In this chapter, we’ll focus on some of the more popular options. We’ll give you a breakdown of their pricing and capabilities, as well as some things that customers have noted about each.
Now we’re ready to go shopping for software! There are currently over 180 vacation rental software platforms available according to G2—each with different combinations of features, capabilities, and price points to suit businesses in various stages of growth, so you’re sure to find something that suits you.
Pricing: $20/mo per property, minimum of $100/mo
Tiers:
Free trial: Yes
Uplisting is a full-featured vacation rental software solution that can help short-term rental operators manage their properties, simplify the booking process, and provide a better guest experience.
GetApp named Uplisting its Category Leader for Hotel Management Software, and is a Software Advice FrontRunner for 2023. Uplisting has close relationships with the different booking platforms, and is an Airbnb Preferred Plus Software Partner.
Pricing for Uplisting is refreshingly straightforward: just $20 per month per property (with a minimum cost of $100) for our most popular plan. All basic features are available at the Pro tier, with optional add-ons for extra functionality.
Onboarding and support is available for all users, which includes live chat with actual human agents. Enterprise subscribers get access to a dedicated account manager who assists in setting up and managing the Uplisting account, as well as integrating with the extensive catalog of OTA platforms and third-party apps Uplisting has available.
Uplisting is an ideal fit for property managers and operators who are interested in growing their business and scaling it over time.
Customers appreciate how well Uplisting connects with OTAs like Airbnb and Booking.com. Users also like how it syncs listings between different platforms so you don’t have to update them separately.
Many customers have also expressed satisfaction with the level of customer service and onboarding that Uplisting provides, which is generally quite responsive and helpful.
Pricing: Available upon request. Can choose between fixed or commission-based.
Tiers:
Free trial: Yes for Guesty for Hosts
Guest was started in 2013 by two brothers, Amiad Soto and Koby Soto, who wanted a better way to list their apartments as short-term rentals. Today, the Guesty platform services multiple property types—including vacation rentals, serviced apartments, and urban rentals.
The first tier, Guesty for Hosts, allows for up to three properties and is a largely self-service experience. It’s cheaper than the Pros tier, but much more limited.
The features start opening up at the Guesty for Pros tier, where you can use things like the unified inbox, multi-calendar, and reporting & analytics modules. You can integrate with more booking platforms and third-party apps at this tier. Guided onboarding is available, although we can’t confirm whether this involves an additional cost.
It should be noted that email support is only available for the Pros tier. Hosts only have access to knowledge base articles and community resources.
Guesty for Enterprise is a custom solution that requires working with their in-house product engineers.
Many of Guesty’s customers appreciate the breadth of features, including the accounting platform and the unified inbox. They also value how well it consolidates multiple properties and listings into one platform.
However, there are users who find Guesty’s pricing to be rather expensive—especially since some products take a percentage of booking revenue. Certain features like the accounting module are locked unless you pay an additional fee.
There also seem to be quite a few reviews that comment on Guesty’s customer service. Some users, especially smaller ones, seem to suffer from slow response times.
Pricing: Custom per account. Can choose between fixed or commission-based.
Tiers: None
Free trial: None
Hostaway positions itself as an all-in-one vacation rental software solution for property managers.
In addition to its vacation rental software offering, Hostaway also functions as a marketplace for vacation rental tools and software. All apps listed here integrate with Hostaway.
Hostaway customers take advantage of its broad range of functions and deep functionality, which allows them to perform multiple business-related tasks from one platform. However, this same depth can make the platform difficult to learn. Customers have said that the company-provided training materials seem insufficient, and it can take time and effort to learn how to use the platform effectively.
One common observation from customers is that the listings between Hostaway and OTAs are not synced. Customers often have to update their listings separately, which can take a lot of time.
Pricing: Starts at $17 per month for one property. Scales by number of properties, billing frequency, and tier.
Tiers:
Free trial: 7-day trial
Lodgify is a vacation rental platform based in Barcelona, Spain. While it doesn’t have as many features and capabilities as Hostaway, it does have a reputation as an easy-to-learn solution.
Users can choose between three different price tiers, and can pay monthly, annually, or two years in advance. The price per property also changes depending on how many properties you have. Only the Starter tier is charged a 1.9% booking fee, but all tiers are charged a 1% transaction fee on top of their subscriptions.
While the Starter tier has useful features for a property manager, you’ll have to sign up for the Professional tier for the advanced capabilities. Automated guest messaging is a Professional tier feature, for instance. Chat support is only available in the Ultimate tier, while Starter users only have access to email support.
Many Lodgify customers like it for how user-friendly it is. The free training helps make it easier to set up and get started, and users say they appreciate the amount of helpful learning resources.
Customers find value in the calendar management features and the centralised messaging. They also like the free bookable website that Lodgify provides, which comes with a free domain.
Some customers, however, have reported stability issues with the website and some of the channel partner integrations, in some cases leading to double bookings or uncompleted reservations.
Pricing: Starts at $31.29/month for one property paid monthly. Discounts for annual and bi-annual payments.
Tiers:
Free trial: 14-day trial. Reverts to Basic when trial ends.
Smoobu is a German vacation rental software platform that promotes itself as the All-in-One Software for Vacations & Rentals. Its primary audience is owners and small businesses, and its features and pricing reflect this. It offers all of its tools under one subscription with no setup fees, no commissions, and no minimum duration. Users don’t automatically convert to a paid subscription after the trial ends—instead they are reverted to the lowest tier.
Smoobu’s Basic account doesn’t have much to offer, as it’s a free tier that only does the bare minimum like reservations and basic statistics. It does offer a website, but it’ll have to exist on a Smoobu subdomain. You’ll have to upgrade to a paid tier for a custom domain.
Speaking of the paid tier, the Professional tier is where the bulk of the more useful features exist, including the booking system and financial reporting modules. The highest tier (Team) is primarily for giving unlimited accounts, booking system customisations, and greater levels of support. It should be noted that Smoobu is one of the few vacation rental software platforms to offer phone support.
Smoobu’s customers value its ease of use and responsiveness, as well as its breadth of functions. Many consider it to be a good, affordable entry point for those who’ve never used vacation rental property software before.
By that same token, there are users who found Smoobu’s features to be relatively basic and more suitable for smaller operations. Users have also found that the site is built more for the European market. Units are in metric and can’t be switched to imperial, and date formats are in the European style.
While Smoobu does offer phone support, users in North America have had issues connecting with the company’s support team in Germany and overcoming a language barrier in order to get their issues resolved.
Pricing: Starts at $14.99/month for one property paid monthly. Discounts for annual payments.
Tiers:
Free trial: 15-day trial
Tokeet markets itself as a full-stack vacation rental property management platform that’s suited for all property owners, whether it’s for one property or a thousand. It incorporates multiple features into a single product and has a relatively simple pricing structure compared to other products in the market.
Tokeet has no tiers, but instead scales the price per rental based on how many properties you have (e.g. $14.99/mo for up to 5 properties, $11.99 for 6-15 properties). This can provide some cost savings for operators with a large portfolio. However, certain features were unbundled from the main product in 2019 (we don’t know which exactly) and now have to be bought separately.
Multiple customer reviews find Tokeet to be a good product with an initial learning curve. Users praise its modern UI and integrated payment gateway, as well as the calendar views and website builder interface.
Comments on support are a mixed bag. There are plenty of reviews praising customer service for their helpfulness and responsiveness, but also some who’ve had experiences that weren’t so great.
Some users have also reported technical glitches with integrations, specifically syncing and updates. This has led to instances of double bookings.
Read more about what you need to look out for when assessing what vacation rental software to buy.
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