Cardinal

Comparison

Cardinal beside four other systems, counted in steps

Three jobs you do every week, and the steps each one takes. Theirs are quoted from their own help centres, with the link on every card.

Their steps, from their own docsEvery source linked

Counted

Three weekly jobs, step by step

The big green number is Cardinal. Beside it, the same job in Cloudbeds or RMS Cloud, as their own help centre writes it.

Raise your summer rates by 4%

3steps in Cardinal
10steps in Cloudbeds
  1. 1Open Rooms & Rates
  2. 2Type 4%, and choose Summer only
  3. 3Apply, and confirm

Every room type moves at once, and Cardinal reads the change back in one sentence before it applies.

Cloudbeds · 10 steps

  1. 1.Open the Availability Matrix
  2. 2.Click Long-Term Interval
  3. 3.Select Base Rate in the Rate Plan field
  4. 4.Select the accommodations you want to update
See all 10 steps
  1. 5.Select the applicable dates
  2. 6.Select the applicable days of the week
  3. 7.Under Interval Settings, select Base Rate
  4. 8.Select Increase, choose amount or percentage, and enter the increase
  5. 9.Click Add Interval
  6. 10.Click Save
Their steps, from the Cloudbeds help centre →

Bill a company for one of your guests

2steps in Cardinal
8steps in Cloudbeds
  1. 1Create the account and set its terms
  2. 2Attach the reservation to it

Each charge reaches the company's balance the moment it posts, so what they owe is known any day of the month.

Cloudbeds · 8 steps

  1. 1.Create the group profile
  2. 2.Create the Event, and set its routing options
  3. 3.Save the Event and add an Allotment Block
  4. 4.Set the block's MinLos, MaxLos, cut-off, closed-to-arrival rules, rates per accommodation type and room count
See all 8 steps
  1. 5.Change the block status from Lead or Tentative to Definite, or no rooms are held from inventory
  2. 6.Add the reservation from the group profile's Reservations tab, selecting the Allotment Block
  3. 7.After check-out, create an Accounts Receivable ledger
  4. 8.Transfer the folio balance onto that ledger, which sets the folio to $0.00
Their steps, from the Cloudbeds help centre →

Close the day

0steps in Cardinal
8steps in RMS Cloud

    Every charge posts the moment it happens, so the books are current all day. Nothing to run at night.

    RMS Cloud · 8 steps

    1. 1.Open Utilities, then New Day / Night Audit
    2. 2.Select the property and choose Confirm
    3. 3.Review and update any remaining departure reservations, then Continue
    4. 4.Review and update any remaining arrival reservations, then Continue
    See all 8 steps
    1. 5.Review any in-house reservations with no rate type
    2. 6.Select Update Nightly Rates, then Continue
    3. 7.Select New Day
    4. 8.Choose Yes to open the reports
    Their steps, from the RMS Cloud help centre →

    How Cardinal decides

    Seven decisions, and what each one saves you

    The right-hand column is the category rather than any one company: dozens of systems sell into this market and they do not all do the same thing. Nothing in it is a claim about a named vendor. Those are in the table below, quoted from their own pages.

    The questionCardinalMost systems
    What makes the bill go up?Nothing you do on the property. Not a new cabin, not a busy July, not a seasonal hireRooms, sites, reservations, or a share of the rate
    What does it cost to start?Nothing beyond the monthly price. Your existing reservations come across as part of getting set upCommonly a one-time implementation fee, with migration quoted separately
    Who works out Canadian tax?The system. GST, HST, QST and PST across all 13, stored per component, with Quebec's agency rule as a ruleUsually configured per property, then reconciled by hand at filing time
    What do your French-speaking guests get?A booking page they read in French, included, with no second data entryVaries
    Where does your guest data live?CanadaVaries, and often the United States
    What does leaving look like?Self-serve and free: your guests, your reservations and the full ledger, whenever you want themOften on request
    What has to run before the books are final?Nothing. Every charge posts into an append-only ledger the moment it happensCommonly a night audit, which is why the balance on screen is a projection until it runs

    Side by side

    The shape of each offer

    Six things that change slowly, every filled cell taken from that vendor's own public pages. What a vendor charges this month moves faster than a page can be maintained, so the amounts live in the calculator instead, where you supply them.

    QuestionCardinalCampspotCloudbedsRMS CloudNewbook
    Where is the company based?Quebec, CanadaUnited StatesSan Diego, United StatesKeilor Park, AustraliaQueensland, Australia
    How does the price scale?It does not. One flat price for the propertyPer reservation, plus commission on marketplace bookingsPer roomPer site, and by number of propertiesPer booking at a flat rate, and by which modules you take
    Is the price published?Yes, on our pricing pageNo. Quoted after a demoNo, quotedNo, quotedNo, quoted from a starting figure
    Is there a setup or implementation fee?NoneNone. They publish no setup or onboarding feeCommonly, as a separate engagementYes, covering setup, migration and trainingNone on their single-site tier
    What does bringing your existing reservations across cost?Nothing. It is in the price, and you can import your own CSVNot publishedNot included in onboarding. Purchased separatelyCovered by that one-time feeIncluded, with four hours of training
    Does somebody still have to close the day?No. Every charge posts live to the ledgerNot documented in their knowledge baseYes. Runs at 2:00 AM by defaultYes. A New Day utility, eight steps in their own guideNot documented in their public help

    Where the cells come from. Every one is read off that vendor's own public pages, because those are the pages the vendor keeps up to date. "Not published" means we went and looked and it is not there.

    One at a time

    Cardinal against each system, one page each

    The price on your property, the steps for the jobs you do every week, and the questions worth asking on their demo.

    Which one costs less on your property is arithmetic rather than opinion. Put your own numbers through the pricing comparison, including the break-even where the answer flips.

    See it running

    Follow a full day in Cardinal, screen by screen.

    Six real screens from a working property, in the order the day happens. Open it now and go at your own pace.

    See a day runBook a demoFrom $189 a month. See what that includes →