Answers for owners
Frequently asked questions
Everything hostel, PG, and co-living owners ask before moving off spreadsheets — pricing, rent collection, migration, security, and what actually changes day to day.
The basics
What the software does and who it's for.
Hostel management software digitises how a hostel, PG, or co-living property is run — bookings, room and bed allocation, rent collection, maintenance, visitors, staff, and reporting — in one platform. primelivingApp adds a branded booking website and a resident mobile app on top of the management dashboard.
Most hostel software is a dashboard only. primelivingApp ships three things in one subscription: a branded booking website so people can find and book your property, a resident mobile app so tenants self-serve, and the management dashboard your team runs on. You get your whole digital presence, not just an admin panel.
Yes. primelivingApp supports boys', girls', and co-ed hostels, PGs, co-living spaces, student housing, and corporate accommodation — each with the relevant workflows. Property type is a setting, so gender-specific rules like visitor restrictions and curfew logging apply automatically where you need them.
Excel and WhatsApp record what happened; primelivingApp makes it happen. Invoices generate and chase themselves, residents pay online, complaints route to staff automatically, and occupancy updates live. Spreadsheets can't send a payment link, and a chat group can't tell you which beds are free tonight.
No. If you can use WhatsApp, you can run primelivingApp. Setup is guided, we migrate your existing data for you, and your staff work from a phone. There's nothing to install and no server to maintain.
Pricing & trial
What it costs and how to start.
Pricing is quoted per property based on your bed count, number of properties, and whether you want a branded mobile app. We quote this way because a 20-bed single PG and a 300-bed multi-city operator have genuinely different needs. Book a demo and you'll get a firm number in the same conversation — no drawn-out sales process.
Three things: total beds under management, how many separate properties you run, and whether you want the branded resident mobile app published under your own name. Everything else — the dashboard, resident portal, billing, reminders, maintenance, visitors, and reporting — is included in every plan.
There's a 14-day free trial and no credit card is required to start. During early access you also get founding pricing locked in and hands-on migration support from our team.
No setup fee on standard plans, and data migration off your existing spreadsheets is included — we do it for you. A branded mobile app published to the App Store and Play Store involves a one-time build, which is quoted separately.
Yes. You can move up or down at any time from your billing settings, and your historical data comes with you. Most owners start with one property and add the rest once their team is comfortable.
Nothing is deleted. Your account moves to a read-only state until you choose a plan, so your resident records, invoices, and documents stay intact. If you decide not to continue, you can export your data.
Rent & payments
Collecting money without chasing it.
Yes. It generates recurring invoices, sends reminders via WhatsApp, SMS, and email, and lets residents pay online in one tap, with receipts issued automatically and payments reconciled against each invoice.
Yes, in India. Residents can pay by UPI alongside cards, net banking, and wallets, and each payment is reconciled against the right invoice automatically. In other markets the locally relevant methods apply.
Yes. The payment link works for anyone the resident shares it with, so a parent or guardian can pay directly and the receipt is still filed against the resident's account.
Yes. Invoices carry your business details and applicable tax so they hold up for filing — GST in India, VAT or local equivalents in other markets.
Yes. Every resident can see their full payment history and download receipts themselves from the resident app or portal, which removes a large chunk of routine requests to your office.
Yes. Deposits are recorded against the resident, carried through their stay, and settled at move-out with deductions itemised on the final statement.
Yes. You can add metered or fixed utility charges to a resident's invoice alongside rent, so a single bill covers everything they owe for the cycle.
Late-fee rules you set once are applied automatically to overdue invoices, and reminders keep going out on your schedule. You get a live overdue view across every property, so you always know exactly what's outstanding and from whom.
Yes. Cash and bank transfers are recorded manually against the invoice by your staff, so your books stay complete even when the money doesn't move online. The receipt issues the same way.
Daily operations
Rooms, residents, staff, and maintenance.
Yes. Residents get an app to pay rent, raise maintenance requests, view their agreement, and receive updates — which cuts the support load on your team. Branded apps are available on higher plans.
Yes. Staff work from their phone — assigned tasks, maintenance requests, visitor entries, and room status all update live, so there's no separate register to reconcile later.
You get a live floor map showing every room and bed with its current status. Allocating a resident is a click, move-ins take about thirty seconds, and vacancies update instantly across the dashboard and your booking website — so you never double-book a bed.
Residents raise a request from the app with photos attached. It routes to the right staff member automatically, moves through a tracked status, and closes only when the work is verified — so nothing quietly disappears.
Yes. Visitors are logged digitally with entry and exit times, and the resident being visited can be notified for approval. For girls' and women's hostels the log doubles as a compliance record you can produce on request.
Yes. Assign tasks to wardens and support staff, track shifts, and see what was completed and by whom. Role-based access means each staff member only sees the properties and functions you've granted them.
Yes. Enquiry through move-in runs digitally — identity verification, document upload, and a rental agreement e-signed on the resident's phone. No printing, no physical register, and the whole history stays on the resident's profile.
Multiple properties & migration
Growing without multiplying admin work.
Yes. Multi-property operators get a consolidated view across every property, with per-property drill-down for occupancy, revenue, and staff.
Yes. You get one consolidated view across the portfolio with per-property drill-down, and staff only see the properties you assign them to.
Yes. Most owners move over from spreadsheets and chat groups. You can import your existing residents and rooms and be running in minutes — our team helps with onboarding.
We import it. Send us the spreadsheets you already keep — residents, rooms, dues — and our team maps them into primelivingApp rather than making you retype anything.
Most properties are live within a few days. You book a demo, we migrate your existing residents and rooms for you, configure your rent cycle and staff roles, and you start on the next billing cycle.
Adoption is driven by self-interest rather than persuasion: the app is where residents pay rent, get receipts, raise complaints, and read notices. Owners typically see most residents active within the first billing cycle, and those who don't install it still receive reminders by WhatsApp and SMS.
Security, data & regions
Where your data lives and who can see it.
Your data is served over encrypted connections, protected with role-based access, backed up on managed cloud infrastructure, and every sensitive action is recorded in an audit log.
Only the people you authorise. Access is role-based — owners, managers, staff, and residents each see a different slice, and staff are scoped to the properties you assign them. Every access to sensitive records is written to an audit log.
You own it. You can export residents, invoices, payments, and documents at any time, including if you decide to leave. There's no lock-in clause that holds your operating records hostage.
Yes. primelivingApp is multi-currency and works worldwide. Region-specific details like tax-compliant receipts adapt to your market (GST in India, VAT elsewhere).
Every plan includes support over email and WhatsApp, and early-access operators get direct access to the team building the product. During onboarding you also get hands-on help migrating data and configuring your first rent cycle.
Still have a question about your property?
Every property runs a little differently. Book a 20-minute walkthrough on your actual setup — your rooms, your rent cycle, your problems — and we'll answer it directly.
Ready to see it on your property?
Book a free demo and we'll walk through your rooms, your rent cycle, and your actual problems — no slide deck.
14-day free trial. No credit card required.