Do you own or rent property in the woods, desert, or along the coast? Why not put up a luxury yurt for an Airbnb glamping business?
Wonder how successful hosts achieve and retain their Super Host status on Airbnb? They don’t just have a killer listing, a superb location, or deliver consistently great service. They’re also experts at business administration. And their secret, in today’s hi-tech and highly connected world, is using online property management software.
Property management software (or PMS) are cloud-based systems that improve the efficiency of running an Airbnb. They work by automating the key areas of your day-to-day operations.
A PMS organizes all your online operations in just one place, saving you tons of time and effort. Instead of constantly juggling multiple tasks across different platforms, you’ll be able to do it all in just one convenient hub.
You can manage your calendar, consolidate guest communications and data, sync pricing, coordinate turnovers, and even do your marketing and accounting in one place.
Some offer advanced programs like:
A PMS is indispensable for those who manage multiple properties, especially when some of them are out of town or overseas.
In 2018, market data analyst Transparent conducted a vacation rental survey among European property managers. They found that 59% used property management software, and many of the largest property management companies used online systems and tools. These are processes like channel distribution, revenue management, and WiFi-connected homes. As a result, they showed the highest growth rates among all the hosts surveyed.
PMSs work by connecting with external apps using an application programming interface or API. An API is a software intermediary that integrates apps and lets them share data on a single platform.
For example, the APS connects your PMS with your website provider, your customer relations management (CRM) system, pricing tool, home automation system, and SMS messaging. It even connects with your bookkeeping and payment systems.
Imagine if you had to manually manage those complex and tedious — yet very important — tasks. And you had multiple properties running! How would you handle them all? Especially during the peak season?
The advantage of using a PMS is you get efficient, streamlined operations. And efficiency reduces costs, which ultimately increases your revenues.
Although the most advanced PMSs can cost a fair amount of money, the commission or subscription fees they charge are far less than what you’d spend hiring a property management company. If you also consider the amount of time, effort, and booking opportunities you could lose if you did everything manually, using a good PMS would be far more cost-efficient.
In a nutshell, these are what great property management software will do for you:
If you do a quick online search of the kinds of vacation rental management systems available on the market, you’d come across dozens of them! Each has a mix of different features, with some offering unique ones that others don’t.
Most of them will provide the following basic functions, though:
No one software is perfect or suited for all property managers. You’d have to determine what your operational needs and personal working style are, then see which one suits you best.
Check reviews to find out one’s advantage over the other. See if they’re user-friendly and can provide the level of customer support you feel you will need.
Finally, look for the price category that meets your budget. Many providers offer a free demo, so you can explore and compare the functionalities you’re interested in before committing to any purchase.
Below, we’ve listed the features we believe are the most helpful for any short-term rental business, whether it’s a single or a multi-unit enterprise.
A channel manager is a system that distributes and syncs your listing on multiple vacation rental portals like Airbnb, Vrbo/HomeAway, TripAdvisor, or Booking.com. When a guest makes a reservation on one channel, it’ll reflect across all the different platforms. All updates you make will likewise be displayed in one central dashboard.
A channel manager works by exporting your inventory, rates, and all pertinent data to the different online travel agencies (OTAs), then imports all the bookings made on those platforms. Some PMSs work with an external channel manager, while others incorporate them already.
Sending emails and responding to queries don’t have to give you a headache. A PMS will let you enjoy smooth and smart communication with your guests by collating all your chats from different portals into one single feed.
Automated communication lets you receive and reply to inquiries instantly, cutting down your response time — ultimately improving your ranking.
Along with messaging, it usually comes with templates, ID verification tools, digital house manuals, and even automated responses. You don’t have to worry about sounding robotic, though. Some systems give you the option to personalize responses to unique questions. You can leave the auto-responses to only standard, frequently asked questions.
Hospitable (formerly Smartbnb) is a market leader that has robust and reliable features. It lets you communicate at specific times and dates for specific properties. And in up to 29 languages! It allows hosts to automate practically all aspects of task delegation and guest communication — from inquiry all the way to check-out. Some hosts use Hospitable in addition to their PMS precisely for its advanced, intuitive, and highly adjustable messaging features.
The short-term rental industry is very competitive, so you’ll want to make sure your rates are updated in relation to the current market. Dynamic pricing tools like Pricelabs and Wheelhouse automate rate adjustments by analyzing market trends, demand, and your competitors’ prices. Using data algorithms, they predict which price bracket would maximize your occupancy. Then they’ll recommend customized rates based on your property’s location, amenities, and pricing history.
As Airbnb becomes more and more popular, there’s increased competition to land on the first page. A listing optimization tool allows you to improve your property’s search visibility, ranking, and conversion rate. You could consider it as a search engine optimization (SEO) tool for your Airbnb account. By analyzing different factors affecting your listing, like availability, click-through rates, inquiry rate, response time, amenities, review quantity, keywords and many other data, this feature will help optimize your listing to make it stand out and attract more traffic.
Rankbreeze, for example, can optimize a listing’s title, description, photos, and also prices. It’ll track your competitors’ vacancies so you’ll know exactly when you can raise your prices. It’ll also help you know which property types are in demand, decide which amenities to invest in, and see the maximum potential for any city or neighborhood you’d like.
If you manage properties out of state or even from overseas, you’ll need a centralized tool from where you can assign and track assignments for your cleaning crew and virtual assistants. Having a system in place where your team can view, accept and mark completed tasks, as well as report issues, will make it easier for everyone, not just you, to keep operations running smoothly.
This feature helps you manage your finances by tracking all your income and expenses. It provides a monthly report that tells you how each of your listings performed in the past 4 weeks. It can also give you a rundown on all the reservations made, as well as the payout given to staff, suppliers, insurance, and other payments.
Whether you live next to or away from your Airbnb, you’ll benefit from using smart home technology. These on-property software automate processes in your home so you can control and monitor what’s happening remotely, ensuring safety and preventing potential problems.
From leak detectors to smoke and noise monitors, smart home technology can alert you of incidents that need your attention long before they get out of hand. Wary of smokers sneaking a joint in your property? Worried about unauthorized parties taking place? These tools detect unwanted disturbances at your property. There’s even a device called PartySquasher that senses how many people or cars are in the vicinity of your home so you’ll know if a large gathering is taking place.
Smart home tech can also let you adjust the lighting and temperature inside your property. If you use smart locks, those will give you the ability to manage access in and out of your house through keyless entry.
From just your dashboard or mobile device, you’ll be able to see the real-time occupancy of your properties based on the entry and exit lock codes punched in by guests. In addition, the checkout code can automatically notify your cleaning crew when a unit has been vacated and is ready for turnover.
A website builder is especially useful for hosts who want to market and brand their Airbnbs. The PMS will help you build a custom website, complete with professionally designed templates, SEO marketing, advertising, and content management. When you have your own website, you can accommodate direct bookings and not rely on third-party platforms alone.
Here are some of the best PMSs that we recommend. They stand out for their strong automation features, user-friendliness, onboarding, and customer support:
Custom email templates, custom field codes, mail merge. OwnerRez provides all these and more. It’s ideal for those with up to 3 properties and are looking for a reliable one-stop solution. It stands out for its ability to let you create your own unique brand image. With countless themes at your disposal, you can design electronic forms with customized headers, footers, signatures, and other details that will appear consistent across all your guest communications.
OwnerRez also provides travel and damage protection insurance that most other software providers don’t.
iGMS is another tool that delivers all-in-one automated guest messaging, calendar syncing, channel, task, and review management capabilities. It’s relatively easy to navigate, simple to understand, and is reasonably priced. It’s a good mid-tier choice for hosts managing less than 20 properties.
Lodgify has a user-friendly website builder with customizable and search-engine-optimized design templates. It gives users a free domain name and unlimited hosting, which is a huge help for startup rentals with a limited budget. It also comes with data analytics, email marketing, and email templates.
Also, Lodgify can connect with Facebook. You can receive inquiries and bookings from Messenger so you won’t miss opportunities from such a gigantic, worldwide platform like Facebook.
Hostaway is another established PMS. Aside from the standard features, it provides a custom WordPress website as well as sales and marketing tools to accommodate direct bookings to your site. It also allows restricted access to all the members of your team, so your cleaners, bookkeeper, and most importantly, the homeowner can view any information they need to see.
Guesty is a more advanced tool and is better suited for property managers with large portfolios — like 20 or more units. You can manage listings on over 24 OTAs and use over 15 different languages. If you manage properties for several different owners, you can create portals for each of them to let them see what’s going on with their individual properties.
Hostfully’s strength is its excellent guidebooks. They provide guests all the pertinent information they need to know during their stay such as internet passwords, parking instructions, local places to dine, and things to do in the area.
It also has a unique “pipeline view” feature that allows you to see details on currently-booked stays. In it you can get a life cycle overview of all prospective and confirmed bookings, your conversion rate, and your total sales.
Want to learn more skills and enhance your industry knowledge while managing properties? Zeevou has an online academy for sharing first-hand experiences from short-term rental hosts and managers. It’s an interactive space where you have access to training, webinars, podcasts, and unlimited material to further your knowledge on all-things-Airbnb.
Apart from that, this software offers real-time distribution to over 200 channels, cleaning and maintenance oversight, and fully customizable monthly owner statements.
For real estate investors looking to scale overseas, Hometime does full-service turnkey management of investment properties and holiday home rentals in Australia and New Zealand for Airbnb. They work with a network of experienced and highly trained local hosts that deliver personalized 5-star service to guests from around the world.
Take a few minutes to hear how my partner, Jon Bell, was able to scale his rental properties from zero to twenty-four units in just two years — by using the best property management software.
As you grow your rental business from one property to two and more, you’ll quickly see the demands and complexities of overseeing multiple listings. And the way you juggle your time, attention, and efforts will be tested when peak season comes and numerous guests, inquiries, and issues arise.
You may be managing your Airbnbs on your own or with the help of property managers, but either way, you’ll benefit from using the best property management software. It’ll save you immeasurable time and effort so you can instead focus your attention on developing and scaling your business.
Read also: When to Quit Your Job to Become a Full-time Airbnb Host
Ready to learn how we built & operate a $2M/year short term rental business, operate properties throughout the USA remotely, and acquired 70+ properties without owning any in just 2 years? Attend our free online master class to learn how you can do the same. Click here.
