Charging treatments to the room: connecting the spa to the PMS
For a hotel guest, charging a treatment to their room is an expected comfort. For the team, it is often a chore: note the treatment, copy it into the hotel software, check nothing was forgotten at check-out. Connecting the spa to the hotel software removes these steps.
By the SpaPlanner teamPublished on 2 min read
What a PMS is, and why it matters to the spa
The PMS (property management system) is the hotel’s management software: reservations, rooms, arrivals and departures, billing. It holds the guest’s room bill, paid at check-out. Mews, Oracle OPERA, Cloudbeds and Apaleo are examples.
Without a connection: double entry
When the spa software and the PMS do not talk to each other, every treatment charged to the room is entered twice: in the spa tool, then in the PMS, by the spa or the front desk. The risks are well known:
- a forgotten treatment missing from the bill, and a guest who has already left;
- a wrong room number, and a treatment charged to the wrong guest;
- a gap between the spa’s revenue and what the hotel records;
- lost time for the front desk and the spa, just when everyone is busy.
With a connection: what changes
Connected to the PMS, the spa software finds the guests staying at the hotel: by typing a name or room number, the team sees the right guest and their stay dates, and knows whether they can charge to the room. At checkout, the treatment goes straight to the room bill, itemised. At check-out, the guest pays everything at once, with no bad surprise.
The connection also helps follow-up: every posting is logged, and a failed posting (room already released, guest gone) is flagged immediately, so it can be settled another way before it is too late.
Questions to ask before choosing
- Is your PMS already connected? If not, how long will it take and on what terms?
- Does data flow both ways? In-house guests to the spa, treatments to the room bill.
- What happens when a posting fails? Is the spa told, and can it take payment another way?
- Do retail products go to the room too, not just treatments?
- Can no-show fees be charged to the room?
- Who manages the connection: the spa software vendor, your IT team, the PMS vendor?
And outside clients?
They pay on site: card, cash, payment link sent by e-mail or gift card. For them, the software must produce a proper invoice, to download or send by e-mail. Both flows must live side by side on the same checkout screen.
In short
The PMS connection is what turns spa software into true hotel spa software. It removes double entry, secures billing and makes your reports reliable. SpaPlanner connects to Mews first; other connections are added without changing the rest of the tool. Discover checkout and the PMS connection.