Fifteen answers to real questions.

How long does onboarding take?

Most properties are fully live on Talk with Guest inside two weeks. That includes PMS import, channel connection, messaging templates in your primary language, staff training and the first billing setup.

The very fastest we have moved a customer across was a boutique in Faro, seven days from signature to first arrival on Talkguest. The longest a genuine migration has taken is 34 days, and that was a hotel group with 11 properties on three different legacy systems consolidating on a single Talkguest tenant.

The first month of the subscription is included with onboarding — you pay from the start of the second month.

Do you replace my existing PMS?

Yes. Guest Talk includes a full PMS Core module — tape chart, reservations, deposits, no-shows, group blocks, cross-property calendar. If you already run a PMS, migration from Cloudbeds, Mews, Little Hotelier, Sirvoy or a legacy on-prem system is one of the most common Talkguest onboarding workflows.

The migration hub has a step-by-step playbook per source system — see /migration for the checklist.

Is Talkguest compliant with Portuguese factura rules?

Yes. Certified factura sequences, SAF-T (PT) monthly export, VAT handling for domestic and B2B EU stays. Reverse-charge is available for B2B stays across EU borders; credit notes reference the original factura.

The Autoridade Tributária export runs on the first business day of each month and can be scheduled to email straight to your accountant.

Where is our data stored?

Customer data is hosted inside the European Union. The primary region is mainland Portugal; the secondary region is Ireland. There is no US region, no APAC region, no data movement outside the EU.

The full detail — encryption, backups, subprocessors — is in our /security/whitepaper.

Do I need to be approved by Meta to use WhatsApp?

Yes, that is a Meta rule and Talkguest handles the process for you. During onboarding we submit the WhatsApp Business Account application, provision the phone number, and get your templated messages approved.

Typical Meta approval turnaround is three to seven business days. In the meantime we ship messaging on email and SMS so no reservation goes silent.

What happens if we want to cancel?

Monthly subscriptions can be cancelled at any time before the next billing cycle with no exit fee. Annual subscriptions can be cancelled at renewal. Downgrades take effect on the next billing cycle.

On cancellation, we return all tenant data on request within 30 days and delete it — including from backups on the standard rotation — within a further 60 days. A signed deletion certificate is issued on request.

Who is behind Talk with Guest?

Talk with Guest, Lda is a Portuguese limited company registered in Lisbon (NIPC 516 842 397). The founding team came out of hospitality operations — a boutique group in Chiado, a hostel network in Porto, and a revenue-management consultancy — and the platform reflects that background.

See /about for the team and the funding history.

Which OTAs do you connect to?

The channel manager syncs natively with 55 OTAs including Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb, HostelWorld, HRS, Agoda, TripAdvisor, Google Hotels, Vrbo, Hotels.com, Trip.com, Rakuten Travel, Wotif, MakeMyTrip and the major regional players.

See /integrations for the full list and a per-integration status.

How does pricing work?

Four plans — Solo €29/mo, Growth €69/mo, Business €149/mo, Enterprise on request — priced by number of rooms or beds under management. Every plan includes the full platform (or six of eight modules on the Growth plan), 0% commission on direct bookings, and unlimited housekeepers on the mobile app.

See /pricing for the full plan matrix and /roi-calculator for a per-property estimate.

Do you train our staff?

Yes. Every plan above Solo includes staff training as part of onboarding — two sessions with reception, one with the revenue owner, one with the housekeeping supervisor. Business and Enterprise customers also get an escalation to a named CSM for the first 90 days.

The training runs in Portuguese, English, Spanish, French or Italian depending on the property's primary language.

Can I connect a custom integration?

Yes. Talkguest exposes a full REST API for reservations, guests, rates, availability, folios and messaging, plus a webhook layer for real-time event streaming. See /docs/api-reference and /docs/webhooks.

For anything that goes beyond the public API, Enterprise plans include a named integration engineer for the first release.

How is guest data protected?

TLS 1.3 in transit, AES-256 at rest with per-tenant keys, EU-only data residency, MFA-enforced staff access, audit trail on every write, GDPR-compliant DPA executed on every subscription.

The security whitepaper — /security/whitepaper — carries the full architecture.

Do you support multi-property groups?

Yes. The Business and Enterprise plans include a group-wide dashboard, central rate strategy with per-property overrides, consolidated reporting and per-property staff permissions. Groups of 2 to 200 properties run on Talkguest today.

Does Guest Talk really increase direct bookings?

Median lift after 90 days on the Talkguest engine is +42% direct bookings, measured across 214 European properties. The uplift comes from the combination of the commission-free widget, the abandoned-cart flow, Google Hotels metasearch and pre-arrival WhatsApp upsells.

See /customers/boutique-lisbon for a specific 12-week case study.

What support do you provide?

Solo: email, 24-hour response. Growth: email plus chat, 4-hour response. Business: priority plus phone, 1-hour response. Enterprise: 24/7 named channel with dedicated CSM.

For emergencies, the on-call rotation is available 24/7 on Business and Enterprise plans through the priority channel we agree at onboarding.