Maestro PMS Reviews

Pros

The hospitality industry is about people - connecting people, servicing people, and other various interactions. Having a key software vendor that is also about people is invaluable. The support staff at Maestro are what sets them apart from their competition - the Canadian hospitality is on full display here.

Cons

As is common with PMS suites, the interface is a bit dated in its look. The HTML version is a bit more polished however.

Pros

Once you get past the learning curve, it's very easy to use and move quickly through the program. It is a great program for all aspects of managing hotel be it inventory and rate management, guest management, reservations, sales, accounting. I'm sure in 7 years I've used it, I didn't get to use every function since there was just so much.

What I liked most was that it is quick and easy to access a lot of information (guest, company, or group info or history / room availability and pricing / accounting and sales figures). This was very helpful since easy flow of information is vital to a hotel running smoothly.

When loading rates, I particularly liked that I could set automatic rate adjustments base on parameters such as dates, day of the week, occupancy, room type, or a combination of any of the aforementioned. This automation meant that if sudden inventory changes occurred on the rare occasion that I was not working, the rates would increase or decrease to achieve the best average daily rate and occupancy.

Managing inventory was very easy with Maestro. Even with 9 different room types, I could use various reports to see overall occupancy, occupancy by room types, and also by specific rooms.

I could go on. It is a very solid PMS program and I would use it again.

Cons

The only real dislike that I had with this program was the learning curve. Because the particular Maestro PMS we used was easier to use without using a computer mouse, it was essential to learn the mnemonics (ALT- letter combo) of every function. I still remember that to get to reservations was ALT-I-R. This was was complicated by the fact that sometimes the ALT-letter combo varied between different tasks even though they were similar tasks. The best way to explain is an example: In a guest reservation, to access notes I would key in ALT-I-N, in a group reservation, I would have to key in ALT-I-T.

Pros

I like that you can put events in and track bookings. You can make payments and keep record of events and rooms booking.

Cons

The program is not user friendly from a hotel stand point. To check in the employees have so many steps in order to get the guest checked in. The reports are not easy to pull and use. when you call support the person is not always nice and helpful.

Pros

Transaction details, Customer Support, Auditing Reports

Cons

Unfortunately, we are still waiting on Tax reporting for our 1099's / 1042s annual tax reporting. Being in the US, we require both. We've requested the function over 3 years ago and it is still on the back burner. For US Clients-this is a BIG CON

Pros

The software works as promoted with many options to fit clients needs. What I am most impressed is the level of support we receive and the speed in which we receive support. From daily tech questions to new technology upgrades, the Maestro team is always quick to respond and have the desire to provide solutions.

Cons

Group package rate setup seems to be very complex and difficult to wrap me head around, will continue to study and ask questions.

Pros

Availability to create the system as we see fit! The opportunities to customize our property to our liking is very beneficial! The analytics that come with the PMS are outstanding!

Cons

Connectivity to other programs. We have had a very difficult time finding a CRM that has two-way communication with Maestro.

Pros

Great product for a larger type hotel. There are not many things I do like about this product. Very hard to use.

Cons

Antiquated. Very difficult to use and train to use. Maybe we had an old version but it seemed impossible.

Pros

Easy to merge between multiple​ properties for hotels.

Cons

This system was so confusing at first. I came from using Opera. I am used to operating many windows at once. This system is very stubborn you cannot even easily escape a rating query without making a reservation. I think there needs to be an easier way to look up rates without having to plug in a turn ​away code every time. I did not like how you could only have one screen up at a time. I do not recommend this system for larger properties, it was difficult for my staff to understand and multi-task with this system. It takes so much time to learn the tips and tricks for the system. I think they need to allow multiple windows. Also, I had many problems when my credit card information rules would change and over authorize cards when checking guests in.

Pros

Maestro is without a doubt the most impressive piece of PM Software I have come across. It is incredibly robust with functionalities for everything my heart could ask for. Customer service and tech support is top notch!

Cons

It is impenetrable to a new user and training a new Front Desk Agent is an involved process.

Pros

Maestro is a very user friendly system. Additionally it has all the features of system 2-3 times its cost, and the support has been spot on.

Cons

While Maestro has great reporting options, I wish there was an end-user in-app custom report feature similar to what one might find in Salesforce without the price of additional licenses. Although you can export to excel and csv formats in the end its still just exporting canned reports. Also, while they have an analytics product, it still requires additional licenses.

Pros

That you can view availability and schedule meeting rooms along with guest rooms seamlessly.

Cons

The learning curve. However, there are certain individuals that adept more quickly than others.

Pros

Maestro is super simple to learn and use. Once I got the operations down it was quick and easy to set up reservations for our guests. I'm so glad we use this program.

Cons

The only thing I can say I don't like about Maestro is sometimes when you put in a date and select "New Guest Resv" it sometimes changes the date to the day before, day after, or just a completely random date. I am not sure if this is some kind of default or not.

Pros

Hand down the best support I've ever experienced from a tech company. Not only are they fast to respond to questions, they provide monthly training at no extra cost.

Cons

Naming conventions are misleading. Navigation can be cumbersome and thee online help feature is too vague.

Pros

Gneral reports and the transaction reports are extremely powerful and helps to understand the metrics. customer service is quite professional and they are quick to solve the cases.

Cons

Pricing plan is not flexible, a modular plan would be a better fit for our case additionally user interface is way yoo old fashion.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Maestro PMS

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Maestro PMS

Pros

The customer support is great rep. who I usually spoke with was almost always able to solve my problems rather than escalating the problem.

Cons

The software is glitchy and as good as customer support is they can fix it but never showed us what to do in many of the occasions when it glitched.

Pros

I like that it's customizable and also love the availability and responsiveness of the customer service department. Maestro Support is always available to help me with whatever I need, from trouble-shooting issues to creating custom reports.

Cons

I can't really think of much that I don't like

Pros

There are a lot of possibilities within the program to make it ideal for a variety of companies. The support team are excellent and I can tell Maestro wants to make things work for their clients.

Cons

Trying to figure out the best way to do some things can be difficult, and certain things that are seemingly simple are often a lot more complicated than they should be

Pros

The vendor Northwind is outstanding. Great support. Great sales team. They listen to customers and worked closely with our team to understand our software needs, IT resources, personnel, and our customers. Their attention to our needs helped their product stand out as the right fit for our resort. We purchased the highest level of support and they have gone above and beyond to deliver what we need.

Maestro has countless customized and customizable options. It has numerous modules for the different operations of a resort like ours.

Cons

Northwind is based in Canada, so we changed our phone plan to package calls to Maestro tech support.

Maestro has a basic GUI design. User interface has the outdated look, feel, and functionality of a text-based interface. Menu bar and menu lists are not intuitive and some lists are 20 items long making it hard to find menu items. Copy and paste only available in text entry boxes. Cumbersome, not intuitive. Although the data can be found, it can take 10-12 steps to locate it.

Pros

After the initial handover and training some systems can be difficult to use, not this one, Nice and easy to use with some great information to hand. Makes life so much easier with the way things are processed.

Cons

Some more work could be done to the interface to bring it more up to date with the fast-paced industry.

Pros

The UI is very intuitive and easy on the eyes. Not a lot of searching for the functions I need. It functions well enough, has similar features to other PMS programs I've used.

Cons

I don't really have any cons to add, it's a typical PMS. They all have pluses and minuses but they basically do the same thing.

Pros

The product is great and easy to use once you have had training on it. The vendor is amazing and the support has been excellent.

Cons

The only thing I like least about this product is that yes means no and the no means yes.