What a channel manager does, in one paragraph
A channel manager connects your property to OTAs (online travel agents) such as Booking.com, Agoda, Traveloka and tiket.com. When a room is booked on one, it closes that room on the others. When you change a price, it sends the new price out. It saves you from updating each extranet (the OTA's partner back office) by hand. Agoda's partner help, for example, says that once a channel manager is connected, you update price and availability in that system (opens in new tab). If you want the full picture, read our hotel channel manager guide (opens in new tab).
Knowing the job helps you see what the price pays for: the connection to each OTA, the updates you send every day, and help when something breaks. It also helps to know what the OTAs already cost you. Our guide to OTA costs in Indonesia (opens in new tab) explains their commission.
The common pricing models
Most channel managers are sold as a subscription, which means you rent the software online instead of buying it once. Prices follow one of these patterns, or a mix. The table explains each one in plain words, and what it means for your bill.
| Pricing model | How it works | What it means for your bill |
|---|
| Per room per month | A set amount for each room, every month | The bill grows with your room count, not with your bookings |
| Per property per month | One price for the whole property, often by size band | The price steps up when you move into a bigger size band |
| Per booking or percentage | A fee or a share of each booking | The bill is higher in busy months and lower in quiet ones |
| Per channel | A price for each OTA you connect | Each new OTA adds to the bill |
| Setup or onboarding fee | A one-time charge to set you up | Paid once, at the start |
| Add-ons | Separate charges for a booking engine, inbox, reports or extra users | The starting price may cover only the channel manager |
| Yearly billing | A lower monthly price when you pay for a year at once | You pay less per month, billed once a year |
Some tools mix two or three of these. Kiyo uses one simple model: a base fee per month plus a price per room. The sections below show how that works with real numbers.
Why a full year tells you more than one month
A per-booking charge grows with every guest. It can look small in a quiet month and add up in high season. A setup fee is paid once, but it is still part of what you pay.
That is why it helps to work out a full year, not one month. Finance teams call this the total cost of ownership: everything you pay over a period, not just the sticker price. A year includes your busy season and your quiet season. It also spreads any setup fee across twelve months.
The same idea applies to add-ons. If you need a booking engine for direct bookings (see our guide to a direct booking website for small hotels (opens in new tab)), it matters whether the price already includes it. With Kiyo, the booking engine is in every plan and setup is free, so the yearly sum is simply the monthly price times 12.
How Kiyo's price is built
Kiyo costs from Rp40k per room per month (opens in new tab), plus a fixed base fee for your plan. There are three plans: Starter, Pro and Business. Your monthly price is the base fee plus the room price times your number of rooms.
A few points make the sum easy to check:
- A villa counts as one unit. The slider on the pricing page counts rooms and villas the same way, so an 8-villa property is priced as 8 units.
- Hostels are priced per bed. Instead of a room price, hostels pay Rp20k, Rp30k or Rp40k per bed per month on Starter, Pro and Business.
- The price does not move with your bookings. The sum only uses the base fee and your room count, so a busy month costs the same as a quiet one.
- Adding an OTA does not change the price. The channel manager, with 75+ OTAs, is part of every plan.
A worked example: what Kiyo costs for 5, 10 and 20 rooms
Here are Kiyo's monthly prices for three common property sizes:
| Plan | Per room per month | Base fee per month | 5 rooms | 10 rooms | 20 rooms |
|---|
| Starter | Rp40k | Rp150k | Rp350k | Rp550k | Rp950k |
| Pro | Rp75k | Rp250k | Rp625k | Rp1 million | Rp1.75 million |
| Business | Rp100k | Rp500k | Rp1 million | Rp1.5 million | Rp2.5 million |
Here is the sum for a 10-room guesthouse on Starter, step by step:
- Rooms times the room price: 10 × Rp40k = Rp400k.
- Add the base fee: Rp400k + Rp150k = Rp550k a month.
- Times 12 for one year: Rp550k × 12 = Rp6.6 million.
- Add the setup fee. Kiyo's setup is free, so the year stays at Rp6.6 million.
So a 10-room hotel pays Rp550k a month, channel manager included. The slider on the Kiyo pricing page (opens in new tab) shows the latest price for your number of rooms.
Yearly billing: 20% off the whole monthly price
If you pay yearly, Kiyo takes 20% off the whole monthly price, including the fixed base part, not just the room part. On the pricing page, switch the toggle to "Yearly · save 20%". The page then shows a price per month, billed yearly. Here are the same sizes on yearly billing:
| Plan | 5 rooms | 10 rooms | 20 rooms |
|---|
| Starter | Rp280k | Rp440k | Rp760k |
| Pro | Rp500k | Rp800k | Rp1.4 million |
| Business | Rp800k | Rp1.2 million | Rp2 million |
These are prices per month, billed once a year. So a 10-room hotel on Starter pays Rp440k a month on yearly billing. That is Rp5.28 million for the year, instead of Rp6.6 million when billed monthly, a saving of Rp1.32 million.
What every Kiyo plan includes
Every plan, from Starter up, includes:
- The channel manager, with 75+ OTAs. You set rates and rules such as minimum stay in one rate calendar. Changes go out to your connected channels when you press Push to OTAs and confirm.
- A direct booking engine, so guests can book on your own website. You can try the guest side in the KiyoStay demo (opens in new tab).
- Unlimited team logins, so each person on your staff has their own.
- Free setup with the Kiyo team. We set it up with you, as described below.
Pro and Business add:
- A shared guest inbox. Messages from WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, Outlook, Booking.com, Expedia and Airbnb come into one place.
- A reviews dashboard for Booking.com, Airbnb and Expedia reviews, with replies sent from Kiyo.
Business also adds up to 3 properties on one plan, and housekeeping tools, which are switched on property by property as they roll out.
A Bali example: an 8-villa property in Ubud
This is a made-up example. It is not a real property, and it does not promise any result. It only shows how to turn plan prices into a yearly number.
Imagine an 8-villa property in Ubud. The owner sells on Booking.com, Airbnb and Agoda, and takes some bookings on WhatsApp. They want to know what one year of Kiyo would cost on each plan. Here is the sum with live prices:
| Plan | Monthly sum for 8 villas | Per month, billed monthly | One year, billed monthly | Per month, billed yearly | One year, billed yearly |
|---|
| Starter | 8 × Rp40k + Rp150k | Rp470k | Rp5.64 million | Rp376k | Rp4.512 million |
| Pro | 8 × Rp75k + Rp250k | Rp850k | Rp10.2 million | Rp680k | Rp8.16 million |
| Business | 8 × Rp100k + Rp500k | Rp1.3 million | Rp15.6 million | Rp1,040k | Rp12.48 million |
Next, the owner matches the plans to the team's daily work, using the list of what each plan includes. Guests here often message on WhatsApp and Airbnb, so the owner notes that the shared inbox comes with Pro. If they open a second property later, Business covers up to 3 on one plan.
Now the owner has one yearly number per plan and one list of jobs. That is much easier to discuss with a business partner than three monthly prices on their own.
Common mistakes when budgeting for a channel manager
These are the mistakes we see most often when owners plan what a channel manager will cost them.
- Looking at one month, not one year. A low month can hide a setup fee or a per-booking charge. Always do the 12-month sum.
- Counting rooms the wrong way. Tools count villas, beds and units in different ways. With Kiyo, a villa counts as one unit and hostels pay per bed.
- Forgetting the OTAs you will add later. With a per-channel price, each new OTA adds to the bill. With Kiyo, connecting another OTA does not change the price.
- Paying twice for the same job. If your plan already includes a booking engine, you don't need a separate one.
- Leaving tax out of the budget. Check whether a price includes tax, so your yearly number is right.
- Skipping the demo with your team. The person at the front desk uses the tool every day. Let them try it first.
Costs that are not on the invoice
Some costs never appear on a bill. They still matter.
- Your time. If setup takes you many evenings, that is a cost. At Kiyo, the team does the setup with you.
- Mistakes during the switch. A messy move can lead to a wrong rate or a missed booking. Our step-by-step guide to channel manager setup (opens in new tab) lists what to check before go-live.
- Slow support. If a connection breaks on a Saturday and nobody answers, you may lose bookings. Support hours matter.
- Language. If your team works in Bahasa Indonesia, support in Bahasa makes problems faster to fix.
- Staff training. A tool your team finds hard will be used badly. Our channel manager demo scorecard (opens in new tab) helps you score what you see in a demo.
These are harder to put a number on. Write them down anyway, next to your yearly sum.
What your Kiyo price covers beyond the software
Your monthly price with Kiyo is not only for the software. Setup is free, and the work behind it is done with you:
- Rooms and rates. We set up your room types, room counts and rate plans with you.
- Channels. We connect your OTAs and map each room and rate, one channel at a time.
- Existing bookings. Future bookings you already have can be imported from a CSV or TSV file, so they are in Kiyo from day one.
- Team logins. Each person on your team gets their own login.
- A test. On request, we show a live last-room test: one booking closes the room on your other channels.
After go-live, your property gets its own WhatsApp group with the Kiyo team. We aim to reply within 15 minutes, and at most within 2 hours, from 07:00 to 19:00 WITA, with 24/7 cover if the system fails. The team includes Indonesian staff, and support is in Bahasa Indonesia or English. In Bali, the team can visit you. Outside Bali, we do it on a video call.
Free setup. Pay from go-live, and if Kiyo isn't right for you in the first 14 days, we refund you in full.
Frequently asked questions
It depends on the pricing model and your property size. With Kiyo, a 10-room hotel pays Rp550k a month on Starter, channel manager included, or Rp440k a month on yearly billing.
No. Kiyo's price is a monthly base fee plus a price per room, so it stays the same in busy and quiet months.
No. Setup is free, and the Kiyo team does it with you.
Yes. Every Kiyo plan includes a direct booking engine, along with the channel manager and team logins.
You pay for 12 months at once and get 20% off the whole monthly price, not just the room part. The pricing page shows the yearly price per month.
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