by Matt Rej
Hotel operators who have been around the industry for a while may know Planet by a different name. The company acquired Protel PMS and has since rebranded the whole organization under the Planet name.
What was once a hospitality software that supported integrated processing has become a full-stack payments provider. And that changes the conversation for hotels, as there are several ways you can use Planet’s solutions. But the path you select directly affects your payment processing costs in ways that are far more impactful than any software fees.
I’ll explain each option in greater detail below. Because truthfully, the three paths aren’t clear for the average hotelier just browsing on Planet’s website. And the Planet sales reps don’t always fully explain everything because they’re incentives to push certain models over others.
Path 1: Planet as Your Payment Provider
Hotels can go directly to Planet for payment processing without using any Planet software.
In this scenario, Planet handles all of the merchant onboarding, acquiring, online gateway services, tokenization, and any FX or currency services. From there, the hotel can integrate Planet’s processing services into whatever PMS it already runs on.
Examples of hotel and hospitality software that integrate with Planet for payment processing include:
- Oracle MICROS Simphony
- Oracle Opera PMS
- Shiji PMS
- Shiji Concept
- Shiji Infrasys
- HotelKey
- Zuchetti
I honestly don’t see a reason to use Planet as your payment processor unless you’re using one of these specific enterprise hotel solutions and can’t get an integrated setup with another provider.
Planet isn’t necessarily a bad processor or anything like that. But they’re not worth switching to just for the sake of standalone processing. It only makes sense to use them for an integration that isn’t supported elsewhere.
Otherwise, you’re better off sticking with your current provider and looking for another way to customize a payment stack that supports your operations.
For example, let’s just say you’re using MICROS from Oracle. That particular software supports integrated payments from other processors like Fiserv, Shift4, TSYS, and CardConnect (among others). I’d much rather keep or use one of these providers if I was already using them than move to Planet.
Path 2: Protel PMS + Planet Payments (All-in-One)
This is Planet’s preferred sale in hospitality and what every sales rep is going to at least try and pitch you. You’ll get Protel Cloud PMS with Planet’s payment processing built in.
It’s a single provider for hotel property management and payment processing under one roof.
The simplicity makes it an easy pitch. Everything from reservations to pre-authorizations and folio settlement all flow through one system without needing to sync things manually or integrate a third-party solution.
But from a cost standpoint, it’s not always ideal.
When your PMS vendor is also your payment processor, they have a ton of leverage over you. Planet knows that they hold the key to two of your most critical operations, so they can price things accordingly knowing that you can’t walk away without switching both solutions, which would be an operational nightmare.
It’s also common for this setup to be pitched as discounted software because Planet knows they’ll make up any costs on the payments side.
The bundled model is also where pricing tends to be the least transparent because software fees and merchant fees can be packaged together in a way that makes it extremely difficult to calculate your effective rate or separate what you’re paying for acquiring vs. the PMS itself.
Path 3: PMS with a Third-Party Integrated Payment Processor
The third option seems the most complex but it’s likely the best choice for any hotel that genuinely wants to use Protel PMS with integrated payment processing. It’s also the only path that lets you keep your own processor.
The way this works is that you’d only be going through Planet for the software. They’re your vendor for Protel PMS, but have nothing to do with setting your credit card processing rates.
Processors that integrate with Planet PMS include:
- Shift4
- Adyen
- Lightspeed
So if you’re already using one of these providers, the setup is straightforward. You keep your existing processing solution and use the Planet Marketplace to facilitate the integration. It’s normal for your processor to charge you a little extra for an integrated setup, but doubling or tripling your rates is not justifiable. Push back if they try to do something like this.
For those of you using different processors, you could likely set up a workaround here by leveraging another integration. Planet also integrates with Windcave, which is a third-party gateway that could likely bridge the gap between your provider and the software.
Again, there’s an added cost here as you’re adding more players into the mix. So you’ll need to run a quick cost-benefit analysis to ensure it’s actually worth it for you.
A Quick Note on Xn protel and xnPOS
Something else that often comes up in Planet’s hospitality ecosystem is the relationship between Planet and Xn protel Systems.
Despite sharing the “protel” name and having strategic partnerships and cross-shareholding, Xn protel Systems and Protel were always separate legal entities. So when Protel was acquired by Planet, Xn protel itself was not acquired. Planet later purchased XN PMS Limited (Xn protel’s Protel PMS distribution business in the UK and GCC), but Xn protel Systems as a whole remained independent.
Xn protel was historically one of Protel’s largest regional distribution and implementation partners worldwide (particularly in the UK, Middle East, and Asia). And Planet actually became a stakeholder in Xn protel years before acquiring the Protel PMS (a separate entity).
Why does this matter for hotels?
You’ll see Xn protel POS systems pushed heavily on Planet’s website for its PMS software because Planet handles the payment gateway and acquires underneath. This keeps Planet in the payment rail when xnPOS is on the front end, even though the POS brand isn’t visibly “Planet.”
Planet can still be your processor even if the POS brand is different, especially when Planet’s payment gateway is integrated under the hood. This can be confusing because “protel” is used in the PMS (which is owned by Planet) and for some POS systems (which may or may not be owned by Planet, depending on which one you’re referring to).
What Planet’s Pricing Actually Costs You
The honest answer is that most hotels using Planet don’t know what they’re paying.
While the fees most certainly exist, the way Planet structures its pricing makes things extremely difficult to find and understand. Gateway fees, currency conversion margins, integration fees, and processing markups can all be in different line items across different invoices. Or worse, bundled into a single monthly figure that gives you no visibility into what’s driving costs.
You could be paying Planet for PMS licensing, a separate gateway fee through Datatrans, processing markups on top of interchange, integration fees through third-party connections, and so on. Each makes sense on its own. But together, they add up quickly and they’re extremely difficult to audit without pulling everything apart.
The other thing that doesn’t get talked about enough is what happens at renewal. Hotels that bundle PMS and payment models tend to review without negotiating because the operational risks of switching are too high.
Planet knows this, which is why the rate you pay in year one is rarely the rate you pay in year three. Without competitive pressure, Planet can definitely price things more aggressively.
And if you can’t produce a single number that represents your effective processing rate, you don’t have enough information to know whether Planet is a good deal or not.
Final Thoughts
Planet has built something that’s genuinely useful for the hospitality industry. The integrated PMS and payments setup solves real operational problems, and for hotels with a lot of international volume, the currency services can be a legitimate value-add.
But not everyone landed on Planet the same way. Some were originally using Protel PMS or an Xn protel POS. Others were just looking for software and found themselves getting wrapped into payments.
So whether you’re evaluating Planet for the first time or you’re already using them, you need to look closer at your statements to understand your costs. I can practically guarantee that there’s room for you to save money, either from Planet directly, from your third-party processor, or a combination of the two.
If you need help making sense of this and want to know how much you can save, our team here at MCC can audit your statements for free. And we’ll help you save money without switching processors or software providers.