At a glance
| Topic | LobbyMind | Cloudbeds |
|---|---|---|
| Who it is for | Guest houses, hotels and resorts, from one property to a small chainSource | Hospitality businesses of every size, from B&Bs and guesthouses to portfolios with thousands of roomsSource |
| Published price | Starter from USD 29 a month per property, up to 15 rooms. Growth from USD 6 a room a month, USD 99 minimum. Enterprise by quoteSource | No price on the page. Flex, One, Experience and Enterprise each ask you to request a quoteSource |
| Trying it | A 30-day trial on Growth, with free import and a dry runSource | A 30-minute demo tailored to the propertySource |
| Channel manager | Included in every plan: 78 channels, among them Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb and AgodaSource | Included from the One plan upSource |
| Booking engine | An add-on, priced on requestSource | Included from the One plan upSource |
| Payments | Card payments by pay link through the Bank of Maldives (BML) gateway. No other payment gateway yetSource | Payments included with all plansSource |
| Point of sale | No restaurant or bar POS. Guests order in the guest app and the charge posts to the folioSource | Connects to POS systems through its MarketplaceSource |
| Guest tools | A guest web portal for check-in, requests and orders, in 8 languages. A WhatsApp inbox is plannedSource | Digital check-in, a guest portal, a kiosk and one inbox for SMS, WhatsApp and OTA messagesSource |
| Rates and revenue | Rate plans with seasons, day-of-week prices and derived rates. No market-data pricing toolSource | Revenue management sold as an add-onSource |
| Integrations and API | An App store with QuickBooks Online, Zoho Books, payment, messaging and webhook apps. API and webhooks on Growth and EnterpriseSource | 450+ integration partners and an open APISource |
| AI | A copilot that answers questions on live data. Any change it proposes waits for staff approvalSource | An AI chatbot for the website, WhatsApp or SMSSource |
Cloudbeds says it serves 20,000+ properties in 150+ countries. It sells a property system, payments, a channel manager, a booking engine and marketing tools as one suite, priced by quote. LobbyMind is a newer property system for guest houses, hotels and resorts with published prices, a channel manager in every plan, and a guest portal and copilot built in. If you need payments and a wide marketplace outside the Maldives today, Cloudbeds covers more. If you want a published price, a 30-day trial and a system built around one property's day, LobbyMind is worth a look.
The table above lists the facts. Every Cloudbeds claim links to Cloudbeds' own pages, checked on the date at the end of this page. LobbyMind claims link to our own pages. Where we lack something Cloudbeds has, the table says so.
Price and how you buy
LobbyMind publishes its prices. Starter is one price per property for up to 15 rooms, from USD 29 a month. Growth is priced per room, from USD 6 a room a month with a USD 99 minimum, and adds unlimited properties, loyalty tiers, offers and the API. Enterprise, for groups that need single sign-on and their own brand, is quoted. Taxes are added by country.
Cloudbeds' pricing page lists four plans, Flex, One, Experience and Enterprise, and each one asks you to request a quote. Flex covers the property system, payments and the Marketplace. One adds the channel manager and booking engine. Experience adds guest experience and reputation tools. Revenue management, a CRM, digital marketing and websites are sold as add-ons. You will know the Cloudbeds price after a sales call; with LobbyMind you can work it out before one.
Channels and direct bookings
Both systems send rates and availability to the big online travel agencies and bring bookings back as reservations.
LobbyMind's channel manager connection is in every plan and reaches 78 channels, among them Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb and Agoda. Rooms and rates are mapped by name. A booking for a night with no price or no room is held and your manager is told what to fix, instead of being forced in. Small places that only list on Airbnb or Vrbo can start with per-room iCal sync, which is also included.
Cloudbeds includes its channel manager from the One plan and says it connects directly to 450+ OTAs, wholesalers and regional channels. That is a much longer list. If you sell through regional or wholesale channels, check that yours is on it.
For direct bookings, Cloudbeds includes a commission-free booking engine from the One plan. LobbyMind's booking engine is an add-on priced on request, and so is the property website.
Payments and point of sale
This is where the two differ most.
Cloudbeds includes payment processing with all plans, with cards and mobile wallets, and says it is PCI DSS Level 1 certified.
LobbyMind takes card payments through one gateway today: the Bank of Maldives (BML) gateway. Guests pay deposits and balances on BML's secure page by a pay link. Outside the Maldives you would record payments taken on your own terminal on the folio, but LobbyMind cannot charge a card for you yet.
Cloudbeds connects to POS systems through its Marketplace. LobbyMind has no POS and no POS connector yet. Guests can order from outlet menus in the guest app, and those charges post to the folio.
Guests, staff and AI
Cloudbeds lists digital check-in, a guest portal for upsells, a kiosk for self check-in, and one messaging inbox for SMS, email, WhatsApp and OTA messages, plus an AI chatbot for the website, WhatsApp or SMS.
LobbyMind's guest web portal lets guests check in, ask for things and order from their phone, in 8 languages including right-to-left Arabic and Dhivehi. The layout is changed in a builder, without an app update. The WhatsApp inbox is planned and not yet available. For staff, housekeeping works on any phone from the portal: room status from dirty to inspected, task lists built from arrivals and departures, and maintenance on the same list. The copilot answers questions on live data, such as who arrives today with a balance, and drafts replies. Anything it would change waits for a person to approve it.
Money after the stay
LobbyMind posts every charge the same way, keeps several folios per reservation, and runs a night audit that closes the business date. Invoices and supplier bills go to QuickBooks Online or Zoho Books, either one by one or as one daily journal. For the Maldives it produces statutory exports and the MIRA input tax statement.
Cloudbeds lists invoicing and financial tools among its Marketplace categories. If your accountant uses a specific package, check the Marketplace for it.
Switching from Cloudbeds
LobbyMind has no ready-made Cloudbeds import. You export your rooms, rates, guests and reservations as CSV and load them through plain CSV import, mapping each column. Every row is previewed with its outcome before anything is saved. The switch package that comes with the Growth trial covers the import, a 30 to 60 day parallel run on request, and role-based training.
How to choose
Make a short list of what you cannot run without, then check each item against the sources below. In our view:
- Choose by payments first. If you need card processing outside the Maldives today, LobbyMind does not have it yet.
- Count your channels. If one of your channels is not among LobbyMind's 78, that settles it.
- Price a year of each. Ask Cloudbeds for a quote and compare it with the LobbyMind pricing page.
- Try both with your own week of bookings. The LobbyMind trial runs 30 days.
You can also read how LobbyMind compares with Mews, or our list of Cloudbeds alternatives.
Where Cloudbeds fits better
- You want card processing, the booking engine and the channel manager from one vendor, and you are outside the Maldives, where LobbyMind has no payment gateway yet.
- You depend on many connected tools. Cloudbeds lists 450+ integration partners; the LobbyMind App store is much smaller.
- You want a kiosk, a website builder, revenue management and digital marketing from the same company.
- You run a large portfolio or a hostel group and want a vendor with published case studies at that size.
Sources
Last checked
Facts about other products come from their own public pages, listed here. Prices and features change, so check the source before you decide. We review these pages at least once a year and correct a claim as soon as we learn it is out of date.