StaySuite vs Chekin: two tools that fit together more than they compete
Chekin files your guests' details with SES.Hospedajes and verifies identity. StaySuite looks after enquiries and calendars. Often you want both.
This is the odd one out in our set. Smoobu, Lodgify and Avantio are, at heart, systems that run your bookings. Chekin is not. It is a specialist tool for one chore every owner in Spain eventually meets: collecting each guest's details and reporting them to the authorities. Comparing it with StaySuite is a bit like comparing a lock with a front door. They do different jobs, and you may need both.
What we say about Chekin comes from its public website, read on 15 October 2026. Where the pages are silent we say so, and we do not treat silence as proof that a feature is missing.
The problem both are touching
In Spain, accommodation providers must report each guest's details to the Ministry of the Interior within a short time after the booking and the arrival, using the SES.Hospedajes portal. Doing it by hand for every stay is dull and easy to get wrong, particularly with groups and children. This is the chore Chekin exists to remove, and it is the part of StaySuite that stops short.
Feature by feature
- Registration: Chekin, online check-in with identity verification (document and selfie), and reporting to SES.Hospedajes, as well as the regional police bodies, according to its legal page and guide. StaySuite, a form per booking that the guest fills in on a phone, validation, export and print. StaySuite sends nothing to SES.Hospedajes.
- Extras: Chekin, digital keys, tourist tax, online payments, upsells, damage protection and digital guides, depending on plan. StaySuite offers none of these.
- Calendar and portals: Chekin works with iCal feeds and integrates with more than thirty-five property management systems, but it is not a channel manager. StaySuite reads and publishes iCal calendars with the main portals about every twenty minutes.
- Direct bookings: Chekin has no booking website. StaySuite gives you a public page with direct contact and booking requests taken by the assistant that you confirm, with no commission.
- Guest conversations: Chekin mentions AI replies in its unified inbox, and does not detail their scope or languages. StaySuite has an assistant that answers the phone in the caller's language, with recorded and transcribed calls.
What it costs
Chekin quotes its tiers as a price from a few euros per property per month on annual billing, with a minimum number of properties on the page we read, and transaction fees on payments and deposits, plus separate charges for phone, WhatsApp and SMS channels. It also showed a monthly price that depended on a calculator we could not read, and a fee whose purpose we could not identify, so we will not quote exact figures. Look at the live page, especially if you intend to take payments through it.
StaySuite is a flat monthly fee, excluding VAT, without transaction fees from us: €29 for one property during the pioneer offer until 31 December 2026 (€59 standard), €49 for up to three and €99 for a manager plan. If registration is all you need, Chekin will very likely cost you less.
Pros and cons of Chekin
- Pro: a specialist in compliance, with reporting to SES.Hospedajes and identity verification.
- Pro: a low entry price per property and integrations with many property management systems.
- Pro: digital keys, tourist tax and electronic invoicing, depending on plan.
- Con: it does not replace a channel manager, a property management system or a booking website.
- Con: the total can grow with transaction fees and premium features.
- Con: a minimum number of units, and legal coverage that is limited to a handful of countries.
Pros and cons of StaySuite
- Pro: a public page for direct contact, calendar sync by iCal and the registration form, in one subscription.
- Pro: an assistant that answers guests by phone in their language.
- Pro: no transaction fees from StaySuite.
- Con: no filing with SES.Hospedajes and no identity verification. You report yourself.
- Con: no digital keys, tourist tax or payments handling.
- Con: iCal rather than a real-time connection to the portals.
When to choose Chekin
Choose Chekin if the traveller report is your biggest headache. That is especially true if you already have a property management system or channel manager you are happy with and you only want the registration done automatically, with identity checks. It is also a good fit if you want digital keys or the tourist tax handled in the same place.
When to choose StaySuite
Choose StaySuite if what you are missing is a front door: a public page for direct contact, a calendar kept in step with the portals, and an assistant that takes calls and requests in the guest's language at all hours. You will still have to file the report yourself, using the export, unless you add something like Chekin.
Using them together
This is the one pairing we would suggest outright. StaySuite looks after the conversation and the calendar. Chekin takes over the registration. The only caution is to avoid collecting the same details twice: if Chekin handles registration, you can simply not send guests to the StaySuite form, and keep the form as a fallback. Because the two do not overlap on calendars, there is no master-calendar question to settle.
If you would like to see the StaySuite side first, open the demo on its website and talk to the assistant as if you were a guest.