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This year, HotSoft Property Management System (PMS) turns 35 years old. Read the full story of how HotSoft, which part of Planet’s hospitality technology platform along with Protel, has evolved from its Alpine origins into a leading global hospitality platform.
The code that climbed the Alps - The HotSoft origin story
By Per Kjellqvist, Johan Söderberg and Joakim Stjernstrom
In the spring of 1988, high in the Swiss Alps and far from Silicon Valley, three freshly minted master's students set out to solve a problem they barely knew existed. What began as a spontaneous road trip to a struggling hotel in the French Alps would evolve into HotSoft, one of the hospitality industry's most enduring and quietly revolutionary software platforms.
The cast? Per Kjellqvist, Elly Fazili, and Mark Bernhard — graduates of Webster University in Geneva, where computer science was just emerging from its infancy. Back then, tech wasn’t taught in modern labs but in rented rooms from PricewaterhouseCoopers and others. Instructors weren’t just academics; they were professionals from IBM, Digital, and CERN. These young minds weren’t just learning how systems worked — they were already rethinking how they could work better.
Their ambitions were modest, but their curiosity wasn’t. While visiting friends in Sweden, Per received a call from Mark, who was working a summer job at a hotel in Méribel. The hotel had just invested in a new PC-based reservation system, and it was, to put it kindly, a disaster. Mark’s message was blunt: “This could be the niche we’re looking for.”
Elly and Per jumped in a car and drove straight to the Alps. They didn’t know it yet, but they were about to launch a company.
At the time, the market was dominated by a handful of clunky hotel microcomputer systems requiring huge, expensive hardware, extensive support, and long learning curves. These programs were costly, maintenance-heavy, and hardly user-friendly. The group knew they could build something better.
The trio didn’t just want to build another hotel system. They wanted to build an architecture that could stand the test of time.
They did this by creating a series of reusable components they called "engines": modules that managed printing, screen display, data retrieval, and more. In today’s terms, they were early adopters of object-oriented programming before it had a name.
To combine the “engines” into a superior hotel system they were lucky to get Johan Söderberg (an old high school friend of Per’s) to come down and spend a week doing intensive brainstorming telling the team all the things he would want to have in an ultimate hotel system. Johan was at the time was working as a front office manager at one of Stockholm’s best hotels and was a gold mine of great ideas.
Working from a tiny chalet in Verbier — a gift of free rent from Elly’s father — they then started coding. Mark got a full-time position at the UN in Geneva and left the partnership, leaving Per and Elly to carry the torch.
In the early days, money was tight. Per took on freelance programming work to keep the lights on, including a bespoke trading platform for Merrill Lynch’s Geneva office — built in a week using the same HotSoft engines.
Elly worked ski seasons and in snack bars to contribute. But slowly, word spread. Installations multiplied. They presented at hotel schools, lectured students, and tapped into a new generation of hoteliers who wanted technology that made their lives easier.
Their capital? 20,000 Swiss francs pooled from Per’s and Elly’s fathers, and a Toshiba laptop worth 12,000 francs.
The system they built was reliable, efficient, and shockingly low-maintenance — an enormous edge in an era when software support meant picking up a phone or getting in a car.
From chalets to check-ins: How HotSoft spread
Our first real installation came in 1990, just two years after that road trip to Méribel. The hotel was Farinet in Verbier — a well-known après-ski spot with a loyal following and, at the time, a very manual front desk. It was owned by a friend, and they were kind enough — or brave enough — to let us deploy the first proper version of the system we’d been building in the chalet just up the road.
It worked.
No breakdowns. No constant support calls. No need for on-site maintenance. Just software that quietly did what it was supposed to do. That was the power of the modular architecture we’d built — small, efficient engines working in harmony, each doing one thing well. We didn’t realise it then, but that early obsession with stability would become one of HotSoft’s defining strengths.
More installs followed. Some came through chance connections. Others through pure persistence. And many came through word of mouth — a manager who saw the system at one hotel and asked if we could do the same for theirs.
Our system was modular, which was a key to our early growth. We could adapt to all types of hotels with ease. A seasonal property didn’t need full reporting or restaurant integration. A business hotel did.
Support, too, was different. It wasn’t outsourced. It wasn’t distant. It was done by ourselves. If something needed fixing, we fixed it. Usually remotely, sometimes in person. We never sold HotSoft as a black box. It was a partnership. And that built trust.
HotSoft wasn’t trying to be flashy. It was trying to be useful. And that, it turned out, was exactly what the market needed.
The Swedish breakthrough
Switzerland gave us our start. But Sweden gave us momentum.
In the early 1990s, not long after the first installation at Hotel Farinet, I met Joakim Stjernström through a friend. At the time, he was working in the ERP space — smart, analytical, and well connected across the Swedish computer industry. He understood operations, but more importantly, he understood people. We started talking. He asked the right questions about the architecture, saw the potential, and didn’t waste time.
He set up a demo — not just any demo, but a full-day session in Gothenburg with 20 or 30 of the top hoteliers in Sweden. Independent owners, boutique operators, senior managers from flagship properties — all under one roof. It was the kind of opportunity you can’t buy, only earn. And it worked. The product held up, questions were answered, and a few heads started nodding.
A colleague from Radisson was there. He pulled Joakim aside afterward and said, “This is solid. You’ve got something real here.”
That demo marked the start of real traction in Sweden. Our client list began to grow, and Joakim incorporated HotSoft Sweden. One installation led to another, and soon we had our first major flagship: Berns Hotel in Stockholm. At the time, it was widely considered the best boutique hotel in central Stockholm — known for its style, service, and attention to detail. Getting that contract was a big moment for us.
Berns wasn’t just a client. It was a statement. If they trusted HotSoft, others would too.
Joakim was instrumental in all of this. He brought in clients, managed relationships, and helped shape the way we presented the product to the market. He wasn’t just a commercial lead — he believed in the system and knew how to make others believe in it too.
By the mid-90s, our presence in Sweden was well established. Hotels were choosing HotSoft not because of aggressive marketing but because it worked, and they heard it from someone they trusted.
From Verbier to Gothenburg to Stockholm, we moved beyond prototypes. We were now a product, a service, and a partner.
And we were just getting started.
Crossing borders: London and La Résidence
By the mid-1990s, our work in Sweden had created a quiet ripple. Installations were stable. Word of mouth was strong. And thanks to Joakim’s relentless support and drive, we were beginning to expand beyond the Nordics — not with a splash, but with substance.
That’s when the call came from London.
One of our Swedish clients, who had previously installed HotSoft at a property in Gothenburg, had taken over management of the Parks Hotel, a boutique property tucked near Harrods and Hyde Park. He asked if we could bring
HotSoft over. There was no pitch, no negotiation. Just trust. We flew in, set it up, and let the software speak for itself.
That installation — modest in scale but meaningful in influence — turned out to be a gateway.
There was a woman in London — Ankana, or “Ankie” as we came to know her — who owned a townhouse just near Harrods. She was looking for a PMS solution for her hotel back in Bangkok, so she did what few people in her position would think to do: she walked into hotels and asked the front desk staff what they thought of their systems. Most of the answers were the same — complaints about complexity, lack of support, and systems that seemed designed more for IT departments than hotel teams. But when she visited the Parks Hotel, the answer was different. “We love this system,” the receptionist told her. “The support is amazing.”
Intrigued, she reached out to Joakim directly. Within weeks, she had arranged to fly him to Bangkok to explore whether HotSoft could be implemented at her hotel, La Résidence.
Ankie wasn’t just interested in buying software — she wanted to be part of it. She paid for the installation herself and would eventually become our dealer in Thailand, forming HotSoft Thailand. She had charisma, connections, and a deep understanding of what Southeast Asian hoteliers needed. From the moment she entered the story, she drove it forward.
To support the setup, we brought in Johan, from the original brainstorming session back in Verbier, who had worked for HotSoft Sweden and with Joakim for four years, doing everything from support to development. Johan brought credibility, structure, and a deep understanding of hotel operations — exactly what was needed to make the Thailand rollout a success.
Johan moved into La Résidence with his wife and newborn child and lived there during the startup . He trained staff, oversaw configurations, and served as a bridge between our Nordic engineering mindset and the lived realities of a Bangkok hotel. His presence said, “We’re here, and we’re committed.”
We didn’t have global expansion plans on a whiteboard. What we had were people — hotel professionals who saw value in what we built and helped carry it across borders.
Thailand was never a market entry. It was a relationship.
Poland, the interpreter, and building beyond product
By the late 1990s, we had moved well beyond the Alps and Stockholm. With solid installations in Sweden, London, and now Bangkok, HotSoft was reaching a broader audience — not through marketing campaigns or venture funding, but through consistency, stability, and the kind of support most software companies couldn’t (or wouldn’t) offer.
At the centre of sales expansion was Joakim.
In those early years, he was everywhere — handling installations, providing support, solving problems, and, more often than not, doing it all in person. He worked 250 to 300 days a year, flying between cities, troubleshooting on-site, and training teams himself. He didn’t just believe in the product — he lived inside it. His phone was always on. His bag was always packed.
When we began looking at opportunities in Poland, Joakim took the lead. It was a natural extension of our growing European footprint, and once again, we weren’t following a go-to-market plan. We were following relationships. Hotels that had heard about HotSoft — through colleagues, events, or past guests — were asking if it could be brought to Warsaw, Kraków, Gdańsk.
To support the expansion, we organised a small conference. It was practical — a few hotel professionals, some demonstrations, and a trusted interpreter to help with the presentations. The interpreter, as it turned out, made a bigger impression than any of us expected.
She arrived with her young child and translated the entire session with calm, clarity, and humour. She wasn’t just fluent — she was magnetic. She put the room at ease, made the technology approachable, and left everyone smiling.
Joakim was struck immediately. There was something about the way she carried herself — confident, warm, completely unpretentious. They stayed in touch. The next time he visited Poland, he made sure their paths crossed again. Over time, those conversations became something more. They later married.
It was a small moment in the bigger story of HotSoft — but one that said everything about how we operated. Real people. Real work. No shortcuts.
Built to last: The architecture that endured
We didn’t start out trying to build something enduring. We just wanted to build something that worked — and didn’t break.
But looking back, one of the most important decisions we made was to go modular from day one. It wasn’t framed that way at the time, of course. We simply called them “engines” — small, reusable components that each did one job well: screen rendering, data access, printing, interface logic. They were independent, but tightly orchestrated.
This was long before object-oriented programming became standard in business applications. There were no modern frameworks. If you wanted modularity, you had to build it yourself — and we did. Not because it was trendy, but because it made the system easier to understand, easier to test, and dramatically easier to maintain.
That last point turned out to be the key.
Most hotel software in the 1990s leaned toward the monolithic. Systems were bulky, rigid, and all-or-nothing. If a hotel wanted one feature, it had to buy everything. If one module broke, support teams had to untangle the whole stack. Updates were painful. Support was constant.
HotSoft avoided all that.
Our approach let hotels start small — a reservations engine, basic billing — and then expand as their needs evolved.
They weren’t locked in. And because the system didn’t require constant patching or attention, we could deploy it in properties across Sweden, the UK, Thailand, and Poland with minimal overhead.
We saw it play out again and again. A hotel would install HotSoft, and we wouldn’t hear from them — not because something was wrong, but because everything was working. In an industry known for support calls and service tickets, silence became a strange but welcome metric of success.
That mindset — build it once, build it right — shaped the way we grew. It also made HotSoft unusually durable. There are properties that ran on versions of our system for ten, even fifteen years without needing a rebuild. The only upgrades they needed were the ones they asked for.
That’s not to say we didn’t adapt. We added modules. We expanded into food & beverage, spa management, integrations. But the core held — lean, stable, modular.
It’s also what made HotSoft compatible with a broader ecosystem later on — including when we began discussions with Planet. Because when you build with clarity, integration becomes a conversation, not a compromise.
Durability wasn’t the goal. It was the outcome of a mindset: stay simple, stay precise, and don’t waste anyone’s time — especially the hotelier’s.
Joining Planet: A bigger stage, the same DNA
By the time we began conversations with Planet, HotSoft had already been running quietly in the background of hundreds of properties across Europe and Asia. It wasn’t a flashy product. It didn’t demand attention. It just worked — day after day, year after year.
That’s exactly what caught Planet’s attention.
They weren’t looking for another generic PMS to throw into their portfolio. They were looking for something that had proven it could endure — something built on principles they shared: reliability, modularity, and a hospitality-first mindset. And unlike other acquirers we’d spoken to in the past, Planet understood what made HotSoft special. More importantly, they didn’t want to change it — they wanted to build on it.
The integration made sense. Planet brought a full-stack payments infrastructure, cloud expertise, and a strong international footprint. We brought a PMS built from the ground up to handle the complexities of real hotel operations — with the battle scars to prove it.
Together, we saw the opportunity to do what neither side could do alone: create a truly integrated platform that combined reservations, payments, guest experience, and operations — all under one roof.
What mattered most to us was that the spirit of HotSoft — the relationships, the engineering philosophy, the long-haul mindset — would continue. And it has. The original modular foundation is still there. The engine design still informs how we scale. And many of the people who helped build HotSoft are still part of it today.
Planet didn’t dilute the brand. They amplified the mission.
Now, HotSoft is used by thousands of hotels around the world — independent boutiques, regional chains, resorts, and everything in between. It’s available on the cloud. It integrates deeply with payment systems and front-desk workflows. And it still prioritises what made it different from the start: simplicity, stability, and trust.
We never set out to build a global product. We set out to solve real problems for real hotels. And thanks to Planet, we’ve been able to take that philosophy further than we ever imagined — without compromising what got us here.
Still built for hoteliers
A lot has changed since those early days in the Alps — the industry, the technology, even the expectations of what a PMS should be. But the reason we started HotSoft hasn’t changed at all.
We built it because hotel teams needed something that worked — not something overbuilt, overpriced, or overpromised. They needed software that understood the pace of a front desk on a Friday evening. That respected a guest check-in as much as it did a balance sheet. That fit around people, not the other way around.
That’s still the measure we use today.
HotSoft has grown in ways we never expected. It’s now part of a global platform. It runs in more regions, supports more integrations, and powers more operations than we ever imagined back in that chalet in Verbier. But it hasn’t lost its edge — or its discipline. The modular architecture remains. The engineering standards hold. And the commitment to listening — really listening — to hotel teams is as strong as ever.
Technology will keep evolving. Interfaces will change. AI will assist. Channels will multiply. But the core challenge remains the same: hotels need systems that make their lives easier and their operations tighter — not tools that get in the way.
That’s what HotSoft was built for. That’s what it still delivers.
And as long as hotels need systems they can trust, that’s what it will keep doing.
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