Vacation Rental Management Software

[Kevin Boyd]

I am looking for software to make the management of 6 vacation rental properties more effecient. My main objectives is to have one calendar to manage for bookings and setting rates and one place to send and receive emails (also preset emails like trash day, check out reminders, etc.) I am comparing Guesty, Lodgify, rentalsunited.

Does anyone have any other recommendations or experience with any of these? I liked THe Guesty Demo, but they want a lot of upfront money for set up as well as $70/ month for each property. Seems expensive.

[Jon Crosby]

@Kevin Boyd  Maybe check out iGMS as well, they are only $20/property and offer everything you are listing above.  

[Paul Sandhu]

I just use a posterboard with 23 horizontal lines, one for each address.  Then I put 5 sets of vertical lines for 5 weeks.  I use Post-It notes for record keeping.

[Justin Anderson]

I'd suggest staying away from igms as that's who I've used for quite a while.  Their messaging system is buggy -  often delaying messages for hours at a time.  And their 'unread' tab has never really worked. Their task management is subpar as well, making it basically unusable for anything more than cleaning.  

I'd say their support is super responsive and asks good questions, but the tech team behind them never follows up or fixes things.

They've had no real updates to the UI in over a year so I'd guess it's just one guy in Bangalore hacking on the code.  (They're attempting to roll out a change to the calendar page for the past couple of weeks, which appears to be a downgrade)

I wish I had a better suggestion, but I don't.  I'm just sure there is something out there that is better built and supported.

[Leora Merrell]

I haven’t been impressed with IGMS either. Their app is basically their desktop version and very inefficient. Especially since I have more than one property to manage. I’ve just not made the jump to another system. Been meaning to research YourPorter....

[Nancy Bender]

Anyone have any experience with BookingAutomation.com? (which is the same as Beds24). They look reasonable in price, have great reviews, and seem to include everything you could possibly want. I am a new investor in the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area, and would like to make a good choice initially with software instead of moving from platform to platform!

[Justin Anderson]

Start with what features you want and work backwards...

- Emails dripped out on a schedule (booking email, check in email, checking on your stay, checkout, leave a review, etc)
- Auto-assign cleaners
- Managing a central pricing and booking calendar
- ???

For the most part any of these tools will work just fine for just one or two cabins.  You just need to learn their quirks.

[Gerald Pitts]

After using IGMS and Your Porter, Your Porter is so much better.  I can definitely recommend!

[Mike V.]

@Kevin Boyd OwnerRez does everything I need and it saves me a ton of time. Everything is automated, one central calendar, push rates, etc. Airbnb integration isn’t ideal but they have a widget that simplifies things. Highly recommend.

[Luke Carl]

@Kevin Boyd None of them are perfect. Choose the one you dislike the least :)

Another vote for YP.

Ownerrez for people who do off platform

[Olivier Chaine]

We use smartbnb. It’s worth looking at. Been happy overall, it’s very focused on messaging, automation, less on prices etc

[Mike Anderson]

When you are considering the software you need to look at everything overall. Meaning if you are also using a pricing tool which you should you need to make sure they play nicely together. Yourporter for example says support for beyond pricing and wheelhouse is "coming soon". Others dont have integrations with pricelabs and just beyond pricing. You could go around the PMS of course but what does that affect? You also want to make sure the PMS tool has native integration with airbnb. I spent most of the night in your porter last night, i like it but the webpage when using a computer is setup and optimized for cell phone which is kind of annoying. So make sure you understanding how the pricing tool you want integrates with your PMS and that you are comfortable with it. I'd prefer to go to one place to do everything and I think i can do that with YP. 

[Justin K.]

I am glad someone asked this question. I was looking at the demos of igms and it looks like a royal cluster. Maybe my simple mind is stuck in efficient app-based word now but igms reminds me of the old school Quickbooks vs the new QuickBooks online where everything runs like an app. 

[Traci Tilger-Barrett]

We use Your Porter

[Kevin Boyd]

Are you happy with my porter?

[Timothy Church]

I've started using SmartBnB for my management and PriceLabs for my pricing. Overall I like them though it has only been 3 months use so far. Both PriceLabs & SmartBnB allow for a lot of control which can take a bit of time to set up but once it is running you are just fine-tuning it. Just dedicate a solid weekend to diving in and really learning all the systems so you know how everything works.

Your Porter is next in line for me to try if SmartBnB doesn't work out for any reason. Both seem like great options!

[John Erickson]

We use Your Porter to manage 5 STR's. We have been very happy with the software and their customer service. I would highly recommend.

[Tyler Brown]

@John Erickson are you managing your own properties or acting as a property manager? I’m hoping to find a great channel manager/PM system that has a great calendar functionality to sync with my owners calendars automatically.

[Brian Oney]

Another vote for YourPorter.

I even created an offplatform website through their interface, though I am trying to figure out how to best integrate electronic lease agreement signature.

The only thing I am trying to figure out is their Cleaning module - how best to send automated communications to my cleaner. However, that is more to my lack of research, so I would welcome any feedback from other YourPorter users on how they use that module.

[John Erickson]

@Tyler Brown  We manage our own properties but have separate properties set up in both my account and my wife's under different Airbnb accounts.  They are all listed under one Your Porter account so I believe you could do that with the properties you're managing for others.  Their customer support has been great for us, if you email them any questions, I'm sure they'll find you a good solution.