Seafest Regency is a large luxury hotel in Semporna, on the east coast of Sabah — the gateway town for the dive islands of the Celebes Sea. At that size the front desk is never one person. It runs across shifts, with several people taking turns at the same terminals, handling cash, card holds and guest deposits all day.
Why they moved
Seafest came to Zitlin from another PMS. What a hotel this size needs from its system is less about features on a list and more about accountability: when many people share the desk, every action, every shift's cash and every guest's deposit has to be tied to a name — without anyone keeping a separate notebook to make that true.
They started on Zitlin Pro free for the first months, with data migration, staff training and onboarding over WhatsApp included, and stayed on Pro.
How Seafest runs on Zitlin
Every action carries a name
Each member of staff has their own name and a 6-digit PIN, punched into whichever terminal they are standing at. Seven nested roles decide what each person can reach — overriding a nightly rate, for instance, takes a Rooms Manager or above. Money actions ask for the PIN again, so an unattended screen cannot be used to settle a bill in someone else's name.
The audit log is where Seafest reads it all back: folios and bookings created, cancelled or reverted, rates overridden, deposits recorded, invoices raised, voided or settled, discounts applied — each with who did it, when, and on which device.
Cash counted at every handover
Whoever takes the desk opens a cash drawer with a counted float. At handover they count it again; Zitlin states what should be there, they enter what is, and any difference is recorded against their name with a note. Nobody inherits the previous person's shortfall, and where several people work the same shift, the shift report rolls their drawers together — what the hotel took, and who moved it.
Card holds and deposits, tracked to the end
When the desk takes a card pre-authorisation on its terminal, it records the hold in Zitlin against the booking, with the amount, the authorisation code and the date the hold lapses — and Zitlin flags it before it does. Security deposits sit in their own register, apart from takings, from the moment they are collected to the moment they are returned or retained, so a guest never checks out with their money still on the hotel's books unnoticed.
Housekeeping from staff phones
When a guest checks out, the room turns dirty and the cleaning task appears on its own. Housekeeping updates room status from their phones, and the desk sees a room go clean the moment it is — no calls across a large property.
Channels and the day close
Zitlin's channel manager keeps Seafest's OTA availability and rates in step with the desk, and the night audit closes each day into a snapshot nobody can edit afterwards.
In their words
The system is very user friendly and can be customised. I get to experience the FOC for pro version for the first few months and it’s really easy to navigate and the customer service is super responsive which is the main reason Zitlin is so good.
Reviewed on G2 · 5/5 · May 2026
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