Kiyo HQ vs Frontdesko: their PMS is free forever, but OTA sync is a paid US$ bundle. See the real monthly cost, channels, QRIS and WhatsApp support.
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Short answer: Frontdesko says its PMS is "free forever". Sounds great. But the free plan cannot talk to Booking.com, Agoda or Traveloka. To connect them, you must buy a US dollar bundle. Kiyo HQ includes the channel manager in every plan, priced in rupiah. Kiyo HQ is from Rp40k per room per month, and a 10-room hotel pays Rp550k a month, channel manager included.
Kiyo HQ (kiyohq.com) is not related to Kiyoh reviews.
See Kiyo HQ's 75+ OTAs in the demo
Frontdesko's pricing page says "free forever", with no room limit. That is a nice hook. Here is what the free plan gives you, and what costs extra.
| What you need | Free on Frontdesko? | What their pages say |
|---|---|---|
| Room and booking calendar | Yes | Free plan |
| Booking engine for your website | Yes on the pricing page | Other pages say it is "included from $35/month" or "from $42/month" |
| Guest app | Yes | A web app, not a store app |
| POS (till for a café or minibar) | Yes | Free plan |
| Reports and guest profiles | Yes | Free plan |
| Email support | Yes | Paid plans get "Priority Support" |
| Channel manager (sync with booking sites) | No | Only in a paid bundle |
| AI assistant | No | Only in the same paid bundle |
| Prices for over 50 rooms | Not stated |
The catch is simple. The channel manager and the AI assistant come as one bundle. You cannot buy the channel manager on its own. So if you sell on any booking site, "free" is not your price. The bundle is.
Frontdesko charges in US dollars. We converted their prices at about Rp18,050 per US$ (Bank Indonesia JISDOR rate, 19 Oct 2026). Kiyo HQ prices are from our pricing slider, in rupiah, with the channel manager included in every plan.
| Rooms | Frontdesko bundle (channel manager + AI) | Kiyo HQ Starter | Kiyo HQ Pro | Kiyo HQ Business |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Mint US$35, about Rp632k | Rp350k | Rp625k | Rp1jt |
| 10 | Mint US$35, about Rp632k | Rp550k | Rp1jt | Rp1.5jt |
| 20 | Basil US$42, about Rp758k | Rp950k | Rp1.75jt | Rp2.5jt |
What the table shows:
For your exact Kiyo HQ price, move the slider on our pricing page. For a wider view, see our hotel PMS pricing comparison.
A monthly price can look small. A year shows the real bill. Here is a 10-room hotel, using the same rate of about Rp18,050 per US$.
| 10 rooms, 12 months | Total for the year |
|---|---|
| Frontdesko Mint bundle, US$35 a month | about Rp7.58jt, and it moves with the dollar |
| Kiyo HQ Starter, paid monthly | Rp6.6jt |
| Kiyo HQ Starter, paid yearly (20% off) | Rp5.28jt |
Bigger hotels pay more on their side too. Their Saffron bundle is US$54 a month for 31 to 50 rooms, about Rp975k at today's rate. Their own Indonesia page lists it at Rp850,000. Their rupiah figures work out to about Rp15,700 per dollar, well below today's rate, so the rupiah price on their page may not be what your card is charged. Their pricing page also lists prices in Indian rupees.
Running more than one property? Their free-plan page says multi-property is "included on Professional ($54/month)". In Kiyo HQ, the Business plan covers up to 3 properties, with one rupiah price.
Some simple questions have no answer on their website.
| Question | Answer on their pages |
|---|---|
| Does the POS handle Indonesian needs, like QRIS at the till or local tax on a café bill? | Not stated. |
| How do payments connect? | You must bring your own payment gateway account. Their Indonesia page says QRIS works this way. Their free-plan page lists "Payment Processing" as "On the Roadmap". |
| Is the payment setup Bank Indonesia-friendly? | Not stated. |
| What does a property with more than 50 rooms pay? | Not stated. |
| Is there a native phone app? | Their homepage says "native mobile apps". Other pages say no app download is needed and it runs in a mobile browser. |
In Kiyo HQ, eligible properties can offer QRIS through our payment partner. You do not need to set up a payment gateway account yourself. QRIS is Indonesia's national QR code for payments, run under Bank Indonesia. Our QRIS guide for hotels explains how it works.
On Frontdesko, their Indonesia page says you connect your own payment gateway account. Through it, guests can pay by QRIS, OVO, DANA, GoPay, ShopeePay, virtual account or card. That is one more job on your list. You have to open that account yourself, get it approved, connect it to Frontdesko, and keep it running. And their free-plan page still lists "Payment Processing" as "On the Roadmap".
On Kiyo HQ, there is no payment gateway for you to create. We set up and handle payments for you, through our payment partner, as part of free setup. Eligible properties can take QRIS, and guests pay in rupiah. You focus on your guests. We handle the payment side.
| Guest payments | Frontdesko | Kiyo HQ |
|---|---|---|
| Who opens the payment gateway account | You do | Nobody. We set up payments for you |
| Extra account to manage | Yes, your own payment gateway account | No |
| Setup | You connect it yourself | Done with you, as part of free setup |
| Payment processing status | "On the Roadmap" on their free-plan page | Set up and handled by Kiyo HQ |
Hotel tax is clear too. In Kiyo HQ, you set your rate, and it shows on invoices as "Pajak Hotel / PBJT" (formerly PB1), the local tax under Law No. 1 of 2022.
Nobody knows. Their own pages give three answers:
| Their page | Number of channels |
|---|---|
| Homepage, channel manager page, Indonesia page | "Another channel total" |
| Features page | "Different channel total" |
| Best PMS for small hotels page | "A third channel total" |
Their pages disagree on other basics too:
| Topic | One page says | Another page says |
|---|---|---|
| Plan names | Mint, Basil, Saffron | Growth, Professional |
| Free plan size | "Any size, no room limit" | "Up to 5 rooms" |
| Trial | "Free trial: not needed, free forever" | "Free 30-Day Trial" |
| Cheapest paid plan | Mint at $35 | Paid plans "start at $42" |
| Which plan is free | A "Free" plan at $0 | Their llms.txt file says the free PMS is "Mint", which is $35 on the pricing page |
| Booking engine | Free | "Included from $35/month" or "from $42/month" |
| Payments | QRIS works today | "Payment Processing: On the Roadmap" |
| Support speed | "Response within 24 hours" | "Within 1 hour" |
| Support language | "Email support in English" | "Also available in Bahasa Indonesia" |
Kiyo HQ is upfront: 75+ OTAs and growing, including Booking.com, Agoda, Expedia, Airbnb, Traveloka, tiket.com and Trip.com. Every plan gets all of them.
When a guest taps "Book now" on any of them, the room closes on all your other sites in a split second, so it cannot be sold twice. Guest details follow once payment is confirmed, and the room is held until then. If a connection breaks, you get a message, and so does our team.
Watch one booking update every channel in the Kiyo HQ calendar
Your own booking engine lets guests book on your website, without an OTA in the middle. Both tools have one, and Frontdesko's is free. We will say that plainly. The real question is what happens after a guest books on your site.
On Frontdesko's free plan, your booking engine does not sync with the OTAs. Their pages say a direct booking "syncs instantly with your PMS". But syncing with Booking.com, Agoda or Traveloka needs the channel manager, and that is only in the paid US dollar bundle. So on the free plan, a room booked on your website stays open on every OTA until someone closes it by hand. That is how double bookings happen.
On Kiyo HQ, the booking engine is included from Starter, and it runs on the same calendar as your 75+ OTAs. A guest books on your website, and that room closes on every OTA in a split second. Your website prices and your OTA prices come from one calendar, so you set them once. You can still run promo codes and different rate plans for direct guests.
| Booking engine point | Frontdesko | Kiyo HQ |
|---|---|---|
| Booking engine on the cheapest plan | Yes, free on the pricing page. Other pages say "from $35" or "from $42" | Yes, included from Starter |
| Syncs with OTAs on the cheapest plan | No. Needs the paid channel manager bundle | Yes, 75+ OTAs on one calendar |
| How it sits on your site | A widget you paste in with "one line" of code | Your own Kiyo HQ booking site. You can also use your own domain |
| Card data | "PCI-compliant payment gateway", "payment data is encrypted". Who stores card data: not stated | Kiyo HQ never stores card data. Cards are entered in our payment partner's secure fields |
| Website security | "SSL encryption" | SSL certificates from Cloudflare, with TLS 1.2 or newer |
| Guest data | "You own all guest data" | Export your guest list as CSV, or export your full account |
| Language and currency for guests | "15 guest languages". Bahasa Indonesia in that list: not stated | Fully translated into Bahasa Indonesia |
| Currency | Rupiah prices on their Indonesia page | Guests are charged in rupiah, with 8 display currencies |
| Extra cost for the engine | Contradictory: free, "from $35" or "from $42" | No paid add-on |
What "safe" means for a small hotel:
See the Kiyo HQ booking engine in the demo
Guests message you everywhere. One asks on Instagram, another on WhatsApp, a third through Booking.com. Jumping between apps is how replies get missed.
On Pro and higher plans, Kiyo HQ puts these 8 channels in one inbox:
| Channel | What lands in your inbox |
|---|---|
| Chats from guests and leads | |
| Direct messages | |
| Page messages | |
| Outlook | |
| Telegram | Chats |
| Booking.com | Guest messages from your listing |
| Expedia | Guest messages from your listing |
| Airbnb | Guest messages from your listing |
Your team answers all of them from one screen, next to the booking. Reviews sit in the same place, so you can reply to them too.
Frontdesko's pages list WhatsApp for guest messaging. Their pages do not give a full list of other inbox channels, so we cannot compare them channel by channel.
See the Kiyo HQ inbox in the demo
Kiyo HQ has an Indonesian team, and we offer support in Bahasa Indonesia and English. You talk to people who know how hotels, villas and guesthouses work here: the OTAs your guests use, QRIS, and local hotel tax.
Frontdesko's pricing page says "Email support in English", while their Indonesia page says support is "also available in Bahasa Indonesia". Their contact page lists a phone line on an India (+91) number in US business hours.
We are Indonesian. We are the connection you need.
Choose Kiyo HQ if:
Our offer: free setup, and you pay from go-live with a 14-day money-back guarantee. Prices are from Rp40k per room per month. See your exact price on the pricing page.
Book a Kiyo HQ demo and see the full dashboard
Frontdesko's PMS is free, but the channel manager is not. It comes only in a dollar bundle with an AI assistant, and their own pages disagree on channels, plans, trials and support. Kiyo HQ is clear: 75+ OTAs in every plan, one rupiah price, one inbox for 8 guest channels, and an Indonesian team on WhatsApp, in Bahasa Indonesia, in your time zone. Up to 10 rooms, it also costs less.
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