Introducing COTT DESK: Hotel PMS, Built Around the Hotel Day

COTT is introducing COTT DESK, our hotel property management system, and opening applications for the COTT DESK Founding Hotels programme. The aim is straightforward: give hotel teams a coherent way to manage the working day, then refine that experience with a small group of operational partners before a broader rollout.

Selected participants will receive 90 days of the agreed core PMS subscription at no charge, followed by 50% off that subscription for 12 months if they choose to continue. We will confirm each hotel’s exact standard price, discounted price and scope before it joins. This is an invitation to a selected early-access programme, not automatic activation of a production hotel.

Why we are building a hotel PMS

A hotel day crosses several departments, but many of its problems sit between them. Reception needs to know whether an arriving guest’s room is ready. Housekeeping needs to know which rooms have actually been vacated. A manager needs to understand why a guest balance changed, not simply see the latest number. A room move needs to make sense to the next shift as well as the person who performed it.

These are not isolated feature requests. They are connected moments in one stay. COTT DESK is organised around those moments: before arrival, during the stay, at departure and at the close of the hotel day. The product’s value is in making the next action and its context easier to see.

A clearer start to the reception shift

The Today workspace brings arrivals, departures, in-house guests, room readiness and items needing attention into view. A receptionist can prepare for an arrival while seeing the booking and room context. A colleague taking over the shift can review the same operational picture rather than reconstruct it from several messages or spreadsheets.

The room calendar offers 7-, 14- and 28-day views. Teams can inspect assigned stays, find available rooms, create a reservation, review a date amendment and manage a room move. The calendar is a working tool: it connects the visual overview to the individual stay rather than acting only as an occupancy chart.

Housekeeping is part of the guest journey

A room becoming vacant does not mean it is ready for the next guest. COTT DESK keeps room readiness, cleaning tasks and maintenance blocks visible alongside the reception workflow. This helps the team distinguish a room that can be allocated from one that still needs attention.

For a small independent hotel, this shared context can be especially useful when one person covers several responsibilities. For a larger team, role-appropriate access helps staff focus on their own work. Reception, housekeeping and management do not need identical controls to contribute to the same stay.

Guest accounts with a readable history

The guest folio brings charges, recorded payments, deposits and corrections together. Staff can inspect the account history and prepare a printable statement. Managers can review daily activity, reconcile recorded amounts and export reports as part of day close.

There is an important distinction between a clear operational account and an external financial service. Recording a payment in the PMS does not charge a card or move funds. Card processing, fiscal invoicing and country-specific reporting are separate project requirements. We agree those requirements with each pilot hotel before operational use, rather than treating one country’s workflow as a universal answer.

A system the team can learn in context

COTT DESK includes in-product guidance for day-to-day tasks, with role-aware support and an assistant that can help staff find instructions or prepare a booking draft. The employee remains responsible for reviewing and confirming an operational action. The assistant is there to support the team’s work, not silently make hotel decisions on its behalf.

The interface is available in English, Polish, Georgian, Armenian, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Greek. Interface language and country compliance are different subjects: a translated screen does not replace a hotel’s fiscal, payment or reporting requirements. Both are considered in onboarding, but they are not presented as the same capability.

The COTT connection, without a forced bundle

COTT DESK extends COTT’s hospitality software family from the guest-facing experience into hotel operations. Its connection with COTT.TV supports configured check-in, check-out and room-move workflows. The intended result is a more coherent relationship between a stay record and the guest-facing room experience.

Hotels do not have to purchase television licences or hardware to apply for the PMS programme. Equally, an existing COTT.TV customer does not have to replace its current PMS. Our hotel TV platform and external PMS integration services remain separate options. We agree the useful connection for the property rather than make every hotel buy the same bundle.

Why join the Founding Hotels programme?

The programme is for hotels that want to improve a real daily workflow and can give practical feedback. We are selecting five independent hotels, initially around 10–80 rooms, with the first operational rollout focused on Georgia. Applications from other markets are welcome, with activation reviewed against the hotel and country scope.

• 1A 90-day core PMS period with no subscription charge, beginning on the agreed usable testing date after setup and rehearsal.
• 2Standard property setup and initial staff training within a written scope, with support during the pilot.
• 3A 50% reduction on the agreed core subscription for the next 12 consecutive months, if the hotel opts to continue.
• 4A direct feedback route to the COTT product team, so issues and useful improvements can be evaluated in context.

The exact standard and discounted subscription, licensed room count, any minimum fee and applicable taxes are confirmed before participation. The agreed base rate is fixed for the 12-month discount period, and the discount applies to the entire core fee, including any minimum. After that period the agreed standard tariff applies with advance notice. We do not require a card for the pilot, and there is no automatic conversion to paid service.

Hotel TV licences, TV channels, hardware, paid provider services and custom development are outside this core offer. Any optional cost is disclosed and agreed before it is incurred. Participation is not an unlimited bespoke-development commitment; requests are considered against practical value for the product and participating hotels.

What we ask from participating hotels

Each hotel nominates one contact and involves the relevant reception, housekeeping and management staff in the agreed workflows. We ask for a short 15–20 minute feedback session every two weeks and timely reporting of problems. We are interested in what works, what interrupts the shift and what needs to become clearer.

Feedback does not have to be positive. A useful report about a confusing step is more valuable than a polite endorsement. Hotel logos, testimonials and public case studies require separate, voluntary permission after actual experience. They are not a condition of receiving the programme benefit.

A measured transition, not an overnight replacement

We begin with a discussion of the hotel’s current system, room count, booking channels and daily priorities. Relevant workflows are demonstrated and rehearsed using test data. During shadow testing, the incumbent system remains the single booking authority; the hotel should not have two systems independently selling the same inventory.

Operational scope, data handling, any migration, the cutover plan and exit arrangements are agreed before real guest records are introduced. The selected programme gives both the hotel and COTT time to evaluate the workflow properly, rather than treating a successful demonstration as proof that every operational requirement is already met.

Tell us which part of your hotel day should be simpler

Start with one concrete problem: preparing arrivals, keeping the room status clear, handing over a shift or understanding guest balances. Send us your hotel name, country, room count, current PMS and that priority. Please send business information only, not guest data.

Visit the COTT DESK hotel PMS page to review the programme and prepare your application. We will review the fit and agree the next step before any operational onboarding.