5 Best Payroll Solutions for Hotels: Pricing and Features Compared

After researching and comparing the leading providers, we found that Rippling is the best payroll software for hotels overall. It’s a unified payroll, HR and time-and-attendance platform, making it an asset to all hotels that hire staff on an hourly wage basis, specifically those with larger teams, multiple departments or more complex pay structures.

ADP is another strong contender for large hotels, due to its ability to handle complex tax and wage processes at scale, while Gusto will be the premium option for smaller lodgings that are after transparent pricing and a low learning curve.

The right hotel payroll software helps businesses pay staff accurately and on time, stay compliant with labor regulations, and reduce manual workload. This guide uses expert insights to highlight the best payroll solutions for different types of hotels, helping you choose a platform that fits your size, structure and staffing needs.

Best Payroll Solutions for Hotels: Quick Overview

Before we dive deep into the details, here’s a summary of how the best payroll platforms for hotels compare when it comes to price and features:

1. Rippling: Best Overall Payroll Solution for Hotels

To call Rippling a payroll-only solution would be selling it short. The system integrates IT, HR, payroll, and time and attendance in one system, making it particularly well-suited to established hotels managing large, shift-based teams.

Why we recommend Rippling for hotels

With Rippling, employee data flows seamlessly between modules. This allows hotels to reduce manual admin, minimise payroll errors and ensure staff are paid accurately for the hours they work. This unified approach is especially valuable for hotels that plan to scale, as it keeps workforce data consistent and compliant as teams grow.

Rippling also automates the onboarding and offboarding process, providing a lifeline to hotels that regularly onboard and offboard staff across different departments, like front desk, housekeeping and service.

The platform lets you create custom workflows that automatically add new hires to payroll and time tracking, apply the correct pay rate and more, ensuring all current employees are paid accurately and efficiently.

Compliance can be a huge challenge for hotels, due to their complex pay structures, seasonal fluctuations, and high staff turnover. Fortunately, Rippling’s unified system helps simplify compliance by automatically calculating overtime based on hours worked and enforcing minimum wage rules by role.

Rippling also applies location-specific rules automatically, helping hotels stay compliant with state and local payroll tax requirements across different locations.

How could Rippling improve?

Rippling is more than a simple payroll platform, and that breadth is reflected in its pricing. While the provider charges custom fees, this can result in higher monthly subscription costs, particularly when compared with more stripped-back platforms, like Gusto and OnPay.

If you only require straightforward payroll features, there is a risk of overpaying for advanced functionality you may never use.

Smaller hotels and lodgings may also find the platform’s broad feature set overwhelming. Many of Rippling’s capabilities — such as IT device provisioning and advanced HR automation — are unlikely to be relevant to smaller hospitality operations.

While Rippling’s flexibility and custom workflows favour larger organisations with the expertise and resources to configure them properly, this extra layer of complexity may be unnecessary for smaller teams without dedicated HR or IT support.

2. ADP: Best Payroll Solution for Large Hotel Chains

ADP is a long-established payroll provider with a broad range of payroll and HR features, but it particularly stands out for its tax filing and compliance capabilities, handling payroll obligations accurately at the federal, state and local levels. This makes it particularly well suited to large hotel chains and multi-location groups operating across different jurisdictions.

Why we recommend ADP for hotels

For large hotels and hotel groups operating across multiple states or cities, ADP offers centralised payroll processing that lets you manage all locations from a single system.

The platform automatically applies location-specific wage and tax rules while providing consolidated reporting across properties. This makes it easier for hotel groups to keep payroll consistent and compliant at scale, without the need to manage separate payroll systems for each hotel.

ADP is also highly scalable, offering solutions for businesses with anywhere from one to 1,000 employees and beyond, allowing hotel groups to grow, add locations and increase headcount without needing to switch payroll providers as their operations expand.

How could ADP improve?

ADP’s customer support center is still heavily geared towards phone-based support, which could be a disadvantage for businesses that prefer to resolve queries through live chat or email. This differs from platforms like Rippling and Paychex, which actively prompt users to initiate in-app live chat for urgent enquiries, with phone support used more as an escalation route.

For smaller hotels in particular, ADP may feel more over-engineered than necessary. Its pricing is bespoke, which can make costs harder to predict for independent operators with tight margins, and many features are designed with larger, more complex organisations in mind.

3. Gusto: Best Payroll Platform for Small, Boutique Hotels

Gusto payroll is a straightforward, easy-to-use platform that makes running payroll quick and simple.

Its slick onboarding and offboarding features, smart mobile apps and support for nationwide chains make it a very suitable payroll solution for hotels — especially smaller or independently owned properties that can do without the advanced features offered by Rippling and ADP, like enterprise-grade customisation and global payroll.

Why we recommend Gusto for hotels

Gusto offers a range of hotel-friendly features, including support for complex wage rules, tipped wage compliance and integrated time tracking — all of which are particularly valuable in hospitality environments with hourly staff, rotating shifts and multiple departments.

Gusto also lets hotel staff access pay stubs, time off balances and tax documents through its employee portal and mobile app, reducing the number of payroll queries managers need to handle manually. This is a big plus in hospitality settings where team members aren’t always desk-bound.

Gusto also boasts a transparent pricing structure, with plans starting from as little as $49 per month, plus $6 per employee, for its Simple package. These predictable costs make it especially appealing for smaller hotels looking to avoid the complexity and hidden fees often associated with enterprise platforms.

Combine this with Gusto’s shallow learning curve and straightforward functionality, and it becomes an excellent choice for hotels interested in managing simple payroll tasks, like running regular pay cycles and managing compliance.

How could Gusto improve?

While Gusto is a solid option for small and mid-sized businesses, it may struggle to meet the needs of hotels with large workforces or multiple locations. This is because the platform offers fewer of the advanced capabilities found in systems like ADP and Ripping, such as global payroll, enhanced user permissions and custom automations.

Gusto doesn’t proactively alert businesses when they may be in breach of labor compliance, either, which places greater responsibility on hotel managers to keep up to date with complex wage and employment laws.

4. OnPay: Best Payroll Solution for Budget-Friendly Payroll

OnPay is a dedicated payroll software designed to simplify pay runs, automate taxes and manage a range of HR processes. The provider includes most key payroll features in its flat-rate plan, preventing hotels from needing to upgrade to pricier packages to keep day-to-day payroll running smoothly.

This makes OnPay a cost-effective, no-frills choice for budget-conscious hotels that want reliable payroll without paying extra for advanced features they’re unlikely to use.

Why we recommend OnPay for hotels

OnPay’s plan allows unlimited payroll runs at no extra cost, which is particularly useful for hotels that regularly need to make extra or ad-hoc payments — such as paying last-minute shift cover, correcting time-sheet errors, distributing tips or service charges, or issuing bonuses after busy periods.

The platform also gives businesses access to useful HR features, like employee onboarding and hiring tools, paid time-off (PTO) management, and compliance support, as part of its central offering. In contrast, providers like Paychex lock certain advanced HR features, like PTO management, behind pricier tiers. This helps to keep costs more predictable and makes OnPay a reliable option for hotels managing simple payroll and HR processes in-house.

How could OnPay improve?

While OnPay offers HR functions, it lacks some advanced capabilities like drag-and-drop workflow builders, custom approval chains, and automated rules across HR and IT systems.

As a result, larger hotels with centralised HR teams or tight audit workflows may find OnPay’s toolkit too limited and would be better off opting for enterprise solutions, like Rippling or ADP, instead.

Unlike providers like Rippling and ADP, OnPay’s customer support channels are only open Monday to Friday, 9am to 8pm ET, and the provider does not assign businesses a dedicated support team to guide them through the implementation process.

While this wouldn’t significantly impact small, independent hotels with straightforward payroll needs, it could pose challenges for larger hotels or multi-location groups that operate around the clock and require faster, more personalised support.

5. Paychex: Best Payroll Solution for Hotels with Restaurants

Paychex is a well-established payroll provider that offers a fuss-free, highly reliable payroll experience, making it a strong option for hotels that also operate on-site restaurants, bars, or food and beverage outlets.

Why we recommend Paychex for hotels

Paychex is particularly well-suited to hotels with restaurants because it handles tipped wages, variable pay rates and multiple pay frequencies with ease. This allows hotels to pay front-of-house staff, kitchen teams and management correctly, without having to rely on third-party integrations.

In addition, Paychex provides strong customer support and onboarding assistance, including access to payroll specialists and HR advisors at higher service levels.

For hotel operators who want reassurance that payroll is being handled correctly — particularly during busy periods or seasonal hiring spikes — this added support can be a major advantage over simpler platforms like OnPay.

How could Paychex improve?

While Paychex is easy to use, many of its most valuable HR features — such as advanced PTO management, deeper HR tools, and workforce management functionality — are locked behind higher-priced tiers or add-on packages. This can make costs harder to predict for hotels that start small, but gradually may require more functionality.

Looking for a payroll software capable of supporting complex hospitality operations? Check out our guide to the best payroll software for restaurants.

Buying Guide: What Payroll Features Should Hotels Look For?

Hotels require more complex payroll than regular desk-based businesses. They operate around the clock, and often employ large numbers of seasonal workers. To meet these demands, here are some key features to prioritise when shopping for payroll software.

• Time and attendance tracking: Built-in clock-in/clock-out tools (or integrations with time-and-attendance systems) reduce time theft, minimise manual errors and help ensure payroll reflects actual hours worked across key departments in hotels.
• Flexible payment schedules: Since hotels often pay employees on different cycles — like weekly pay for hourly staff and monthly pay for salaried workers — payroll software should support multiple pay schedules at once.
• Tip and complex wage support: Hotel pay structures can be complicated. To ensure staff members are paid accurately, we recommend opting for payroll software that supports features such as tip reporting, blended pay rates and overtime calculations.
• Automatic compliance tools: Like any other business, hotels are subject to strict labor regulations. Choosing a payroll system which offers useful compliance features like automatic tax calculations and real-time labor law updates helps reduce the risk of penalties.
• Employee self-service apps: Large, deskless workforces benefit hugely from employee self-service. Payroll providers with mobile payroll apps let staff view payslips, request time off and more, directly from their phone, saving managers time and reducing routine payroll queries.
• Integrations with property management systems (PMSs): Payroll software that integrates with PMSs and scheduling tools helps sync hours worked, shift data and departmental roles automatically, reducing manual data entry and the risk of errors as a result.

Our Methodology: How Did We Do Our Research?