Free PMS for Egyptian Guesthouses and Small Hotels
One calendar for every booking: Booking.com, Airbnb, WhatsApp, phone calls and walk-ins. No double bookings. No missed reservations. Check-in, room status, bills in EGP with service charge and taxes where they apply, and daily reports. Free. No subscription, no trial period.
OnlineHotelier PMS is a free hotel reservation system for Egyptian guesthouses, dive camps, desert camps, Nile-side lodges and small Red Sea hotels. It puts every booking in one calendar: Booking.com, Airbnb, WhatsApp, phone and walk-in. Check-in, room status, housekeeping, bills in EGP and daily reports are all included at no cost. The optional paid add-on is the channel manager, which syncs availability across OTAs automatically.
OnlineHotelier PMS at a glance
| Product | OnlineHotelier PMS, a free cloud hotel reservation and management system |
|---|---|
| Price | Free. No subscription, no trial period |
| Who it is for | Guesthouses, dive camps, desert camps, Nile-side and Nubian lodges, Red Sea apartment hotels and small boutique hotels in Egypt with limited inventory |
| Local tax handling | Configurable for Egypt: set your service charge and the taxes that apply to your property (service charge, city tax and VAT where they apply to you). Most small guesthouses are below the VAT registration threshold. The system calculates your bill correctly either way |
| Paid add-on | Channel manager that syncs availability and rates to Booking.com, Airbnb and other OTAs. Pricing on WhatsApp |
| Runs on | Any web browser on a phone, tablet or laptop. Nothing to install |
| How to start | Sign up online, or message us on WhatsApp for guided setup |
One calendar for every booking source
You run a six-room guesthouse in Dahab. A Booking.com reservation comes in for Saturday night. A few minutes later, a WhatsApp message arrives from a dive centre: two guests, same room, same night. You check your notebook. You check your phone. Neither is current.
That is the problem the OnlineHotelier calendar solves. Every booking lives in one place, whatever its source:
- Booking.com and Airbnb (via the channel manager add-on, or entered manually)
- WhatsApp messages from guests, dive centres and tour operators (entered at the front desk)
- Phone calls and walk-ins (entered directly)
- Any other channel you use to take reservations
When a room is taken, the calendar shows it as blocked. No double booking. Nothing missed. If you add the channel manager add-on, a Booking.com reservation closes the room on Airbnb and all other connected OTAs automatically.
WhatsApp as a booking channel in Egypt: Small guesthouses and dive camps in Dahab, Hurghada, El Gouna, Siwa and Luxor regularly receive bookings directly on WhatsApp. Dive centres and tour operators send rooming lists the same way. Guests who return year after year often book a room with a single message. Adding those WhatsApp bookings to the same calendar as your Booking.com and Airbnb reservations is how you keep everything in one place without a second notebook.
Check-in, room status, housekeeping and check-out
The calendar is one piece. The rest of the day-to-day runs here too.
Guest check-in
Record the guest's name, passport number, nationality and room on arrival. The system creates a guest folio (a running bill) from the moment they check in. Read our guide on the hotel check-in process for what to collect and why.
Room status
Mark rooms as occupied, vacant, dirty or clean after housekeeping. Front desk sees the update live so they know which rooms are ready for the next guest.
Housekeeping
Your housekeeper updates room status from their phone as they clean. No calling reception. The room shows as clean the moment it is ready.
Guest check-out and bill
Post room charges, extras and the guest's payments to their folio. Review the bill, apply service charge and the taxes that apply to your property, and print or share it at check-out. Done in one step.
Daily reports give you occupancy, average room rate and total revenue for the day. You get the numbers you need each morning without building them by hand.
Egypt taxes, billing and foreign guest records
The PMS can be configured for Egypt. You set your property's rates and charges once, and the bill calculates correctly every time.
VAT
VAT (Value Added Tax) applies at 14% in Egypt. This rate was confirmed unchanged by Law No. 157 of 2025. The registration threshold for resident businesses is EGP 500,000 of annual taxable turnover. If your property is below that figure, you do not charge VAT on your bills. Confirm the current threshold with your accountant or the Egyptian Tax Authority at eta.gov.eg, as it has been subject to proposed changes.
Most small guesthouses, Nubian lodges and desert camps are well below that threshold. If you are not registered, you do not add VAT to guest bills. If you are registered, the PMS adds it automatically once you set the rate in your settings.
Service charge
A service charge of 12% is applied by hotels across Egypt in practice. It appears on hotel bills before VAT is calculated. The primary legal statute setting this rate could not be confirmed from a government source during research. Confirm whether and how it applies to your property with a local accountant or the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
City tax
A city tax (local government fee) of 1% is applied by hotels on top of the room rate and service charge. The primary legal basis for this levy was not confirmed from a government source during research. Whether it applies to your property depends on your location and registration type. Ask your accountant.
Sample bills
Here are two sample bills, using round numbers. Prices in Egypt move with inflation, so use these as a format guide only.
VAT-registered hotel (service charge 12%, city tax 1%, VAT 14%):
| Room rate (1 night) | EGP 3,000 |
| Service charge (12%) | EGP 360 |
| City tax (1% on EGP 3,360) | EGP 34 |
| VAT (14% on EGP 3,394) | EGP 475 |
| Total payable | EGP 3,869 |
Small unregistered guesthouse (no VAT registration):
| Room rate (1 night) | EGP 1,200 |
| Service charge (if applicable) | EGP 144 |
| Total payable | EGP 1,344 |
Foreign guests and USD or EUR quoting: Many Red Sea properties (Hurghada, El Gouna, Dahab, Sharm el-Sheikh) and Nile cruise operators quote foreign guests in USD or EUR because those guests book from outside Egypt. The PMS records the amount in the currency you set for your property. You set the currency you bill in. Ask your accountant how to handle foreign-currency receipts in your Egyptian tax filings.
Foreign guest records
Hotels in Egypt are required to maintain a guest record for every arrival and report a guest list to the competent authorities. The PMS records each guest's name, nationality and passport number at check-in. A guest-list export is available on request: message us on WhatsApp to have it set up for your property.
Foreign guests have historically been required to register with the police within seven days of arrival. Hotels handle this registration at check-in by recording passport details. For the current legal requirements and any nationality-specific rules, check with your local tourist police office or the Egyptian Ministry of Interior.
Payments recorded
The PMS records how each guest paid: cash, card or bank transfer. The folio keeps a full payment history. Your daily report shows total collections by payment type. The PMS records payment; it does not process card transactions.
Property types across Egypt
The system is built for very small properties. Wherever you are in Egypt, if your main job is keeping track of who is in which room on which night, this covers it.
Dahab dive camps and guesthouses
Dive camps and small guesthouses in Dahab see a mix of Booking.com bookings, WhatsApp messages from dive centres, and guests who return the same time each year. One calendar keeps all of it in order.
Hurghada and El Gouna small hotels
Small apartment hotels and guesthouses on the Red Sea juggle multiple OTAs and direct WhatsApp inquiries at the same time. Preventing a double booking at peak season is the single biggest problem the calendar solves.
Luxor and Aswan Nubian guesthouses
Nile-side guesthouses in Luxor and Nubian lodges in Aswan handle international travellers with short stays between temples. Fast check-in and a correct bill matter most here.
Siwa eco-lodges and desert camps
Remote properties in Siwa and the Western Desert rely on WhatsApp and direct bookings. A system that runs on a phone with mobile data and needs no installation suits these locations well.
Cairo downtown hostels and guesthouses
High-turnover properties near the Egyptian Museum and in Islamic Cairo need fast check-in and a reliable calendar. Walk-ins and Booking.com reservations arrive at the same time during peak season.
Red Sea beach and desert camps
Seasonal beach camps with shared facilities and a handful of rooms often have no system at all. A free tool that runs on a phone and takes a few minutes to sign up for is a big step up from a notebook.
Channel manager: for when you outgrow updating each OTA by hand
If you are on one or two OTAs and you update availability yourself after each booking, the free PMS is enough. Most small properties start here.
The channel manager add-on becomes useful when you are on three or more OTAs and a booking on one platform means you need to close the room on all the others. Doing that by hand is slow, and a missed update causes a double booking.
The add-on connects your PMS calendar directly to Booking.com, Airbnb and other OTAs. When a booking arrives, all connected channels update automatically. Read our guide on what a channel manager does before deciding whether you need one.
The channel manager add-on is paid. Message us on WhatsApp and we will give you the current price for your property.