Why CloudSon uses PostgreSQL

CloudSon keeps a hotel’s reservations, folios, night audit and accounts in a database. This note explains, in plain terms, why we chose PostgreSQL for that role, and what it means for a hotel owner or a hotel group.

1. No database licence fee

PostgreSQL is released under the PostgreSQL Licence, a permissive open-source licence that allows it to be used, copied and distributed without a licence fee, however many rooms, users or properties a hotel group has. This removes the database licence fee only: hosting, backups, administration and support still have a cost, whichever database is used.

2. Freedom of platform

PostgreSQL runs on Windows, Linux and other operating systems, on a hotel’s own server or on the major cloud providers, which also offer it as a managed service. A hotel group can choose where CloudSon is hosted without changing the database.

3. Staff, reports and the night audit working together

PostgreSQL uses multi-version concurrency control, so a person reading information, such as a manager running a report, does not, in general, hold up a person recording it, such as a cashier posting to a folio.

4. Hotel rules kept in the database itself

CloudSon is designed so that the database enforces important rules and not only the screens. For example, a room cannot be charged twice for the same night, and two documents cannot be given the same number even when two people save at the same moment. PostgreSQL supports exact decimal arithmetic for money and strict data-integrity rules, and it stores each hotel’s own settings and layouts in a flexible structured form.

5. Open standards and long-term continuity

PostgreSQL has been developed in the open for more than 25 years and is governed by a global community and not by a single company. It follows the standard SQL language closely, and free standard tools are available to back up and move a hotel’s data.

What this means for your hotel

With CloudSon on PostgreSQL, your hotel or group does not pay a database licence fee, can choose to host CloudSon on its own server or in the cloud, and keeps its data in a widely used open standard.

Our position

CloudSon is designed for, and supported on, PostgreSQL. We chose it because it fits how CloudSon is built. If your organisation has specific database requirements, please speak to us and we will be glad to discuss them.

About this note

This note is general information, written in good faith to answer a common question. It is not legal, financial, technical or procurement advice, and it is not a promise of any particular result. PostgreSQL and the Slonik Elephant Logo are trademarks of the PostgreSQL Community Association of Canada, used here only to identify the product.