Before you start shopping, familiarise yourself with the features common to most vacation rental property management software. This will give you a better idea of how software can help you and what questions you should ask during the sales process.
Here are the must-have features for rental property software:
Multi-calendar. A multi-calendar allows you to view all reservations and availability in one screen. This is a great time saver, because you no longer have to flip between different booking sites to review your schedule. Everything is right there in front of you.
The multi-calendar should automatically update with new listings and block other channels to prevent double-bookings. Good multi-calendars should also include tools to help you organize your listings, such as colour-coding, tags, and groups.
Unified inbox. The unified inbox consolidates all of your guest messages across different channels. This helps you keep better track of conversations and reduces the chance of missing important details.
When reviewing a unified inbox, make sure it has some way of organising messages, such as filtering by priority, channel, or bookings. Templated replies are a great way to streamline guest conversations while still giving that personal touch, so check for that, too.
Dashboard. Every vacation rental software platform needs a dashboard, where you can see everything from an operations standpoint in one convenient screen. At minimum, the dashboard should contain things like:
The ideal dashboard would be flexible enough to let you choose the period of activity you’re reviewing, such as a single day or the next week. It should also allow you to select which columns of information to display so you can populate your dashboard with information you care about the most.
Automated guest messages. Many vacation rental softwares let the property manager automate messages to guests. The user (you) writes the messages in advance, and then organises a workflow for which messages get sent out and when.
Automated messages can be dynamic, which means that the platform can personalise it with the guest’s name, length of stay, check in date/time, and other booking-specific details.
These messages can also be tied to specific actions, such as submitting a security deposit, verifying the guest’s identity, or submitting an email address. You should get an alert when the guest performs the required action. Check if you can set up auto-responders, so that guests can get immediate answers to enquiries, no matter what time of day they reach out.
Automated guest reviews. Reviews are very important to your success, but you can’t make a guest write a review. You can, however, review them as a guest. This encourages them to return the favour.
Vacation rental software can automatically post a review on Airbnb after the guest’s stay. The review can be lifted directly from a template, or tweaked for that personal touch. This also ensures that each review is unique.
Client statements. If you’re a property manager working on behalf of owners or investors, then your rental property management software should be able to generate and distribute monthly client statements.
These statements help you report on revenue, expenses, taxes, and management fees. They should also be able to automatically update statements as guest visits are booked. Some advanced softwares even calculate management fees based on a preset formula.
No single tool can do it all. Most software platforms instead focus on developing a few core functions, and then use integrations for the rest. These integrations help the platform do more kinds of tasks and automate workflows.
For example, let’s say you have a vacation rental property management software with a very good multi-calendar. It’s intuitive, easy to use, and excels at managing all of your listings. It would be great if it could also adjust prices dynamically so you can keep your properties competitive, but the software can’t do that out of the box.
What you do instead is connect your software to a third-party dynamic pricing app. Now the two apps can work together to keep your property prices up to date instead of having to juggle two separate tools.
When you shop for rental property software, check to see which third-party apps it can connect with. Are any of them useful to your current workflow? Do any of them solve a need or expand your team’s capabilities?
Most software companies have a page dedicated to all of their integrations on their websites. Here’s an example of ours.
These features aren’t necessarily must-haves, but can definitely make your life a lot easier:
eSignature rental agreements. Rental agreements are an important step in protecting you and your property, but it can be a hassle to manually draw up a new agreement for every guest. Check if your chosen software can automatically generate electronic agreements as part of a workflow, and if guests can sign them electronically.
Automated security deposit collection. Automated deposit collection can save you the hassle of dealing with guests who may be slow to respond or hard to reach. If you need support in getting guests to comply, some software can be set to only send check-in instructions after a confirmed deposit.
Guest identity verification. In guest verification, the guest scans and uploads an identifying document (driver’s license, passport, etc.). Once uploaded, the software uses AI to verify that the credentials match the application. Not all document types or countries can be accepted though, so check first.
Cleaning scheduler. Scheduling changeovers is much easier if it’s done from within the same platform as your booking calendar. With a good cleaning scheduler, you can set tasks for your cleaning team and request to be notified when they’re done. Cleaning schedulers often come with a calendar view so that you can see the status of multiple tasks at the same time.
Direct booking website. If you’re looking to create a direct booking site, it’s often better to build them on your vacation property rental software platform rather than on do-it-yourself site builders like Squarespace. This is because vacation rental software is targeted to a specific audience—you—and can provide site building tools and templates that closely fit your needs. Generic site builders, on the other hand, have to cater to a broad range of industries, which results in watered-down capabilities.
Reports and analytics. Check if the software has good reporting tools, as this can help you determine which properties are getting booked the most, what the busiest times are, and which platforms are earning you the most money.
Read more about what you need to look out for when assessing what vacation rental software to buy.
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