“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” - Arthur C. Clarke

(Current as of 2/13/24)

If you're a short-term rental host or an aspiring one, undoubtedly, you've navigated the labyrinth of finding the best tools for your hosting needs.

Warning: reading further won't unveil the ultimate "best" for anything.

We all have different needs, goals and circumstances. What might be best for me may not be best for you. If you're just starting, get your Airbnb listing up, and learn as you go.

Once you know what you need, discover what your "best" looks like. Here are the tools we use and why. 👊

1. PMS / Channel Manager

• OwnerRez - A robust platform powering our direct booking sites, managing rental agreements, and acting as a CRM. Powerful but requires time to master. It's also a comprehensive channel manager, allowing you to update information in your listings across all the OTAs.

• PROS: Very powerful software that can do almost anything you need it to do.

• CONS: Not the most user-friendly interface, requiring some time and effort to set up and learn. There's a reason OwnerRez setup services are big business.

  

• Hospitable - Yes, we use two different PMS on top of each other. Hospitable's messaging is second to none and worth the monthly cost for that alone. Their "short codes" functionality is a powerful tool to help customize your messaging. We use it to automatically upsell future guests on available nights before or after their stay. This is the only platform we've found with easy integration with SmartThings at no extra cost. Great for those of us utilizing z-wave devices!

• PROS: Easy to use, constantly making improvements and adding features, best guest messaging available, ability to list on Google Vacation Rental.

• CONS: Not a true channel manager, changes need to be made direct with OTAs.

  

2. Pricing

• Pricelabs - Pricelabs is the gold standard when it comes to dynamic pricing, but there are other good options out there, too. Pricelabs delivers countless customization options, which can be a little overwhelming at first, but they're very powerful once you get familiar. Don't sleep on the ability to have dynamic minimum night stay lengths as well; an unsung feature of the platform.

• PROS: Lots of customizations, valuable neighborhood data, flat-fee pricing, comprehensive instructional videos.

• CONS: Initial learning curve, time investment to build out ideal profiles.

  

3. Listing Optimization

• Rankbreeze - A nifty little tool to show your average ranking in Airbnb searches. Obviously, not a perfect science, but a great way to see how you're doing with your listing optimization. You can quickly see your impressions, clicks, conversions, etc and track any changes you make to your listings.

• PROS: Change tracker, view competitor rates and availability, continuing to add new features.

• CONS: A little pricey for what it does, search rankings aren't 'fixed' for all users, so it's not an exact representation.

• Intellihost - Newer on the scene, we decided to give them a try and signed up for an annual subscription. Sing up for a free 30-day trial. Their change tracker is built-in and estimates the impact on revenue. They have great looking charts that provide a clear picture of performance over time. The automatic change tracker was able to show me when one important amenity somehow disappeared from my listing! They've just rolled out a new "Predictive Pricing" feature which looks interesting, but we haven't dove into that yet.

• PROS: Quick, easy-to-read snapshot of ongoing performance, tracks listing changes automatically.

• CONS: Competitor information is a little confusing.

4. Marketing

• MarketMySTR - New all-in-one marketing platform from Bill Faeth of Build Short Term Rental Wealth fame. You can host your web site and landing pages, manage your social media posts, market to past guests via email and SMS and so much more. We use it primarily to market to past guests to drive more direct bookings.

• PROS: Does the job of multiple services in one, top-notch support, includes pre-loaded templates, marketing workflows and more.

• CONS: Lacks flexibility when dealing with multiple property identifies

  

5. Banking/Bookkeeping

• Relay Financial - Touted by our friends at The Short Term Shop, Relay is one of the go-to banks for short-term rental owners. It's easy to open multiple accounts, giving you flexibility in account usage and for those with multiple properties. They've partnered with Profit First to make implementing that strategy a breeze.

• PROS: Unlimited accounts, easy ACH transfers, can collect and store W9 from payees.

• CONS: Savings account interest below other online banks, online check payments a little slow.

• Stessa - Those of you starting out, or with just one or two properties can probably get by doing your own bookkeeping. The free version of Stessa makes that a breeze, and you can't beat the price. It can link to other accounts to automate the tracking of income and expenses, which is especially useful if you have more than one property.

• PROS: Free! Easy to use, easy to connect external accounts. Good reports for cash flow, income, and taxes. Easily store receipts.

• CONS: Some nice-to-have features are found only in the paid plan, cannot fully automate all parts of a mortgage payment.

6. Miscellaneous

• Zapier - Helps us connect data across multiple platforms, enhancing our automations

• Elfsight - Pulls in reviews across multiple platforms and displays in a beautiful widget on our direct booking web site (View it in action: Luna's Mountain Lodge).

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  Some of the above links are affiliate links and we may receive a small kickback if you sign up. We only promote the software and services we use, and the small amount helps fund this web site.

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  Any questions? Head on over to our Facebook group and ask away!

  @STRTechTalk