FAQ
Fifteen questions we hear most from operators.
If your question is not here, drop us a line at hello@talkg.fabriza.org or open a chat from the /contact page — we answer within one business day.
How long does the switch from our current PMS take?
For a Starter or Growth plan property with under 50 rooms and one channel manager, the switch usually takes a single weekend: Friday evening data import, Saturday configuration and channel wiring, Sunday parity checks and training. Scale plans and multi-property portfolios are typically two to four weeks, split across the properties you want to migrate first.
Can we keep our current booking widget URL?
Yes. The Guest Talk booking engine embeds via a script tag on any URL you already own. You can keep the same page path and just replace the widget script. For most customers this means the URL a guest bookmarks does not change on the day of the switch.
What happens to reservations made before the switch?
Historical reservations are imported into Guest Talk during the migration weekend, along with folios, payment records and guest profiles. Future-dated reservations (already in the system for a stay after the switch date) come across the same way and continue as normal on the new platform. No guest needs to be re-notified.
Do we need a technical person on our team to run Guest Talk?
No. The whole platform is designed for hospitality operators, not engineers. Onboarding includes hands-on training for reception, revenue and housekeeping roles. The only technical decision you need to make during setup is whether to embed the booking widget in your existing website (a paste-once code snippet) or use the hosted booking URL we provide.
Which payment gateways do you support?
Stripe (default), Adyen (Enterprise) and SumUp (for tap-to-pay at reception). All three support the payment methods European travellers expect: card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, SEPA direct debit, iDEAL, Bancontact, Klarna. 3D-Secure is enforced by default. We do not touch card numbers ourselves; the gateway tokenises the card and we store the token.
Are you PCI-DSS compliant?
Yes. Because we do not store card PANs (payment card numbers), Guest Talk falls under PCI-DSS SAQ-A scope. The compliance attestation is renewed annually and is available on request under NDA. Our payment gateways (Stripe, Adyen, SumUp) are all PCI-DSS Level 1.
Is Guest Talk GDPR compliant?
Yes. We are a joint data processor with our customers under GDPR (EU Regulation 2016/679) and the Estonian Personal Data Protection Act 2019. Every subscription includes a standard Data Processing Addendum (DPA) that meets Article 28 requirements. Scale customers can negotiate custom DPA terms. Our Data Protection Officer is reachable at dpo@talkg.fabriza.org and our supervisory authority is the Estonian Andmekaitse Inspektsioon (AKI).
Where is our data stored?
In EU data centres operated by AWS in Frankfurt (eu-central-1) and Ireland (eu-west-1). Backups are stored in a second EU region with encryption at rest (AES-256) and in transit (TLS 1.3). Data never leaves the EU without an explicit customer decision to enable a non-EU integration (for example, if you connect a US-hosted marketing tool via Zapier).
Can I export our data if we decide to leave?
Yes. Every plan includes a self-service data export that produces a JSON archive of every reservation, guest, folio, message and rate plan. There is no fee, no delay and no vendor-lock question mark. You can also request the same export in CSV form for accounting purposes.
What is the uptime?
Our rolling 12-month uptime is 99.98%, published on status.talkg.fabriza.org. RPO (recovery point objective) is 60 seconds; RTO (recovery time objective) is 4 hours for a total-region failure. We run monthly restore tests and quarterly disaster-recovery drills.
Do you offer training for new staff?
Yes. Every Guest Talk plan includes on-demand video training for the four core roles (reception, housekeeping, revenue, management) plus a searchable knowledge base. Growth plans include one live training session per quarter for new hires. Scale plans include unlimited live training on request.
What happens if we outgrow the Starter plan mid-year?
You can upgrade at any time. We pro-rate the plan difference on the current invoice and no data migration is needed — upgrading is a permission change on the same tenant. Downgrading works the same way, with credit applied to future invoices.
Does Guest Talk work for very small properties (under 10 rooms)?
Yes, but consider whether a full PMS is worth the money at that scale. Under 10 rooms and less than 40 reservations a month, a spreadsheet plus Booking's own extranet can often do the job. From roughly 15 rooms upwards, the time saved on operations, channel management and messaging usually pays for a Starter plan several times over.
Can I try Guest Talk before committing?
Yes. Every prospective customer gets access to a sandbox workspace with sample data before we ask for a payment method. We can also arrange a four-week parallel-run where you use Guest Talk alongside your existing PMS on a subset of reservations, if you want to validate the platform on your real operation.
How do you handle disputes over folio charges?
Every folio line has an audit trail: who added it, when, why. Refunds and adjustments are also logged. If a guest disputes a charge, you have the full context to investigate in seconds. For chargebacks originating from a payment gateway, Guest Talk exposes a chargeback workflow that pulls the folio, booking evidence and stay notes into a single response document.