HolidayFox vs eviivo

If you're running a B&B, guesthouse, small hotel or self-catering business in the UK and you're researching property management software, eviivo is almost certainly on your shortlist. They're one of the most established UK PMS providers and they serve thousands of UK and international properties.

I run HolidayFox. So this isn't a neutral page, but I'll try to be fair about it.

What eviivo is, and what they do well

eviivo is a UK-founded property management system that has grown into one of the largest independent-property platforms globally, with tens of thousands of properties across the UK, US, Europe and Australia. The product (eviivo Suite) bundles a PMS, channel manager, payments, booking engine, and reporting into a single platform.

Things eviivo genuinely does well:

• •Mature, full-stack product. Everything a small accommodation business needs is in there: front-desk, channel manager, payments, owner reporting, housekeeping, guest comms.
• •Strong channel manager. One of the best-supported sets of OTA integrations for UK accommodation. Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb, Vrbo, and many smaller channels.
• •UK-based support. Phone support team that understands UK accommodation operations.
• •Established and stable. Two decades in the market, predictable product roadmap, low risk of vendor-going-bust drama.

If your priority is "I want the most established full-stack PMS for UK independent accommodation, with the widest OTA distribution," eviivo is a credible choice.

What HolidayFox is, and where we're different

HolidayFox is a full PMS for independent stays: calendar, bookings, payments, guest messaging, self check-in, a daily agenda, a booking widget or hosted website, after-hours live chat, and Google Hotels. eviivo's extra is a wide OTA channel manager and housekeeping / front-desk breadth. You do not need eviivo for the diary.

Three differences in practice:

• •Scope. Both are a PMS. eviivo's extra is full-stack hotel operations and the widest OTA channel set. HolidayFox is the diary plus after-hours live chat and Google Hotels — not housekeeping, front desk or 100-channel distribution.
• •Where the booking flow lives. HolidayFox is WordPress-native: guests book through your domain, your design. eviivo's booking engine is embedded from their hosted platform.
• •Onboarding. eviivo's setup is structured and largely customer-led. Our customer success team handles your setup end-to-end in 5 working days.

In philosophical terms: eviivo is the option for operators who need that ops and channel breadth. HolidayFox is the diary. You do not buy eviivo first in order to take a booking on your own site.

Feature-by-feature comparison

The shorthand: eviivo is broad and mature (channels, housekeeping, front desk). HolidayFox is the PMS for independent stays — diary, website checkout, after-hours live chat. Both are reasonable. It depends on whether you need their ops extra.

Pricing

eviivo prices by property and feature tier, and its pricing reflects the breadth of the product. Check eviivo's current pricing for your setup; depending on tier and property count, eviivo Suite can work out more expensive than HolidayFox for a small B&B.

HolidayFox: free for the widget, or from £12.99/month for a full website, plus 5% commission on bookings taken through HolidayFox. No joining fee. They are not the same price model. If you are using 30% of eviivo's features for 100% of the quote, HolidayFox is probably better value. If you need most of their channel and ops stack, eviivo earns its money.

Who each one is right for

• •• You run a medium-sized hotel or guesthouse with front-desk staff, housekeeping operations, and complex room-management needs.
• •• Your business genuinely depends on broad multi-OTA distribution and you need the widest channel-manager integrations in the market.
• •• You want one platform to run housekeeping, front desk and a wide OTA stack, not just the diary.
• •• Vendor maturity matters more than cost optimisation for your business.
• •You run a B&B, small hotel, glamping site or self-catering business with under 100 units, and you're not running complex front-desk operations.
• •Reducing OTA commission is a strategic priority and you want booking software that's designed around that outcome.
• •You want the booking flow to be WordPress-native on your own domain.
• •White-glove setup and a smaller, more responsive team suit how you like to work.

Talk to us

15 minutes with Hannah. She'll ask three or four questions and give you a straight answer about whether we'd help you or not, including if eviivo is the better fit for where you are.