For independent hotels, serviced apartments and small groups on Apaleo
Sell your rooms on your own Shopify.
Your guest decided to book. Don't send them somewhere else. Plekify connects Apaleo to a Shopify store on your own domain, and the money is paid into your account.
Approved trade buyers book the same rooms on contracted trade terms, settled by invoice.
- 4 clicks and 0 hand-offs to the payment page
- Shopify's conversion rate outpaces the competition by up to 36%
- 4 clicks
- 0 hand-offs to the payment page, n=7
- Up to 36% higher conversion
- Open booking-friction study, n=7. Shopify-commissioned study, April 2023.
01 The demo
Search it the way a guest would.
This is the search a guest sees on a hotel's own domain. Pick a demonstration property, check live availability and go through to the payment page. This demo runs on Plekify's own store, so rates are returned in South African rand (ZAR). A property's own store would use its own currency.
02 How the booking stays on your site
Guests search, choose a room and pay on your own domain.
Plekify connects Apaleo to a Shopify store on yourhotel.com: rooms, rates and availability come live from Apaleo, the guest picks a room and pays through Shopify's checkout, and the money is paid into your account. With the usual set-up, the guest is sent to a booking page on the PMS provider's domain to pay.
With Plekify
- Search ·
yourhotel.com· Your brand - Room and rate ·
yourhotel.com· Live from Apaleo, same domain - Payment ·
yourhotel.com· Your Shopify checkout, paid into your account
The usual set-up
- Search ·
yourhotel.com· Your brand - Room and rate ·
booking.‹provider›.com· Guest sent to another domain - Payment ·
booking.‹provider›.com· Payment and guest data run through the PMS provider's system
Payment runs through Shopify's checkout and is paid into your own account. The guest never leaves yourhotel.com.
4 clicks and 0 hand-offs to the payment page.
In the study, Plekify was the only booking flow where the guest never left the property's own domain.
Method and public dataset ↗03 How a booking works
Every room state in Apaleo. Every step through Shopify's checkout.
Packages are live: breakfast, transfers, spa and dining added to the room in the same checkout.
Step A — Checked live.
Before any price is shown, the quote is re-checked against Apaleo. If Apaleo disagrees, the guest sees "unavailable" — never a wrong price.
Step B — Held.
The guest taps Book. The room is held in Apaleo as an Optional block that deducts inventory: held, not yet reserved.
Step C — Confirmed.
Payment lands, or the trade invoice is paid. Plekify releases the block and writes a Confirmed reservation into Apaleo.
Failure mode, spelled out: If payment never comes, nothing is confirmed: a sweep every 5 minutes releases the hold and the room returns to sale.
| Step | The guest, on your domain | The room, in Apaleo | Timing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 Search | Dates and guests in. Rooms and rates come back from Plekify's mirror of Apaleo. | SYSTEM OF RECORD — Rooms and rates stay in Apaleo. | — |
| 02 Quote | Before a price is shown, the quote is re-checked live against Apaleo. If Apaleo disagrees, the guest sees "unavailable" — never a wrong price. | LIVE READ — The stay is read live from Apaleo. | — |
| 03 Book | The guest taps Book. | HELD — An Optional block that deducts inventory: held, not yet reserved. | ≈3.5 s from Book |
| 04 · Pay now | Guests pay through Shopify's checkout: card, Shop Pay, Apple Pay or Google Pay, as the store enables them. The money settles to the property's own payment account and bank. | HELD — Until payment. | — |
| 04 · Pay on terms | Approved trade buyers — tour operators, travel agents, corporate bookers — book on contracted trade terms, settled by invoice: 30-day terms. Shopify issues the invoice and tracks the terms. | HELD — Until the invoice is paid. | — |
| 05 Confirm | Payment lands, through the checkout or against the invoice. | CONFIRMED — Plekify releases the block and writes a Confirmed reservation into Apaleo. | ≈4.2 s from payment |
| Backstop — Walk-away | The guest leaves without paying. | RELEASED — A sweep every 5 minutes releases abandoned holds, so rooms never leak. | Every 5 min |
Two ways to pay on every result
Pay now: guests pay through Shopify's checkout. Pay on terms: approved trade buyers book on contracted trade terms, settled by invoice. A trade booking holds the room and becomes a confirmed reservation only when the invoice is paid, so the property never carries post-departure credit exposure on an unpaid booking.
5 photos
One bedroom Suites
Bold, contemporary open-plan suites suspended above the N'Wanetsi River.
04 Why Shopify
What Shopify gives your hotel.
Shopify already runs the checkout, the wallets and the trade tools, in an account the property owns. Plekify adds the hotel part: live rooms and rates from Apaleo, held and confirmed in step. Plan requirements are named with each capability.
| Capability | What it does for a property | Shopify plan |
|---|---|---|
| Trade and corporate rates | A price list per buyer, through B2B catalogs. | Up to 3 catalogs on non-Plus plans; unlimited on Plus. B2B company accounts need Shopify's new customer accounts. |
| Payment terms | 30-day terms, or others, for approved trade buyers. | All plans. Deposits and dynamic terms via Functions: Advanced and Plus. |
| Group quotes | Draft orders with custom pricing. | All plans. |
| Automatic collection | Trade invoices collected on their due dates, with vaulted payments via Flow. | Grow and above, with Shopify Payments. |
| Multi-currency | Prices in the guest's own currency, through Markets. | All plans. Fixed per-market prices: Advanced and Plus. |
| Add-ons | Plekify ships packages: breakfast, transfers, spa and dining add-ons added to the room in the same checkout. | Packages are live in Plekify. Wallet checkout (Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay) needs Shopify Payments. |
| Several companies | Multi-entity selling for a property group. | Plus, with Shopify Payments. |
Capability rows show as a collapsed list. Tap a row to expand it.
Trade and corporate rates
A price list per buyer, through B2B catalogs.
Up to 3 catalogs on non-Plus plans; unlimited on Plus. B2B company accounts need Shopify's new customer accounts.
Payment terms
30-day terms, or others, for approved trade buyers.
All plans. Deposits and dynamic terms via Functions: Advanced and Plus.
Group quotes
Draft orders with custom pricing.
All plans.
Automatic collection
Trade invoices collected on their due dates, with vaulted payments via Flow.
Grow and above, with Shopify Payments.
Multi-currency
Prices in the guest's own currency, through Markets.
All plans. Fixed per-market prices: Advanced and Plus.
Add-ons
Plekify ships packages: breakfast, transfers, spa and dining add-ons added to the room in the same checkout.
Packages are live in Plekify. Wallet checkout (Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay) needs Shopify Payments.
Several companies
Multi-entity selling for a property group.
Plus, with Shopify Payments.
Readable by AI agents
search_properties · get_property · check_availability · get_rates · get_checkout_link
Five read-only MCP tools are live. Agents read live availability and rates; bookings complete with a human.
Shopify's agentic storefronts extend this to the store itself: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI Mode can read the storefront, under your control. The Universal Commerce Protocol — an open standard supported by Shopify, Google, Etsy, Wayfair, Target and Walmart — gives agents one shared language for products and orders. Google's UCP lodging track is published and open for waitlist — and UCP speaks MCP, the same protocol family as the five read-only tools above.
05 For groups
One group.
One store.
One checkout.
A group can sell every property from one search, with one basket and trade rates per buyer. The Singita demonstration puts sixteen properties behind a single page.
Search the Singita group →
- Corporate guests book on contracted trade terms, settled by invoice. ·
- Trade rates per buyer through B2B catalogs: up to 3 on non-Plus plans, unlimited on Plus. ·
- Several companies in one group: multi-entity selling on Shopify Plus.
06 Pricing
A fixed fee. Zero commission.
Prices are shown in your local currency: rand in South Africa and Namibia, euro in Europe, US dollar everywhere else. Every purchase is charged in South African rand (ZAR), and Shopify converts at checkout. Plekify is a South African company. Rooms plans are billed monthly, with no annual billing and no setup waiver.
Choose the tier that matches your key count. Setup is paid once, the monthly fee stays fixed, and nothing is taken from your bookings.
The Solo Independent
1 property · ≤19 keys · ≤3 room categories · Apaleo-connected only
R950/month
one-time setup R9,000
- PMS rate and availability sync ·
- One-page apex checkout ·
- Apple Pay, Google Pay, card ·
- Up to 3 room categories ·
- 301 preservation
The Boutique Independent
20–35 keys
R1,850/month
one-time setup R27,500
- Migration of your current site ·
- PMS rate and availability sync ·
- One-page apex checkout ·
- Apple Pay, Google Pay, card ·
- Up to 5 room categories, 301 preservation
The Lifestyle Estate
36–70 keys
R2,750/month
one-time setup R46,000
- Everything in Boutique ·
- Multi-language and multi-currency ·
- Packages: spa and dining in checkout ·
- Abandoned-booking recovery ·
- Voucher engine
The Signature Collection
71–100+ keys
R3,700/month
one-time setup R74,000
- Everything in Lifestyle ·
- Multi-property routing ·
- Custom rate rules: non-refundable, corporate codes ·
- Loyalty gates ·
- Quarterly commercial reviews
Zero commission on every direct booking. ·
50% setup deposit at intake, refundable minus an admin fee before the prototype. A working prototype follows within 72 hours. The balance and first month are due only at verified DNS cutover and a live test booking.
All purchases are charged in South African rand (ZAR); your bank may add its own conversion charge.
Shopify's transaction fee is not returned when an order is refunded.
What Shopify costs you
Your Shopify subscription is separate from Plekify's fee and is paid directly to Shopify. Shopify sets these prices, in US dollars. Basic is enough to start. Grow suits stores with higher card volumes. Shopify charges no setup fee on any plan.
| Charge | Basic | Grow |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly billing | $25 / month | $65 / month |
| Billed yearly | $19 / month | $49 / month |
| Shopify fee, card payment via a South African gateway | 2% | 1% |
| Shopify fee, invoice, bank transfer or EFT | None | None |
| Shopify fee, POS orders | None | None |
Shopify Payments is not available in South Africa
The one-point gap between Basic and Grow applies only to card-gateway sales. Grow pays for itself at roughly $4,000 a month of card-paid online sales on monthly billing, or $3,000 a month billed yearly (about R66,000 and R50,000).
30-day guarantee
If your checkout is not faster and higher-converting than your old engine after 30 days, we pause the subscription until it is, or revert your DNS free.
You keep your data, your brand and your compliance.
Your data
Bookings and guest details go into your account and your Apaleo. You alone hold the customer record, and it is yours to remarket to and build loyalty schemes on. Brand, copy, images and domain stay yours.
DSGVO and EU hosting
Plekify's application and database are hosted in Germany. Guest and order records sit in your own Shopify and Apaleo accounts, each a separate processor under its own data-processing terms. Shopify's infrastructure is not EU-only. We handle personal data in line with the DSGVO.
Full price, PAngV
The full price is shown before the guest pays, as the PAngV requires.
Checkout
Shopify checkout, certified PCI-DSS Level 1.
Getting there
Live on your domain in three steps
A working prototype within 72 hours of intake, and nothing switches until you approve it.
Step 01 ·
Connect Apaleo
Authorise Apaleo. Nothing is exported — inventory and rates stay where they are.
Step 02 ·
We scaffold your storefront
Rooms, rates and photos pull in. Your current site stays live and keeps taking bookings while we build in a private workbench.
Step 03 ·
You approve, we switch
You review and approve, then your domain moves across with 301 redirects. Reservations reach Apaleo exactly as before.
07 Questions
Answers to the first questions hoteliers ask.
Will it overbook?
Apaleo stays the system of record. The quote is re-checked live against Apaleo before a price is shown, the room is held in Apaleo from Book to payment, and a sweep every 5 minutes releases abandoned holds.
What about min-stay and closed-to-arrival rules?
Rates and availability come from Apaleo.
What about city tax, pre-authorisation or Google Hotel Ads?
Talk to us. Each depends on the property's set-up, and we will tell you exactly what is and is not covered today.
What if a trade buyer never pays?
The room is held, not confirmed, until the invoice is paid. You carry no post-departure credit exposure on an unpaid booking.
What does it cost?
A productised tier, not a custom build: from R9,000 setup and R950 a month for one property up to 19 keys. Zero commission on every direct booking. Apaleo's own fee is separate, and so is your Shopify subscription, paid to Shopify.
Can AI agents see my rooms?
They can read them. The live site exposes read-only tools: AI agents can read live availability and rates, but cannot book or pay.
Which PMS does it work with?
Apaleo today; built to connect open PMSs.
How is this different from other ways of taking bookings online?
A PMS booking engine usually takes the guest to its own pages and runs the transaction there. With Plekify, the search, the room and the checkout are the property's own Shopify store, and the money settles to its own account. Payment runs through the property's Shopify checkout, on its own domain.
What happens to our current website?
It stays live and keeps taking bookings while we build. Nothing switches until you approve it; then the domain moves, with 301 redirects for the old URLs.
Where do guest details live?
In the property's Shopify account and in Apaleo. The guest, the order and the data are the property's.
08 Talk to us
We are taking on a small first group of hotels.
We're taking on a small first group of properties and collections who want to shape the product with us. Tell us about your property and your current stack; the founder reads every submission.
Book a time to talk it through
Three details, then choose a time. A free, no-obligation video call with Matthew, the founder.
- Work email ·
- Property name ·
- Number of rooms
Slots run weekdays, 08:00 to 17:00 South African time (SAST, UTC+2); the picker shows them in your own local time.
About the founder
Matthew co-founded SafariNow.com in 1999 on a R50,000 loan from his parents. In 2000 it ran South Africa's first web-to-SMS booking flow; in 2008 Google sourced SafariNow's establishment data. At its 2015 peak it dealt directly with roughly 22,000 establishments in eight African countries and carried R296.8m in annual booking value. He led it for eighteen years, founding to exit: a majority sale to Travelstart in 2017. Plekify launched in 2026. It gives a property a Shopify storefront on its own domain, connected live to Apaleo; guests book and pay through Shopify Checkout, and the operator owns the sale.