Many mini hotels, guesthouses, homestays and 1–3 star hotels still use management software installed on the computer at the front desk. Once the decision to move to the cloud has been made, the next question is how to move your hotel management software without the front desk having to stop welcoming guests for a single day, without missing a single booking, and without a single dong of deposits going astray.
This article is a step-by-step guide to the move itself. It does not discuss whether to switch or how the costs compare; that is covered in the article maintenance fees for old hotel software: renew or switch?. If your hotel keeps its records in Excel rather than in software, see the article on moving data from Excel into hotel management software.
Part 1: Before moving your hotel management software — fix the timing and the person in charge
- Choose a quiet week. Avoid public holidays, Lunar New Year, the wedding season and local festival seasons. The go-live day should be a midweek day with few check-ins and check-outs.
- Set the date before the old software's maintenance renewal, so there is time to run in parallel without renewing for another term.
- Put one person in charge. Usually the owner or a long-serving receptionist who knows the rooms, rates and regular guests well. This person finalises the data list and the practice schedule, and signs off the reconciliation.
- Ask the old software vendor by message or email: which data the software can export, in what format, and when the contract expires. With a written answer, scheduling is easier.
- Back up all the old software's data to an external hard drive or USB stick before doing anything else, and keep that copy somewhere other than the front desk computer.
Part 2: What data to export from the old software
Not all data needs to be brought across. Divide it into three groups: must migrate, balances carried over, and kept for reference.
| Data group | Level | How to handle it |
|---|---|---|
| Room list, room types, rate table | Required | Enter it in the new software first; recount the rooms so the numbers match reality |
| Future bookings | Required | Export the list from the switchover date onwards: guest name, phone number, arrival date, departure date, room type, rate, booking source |
| Deposits for future bookings | Required | Attach each one to the right booking; add up total deposits and compare with the cash book |
| In-house guests | Required | Room number, arrival date, expected departure date, and the charges posted and payments made up to the time of the switch |
| Receivables from companies, agents, regular guests | Balance carried over | One balance line per partner as at the switchover date, with a detailed statement; do not re-enter each old transaction |
| Past guest list | As needed | Migrate it if the hotel wants to look after returning guests; remove duplicate and incorrect records before migrating |
| Stay history, invoices from previous years | Kept for reference | Keep the exported files and the old computer for look-ups; no need to re-enter |
| Images of identity documents stored on the old computer (if any) | Not carried over | Handle them in line with personal data protection rules; when DiCloud scans a CCCD it stores just the extracted information, not the image |
If the old software can export Excel or CSV files, the import is much faster. If it cannot, print the list of future bookings and deposits on paper so that two people can cross-check while entering them by hand. Whichever way you export, print one copy of the future booking list exactly at the time of the switch and keep it as the master copy for reconciliation. How to handle guest data under the new law is covered in the article on personal data protection for hotels.
📌 Close the old books, open new ones. What must be carried over accurately, to the last dong, is the deposits and the charges of in-house guests. Old history just needs to be searchable; it does not need to sit inside the new software.
Part 3: Preparing the internet connection for cloud software
Cloud software needs the internet to work. That should be said plainly from the start, and it is also something you can prepare for in advance. The advice below applies to any cloud software, not just DiCloud:
- Main connection: a fibre line; check its stability in the evening, when guests use the wifi heavily.
- Backup connection: 4G from a phone or a dedicated 4G router, with an active data plan, kept ready at the front desk.
- Practise switching in advance: unplug the main line, switch to 4G, and see how long it takes the front desk to get back to work. Do this before go-live, not during a real outage.
- Separate the front desk network from the guest wifi if your network equipment allows it.
- An uninterruptible power supply for the network equipment and the front desk computer, so that a power cut of a few minutes does not break the shift.
- A paper form for temporary records: full name, room number, check-in time, money received. If both connections are down, the front desk records things temporarily and enters them as soon as the connection is back.
Part 4: An account for each person on duty
- List everyone who works the desk: the owner, the manager, day-shift and night-shift receptionists, and whoever covers at weekends.
- Each person has their own login, rather than everyone sharing one password stuck next to the screen.
- The owner keeps the administrator account. When someone leaves, lock their account the same day.
- Practise before go-live. Each person on duty runs through one full round: check-in, scanning a CCCD, taking payment, check-out, exporting the guest stay reporting file.
- Guest stay reporting: DiCloud exports the data as a file in the required format, and the front desk is still the one that submits it to the reporting portal, so practise the submission step too.
- The owner's phone: log in to DiCloud on the phone to see the room situation when you are not on site.
Part 5: Reconnecting your online sales channels
This is where double bookings can easily arise during a move, so follow this order exactly:
- 1. Record the current setup: which channels you sell on, the admin account for each channel, and how many rooms of each type each channel currently has open.
- 2. Reconcile bookings: compare the list of future bookings in each channel's admin page with the list entered into the new software. Add any missing booking before connecting.
- 3. Choose the connection time when few new bookings are coming in, usually early in the morning.
- 4. Check availability on each channel after connecting, against the new software, for each room type and each day over the next few weeks.
- 5. Watch closely for the first 24–48 hours: every new booking that comes in must appear correctly in the new software, with the right room type and the right rate.
Part 6: Run in parallel for a few days and reconcile every evening
From go-live, the new software is the main place where everything is recorded. The old computer is not switched off yet: it stays on for look-ups and for checking the figures that were carried over. Every evening during the first days, the person in charge checks five points:
- The number of occupied rooms in the software matches reality (walk round or ask housekeeping).
- The money collected for the day, as recorded in the software, matches the cash in the till plus bank transfers.
- Total deposits for future bookings match the master copy printed in Part 2, plus new deposits and minus deposits already used.
- Tomorrow's arrivals list matches the admin pages of the sales channels.
- Availability on the channels matches the software.
Wherever there is a mismatch, fix it the same day, while everyone still remembers. After several consecutive days of matching figures, the owner signs off, and from then on the old computer is used for look-ups alone. Do not delete data on the old computer until the accountant confirms it is no longer needed for reference.
Part 7: A sample 1–2 week schedule
The schedule below is for a small hotel with tidy data. Hotels with few rooms can shorten it; hotels with many future bookings should allow more time for data entry and reconciliation.
| Milestone | Tasks | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1–2 | Fix the go-live date; ask the old vendor about data export; back up the old software; check the internet connection and prepare backup 4G | Owner, person in charge |
| Days 3–4 | Enter the room list, room types and rate table; create an account for each person on duty; practise switching to the backup connection | Person in charge |
| Days 5–6 | Receptionists on every shift practise check-in, scanning CCCDs, taking payment, check-out and exporting the guest stay reporting file | Receptionists on every shift |
| Day 7 — switchover day | Print the master copy for reconciliation; enter future bookings, deposits and in-house guests up to the time of the switch; connect the sales channels; start recording in the new software as the main system | Person in charge, receptionist on that shift |
| Days 8–10 | Run in parallel, check the five points every evening, fix mismatches the same day | Person in charge |
| Days 11–14 | Enter partner receivable balances; the owner signs off; the old computer is kept for look-ups | Owner |
Part 8: DiCloud during the move
DiCloud is cloud-based hotel management software for mini hotels, guesthouses, homestays and 1–3 star hotels. The hotel needs no server; the software opens on the front desk computer and on a phone. When a citizen ID card (CCCD) is scanned, the system stores just the extracted information, not an image of the document. Guest stay reporting data is exported as a file in the required format for front desk staff to submit to the reporting portal. The subscription is based on the number of rooms. The platform and security side is covered in the article on DiCloud's solid platform.
🏨 A hotel with 50 rooms or more, or a chain with 2 or more properties? At this scale, many hotels run on-premise software on their own server. DiHotel runs on premise, in the cloud or as a hybrid, and offers a Zero-Cost Switch package for contracts signed up to June 30, 2027. See the article Offline or cloud hotel management software: where the differences lie.
Already set a date for moving to the cloud?
Send the DiCloud team your number of rooms, the data your current software can export and your planned switchover date. We will draw up a switchover schedule tailored to your hotel, with a reconciliation checklist for the first days.
Get a free switchover scheduleFrequently asked questions
How long does it take to move hotel management software to the cloud?
For a small hotel, a sample schedule of 1–2 weeks is usually enough for preparation, data entry, practice and running in parallel. The actual time depends on the number of rooms, the volume of future bookings and how clean the old data is.
Do I have to re-enter the whole history from the old software?
No. What must be migrated is the list of rooms and rates, future bookings, the deposits attached to each booking, and in-house guests. Past stay history and invoices from previous years just need to be kept for reference; for old receivables, just the balance is carried over.
What happens with cloud software when the internet goes down?
Cloud software needs the internet to work. The hotel should have a backup connection such as 4G, practise switching to it before go-live, and keep a paper form ready to record things temporarily and enter them as soon as the connection is back.
Do I need to buy a new computer or server?
DiCloud needs no server. The software opens in the browser on the front desk computer and on a phone, so hotels can usually use the devices they already have.
Does DiCloud send guest stay reports to the police automatically?
No. DiCloud exports guest stay reporting data as a file in the required format for front desk staff to submit to the reporting portal. When a citizen ID card (CCCD) is scanned, the system stores just the extracted information, not an image of the document.
Is there a separate way to switch for hotels with 50 rooms or more?
Hotels with 50 rooms or more, or chains with 2 or more properties, running an older on-premise system should look at DiHotel, software that runs on premise, in the cloud or as a hybrid, with the Zero-Cost Switch package for contracts signed up to June 30, 2027.
Conclusion
Moving your hotel management software from a computer to the cloud is not difficult if you follow the right order: choose a quiet week, export the four required data groups, have a backup connection and practise switching to it, give each person on duty an account, reconnect the sales channels carefully, and reconcile every evening during the parallel run.
DiCloud is cloud AI hotel management software within the DiHotel Solutions Corps ecosystem, a company with more than 20 years of developing hotel software, serving more than 300 accommodation properties in Vietnam and Japan. As online AI hotel management software, DiCloud removes the on-site server entirely; it is online hotel management software that opens on the front desk computer as well as on a phone, with a subscription based on the number of rooms.
For 5-star hotels, resorts and chains weighing on-premise against cloud, DiHotel, the AI hotel management software, is the original platform, deployable on premise, in the cloud or as a hybrid according to the owner's data policy.