Which kind of sunbed system should you buy?
Three different products call themselves “sunbed reservation systems”, and they answer three different questions. Work out which question you are asking before you compare features — it saves a great deal of demo time.
Choose hotel-side ops if you need to manage your guests' poolside
You're running the deck. You want guests to reserve from their phone with no app, you want staff to override in real time, and you don't want a months-long IT project.
TowelsOn fits this route.
- QR access at check-in, browser-based, no app install
- Per-room code fallback for guests without a smartphone
- Time-slot reservations across multiple pool zones
- Hotel-staff operations dashboard with live overrides
- No PMS integration required
- Free 3-month guided pilot — setup done for you
- Live in about 1–2 days from sign-up
- Multilingual guest UI · published pricing
Choose a marketplace if you want outside demand
You want to sell day-passes for your pool or beach club to non-guests — the hotel isn't the customer; consumers are. That's a different problem from managing your own resident guests' poolside.
This is Vendor A in the comparison table — a guest-facing app that sells day passes. Worth checking before you choose one: whether the guest ends up with an account at your hotel or at the marketplace, and what the booking costs you per guest.
- Consumer mobile app + account-based booking
- Day-pass model rather than slot-based hotel ops
- Built for demand-gen, not for managing your own guests
Choose a broader suite if you want one vendor across systems
You want a single contract that covers PMS, POS, spa, restaurant, and sunbed booking together. Sunbed handling will be one module among many.
A broader hospitality software suite fits this route. Trade-off: sunbed handling is one module among many, and the suite is the thing you are buying.
- One vendor across multiple hotel systems
- Sunbed booking is a module, not the focus
- Usually sits on a PMS connection you already have