Hostaway Review: A Comprehensive Vacation Rental Management Software

Introduction Hostaway

In the dynamic world of vacation rental management, property managers seek efficient solutions to streamline operations and enhance guest experiences. Hostaway is the leading vacation rental management software, offering a comprehensive range of tools designed to simplify and optimize the management process. From property and channel management to automated guest communication, Hostaway empowers property managers to streamline their operations effectively. 

In this review, we’ll examine Hostaway’s features, pricing, customer reviews, and support to help you determine its suitability for your specific needs. Whether you’re a new property manager or an experienced professional, read on to discover if Hostaway is the right fit for your vacation rental management requirements. 

Let’s take a look at Hostaway’s features, pricing, customer reviews, and support to evaluate its capabilities and determine if it meets your vacation rental management needs.

Features of Hostaway

Hostaway is a comprehensive vacation rental management software that comes with a host of features and automation tools. Let’s dive into all its key features🔑. In the table below, you will find an overview of all the features offered by Hostaway. Each feature will be discussed in detail, highlighting its benefits and functionalities. Take a look at the table to get a quick glimpse of what Hostaway has to offer:

Features of Hostaway

Property Management

  • Property Management System (PMS)
  • Reservations Manager
  • Performance Dashboard
  • CRM & Lead Management

Communication Tools

  • Unified Inbox
  • Automated Messages
  • Owner and Guest Portal
  • SMS and Whatsapp

Analytics & Reporting Capabilities

  • Customizable reports
  • Occupancy Reports
  • Dynamic Pricing
  • Financial Reporting

Automation Tools

  • Automated Messages
  • Automated Reviews
  • Automated Tasks
  • Automated Payments

Additional Services

  • Notifications
  • Mobile App
  • Open API
  • Revenue Management

Marketing Features

  • Booking Website
  • WordPress and Wix Widgets
  • Website Builder
  • Channel Management

Operational Tools

  • Payment Processing
  • Contract Signature
  • Guest Invoicing
  • Task Management

Customer Support

  • Award-Winning Support
  • Scalable Solutions
  • Extensive Marketplace
  • Reliable Technology


Now, let’s explore each feature in more detail to understand how Hostaway can empower you in managing your vacation rental business efficiently.

Property Management🔑

Efficient property management is essential for the success of vacation rental businesses. Hostaway offers a range of features to streamline property management operations and enhance productivity.

Property Management System (PMS)

Hostaway’s PMS provides a comprehensive solution for managing reservations, bookings, and guest information. It simplifies tasks such as availability management, rate setting, and calendar synchronization across multiple channels.

Reservations Manager

With Hostaway, property managers can efficiently handle inquiries, reservations, and guest communication. The reservations manager feature allows for seamless booking management and enables property managers to send special offers and upsell services for extended stays.

Performance Dashboard

Hostaway’s performance dashboard provides a centralized view of key performance indicators (KPIs). Property managers can track occupancy rates, revenue, and other metrics in real-time, enabling informed decision-making.

CRM & Lead Management

Hostaway’s CRM functionality helps property managers build and maintain strong guest relationships. It allows for personalized marketing efforts, re-engagement with previous guests, and customized coupons to encourage repeat bookings. 

These property management features offered by Hostaway empower property managers to efficiently handle reservations, optimize pricing, and deliver exceptional guest experiences. 

In the following sections, we will delve deeper into each feature, exploring their benefits and functionalities.

 

Communication Tools🔑

Effective communication is essential for successful vacation rental management. Hostaway provides a range of communication tools to streamline guest interactions and enhance customer satisfaction.

Unified Inbox

The Unified Inbox consolidates messages from various channels, allowing property managers to view and respond to inquiries and guest communications from one centralized platform. This ensures prompt and efficient communication with guests, saving time and improving responsiveness.

Automated Messages

Automated Messages enable property managers to automate guest communication based on triggers and events. This feature allows for personalized and timely messages, such as pre-arrival instructions, check-in details, and post-stay feedback requests. By automating these processes, property managers can provide consistent and high-quality guest experiences.

Owner and Guest Portal

Hostaway also offers Owner and Guest Portals, providing convenient access to information and services. Property owners can stay up to date with property performance and financial reports, while guests can access important reservation details, update their information, and purchase additional services. These portals enhance transparency and facilitate smooth interactions between property managers, owners, and guests.

SMS and Whatsapp 

Additionally, Hostaway supports SMS and WhatsApp integration, allowing property managers to communicate with guests via text messages and popular messaging apps. This enables quick and convenient communication, ensuring guests receive important updates and assistance during their stay. 

With Hostaway’s communication tools, property managers can streamline guest interactions, improve responsiveness, and enhance overall guest satisfaction. These features contribute to efficient operations and help property managers build strong relationships with guests, leading to positive reviews and repeat bookings.

Analytics & Reporting Capabilities🔑

Hostaway offers robust analytics and reporting capabilities that provide property managers with valuable insights into their vacation rental business. These features enable data-driven decision-making and help optimize property performance.

Customizable reports

Customizable reports allow property managers to generate detailed performance analyses based on their key performance indicators (KPIs). These reports provide a comprehensive overview of occupancy rates, revenue, booking trends, and other essential metrics. With customizable reports, property managers can track their progress, identify areas for improvement, and make informed business decisions.

Occupancy Reports

Hostaway’s Occupancy Reports offer granular occupancy data, allowing property managers to analyze occupancy rates on a per-property, per-region, or per-period basis. This level of detail enables property managers to better understand demand patterns and adjust their strategies accordingly.

Dynamic Pricing

Dynamic Pricing is another valuable feature that Hostaway offers. It allows property managers to adjust rates based on supply and demand trends. By leveraging dynamic pricing, property managers can optimize revenue and maximize profitability, especially during peak seasons or periods of high demand.

Financial Reporting

Financial Reporting provides comprehensive insights into property financials. It enables property managers to track revenue, expenses, and profitability across multiple properties. These reports facilitate accurate accounting, owner payouts, and financial analysis.

Owner Statements

Hostaway’s Owner Statements automate the process of generating and sending detailed reports to property owners. Property managers can adjust totals, account for owner stays, and include attachments and expenses. This feature enhances transparency and ensures property owners are satisfied with the financial information provided.

Expense Tracking

Financial Reporting provides comprehensive insights into property financials. It enables property managers to track revenue, expenses, and profitability across multiple properties. These reports facilitate accurate accounting, owner payouts, and financial analysis.

By leveraging Hostaway’s analytics and reporting capabilities, property managers can gain a deeper understanding of their business performance, make data-driven decisions, and optimize revenue generation. These features contribute to effective business management and long-term success in the vacation rental industry.

Automation Tools🔑

Automation is a key factor in efficient and optimized vacation rental operations. Hostaway provides a range of automation tools that empower property managers to streamline repetitive tasks and save time.

Automated Messages

Automated Messages allow property managers to automate personalized messages based on triggers and events. This includes sending welcome messages, check-in instructions, and follow-up emails. By automating communication, property managers can provide consistent and timely messaging to their guests.

Automated Reviews

Automated Reviews enable property managers to automate the process of collecting and managing guest reviews. This helps property managers easily gather feedback and reviews from guests after their stay, allowing them to build valuable reviews and gain trust with potential guests.

Automated Tasks

Automated Tasks help property managers manage cleaning and maintenance tasks efficiently. The system automatically generates tasks based on reservations, allowing property managers to easily track and coordinate cleaning and maintenance schedules.

Automated Payments

Automated Payments ensure property managers always receive payments on time. The system automates the payment process, including collecting guest payments and processing any security deposits. By utilizing Hostaway’s automation tools, property managers can streamline their daily tasks, save time, and improve operational efficiency. These tools contribute to a smooth and automated operation of the vacation rental business, allowing property managers to focus on delivering excellent guest experiences.

Additional Services🔑

In addition to its core features, Hostaway offers a range of additional services that enhance the functionality and versatility of its vacation rental management software.

Notifications

Hostaway provides customizable notifications to keep property managers informed about important events and updates. These notifications can be received through the desktop app, mobile app notifications, or email, ensuring property managers stay up to date with their operations.

Mobile App

Hostaway offers a highly-rated mobile app that allows property managers to manage their vacation rentals on the go. With the mobile app, property managers can easily access essential features, respond to inquiries, and monitor their properties from anywhere, providing flexibility and convenience.

Open AI

Hostaway’s Open API allows for seamless integration with other software solutions. Property managers can integrate their preferred tools or build custom solutions using the API, enabling a tailored and integrated tech stack for their vacation rental management needs.

Revenue Management

Hostaway helps property managers maximize revenue during both high and low seasons. With revenue management features, property managers can set discounts, special offers, long-term pricing, and adjust check-in/check-out dates, ensuring optimal revenue generation throughout the year.

These additional services offered by Hostaway expand the capabilities and adaptability of the software, allowing property managers to customize their experience and integrate with other tools. They provide property managers with flexibility, mobility, and the ability to optimize revenue, ultimately contributing to the success of their vacation rental businesses.

Notifications

Hostaway provides customizable notifications to keep property managers informed about important events and updates. These notifications can be received through the desktop app, mobile app notifications, or email, ensuring property managers stay up to date with their operations.

Hostaway provides customizable notifications to keep property managers informed about important events and updates. These notifications can be received through the desktop app, mobile app notifications, or email, ensuring property managers stay up to date with their operations.

Marketing Features🔑

Effective marketing is crucial for attracting guests and maximizing bookings in the vacation rental industry. Hostaway offers a range of powerful marketing features to help property managers promote their properties and drive bookings.

Booking Website

Hostaway’s Booking Website feature enables property managers to set up a professional and user-friendly website for direct bookings. With easy setup and customization options, property managers can showcase their properties and accept direct bookings, reducing reliance on third-party platforms.

WordPress and Wix Widgets

 Hostaway seamlessly integrates with popular website platforms like WordPress and Wix. Property managers can use Hostaway’s widgets to embed search functionality, availability calendars, and secure booking options directly on their existing websites, enhancing the user experience and increasing direct bookings.

WordPress and Wix Widgets

Effective marketing is crucial for attracting guests and maximizing bookings in the vacation rental industry. Hostaway offers a range of powerful marketing features to help property managers promote their properties and drive bookings.

Website Builder

Hostaway’s marketing features enable property managers to establish a strong online presence, reach potential guests effectively, and increase bookings. By utilizing the Booking Website, WordPress and Wix integration, Coupon Management, and Website Builder, property managers can effectively market their properties and differentiate themselves in a competitive market.

Channel Management 🔑

Channel management is a critical aspect of vacation rental management, and Hostaway provides robust solutions to simplify the process of listing and managing properties across multiple channels.

Channel Manager

Hostaway’s proprietary Channel Manager is the core of the platform, offering efficient channel distribution and synchronization. Property managers can easily list their properties on various online travel agencies (OTAs) and vacation rental platforms, ensuring maximum visibility and reach.

Distribution Channels

Hostaway integrates with popular OTAs such as Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and Expedia. Property managers can manage their listings and reservations seamlessly across these major channels, ensuring consistent availability and accurate pricing.

Multi-Calendar

Hostaway’s Multi-Calendar feature provides a centralized view of all property calendars. Property managers can easily manage availability, rates, and bookings across different properties and channels, simplifying the scheduling process and avoiding double-bookings.

Cross-Listings

Hostaway enables property managers to create flexible arrangements for large groups or multiple listings. Cross-listing functionality allows property managers to combine multiple listings into one, ensuring efficient management and preventing availability conflicts.

With Hostaway’s Channel Management features, property managers can effectively list and manage their properties across various channels, ensuring maximum exposure and seamless synchronization. The Channel Manager, integration with major OTAs, Multi-Calendar view, and Cross-Listings capability simplify the channel distribution process, enabling property managers to reach a wider audience and drive bookings.

Operational Tools🔑

Efficient operational management is essential for running a successful vacation rental business. Hostaway offers a range of operational tools to streamline daily tasks and ensure smooth operations.

Payment Processing

Hostaway’s Payment Processing feature ensures property managers receive payments securely and on time. By partnering with PCI-compliant payment processing providers, Hostaway enables property managers to handle guest payments efficiently while keeping sensitive guest data secure.

Contract Signature

Hostaway’s Contract Signature feature automates the process of creating and signing rental contracts. Property managers can easily generate customized contracts and send them to guests for electronic signature, streamlining the rental agreement process and minimizing paperwork.

Guest Invoicing

Hostaway’s Guest Invoicing feature enables property managers to provide accurate and professional invoices to guests. Property managers can generate invoices that adjust based on additional services or adjusted length of stay, ensuring transparent and detailed billing for guests.

Task Management

Hostaway’s Task Management feature simplifies cleaning and maintenance management. Property managers can create and assign tasks based on reservations, ensuring that cleaning and maintenance activities are well-organized and efficiently executed.

Smartlocks

Hostaway integrates with major smartlock providers in the vacation rental industry. This allows property managers to provide secure and convenient access to guests, enhancing the guest experience and simplifying check-in and check-out processes.

By leveraging Hostaway’s operational tools, property managers can streamline their daily operations, improve efficiency, and enhance the guest experience. The Payment Processing feature ensures seamless payment handling, Contract Signature automates the rental agreement process, Guest Invoicing provides accurate billing, Task Management simplifies cleaning and maintenance, and Smartlocks enhance guest access. Together, these tools contribute to a well-managed and successful vacation rental business.

Customer Support🔑

Exceptional customer support is crucial for property managers to address guest inquiries and resolve issues promptly. Hostaway prioritizes customer support, providing property managers with reliable assistance and guidance throughout their journey.

Award-Winning Support

Hostaway is committed to customer success and has received recognition for its outstanding support. Their dedicated team of experts is readily available to assist property managers, ensuring their questions are answered and issues are resolved in a timely manner.

Scalable Solutions

Hostaway’s software is designed to scale with property managers’ growth. Whether managing a handful of properties or a large portfolio, Hostaway offers solutions that adapt to the evolving needs of property managers. With scalable features and services, property managers can efficiently expand their operations without limitations.

Extensive Marketplace

Hostaway collaborates with a wide range of industry-leading software partners, offering property managers access to an extensive marketplace. This enables property managers to integrate additional tools and services that complement their vacation rental management, providing flexibility and customization.

Reliable Technology

Hostaway prides itself on its reliable and innovative technology. With a strong background in technology, Hostaway continuously implements the latest solutions to enhance software performance and security. Property managers can trust in the stability and reliability of Hostaway’s platform.

Marketing Support

Hostaway provides marketing tools and resources to help property managers effectively promote their properties. From channel integrations to email marketing, customizable coupons, and booking websites, property managers have access to a range of marketing features to attract more guests and boost bookings.

Hostaway’s commitment to customer support, scalable solutions, extensive marketplace partnerships, reliable technology, and marketing support ensures property managers have the resources and assistance they need to succeed in the vacation rental industry.

Pricing and Plans🏷️

Hostaway offers flexible pricing plans to accommodate the needs of property managers. With a variety of options, property managers can choose the plan that aligns best with their business requirements and budget.

Customized Pricing

Hostaway understands that every property manager is unique, and their pricing plans reflect this. They offer customizable pricing based on the number of properties managed, ensuring a tailored approach to meet specific needs.

Quote Request
Property managers can request a personalized quote from Hostaway by scheduling a demo. This allows property managers to discuss their requirements with the Hostaway team and receive a detailed quote that aligns with their specific needs.
Affordability and Value

Hostaway aims to provide affordable pricing while delivering value to property managers. Their pricing plans are designed to offer a comprehensive suite of features and services that enhance vacation rental management operations.

Transparent Quote Pricing

Hostaway maintains transparency in their pricing structure, ensuring property managers receive a clear understanding of what they are paying for. After receiving a detailed price quote, there is clarity regarding the associated costs and no hidden fees. Property managers can easily discern the expenses related to the chosen plan.

By offering flexible pricing options, personalized quotes, affordability, and transparent quoted pricing, Hostaway enables property managers to select a plan that suits their requirements and budget. This ensures a fair and transparent pricing structure, allowing property managers to make informed decisions about their investment in Hostaway’s vacation rental management software.

Customer Reviews 

Here you’ll find valuable testimonials and feedback from customers who have used Hostaway, a leading vacation rental management platform. Discover what real users have to say about their experiences with hostaway’s user-friendly interface, robust features, and excellent customer support. Whether you’re a property owner, a property manager, or someone interested in vacation rentals, these reviews will provide you with valuable insights into the benefits and advantages of using Hostaway.

Homestaypros LLC
Homestaypros LLC
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Having all of our rental platforms in one place, with one shared calendar is so helpful. We've never had a double booking, and the messaging with guests is simple. Sharing calendar information with booking sites, TurnoverBnB, and PriceLabs has been fantastic. Making the direct booking site and linking my Stripe account was quick, easy, and will save us a lot of money on booking fees. A great resource that saves me time and money. Onboarding was so seamless with Akeeshan.
James Kramer
James Kramer
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I was new to Hostaway, and new to hosting a rental in general. My onboarding Agent Alessandra was amazing at walking me through the whole process. She was not only an expert at Hostaway's platform, but could also walk me through various issues with AIRBNB and VRBO. I feel confident going forward that I have a good base knowledge of the platform, and am looking forward to learning all of its functionality as I progress.
Matthew Mangione
Matthew Mangione
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The only reason I stuck with Hostaway is because Alessandra was able to take on my onboarding and help me through questions even though she is in another country. Hostaway I believe has the best platform but overall they severely need more help on the support side of things. I shouldn’t have to be doing onboarding’s at 11pm at night because that’s all I’m able to get within a weeks timeframe. I want help and answers, I don’t want to have to wait a week to get it though. Overall the service is good when you get in contact. Cheers to Alessandra for helping with anything and everything. She deserves this 5* review and is the sole reason I’m leaving it. They are hiring more… so I’m told, so the future hopefully holds better days with them.
Adrienne Morris
Adrienne Morris
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We originally signed with HostAway in August and our onboarding experience wasn't the best so we decided to try a different software company. After 5 painful months with that company we RAN back to HostAway and had a completely different experience with onboard the second time. Not only is the software extremely easy to use but their customer service was exceptional!!! I've been working with Uvindu who has been fabulous. What took the last company over a month to do, Uvindu did in a 1-hour call with me. Plus, I was able to actively reach the CEO, Marcus, which is another unheard of thing in most companies. 10/10 experience all around the second time.
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Conclusion

Hostaway is a comprehensive vacation rental management software that offers a wide range of features and services to support property managers in running their vacation rental businesses efficiently. With its user-friendly interface, extensive integrations, and automation tools, Hostaway simplifies the complex tasks associated with property management.

Throughout this review, we have explored the various aspects of Hostaway’s software, including property management, communication tools, analytics and reporting, automation tools, marketing features, channel management, operational tools, additional services, customer support, pricing and plans. Each chapter has highlighted the key functionalities and benefits of Hostaway, demonstrating its value in optimizing vacation rental operations.

Property managers can leverage Hostaway’s all-in-one platform to streamline their daily tasks, automate processes, enhance communication with guests, expand their reach through various channels, and make data-driven decisions through advanced analytics and reporting. The additional services and marketing features offered by Hostaway provide property managers with the tools they need to effectively market their properties, increase bookings, and maximize revenue.

With Hostaway’s commitment to customer support, scalable solutions, reliable technology, and transparent pricing, property managers can feel confident in their choice of vacation rental management software. Hostaway empowers property managers to unlock their full potential, drive business growth, and deliver exceptional guest experiences.

In conclusion, Hostaway is a comprehensive and reliable vacation rental management software that equips property managers with the necessary tools to succeed in the competitive vacation rental industry. Whether managing a small portfolio or a large-scale operation, Hostaway provides the features, support, and flexibility needed to thrive in the dynamic vacation rental market. 

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