A software engineer who built his own tool

My name is Sam. I run the Hôtel du Village, 29 rooms in Alsace — and I'm a software engineer by trade. Like many independent hoteliers, I spent years using management software built for other markets, with screens that never quite matched the way I worked.

Rather than switch software, I built my own: Sonnette. A year of work, in my own hotel, grounded in what a hotel actually does every day, screen after screen, until the tool could carry the load of a property that welcomes guests every night.

My trade has taught me the traps of software that ages badly: technical debt nobody dares touch any more, features stacked without coherence, a vendor with little interest left in improving the product once the contract is signed. I also know how to keep a tool maintainable, so it doesn't decay the way software long installed in hotels often does.

Since 14 September 2026, Sonnette has run the entirety of the Hôtel du Village's bookings, housekeeping, invoicing and till. It is not a sales demo: it is my daily working tool, the one used by a hotel that welcomes guests every night.

I don't want a hotel to end up locked into a contract that strains its cash flow and its room to maneuver, because software sold by a sales team doesn't match its reality. That's exactly why you can try Sonnette free before committing. Sonnette is now opening up to other independent hotels living through the same thing I did.