Explore the best short-term rental management systems to improve your operations. Compare features and choose the right solution for your rental property. If you’re not the owner, the daily chores might even involve answering the owner’s questions about reports, schedules, and bookings.
What is a Short Term Rental Software
In simple terms, a Short Term Rental Software is a Cloud-based program allowing you to build a website, connect it to major third-party distribution channels, accept direct bookings with online payments, manage guest reservations, and initiate guest communications, all in one place.
Why do you need a Short Term Rental Management Application?
While we tried to brief you on the importance of a Short Term Rental Business Application in the intro, here are some specifics you might want to consider. A credible Short Term Rental Software offers these benefits and more.
Save tremendous amount of time
While managing a Short Term Rental, answering questions is part of the daily job. ‘Do you provide early check-ins?’, ‘What’s the check-out time?’, ‘Can I bring a pet along?’. Imagine yourself answering these for multiple accounts 365 days a year!
A Short Term Rental Software allows you to use email templates and save a good amount of time. It lets you automate several tasks, including housekeeping duties, and rates with a single click. While you focus on other things, the software executes the rules and restrictions you’ve set.
Sync all your properties and accounts into one single centralized system
All the Short Term Rental Business Applications listed below come with an integrated Channel Manager, allowing you to connect the property to multiple OTAs. Since everything you need to know will be available in your software’s calendar in real-time, you won’t have to enter each extranet separately.
Create a high-converting website instantly
While you can use a lot of different tools and strategies to build a website, using a software specific to the hospitality industry will give you a website optimized for your property.
For instance, you’ll be able to accept direct bookings and online payments on the website. Moreover, many Short Term Rental Business Applications come with features like SSL certification, unlimited hosting, and custom domains.
Get more direct bookings
While websites like VRBO and Airbnb help rental owners diversify bookings, a lot of guests like to window-shop before reserving a stay. A growing number of guests check different sources online to get the best deal.
A Short Term Rental Software can help you reap the rewards of direct bookings. In fact, you won’t even have to pay any listing fees.
While choosing a software, it’s important to pick a service provider that allows you to accept bookings on the website. Since most guests prefer making payments via credit cards, the website should accept online payments too.
What to consider when choosing a Short Term Rental Management Solution?
With a lot of options available online, it can be quite hard to choose the right Short Term Rental Software. In order to make an informed choice, you should consider a few important things.
Is the application easy to use?
While most applications claim to be simple, you need to consider ease-of-use regarding the interface and features. During the first contact, you should be able to get a good hang of menus, prompts, features, and other details. On return visits, getting well-versed with the usage shouldn’t take long.
Are there useful integrations with other applications?
As mentioned earlier, a Short Term Rental Business Application should integrate with several other distribution channels and apps. The software could integrate via a Channel Manager or a sophisticated platform, such as Zapier.
With control over multiple channels and apps from a single place, you’ll be able to save a good amount of time while streamlining processes.
Is it mobile-friendly, does it offer a mobile app?
Travellers from around the world are using more mobile devices than ever. If you want to stay competitive in a tough hospitality industry, your software needs to give you this functionality. It should be available as a mobile app, allowing you to manage every aspect of your business on the go.
Can the App ensure secure payments?
Even with the most stunning rental website ever created, you’d struggle to increase direct bookings if the customers are insecure about making payments.
A Short Term Rental Software should provide you with an SSL and HTTPS encrypted website. These security certificates help you build credibility, and allow your guests to make online payments without suspicion.
Are the website templates engaging and high-converting?
The Short Term Rental Software you choose should offer a wide range of functional, memorable, and attractive website templates. Outdated templates can lead to a higher bounce rate, reducing the number of queries you receive.
On the other hand, a well-designed template with good UX can have a huge impact on an increase in direct bookings.
Navigating the Short-Term Rental Landscape: Top Picks for Business Applications
In your quest to optimize your short-term rental business, the key lies in choosing the right tools. To guide you through this journey, we present a curated list of the best Short Term Rental Business Applications. These solutions are ranked based on their popularity on the Hotelminder Marketplace, ensuring you receive the most accurate and beneficial information.
It’s important to note that while some partners pay an annual fee for marketing opportunities on our platform, our commitment is to provide you with unbiased recommendations. Additionally, we may earn a commission when you purchase a third-party product or service through our website.
We understand that each property is unique, and one-size-fits-all solutions are rare. The best software or service for your short-term rental property is the one that aligns with your specific requirements, objectives, and budget. If you seek professional guidance on what suits your needs, how to choose it, install it, and use it effectively, your search ends here.
Hostaway: Expert Partner, Special Offer
Hostaway stands as an all-in-one vacation rental software tailored for professional property managers. This solution streamlines marketing, sales, management, reporting, and communication, making it a market leader in the industry. With deep integrations with major platforms like Airbnb, VRBO, Expedia, and Booking.com, Hostaway is designed to boost your business with ease.
Exclusive Offer: Sign up for a demo and receive a 50% discount on the setup fee!
Recommended for: Small short-term-rental properties in Europe, North America, Central, and South America. Ideal for economy, midscale, and upscale properties.
Uplisting: Premier Partner, Special Offer
Uplisting offers a comprehensive solution covering all aspects of managing one or multiple listings. With features like a unified inbox, multiple calendars, automation, and cleaning scheduler, Uplisting simplifies your short-term rental management. Take advantage of the exclusive offer to receive a $100 credit when you sign up for a demo.
Recommended for: Small short-term-rental properties in Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Africa, and Central, South America. Ideal for economy and midscale properties.
Cloudbeds: Expert Partner, Special Offer
As the hospitality industry’s fastest-growing technology partner, Cloudbeds provides an award-winning Hospitality Platform. This platform seamlessly combines operations, revenue, distribution, and growth marketing tools with third-party integrations. Sign up for a demo and receive $200 of free credit to experience Cloudbeds’ transformative capabilities.
Recommended for: Small and medium hotels, hostels, and short-term-rental properties globally. Ideal for economy and midscale properties.
Zeevou: Special Offer
Zeevou, a global community, empowers hospitality businesses through cutting-edge automation, training, and support. Escape the everyday challenges of scaling a short-term rental business with Zeevou and enjoy greater success and freedom.
Exclusive Offer: Register for a demo and get a 1-month free trial!
Recommended for: Small short-term-rental properties in Europe and the Middle East and Africa. Ideal for economy, midscale, and upscale properties.
SabeeApp: Premier Partner, Special Offer
SabeeApp offers an all-in-one cloud hotel management software tailored for independent hotels and small accommodations. Seamlessly integrating a PMS, Channel Manager, Internet Booking engine, and Payment Gateway, SabeeApp ensures data synchronization and connectivity at all times.
Exclusive Offer: Sign up for a trial now to get a 50% discount on your first 3 months!
Recommended for: Small and medium hotels, hostels, and short-term-rental properties in Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Central, South America. Ideal for economy and midscale properties.
WuBook: Premier Partner, Special Offer
WuBook simplifies hotel management and online sales with its all-in-one software, Zak. This native cloud technology allows you to manage your accommodation from anywhere, anytime. Sign up for a free trial and get 6 months of a free booking engine.
Recommended for: Medium hotels, hostels, and short-term-rental properties in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Central, South America. Ideal for economy properties.
Guesty: Channel Manager-Inbox-Multi-Calendar & More
Guesty offers an all-inclusive management solution for short-term-rental properties. From a Channel Manager to Inbox and Multi-Calendar tools, Guesty consolidates the best management tools under one roof.
Recommended for: Short-term-rental properties on all markets.
Bookster: Special Offer
Bookster presents an affordable all-in-one solution for vacation rental agencies, including websites, analytics, and marketing tools. Sign up now to receive a Free Booking Insights Tool (a £300 per year value).
Recommended for: Small short-term-rental properties in Europe. Ideal for economy properties.
Beds24
Beds24 is a cost-effective, powerful, reliable, and flexible all-in-one solution that simplifies workflows and automates repetitive tasks. Used by small to medium-sized hotels, B&Bs, hostels, and property managers, Beds24 offers a Channel Manager, PMS, Booking Engine, and payment collection.
Recommended for: Small short-term-rental properties globally. Ideal for economy properties.
iGMS: Special Offer
iGMS is a vacation rental software facilitating day-to-day management tasks. Operating seamlessly across Airbnb, Booking.com, HomeAway, and Vrbo accounts, iGMS offers features like a channel manager, automated guest messaging, team management, and financial reporting.
Exclusive Offer: Get a $30 bonus with this link.
Recommended for: Small short-term-rental properties in North America. Ideal for midscale properties.
While numerous other Short Term Rental Business Applications exist, our commitment is to recommend solutions we trust. We prioritize your peace of mind, ensuring that the suggestions we provide are based on reliability and effectiveness. Choose the application that aligns with your unique needs, and let your short-term rental business thrive.
Tools like PMS (Property Management System) and CM (Channel Manager) only assist lodging establishments in operating more simply, saving time, and being more efficient compared to not using them. However, that is not the root of growth or the challenges faced in the accommodation business. If you want to effectively manage OTA channels and create stable growth, you should have a clear understanding of how OTA platforms operate, such as their nature, operational models, and how they display, calculate displayed prices, and collect prices (after deducting commissions). Of course, larger hotels that want to approach it systematically will do it synchronously from the beginning, but smaller lodging establishments wanting to reduce operational costs should overlook it and focus on optimizing display and providing outstanding customer care.
Synthesized by: OTA Lyst