What a PMS replaces
In an independent Indian property the PMS takes the place of the arrivals register, the room chart on the wall and the bill book at the desk. The test of one is simple: can a single screen answer, at any moment, which rooms are free tonight, who is in each occupied room, what each guest owes, and which rooms are clean and ready to sell?
A PMS usually covers:
- Reservations and the room rack — every booking on a grid of rooms and dates.
- Rates — room types, rate plans and a price for each night.
- Front desk — check-in with the guest's ID, check-out and payments.
- The folio — the guest's bill, and the GST invoice issued from it.
- Housekeeping — which rooms are dirty, clean or out of order.
- The night audit and reports on occupancy and revenue.
- Compliance — in India, the police register and Form C for foreign guests.
What a PMS is not
A PMS is not a channel manager, which keeps your availability in step with booking sites, and not a booking engine, which is the page where guests book you directly — although many PMSs include one or both. Restaurants and shops use a POS instead. A hotel with a restaurant needs the two to share a bill, so a dinner charged to room 204 appears on room 204's folio without anybody carrying a slip to the desk.
Example
A guest checks in on Friday for two nights at ₹3,200 a night and orders dinner to the room for ₹650. On Sunday the PMS has already charged both nights (₹6,400), carries the dinner from the restaurant, shows what she paid on arrival, and prints one bill with the balance — while the housekeeping board turns her room from occupied to dirty the moment she checks out.
How Nivasik handles it
Nivasik's PMS comes with the Pro plan (₹4,999 per property a month, up to 80 units). The Group plan (₹2,499 per property a month, from three properties) adds cashier shifts, the city ledger, groups and blocks, the booking page and channel sync. Either is free to try for 45 days with everything unlocked.
- Reservations and a room rack that refuses double bookings.
- Room types and rate plans with a price for any night, seasonal and per date.
- Check-in holds the guest's ID document as an image in a private store (Aadhaar shown masked), not just its number.
- A folio opens at check-in; room nights post themselves when the check-out screen opens; a discount needs a reason.
- Payments recorded by method — cash, UPI, card, bank transfer — and GST invoices whose preview matches the invoice issued.
- Night audit, a housekeeping board, guest profiles, lost and found, and the police register and Form C.