether the screen locks itself when nobody is using it, and what happens when someone's phone is lost. If the only option is "log in with your phone," it will fail in your kitchen.

4. Can you see who did what?

When a discount appears on a bill or a room status changes at 3 am, you want to know who did it without asking around. Ask whether every action is recorded against a named person, and who is allowed to see that log. A good system lets managers see their own department and lets the owner see everything.

5. Does it handle your currencies and how you really get paid?

Check that the system works in RWF (and USD, KES or UGX if you serve guests from across the region), and that it records how a bill was actually paid: cash, card or mobile money. Ask how it handles a bill charged to a room versus settled at the table.

If you're in Rwanda, also ask how the vendor handles the tax receipts your accountant and the tax authority expect. Don't accept a vague answer.

6. Who owns your data, and can you take it with you?

Ask where your data is stored, who can read it, and whether you can export it in a format you can open. Ask what happens to it if you stop paying or the vendor disappears.

Also ask whether each hotel's data is kept separate if you own more than one property. It should be.

7. Cloud, or on your own server, and can you change your mind?

Some hotels are happy with software that runs on the internet. Others, for good reasons, want it on a computer in their own building. Ask which options exist, and whether it's the same product either way or a cut-down version.

8. How long until your team is actually using it?

"Powerful" is not the same as "usable." Ask how long setup takes, whether your department heads can add their own staff without calling an IT person, and whether you can start with the departments you're ready for and turn on the rest later.

A useful test: sign up for a trial and see how far you get in an afternoon with no help.

9. What does support look like when something breaks on a Saturday night?

Ask who answers, in which language, in what time zone, and how. Ask for a real example of how they've handled an outage. A vendor in your own time zone who speaks your language is worth more than a brand name on the other side of the world.

A short checklist to take with you

Where KazeOS fits

We built KazeOS in Kigali because we kept seeing the same patchwork of paper logbooks, WhatsApp groups and spreadsheets in hotels that deserved better. It covers front desk, housekeeping, kitchen, food and beverage, inventory, finance, maintenance, HR, sales and guest relations in one system, with per-hotel choices for how staff sign in and offline order capture for the restaurant and bar.

You're welcome to hold us to this checklist like anyone else. Start a free trial and see how far you get, or reply to our newsletter and we'll walk you through it.