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 315 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:
Event Temple shines in ease of use and customer support — especially for brand properties (5.0/5) , with exclusive features like PCI Compliant Payments and Contact Management/CRM.
Explara shines .
Side-by-side ratings based on 315 verified hotelier reviews on HTR.
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| Starting Price | From $400/mo | Contact sales |
| Verified Reviews | 315 | 0 |
After analyzing 315 verified reviews, Event Temple users most value its ease of use and organization, support and onboarding, pms and system integrations, while Explara users highlight . Click any theme to see what reviewers say.
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Ease of use and organization
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Support and onboarding
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PMS and system integrations
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Proposal and contract generation
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PMS and system integrations
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Space availability and conflict management
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How each product ranks among Hotel Sales Software 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) ▾ | #1 32 reviews | — |
| Mid-Size (25-74 rooms) ▾ | #1 204 reviews | — |
| Large (75-199 rooms) ▾ | #3 24 reviews | — |
| X-Large (200+ rooms) ▾ | #1 20 reviews | — |
By Property Type
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| Boutique ▾ | #1 143 reviews | — |
| Luxury ▾ | #1 84 reviews | — |
| Branded / Chain ▾ | #1 131 reviews | — |
| Extended Stay ▾ | #1 26 reviews | — |
By Region
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| North America ▾ | #1 175 reviews | — |
| Europe ▾ | #1 82 reviews | — |
| Asia Pacific | #2 4 reviews | — |
Choosing between Event Temple and Explara hinges on your hotel’s specific needs and operational scale. Event Temple is a dedicated hotel CRM tailored to streamline sales, group bookings, and event management, while Explara offers a broad event and membership platform suited for diverse event types. Both products aim to improve your team’s efficiency, but their core functionalities and market focus differ significantly.
Event Temple has carved out a niche within the hotel industry, providing a specialized sales CRM with deep integrations and robust features. Explara is more generalized, serving a wide range of event organizers beyond hotels, which influences its feature set and user experience. So, which one aligns better with your hotel’s growth plans?
Event Temple is designed exclusively for hotel sales teams, with a focus on prospecting, proposals, contracts, and workflows tailored for hospitality. Explara, on the other hand, offers tools suited for a variety of events, conferences, and community groups, which may be excessive or unfocused for hotel sales teams.
Event Temple boasts a 4.97/5 overall rating from 233 reviews, with recent feedback from 43 users in the last six months, illustrating active, current user satisfaction. Explara, with zero reviews and a 0/5 rating, provides no recent user feedback, making it difficult to gauge its relevance or effectiveness for hotel-specific sales. Does your hotel need a dedicated CRM with proven hotel industry adoption?
If your hotel needs a dedicated, highly-rated CRM that centralizes sales, manages group bookings, and integrates with PMS systems, Event Temple is the clear choice. Its 17 verified partners and deep integration capabilities streamline operations and reduce manual errors.
If your team manages a variety of event types beyond hotels, including conferences, exhibitions, or associations, Explara’s broad platform might appeal. However, its lack of recent reviews and hotel-specific features suggest it’s less tailored for hotel sales teams. For most hotels, especially those prioritizing streamlined sales processes, Event Temple is the more reliable option.
Event Temple excels with a 4.86/5 ease of use rating based on extensive recent reviews, with users praising its intuitive, user-friendly interface. Many mention how easy it is to train staff and implement workflows, with some noting that onboarding is smooth, supported by a support team rated 4.89/5.
Explara, lacking any recent reviews, offers no data on usability or onboarding experiences. Given its broader event focus and less hotel-specific design, it’s unlikely to match Event Temple’s streamlined user experience. Edge: Event Temple.
Event Temple offers 18 exclusive features tailored for hotel sales, including contact management, eSignatures, PCI-compliant payments, customizable proposals, and workflow automations. These features directly address hotel sales needs, like managing room blocks, contracts, and revenue reporting.
Explara, with no unique features listed for hotels, provides general event management tools such as ticketing, check-in apps, merchandise, and post-event surveys—more suited for event organizers than hotel sales. Its lack of hotel-specific functionalities places it at a disadvantage. Edge: Event Temple.
Event Temple’s support rating of 4.89/5 and onboarding score of 4.82/5 reflect a highly responsive, helpful customer service team. Reviewers frequently highlight their satisfaction with onboarding assistance and ongoing support, emphasizing how support helps maximize platform usage.
Explara offers no recent reviews or ratings for support or onboarding, making it impossible to assess its customer service quality. Given the importance of reliable support in software adoption, Event Temple is the safer choice. Edge: Event Temple.
Event Temple integrates with 17 verified partners, including PMS systems like RoomRaccoon, Stayntouch, RMS, Mews, Cloudbeds, and Oracle Hospitality, enabling seamless data flow across hotel operations. Its integrations are tailored to hotel workflows, reducing manual entry and errors.
Explara lists no verified integrations, limiting its ability to connect with hotel systems or automate processes. For hotels seeking interconnected solutions, Event Temple’s extensive integration ecosystem offers a distinct advantage. Edge: Event Temple.
Event Temple enjoys a 4.97/5 rating from 233 reviews, with recent feedback reinforcing its high satisfaction levels. Hotels across segments—luxury, boutique, and branded—rate it consistently high, notably praising its ease of use and support.
Explara’s lack of recent reviews or ratings makes comparison impossible, but its absence from hotel-specific feedback suggests it’s less favored by hotel sales teams. For hotel operators prioritizing proven, hotel-focused software, Event Temple clearly leads. Edge: Event Temple.
Event Temple’s pricing is straightforward at $400 per month with no freemium or trial options, positioning it as a predictable investment. Explara’s pricing model isn’t specified, but its broad platform targets larger event organizers, possibly implying variable or higher costs.
Since Explara’s pricing isn’t transparent for hotel use, and Event Temple provides a clear, hotel-specific rate, your team can better assess ROI with Event Temple’s predictable costs. Edge: Event Temple.
Not ideal if you run a small boutique hotel with minimal group sales or don’t require complex workflows.
Not ideal if your hotel’s core focus is sales CRM or if you require deep PMS integrations or hotel-specific workflows.
Event Temple is a specialized, highly-rated hotel sales CRM that supports group bookings, workflows, and integrations, making it ideal for mid-size and larger hotels. Its extensive features, recent positive reviews, and dedicated support make it a dependable choice.
Explara, despite being a comprehensive event platform, lacks recent hotel-specific reviews and integrations. It’s better suited for organizations managing diverse events and memberships rather than hotel sales teams.
If your hotel needs a proven, hotel-centric sales solution, Event Temple offers concrete advantages in features, support, and integration. For broader event management outside the hotel industry, Explara may be relevant but less tailored for your core needs.
Hotel Sales Software 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 $400/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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Sales CRM
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| Mobile Sales CRM | ||
| Workflow Automations | ||
| Pipeline CRM | ||
| BEO Management | ||
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| Contact Management | ||
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RPF Management
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F&B Planning
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Contracts & E-Signatures
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| Payments & Invoicing | ||
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Reporting & Analytics
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| Chain Dashboard | ||
| Data Migration Services | ||
| Pace, Sales Activity, and GRC Reporting | ||
| Lead Scoring |
We analyzed 6 verified case studies to compare what hotels actually achieve with each platform across four key business objectives.
"Whenever we encounter an issue or require assistance, they're just a click away, ready to provide prompt and effective solutions."
No published case study for this goal yet.
"The number one thing our team appreciates about Event Temple is the consistency it brings across our entire brand. With 19 different properties utilizing the platform, everyone can..."
No published case study for this goal yet.
What hoteliers love
A major theme is that the platform is intuitive, easy to learn, and keeps sales activity organized from inquiry through close. Reviewers consistently... A major theme is that the platform is intuitive, easy to learn, and keeps sales activity organized from inquiry through close. Reviewers consistently say this lowers training effort, helps teams stay on top of busy workflows, and makes daily hotel sales operations less chaotic.
Support and onboarding are repeatedly praised as standout strengths, with users describing the team as responsive, knowledgeable, and willing to solve... Support and onboarding are repeatedly praised as standout strengths, with users describing the team as responsive, knowledgeable, and willing to solve issues quickly. Several reviews say strong training and implementation help shorten adoption time and make the platform easier to roll out across busy hotel teams.
Integration with PMS and other hotel systems is one of the most important themes, especially for reducing duplicate entry and syncing room blocks, rat... Integration with PMS and other hotel systems is one of the most important themes, especially for reducing duplicate entry and syncing room blocks, rates, and pickup data. Users like when Event Temple connects well with Mews, Opera, Cloudbeds, Stayntouch, and others, but many also report gaps, freezes, or incomplete syncing that still require manual work.
Where hoteliers push back
Integration with PMS and other hotel systems is one of the most important themes, especially for reducing duplicate entry and syncing room blocks, rat... Integration with PMS and other hotel systems is one of the most important themes, especially for reducing duplicate entry and syncing room blocks, rates, and pickup data. Users like when Event Temple connects well with Mews, Opera, Cloudbeds, Stayntouch, and others, but many also report gaps, freezes, or incomplete syncing that still require manual work.
Several reviews focus on the calendar, booking views, and space conflict handling as essential for preventing double-booking and improving sales speed... Several reviews focus on the calendar, booking views, and space conflict handling as essential for preventing double-booking and improving sales speed. Users want more reliable notifications and clearer visibility into tentatives, definites, and availability so teams can protect revenue and avoid operational mistakes.
Unique capabilities
Where the ratings diverge most
It depends on your requirements. Event Temple (Sales CRM) and Explara share many core Hotel Sales Software features, but each has unique capabilities. Event Temple (Sales CRM) offers 19 verified integration partners, while Explara offers 0. Review the feature comparison above to see where they differ before switching.
Small hotels should prioritize ease of use and fast onboarding. Event Temple (Sales CRM) 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.
Event Temple (Sales CRM): No. Explara: No. Neither product currently offers a free tier. Most Hotel Sales Software 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. Event Temple has an HT Score of 100 and Explara has 0. 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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