HBook is one of the most popular booking plugins for small hotels and homestays on WordPress. It is mature, well rated and inexpensive: US$99 direct from its developer or US$129 on CodeCanyon, as a one-time purchase. Plenty of Malaysian properties run it happily, including SpyderHill, the Negeri Sembilan forest retreat whose photos appear on this blog.
So this is not a story about HBook failing. It is a guide for owners who are weighing up a move to a hosted system like Tamu: what HBook does well, what actually changes, and how to switch without missing a booking.
What HBook Does Well
- Seasonal rates, extra-guest charges, minimum stays and deposits
- Two-way iCal sync with Airbnb and Booking.com
- Stripe and PayPal built in, plus paid add-ons for Malaysian gateways such as Billplz (FPX), and offline bank transfer
- Coupons, email templates and custom booking-form fields
- Multilingual sites through WPML or Polylang
- A low one-time price, with optional yearly renewals for updates and support
Why Owners Consider Moving
The usual reasons are about running costs rather than missing features:
- Upkeep: WordPress, PHP, your theme and every plugin need updating. HBook released two security fixes in 2026 alone, and a site that falls behind stays exposed.
- Hosting and support: you pay for hosting, and HBook support lapses unless you renew.
- Sync reliability: HBook's iCal sync runs on WordPress's scheduled tasks, which sometimes need troubleshooting. Tamu re-checks every connected calendar every 15 minutes on its own servers.
- Managing on the go: Tamu's owner dashboard is built for a phone, with today's arrivals, payments due and quick actions.
What Changes, Honestly
Tamu costs more than HBook on sticker price: RM149/month (Host), or RM99/month for clusters, against a one-time licence. What you get for that is no website to maintain, free setup help and ongoing support over WhatsApp. Some things HBook has that Tamu does not have yet: a multilingual owner dashboard (Tamu's is in English; the guest booking widget is available in Bahasa Malaysia), and Google Hotels connectivity. Card and FPX payments in Tamu are rolling out and will be paid into your own Stripe account; bank transfer and pay on arrival work today. Neither system lets guests change their own bookings.
Our comparison of homestay booking systems in Malaysia puts HBook, Tamu and six other options side by side with prices.
What Moves Across
- Rooms, photos, descriptions and capacity
- Seasons, weekend and public holiday rates, extra-guest charges and minimum-stay rules
- Your iCal links to Airbnb, Booking.com and Agoda Homes
- Upcoming bookings, re-entered so their dates stay blocked
How to Switch Without Missing a Booking
- Set up your property in Tamu: rooms, photos, rates and rules. We do this for you for free if you send us your HBook settings.
- Add your OTA iCal links to Tamu, and add Tamu's links to your OTAs, so both systems see every booking.
- Run both in parallel. Keep HBook live while you make a test booking on Tamu and check that dates block on every platform.
- Point your website's Book Now button at your Tamu booking page.
- Once you are confident, remove HBook's iCal links from your OTAs and retire the plugin.
Our iCal setup guide covers the sync step in detail. See pricing for plans, both with a 30-day free trial.
More from the Tamu Blog
Best Homestay Booking System in Malaysia (2026 Comparison)
Eight booking systems Malaysian homestay owners actually choose between, with prices in RM, what each does well, and where each falls short. Written by Tamu, so we tell you exactly what Tamu does and doesn't do yet.
How to Sync Your Airbnb Calendar with a Direct Booking Engine (Step-by-Step)
Double bookings are the number one fear of every property owner using multiple booking platforms. iCal sync solves this. Here's exactly how to set it up in 10 minutes.