The project dashboard is a free tool that is only available to verified hoteliers to make adopting new technology easier by streamlining their research and simplifying their communication workflow.
TLDR
We analyzed 254 verified hotelier reviews, compared feature sets, pricing, and real-world case studies to break down where each platform delivers. The right choice depends on your property type and priorities:
Hospitality Software Development Services (HSDS) shines , with exclusive features like Urgency messaging.
Exely shines in ease of use and customer support — especially for brand properties (0.0/5) , with exclusive features like Confirmation emails and Automated reporting.
Side-by-side ratings based on 254 verified hotelier reviews on HTR.
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| Starting Price | Contact sales | From $200/mo |
| Verified Reviews | 0 | 254 |
After analyzing 254 verified reviews, Hospitality Software Development Services (HSDS) users most value its , while Exely users highlight user-friendly interface and daily operational efficiency, responsive customer support and account guidance, direct bookings and revenue growth. Click any theme to see what reviewers say.
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User-friendly interface and daily operational efficiency
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Responsive customer support and account guidance
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Direct bookings and revenue growth
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Booking engine conversion and guest booking experience
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Customization of booking engine, reports, and website design
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Reporting and analytics depth
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How each product ranks among Booking Engine vendors for different property sizes, types, and regions — based on verified reviews from hoteliers in each segment.
By Hotel Size
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| Small (10-24 rooms) ▾ | — | #15 34 reviews |
| Mid-Size (25-74 rooms) ▾ | #48 0 reviews | #11 64 reviews |
| Large (75-199 rooms) ▾ | #44 0 reviews | #22 5 reviews |
| X-Large (200+ rooms) ▾ | — | #8 6 reviews |
By Property Type
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| Boutique ▾ | #45 0 reviews | #15 35 reviews |
| Luxury ▾ | #51 0 reviews | #15 28 reviews |
| Branded / Chain ▾ | #43 0 reviews | #16 17 reviews |
| Extended Stay ▾ | #37 0 reviews | #16 9 reviews |
By Region
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| North America | — | #24 2 reviews |
| Europe ▾ | #40 0 reviews | #25 11 reviews |
| Asia Pacific ▾ | — | #4 79 reviews |
| Middle East ▾ | — | #2 17 reviews |
Choosing the right booking engine is critical for your hotel’s operations, revenue, and guest satisfaction. Both bookNG by HSDS and Exely aim to streamline reservations and improve direct bookings, but they differ significantly in user feedback, features, and market presence. Focus now on what matters most to your team: ease of use, feature set, support, or pricing. Which platform aligns better with your hotel’s specific needs?
Both products address the core challenge of increasing direct bookings and managing reservations efficiently, but they take different approaches. bookNG offers extensive customization options and integration with PMS and Channel Managers, mainly appealing to hotels seeking tailored solutions. Exely emphasizes simplicity, marketing tools, and fast onboarding, making it appealing for hoteliers prioritizing quick setup and user-friendly interfaces. Do you need a highly customizable platform or a straightforward, marketing-driven solution?
While bookNG has no recent reviews and a limited overall rating, Exely boasts over 144 reviews, with 63 in the last six months, reflecting stronger current user experiences. This makes Exely’s user feedback more relevant for today’s decision-makers. Are you willing to consider a platform with proven recent adoption and high satisfaction ratings?
Ease of use plays a pivotal role in successful implementation. bookNG, despite its detailed customization features, has no ratings or reviews, which raises concerns about its current usability and onboarding experience. In contrast, Exely scores a near-perfect 4.91 out of 5 for ease of use, supported by recent reviews praising its intuitive interface and smooth management dashboard.
Support and onboarding are similarly rated with 4.84 out of 5 for Exely, compared to no data for bookNG. User reviews highlight Exely’s responsive customer service and simple setup process, which encourages quicker staff adoption. Edge: Exely.
Feature-wise, Exely surpasses bookNG, offering 17 exclusive features compared to 5 in bookNG. Exely’s advanced capabilities include room substitutions, conversion rate reports, GDPR compliance, customizable add-ons, and integrations with platforms like PayPal, Stripe, Tripadvisor, and Google Hotel Ads. These features support marketing, automation, and detailed analytics.
bookNG provides core booking functionalities with some unique features like social media integration, pooled inventory, and loyalty program integration, but it lacks the breadth of automation and marketing tools present in Exely. With 12 shared features, Exely’s broader feature set gives it an edge. Edge: Exely.
Customer support quality influences your hotel’s ongoing success with a booking engine. Exely’s ratings—4.96 out of 5 for support and onboarding—are the highest among comparable products, with recent reviews emphasizing its quick, helpful responses and proactive approach.
On the other hand, bookNG has no recent review data or ratings, making it difficult to assess support quality. Given the importance of reliable support, especially during implementation, Exely clearly leads in this area. Edge: Exely.
When it comes to connecting with your existing systems, Exely again takes the lead. It offers 8 verified partners, including popular integrations like Oracle Hospitality, Booking.com, and IDeaS, with 2 common partners shared with bookNG.
bookNG boasts 17 verified partners, including Lighthouse, YieldPlanet, and RateGain, but it has fewer recent reviews to confirm ongoing support and integration stability. Exely's broader presence across different regions and active partnerships suggest a more flexible and reliable integration ecosystem. Edge: Exely.
User ratings heavily favor Exely, with a 92.67 out of 100 score based on recent reviews, and an overall rating of 0/5 from HSDS—indicating extremely limited or no recent feedback. Conversely, HSDS’s lack of reviews makes it impossible to gauge current user sentiment.
Recent Exely reviews praise its user-friendliness, quick setup, and support for direct bookings, with many noting that it helped increase revenue and streamline operations. Hoteliers clearly prefer Exely’s current user experience, making it the more trusted choice today. Edge: Exely.
Pricing details are straightforward for Exely, which charges $200 monthly with no free tier or trial. For bookNG, no pricing information is publicly available, and its lack of recent reviews suggests it may no longer be actively marketed or supported.
Given the transparency and clear pricing for Exely, your team can better evaluate its ROI and budget accordingly. The absence of pricing info for bookNG makes it a less attractive, less predictable option. Edge: Exely.
Not ideal if your hotel prefers a plug-and-play solution or lacks internal IT support.
Not ideal if your hotel needs highly customized workflows or extensive third-party system integrations beyond what Exely offers.
The core difference is that Exely is a well-rated, feature-rich, and widely supported booking engine with recent positive reviews. bookNG, by contrast, has no current review data, making its effectiveness uncertain.
If your hotel needs a reliable, user-friendly platform that boosts direct bookings and offers strong support, Exely is the clear choice. It’s especially suitable for properties wanting quick deployment, excellent support, and a broad feature set.
Choose bookNG only if your hotel has specific customization needs that Exely cannot meet, and you have the technical resources to manage a more complex system. For most hotels, Exely’s recent user satisfaction and proven market presence make it the better investment.
Note: This comparison reflects the latest available data and reviews, emphasizing recent user feedback to guide your decision.
Booking Engine pricing is rarely straightforward. Here is what we know from each vendor's public pricing data. Always request a custom quote for your property size.
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| Starting Price | — | From $200/mo |
These are the features each vendor has configured, organized by feature group — the same data shown in the vendor dashboard. Expand a group to compare features side by side.
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Merchandising & Packages
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| Room substitutions | ||
| Multi-room bookings | ||
| Flat, floating and discounted rates | ||
| Pooled inventory | ||
| Special offers & discounts | ||
| Customizable add-ons | ||
| Meal plans | ||
| Website Integration | ||
| Social Media Integration/Bookings | ||
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Upselling & Cross Selling
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| Multi-room bookings | ||
| Room substitutions | ||
| Gift Vouchers | ||
| Booking abandonment recapture | ||
| Customizable add-ons | ||
| Special offers & discounts | ||
| Meal plans | ||
| Alternative accommodation recommendations (when no availability) | ||
| Loyalty program integration | ||
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Conversion
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| Mobile optimized/responsive | ||
| Special offers & discounts | ||
| Urgency messaging | ||
| Booking abandonment recapture | ||
| Multi-room bookings | ||
| Room substitutions | ||
| A/B testing & optimization | ||
| Price comparison widget | ||
| Multi-lingual | ||
| Conversion rate reports | ||
| Facebook conversion tracking | ||
| Customizable exit intent modals | ||
| Form autofill | ||
| Flexible dates | ||
| Rate plan comparisons | ||
| Google Hotel Ads Bookings | ||
| Tripadvisor Bookings | ||
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Payments
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| Multi-currency | ||
| Apple Pay | ||
| Google Pay | ||
| Paypal | ||
| PCI Compliance | ||
| PayU | ||
| Stripe | ||
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Transactional Emails
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| Booking abandonment recapture | ||
| Post-stay emails | ||
| Pre-stay emails | ||
| Confirmation emails | ||
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Group Bookings
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| Wedding & corporate booking modules | ||
| Availability block | ||
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Reporting & Analytics
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| Automated reporting | ||
| Conversion rate reports | ||
| Referral Reporting | ||
| Google Analytics tracking | ||
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Tax & Compliance
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| PCI Compliance | ||
| ADA Compliant | ||
| Tariffs | ||
| Multi-currency | ||
| GDPR compliant |
We analyzed 3 verified case studies to compare what hotels actually achieve with each platform across four key business objectives.
No published case study for this goal yet.
"We took a proactive approach and collaborated with Exely, implementing various strategies, such as a loyalty program. The outcome has been outstanding — not only have we been able..."
No published case study for this goal yet.
"Once we switched to Exely, we immediately noticed a significant increase in reservations from online travel agencies. We discovered that our previous system had blocked some availa..."
Unique capabilities
What hoteliers love
Reviewers consistently describe Exely as intuitive, easy to teach, and efficient for daily hotel operations such as reservations, availability, rates,... Reviewers consistently describe Exely as intuitive, easy to teach, and efficient for daily hotel operations such as reservations, availability, rates, and guest info. The simplicity is seen as a time-saver that reduces manual work and helps staff manage sales more confidently, though some still ask for clearer navigation in advanced areas.
Support is one of Exely’s most consistently praised strengths, with reviewers highlighting fast responses by chat, phone, Telegram, and email. Users a... Support is one of Exely’s most consistently praised strengths, with reviewers highlighting fast responses by chat, phone, Telegram, and email. Users appreciate the hands-on help with setup, rate changes, technical issues, and special offer configuration, often saying the team reduces operational friction and improves confidence in using the system.
Reviewers repeatedly say Exely helps shift demand to the hotel website, increasing direct reservations and reducing OTA commission costs. Many note me... Reviewers repeatedly say Exely helps shift demand to the hotel website, increasing direct reservations and reducing OTA commission costs. Many note measurable revenue gains, stronger conversion, and better control over direct sales strategy through the booking engine and promotional tools.
Where hoteliers push back
Users frequently ask for more flexibility in the look and feel of the booking engine and website side, including brand colors, templates, widget desig... Users frequently ask for more flexibility in the look and feel of the booking engine and website side, including brand colors, templates, widget design, confirmation emails, and invoice formatting. Some also want more customizable reports and dashboards, noting that Exely can feel restrictive when hotels want a more distinctive branded experience.
A major recurring gap is the need for more advanced reporting and analytics. Reviewers want deeper visibility into conversion, revenue sources, sales... A major recurring gap is the need for more advanced reporting and analytics. Reviewers want deeper visibility into conversion, revenue sources, sales channels, occupancy, campaign performance, and booking trends, often asking for customizable dashboards, mobile analytics, and easier comparison across periods.
Ranks higher for
Unique capabilities
Where the ratings diverge most
It depends on your requirements. bookNG (powered by HSDS) and Exely Booking Engine share many core Booking Engine features, but each has unique capabilities. bookNG (powered by HSDS) offers 17 verified integration partners, while Exely Booking Engine offers 8. Review the feature comparison above to see where they differ before switching.
Small hotels should prioritize ease of use and fast onboarding. Exely Booking Engine leads in ease of use at 4.9/5 vs 0.0/5. Look for transparent pricing and a trial or demo option. Filter reviews on each product page by property size to hear from hotels like yours.
bookNG (powered by HSDS): No. Exely Booking Engine: No. Neither product currently offers a free tier. Most Booking Engine vendors offer demos or trials — request one from each to evaluate before committing.
The HT Score is a composite ranking that considers 4 criteria groups and over a dozen variables to help hoteliers objectively compare hotel technology products. Hospitality Software Development Services (HSDS) has an HT Score of 0 and Exely has 96. Here is how the score is calculated.
| Criteria Group | Weight | What It Measures |
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| Customer Ratings & Reviews |
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How highly do users recommend this product? Ratings Score, Review Volume, Share of Voice, Review Depth, Review Recency, Success Stories ▾ The most heavily weighted factor. Analyzes average satisfaction ratings (likelihood to recommend, ease of use, support, ROI), total review count relative to category peers, review recency (at least 20 reviews in the trailing 6 months), and share of voice across unique hotel clients to detect selection bias. |
| Partner Ecosystem |
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How highly do tech partners recommend this company? Partner Recommendations, Integration Quantity, Integration Quality ▾ Evaluates partner recommendations as expert votes of confidence, the number of verified integrations, and ecosystem quality — the average HT Scores of integration partners. Products with higher-quality integration ecosystems are more likely to deliver a connected tech stack. |
| Customer Centricity |
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How customer-centric is this organization? Certified Support, Review Consistency, Profile Completeness ▾ Assesses whether the company has earned HTR Customer Support Certification, maintains consistent review collection over time (an indicator of feedback-driven culture), and keeps product profiles complete with capabilities, screenshots, pricing, and features. |
| Reach, Staying Power & Resources |
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How extensive is this company's reach and resourcing? Geographic Reach, Staying Power, Company Resources, Trending Score ▾ Measures global presence (countries and regions served), years in business as a stability proxy, team headcount as a resource proxy, and a trending score based on trailing-twelve-month buyer inquiries, reviews, partner recommendations, and press activity. |
Customer ratings and reviews are by far the most important factor in the HT Score algorithm. HTR does not accept payment for higher rankings. All reviews are verified — only hotel industry practitioners with confirmed affiliations can submit ratings. View full HT Score methodology →
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