Looking after even one Airbnb rental can be overwhelming enough — not to mention several. Or several dozens. The number doesn’t really matter: what matters is you, being an owner or a manager, must treat all property with equal care. Thankfully, modern technology offers numerous solutions for streamlining your workflow. They take information about your listings, bookings, and schedules from numerous platforms you integrated them with and collect them in one place.
Today we take a look at some of the greatest examples of software for vacation and short-term Airbnb rentals.
Note: All software below can be integrated with Airbnb and Booking.com.
Best software for Airbnb management reviewed
Hosty
Website: https://www.hostyapp.com
Pricing: $7-$15 per active property/month
Free trial: 14 days
KEY FEATURES
- Management: listings&bookings, team schedules, maintenance, centralized inbox&calendar, payments, special offers
- Automations: prices, reviews, team tasks; auto-replies, triggered notifications
- Communications: scheduled messages, AI replies, chats, multiple channels
Hosty is young blood on the market, with an intuitive interface and one-size-fits-all approach for Airbnb owners of all scales. The software makes automated features as close to the Human Touch experience as possible. This is great for those managing several rentals, overwhelmed during High seasons, or taking a well-deserved nap. Hosty’s advanced auto-reply feature and a customizable chatbot swiftly reply to the majority of requests from the guest, while the system takes care of synchronizing the bookings and updating the listings accordingly.
But one of the strongest suits of Hosty’s is definitely team managing tools. You can coordinate the tasks (from regular cleaning and maintenance to property inspections) through the convenient dashboard, acing the teambuilding, and keeping an eye on the priorities.
With 3 payment tiers and competitive costs, Hosty is one of the best value-for-money options in the Airbnb software world. It also has a decent mobile app and an enthusiastic support team with first-hand knowledge.
Guesty
Website: https://www.guesty.com
Pricing: On-demand
Free trial: No (but you can request a demo)
KEY FEATURES
- Management: listings&bookings, schedules, centralized inbox&calendar, payments, analytics
- Automations: prices, reviews, team tasks; auto-replies, triggered notifications
- Communications: scheduled messages, AI replies, chats, multiple channels
While undoubtedly robust, Guesty is a little on the expensive side — and that’s the first thing you need to keep in mind before considering this software. They keep their prices close to the chest and only send quotes per request; however, this info is an open secret to anyone reading public reviews. You can expect 2%-5% booking charges and a one-time onboard fee that, as some users claim, is around $1000.
Guesty currently has more than 100K properties listed, but it works best for owners with near-immaculate Airbnb ratings and more than 15-20 rentals to offer. It’s not like you’ll be going in blind, though: the managers will gladly provide estimates and chart out custom pricing according to your individual business features.
The software fulfills its own promises and works as a great automation tool for the larger-scale Airbnb hosts. Although feedback about the Guesty mobile apps seems to be mostly negative: the users complain about integration problems, lack of functionality, and constant bugs. Seems like the web-based version is the best one right now, which may be not convenient for the hosts preferring to manage their rentals on the go.
Lodgify
Website: https://www.lodgify.com/
Pricing: $0-$1313/per month (depends on the number of rentals) plus a booking fee. The higher your tier, the less expensive the fee is; e.g., those who chose the free Lite plan will pay 3.9% in fees, while Professional and Ultimate plans come with a 0% fee.
Free trial: 7 days
KEY FEATURES
- Management: listings&bookings, maintenance, centralized inbox&calendar, payments
- Automations: prices, reviews, team tasks, triggered notifications
- Communications: scheduled messages, chatbots
Lodgify is a great example of ‘nothing fancy, but reliable’. It also has a completely free (safe for booking fees) plan option, which is a rarity among reputable VRMSs. Unfortunately, the most affordable plan is also the most restrictive: important features like damage deposits, the guest app, and manual or direct owner payments are unavailable. In fact, the next two paid-for tiers (Starter and Professional) still lack some handy functions, which leaves you with the most expensive Ultimate plan.
A website builder is arguably Lodgify’s strongest feature. The SEO-tuned templates are plentiful and quite easy to customize. And with annual or two-year plans you can register a free custom domain name.
iGMS
Website:https://www.igms.com/
Pricing: Three plans, starting at $14-$20 per property/month.
Free trial: 14 days
KEY FEATURES
- Management: listings&bookings, schedules, maintenance, centralized inbox&calendar, payments
- Automations: prices, reviews, team tasks; auto-replies, triggered notifications
- Communications: scheduled messages, chats
iGMS is good for beginners and growing short-term rentals. It’s reliable enough to not sabotage your Airbnb business in its infancy. The users praise the automation, a cross-platform calendar, housekeeping coordination, handy messaging templates, and a user-friendly interface. The software is also relatively affordable, has a Flexible tier, and offers a 33% discount for annual plans.
At the same time, iGMS may not be as feature-packed as its competitors: for example, it only has three API integrations, and a pretty slow mobile app. The developers constantly pumper the software up with new tools and features, but if you’re an enterprise-scale host, you might not be ready to wait.
Hostaway
Website: https://www.hostaway.com/
Pricing: Starting at $100/month
Free trial: No (you can book a demo)
KEY FEATURES
- Management: listings&bookings, schedules, marketing tools, maintenance, centralized inbox&calendar, payments, revenue, analytics
- Automations: prices, reviews, payments, tasks; messages
- Communications: scheduled messages, chats
Hostaway is all about customization: the developers stress that their AIP is open and you can essentially build your own streamlined software with it. If you don’t wish to, that’s okay — standard features are solid enough. Some users seem to actually prefer them, claiming that the open API still doesn’t fulfill their ideas, although the concept is promising.
The software is pricey, especially with no free trial available, so it’ll probably work the best for multiple property owners. The managers, however, promise to tailor the most flexible payment plans for your needs. Hostaway also offers a peculiar service: it scales up your success and shows the perspective of your Airbnb business.