For most hotel tech vendors, the property management system is the centre of the buyer's stack. If a hotel runs Mews, Cloudbeds, Oracle OPERA Cloud or Apaleo, it will usually check that PMS's marketplace before it checks your website. That makes the PMS one of your most valuable marketing partners, and one most vendors treat as a technical checkbox.

This how-to sets out the steps to turn an integration into a co-marketing relationship, using what the large PMS platforms publish about their partner programmes. It is written for founders and revenue leaders at hotel tech companies.

What the major PMS marketplaces offer partners

The four platforms below publish enough about their ecosystems to plan around. Figures are as each company states them on the pages linked.

Apaleo is explicit about the division of labour. Its store page says it focuses on the core PMS, makes all APIs free and available for third-party apps, and invites vendors to market their solutions on the Store. It also offers a partner kit with guidelines, collaterals and downloads to help partners demonstrate the integration. In other words, the platform supplies the shelf and the vendor is expected to bring the marketing.

The pattern is clear. Every platform gives you a listing. What it does beyond the listing depends on how much evidence you bring that mutual customers succeed.

How to run co-marketing with a PMS partner, step by step

1. Pick the PMS whose customers match your ideal customer. Do not integrate with every platform at once. Choose the one most used by the segment you sell to, by region and property type. Our comparison of building versus partnering for integrations helps decide which to do first.

2. Meet the listing requirements properly. For Oracle, the OHIP FAQ states that to call production OPERA Cloud environments your solution must be posted in the Oracle Hospitality Cloud Marketplace under the OHIP category, which requires at least a base Oracle PartnerNetwork membership. Treat this as the minimum, not the plan.

3. Write the listing as outcomes, not features. Cloudbeds' partner marketing requirements give the rule with examples: not "Check-in online" but "Save time at the front desk by letting guests check-in before they arrive". Add pricing or a pricing link, screenshots, and translations where the platform supports them; Cloudbeds lists Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, French and Thai.

4. Build a dedicated integration landing page. Cloudbeds describes this as a page on your site that promotes the integration and has a sign-up form so it can send you leads. Show what syncs, what the hotel gains, setup time, and one proof point from a shared customer.

5. Record a walkthrough video. Cloudbeds asks for a video showing how the integration works. Keep it short and show the PMS screen the hotelier already knows, with your product working inside that workflow.

6. Launch only after certification. Cloudbeds asks partners not to publicise widely until they have passed certification and entered the pilot phase. Then announce through a press release or blog post, social posts and a direct message to every customer and prospect on that PMS.

7. Respect brand rules. Oracle's FAQ says its logo may not be used unless your company is in a programme such as the Oracle PartnerNetwork, and that once you have joined OPN and listed on the Marketplace, the integrations team will provide marketing guidance. Ask each partner for its brand rules before you design anything.

8. Enable both sales teams. Cloudbeds expects partners to cover the integration in sales training and collateral. Do the same in reverse: give the PMS account managers a one-page summary of who your product suits and when to mention it.

9. Use the referral routes that exist. Mews runs a referral programme that it says pays $/€1,000 for any referral that completes a demo. Referrals in both directions build the relationship faster than requests for featured placement.

10. Earn the higher tier with data. When Cloudbeds launched its Preferred Partner Program in November 2025, it said partners are evaluated on customer adoption and growth, integration quality and exceptional support. Its inaugural list included Amadeus, FLYR, IDeaS, Revinate, SiteMinder and Toast among others.

11. Keep marketing after launch. Cloudbeds lists post-launch updates promoting new enhancements as an expected practice. Each meaningful improvement is another reason to contact the shared customer base.

What a strong partner relationship looks like in public

The clearest signal of a working co-marketing relationship is the PMS talking about you. Revinate's partner page quotes Matthijs Welle, Chief Executive Officer at Mews: "Revinate is hands down the most popular CRM solution on the Mews Marketplace today." A quote like that from the platform's own chief executive does more for a hotel buyer than any amount of self-description, and it was earned through adoption, not bought.

That is the target for every partnership: a public statement from the PMS, a featured slot in its marketplace, and its account managers mentioning you unprompted.

What to measure

Tag the source properly from day one. If marketplace leads land in the CRM as "website", you will never know which partner is worth more effort.

Mistakes that waste the partnership

• Announcing before certification. It damages trust with the PMS team you need on side.

• A feature list instead of a benefit. The listing competes with hundreds of others in the same marketplace.

• No landing page. Without one the partner has nowhere to send interested hotels.

• One-way requests. Asking for featured placement while sending no referrals rarely works.

• Spreading across five platforms. Thin listings everywhere lose to a deep relationship with one.

Where this fits

Partner co-marketing is part of the reach stage of a hotel tech go-to-market system, set out in our hotel tech GTM strategy guide. It works alongside the broader marketplace work in how to win on hotel tech marketplaces, the integration story in why integrations sell hotel software, and review profiles covered in how to get reviews on Hotel Tech Report. If you also sell through resellers, see our guide to a regional reseller agreement.

If you are not sure whether your PMS partnerships produce pipeline or just logos, the free leak audit will show where partner-sourced buyers drop out.

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