Once you’ve bought a vacation rental property, you need to optimize its management in order to boost its performance and maximize your ROI. Guesty for Hosts is one of the best known names in the vacation rental management automation industry, but is this tool really worth the vibe?
In this article, we will provide a detailed review of Guesty, its main features, its integrations with third-party softwares, the potential benefits, the pricing structure, and the top Guesty alternatives for hosts with various needs. Ultimately, we will help short term rental property owners decide if Guesty is able to meet their needs and streamline the work around managing an Airbnb property.
Key Features of Guesty for Hosts
First, let’s take a look at the Guesty features and functionalities that hosts can access to automate the vacation rental management process:
Automated Messages
The Automated Messages feature of Guesty for Hosts allows vacation rental owners to automate communication with their guests and save about 40 hours per week, according to the Guesty website.
This feature helps:
- Streamline guest communication
- Collect and own guest data
- Improve response time
- Make sure to never miss a guest inquiry
- Encourage guests to write reviews
- Set up auto replies for different scenarios
- Customize messages for each booking channel
- Use various languages
The automated communication tools available on the platform work towards enhancing the guest experience before, during, and after guest stays.
Channel Manager
The second feature worth mentioning is the Airbnb channel manager. Guesty for Hosts integrates with the main OTAs for centralized booking and reservation management of all channels in a single dashboard.
The Guesty channel manager helps:
- Sync booking calendars from different listing websites like Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, etc.
- Manage all communication in a unified inbox
- Charge guest fees automatically
Cleaning Management
The third functionality provided by Guesty is the automation of cleaning scheduling and coordination as well as other team tasks.
In specific, this tools allows hosts to:
- Schedule property cleanings between guests
- Send automated reminders to team members
- Share the booking calendar with your team through the cleaners’ portal
- Send detailed instructions to the cleaning team
- Keep track of cleanings
Damage Protection
In addition to short term rental software, Guesty for Hosts also offers property damage protection during guest stays. The comprehensive protection options aim to protect hosts and their properties against things like broken furniture and appliances and stained carpets and rugs without creating unnecessary tension between hosts and guests.
The damage protection covers some aspects of the Airbnb insurance and is available for reservations across all distribution channels. The cost depends on the contents of the vacation rental and the selected plan.
Financial Reports
Yet another task that Guesty takes care of is the creation of financial reports that include all necessary data and information.
With the financial reports, hosts can:
- Keep track of revenue and expenses by category
- Calculate management fees and owner payouts
- Share real-time financial information
- Generate invoices and make/get payments
Guesty Capital
One feature that sets Guesty for Hosts apart from other Airbnb property management tools is the Guesty Capital. This allows property owners to get fast, transparent funding for improving various aspects of their vacation rental.
For instance, hosts can use the funds to invest in professional photos of their rental property, which would lead to property listing optimization, higher occupancy, and more revenue.
With Guesty Capital, owners don’t need to make a formal application and go through a credit check. They can apply based on the performance of their rental in the past 3 months. Repayments are flexible, with higher amounts on good weeks and lower amounts on bad weeks.
Guesty PriceOptimizer
Next, the Guesty PriceOptimizer automates the dynamic pricing of short term rentals across all booking platforms. Guesty obtains data from multiple sources that is sent to the pricing engine to come up with an optimized price and push it to all applicable channels. Owners still retain the option to set up daily rates manually if they have reasons to do so.
The Guesty website explains that the pricing takes into consideration the account events, seasonality, market changes, and other factors. This helps maximize the occupancy rate and improve revenue.
Website Builder
Furthermore, Guesty for Hosts offers a website builder through which hosts can launch their own booking website to drive direct reservations for their vacation rental.
The feature helps:
- Create a branded website
- Personalize the website with additional content
- Offer discounts
- Run vacation rental marketing campaigns
- Collect security deposits
- Implement third-party software tools
Multi Calendar
The Guesty multi-calendar is another must-have feature for any short term rental software as it boosts multi-platform synchronization and makes vacation rental operations easier.
The multi-calendar available on Guesty for Hosts works to:
- Create and adjust reservations from all booking websites
- Manage past, present, and future reservations from a single place
- Avoid double bookings
- Increase occupancy
- Group listings
Guesty Locks Manager
Last but not least, with the Guesty Locks Manager, short term rental property owners can manage all their smart locks through the platform. The feature helps improve the check-in and check-out processes without the need for in-person visits.
The Locks Manager can:
- Generate automatic unique codes
- Monitor the health of smart locks
- Display real-time lock information.
Guesty for Hosts Integrations
To provide the functionalities required from vacation rental management software, Guesty for Hosts integrates with the following third-party tools, by category:
- Booking channels: Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, Expedia, Google, TripAdvisor, Agoda, Hopper, HomeToGo, Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy, Plum Guide, Whimpstay, Travelstaytion, GlampingHub, and Misterb&b
- Channel managers: Rentals United, BookingPal, and SiteMinder
- Financial and accounting: Proper Insurance, InsuraGuest, Swikly, Pricepoint, Rented, HomeSur, DPGO, Quibble, Lighthouse, AirDNA, Key Data, Beyond, Wheelhouse, PriceLabs, Clearing, Extenteam, etc.
- Guest management: Operto, Autohost, Duve, Dack, StayFi, Chekin, Into, Guest Guru, SmartHotel, Host.AI, Akia, Botel, Mount, Touch Stay, Besty AI, SecureStay, HelloGuest, UpsellGuru, Yada, HotelAppz, Travello App, YourWelcome, etc.
- Home automation and security: Roomonitor, KeyNest, PointCentral, Brivo, Vikey, Nuki, KeyNinja, LoopKey, GateGoing, BeHome247, Keycafe, Lynx, Enso Connect, LoopKey, AurMur, PowerSetter, etc.
- Marketing: Boostly, Beyondbooking, RezRecover, Revyoos, Reva, Simplex, Scurto Marketing, Triangle Luxury Real Estate, Repuso, WebAct, Customyze, Toast, Signal by Beyond, ICND, hostWriter, Teliportme, 80 Days, Online Tourism, Olive Street Design, Spotzer Agency, Camel and Straw Media, Hudson Creative Studio, etc.
- New arrivals: Maveriks
- Operations, cleaning, and maintenance: Turnify, Turno, Properly, Operto Teams, Breezeway, Sweeply, PropFit, Propertyhero, Boom,, HostGPO, Bongo Stays, TopTipper, Puls Home Services, Vintory, Sojo, Public Foods, Cleanster.com, TIDY, ResortCleaning, etc.
- Payment processing: Stripe, Merchant Warrior, and Hyp
Potential Benefits of Using Guesty for Hosts for Your Vacation Rental Property
Main benefits of implementing Guesty for Hosts
In brief, the tools available on the Guesty for Hosts platform can help enhance operational efficiency, guest satisfaction, and ultimately revenue.
Following are the main advantages that using Guesty – or another short term rental management software – can bring to property owners:
Streamlining Operations and Saving Time
The centralized reservation management system and the multi-platform synchronization allow hosts to bring many aspects of vacation rental management into a single platform. This, in turn, helps them optimize processes and save a lot of time that they can use in more productive ways than managing multiple calendars, responding to guest inquiries in several inboxes, and making payments from different apps.
Enhancing Guest Experience and Reviews
With the multi-calendar and the unified inbox, Guesty for Hosts eliminates double bookings and speeds up guest communication. This leads to better guest experiences, and satisfied guests are significantly more likely to write positive reviews even without being encouraged. But the platform also automates guest reviews, which further helps boost your listing.
Optimizing Listing Visibility and Bookings
As a result of the dynamic pricing and the more positive reviews, Airbnb listings perform better, rank higher, and get more attention. The increased visibility is expected to result in more reservations, leading to a higher Airbnb occupancy rate and – eventually – more revenue for hosts.
Guesty for Hosts Pricing Overview
Guesty for Hosts operates a subscription-based model, with 3 different tiers to meet the needs of different vacation rental hosts. The Guesty pricing depends on the access to features and the number of listings which a host owns and manages.
Guesty offers the following plans:
- Lite: This Guesty plan is perfect for hosts with 1-3 properties and covers access to the main features and integrations. Pricing starts at $39/month.
- Pro: Guesty Pro is tailored for those who manage 4-199 properties and require access to most features. Pricing is custom.
- Enterprise: This plan provides solutions to owners and managers with 200+ properties that need access to all Guesty features. Pricing is custom.
There are both monthly and annual subscriptions, with annual pricing benefiting from discounts. The platform offers a 14-day free trial.
Guesty for Hosts Alternatives
Top alternatives of Guesty for Hosts
Before deciding whether to get Guesty for Hosts, it’s important for vacation rental property owners to consider other options available on the market. This section reviews the top Guesty alternatives, their features, pricing, and pros and cons.
Mashvisor
The #1 competitor of Guesty for Hosts is Mashvisor, the only all-in-one vacation rental software platform in the market. Mashvisor supports short term rental property investors along the entire journey of investing, owning, and managing vacation rentals.
Here is how Mashvisor tools help real estate investors:
- The Mashvisor Market Finder finds the best cities and neighborhoods for buying a short term rental, based on your budget, expected revenue and ROI, and other investment criteria.
- The Mashvisor Property Finder locates the top-performing short term rental properties for sale taking into consideration the required budget, market, and property type.
- The Mashvisor Rental Property Calculator conducts detailed investment property analysis to show what income, expenses, cash flow, occupancy, cash on cash return, and cap rate investors can expect before purchasing a property.
- The Mashvisor Airbnb Calculator provides accurate estimates of the monthly rental income you can expect in any market of your choice, based on the property specifications.
- The Mashvisor Short Term Rental Regulations page offers a summary of the Airbnb laws and rules in all major cities so that you can ensure legal compliance.
- The Mashvisor Short Term Rental Insurance (provided through Steadily) protects your vacation rental property from damage and you from liability. Steadily is a specialized rental property insurance company that offers the best balance between coverage and pricing.
- The Mashvisor Airbnb Dynamic Pricing Software Tool automates the daily pricing of short term rentals based on comps, market trends, and your own preferences. Unlike other dynamic pricing tools, Mashvisor works towards maximizing revenue and ROI rather than bookings and occupancy.
- The Mashvisor Channel Manager streamlines the management of listings and bookings on multiple distribution channels to enhance performance while saving time and effort.
- The Mashvisor Unified Inbox brings all guest communication to a single place so that hosts never miss a message again without losing their sanity by constantly checking multiple inboxes.
- The Mashvisor Multi Calendar makes the management of multiple booking calendars easier and more efficient than ever before. Double bookings and missed bookings are left behind, which leads to more reservations and more income.
- The Mashvisor Website Builder allows hosts to launch their own booking website with virtually zero effort, to get more traffic to their listing and get even more reservations.
In other words, Mashvisor is much more than a simple Guesty alternative as it allows investors and hosts to do much more than any other regular vacation rental software. Importantly, Mashvisor can help property owners not only streamline the management of their Airbnb properties but also add new profitable rentals to their portfolio.
Unlike other data platforms, Mashvisor provides both short term and long term rental analytics so that investors can rest assured that their investment will still work well should they ever switch rental strategies.
Lodgify
Similar to Guesty for Hosts, Lodgify is a vacation rental software that offers the following features:
- Property management software: reservation system, unified inbox, guest management, task management, automation, reporting and analytics, and accounting
- Channel manager
- Website builder
- Booking system
- Smart pricing
- Mobile app
Comparing Guesty reviews and Lodgify reviews reveals that the two tools provide similar functionalities. In terms of pricing, Lodgify is the more affordable option for small owners as the Starter plan costs $13/month for one property. However, hosts need to pay 1.9% on the booking fee.
iGMS
Another popular Guesty competitor is iGMS, a short term rental management software tool.
iGMS features cover:
- Channel manager
- Inbox and automated messaging
- Direct booking management
- Website builder
- Automation tools
- Cleaning and team management
- Payment processing
- Guest communication productivity tracking
- Market insights
iGMS pricing starts at $19/month per property and goes up for access to more features and for adding more properties.
Hostaway
Hostaway is another alternative to Guesty for Hosts that provides access to multiple features including:
- Property management: property management system (PMS), reservations manager, performance dashboard, and CRM and lead management
- Channel manager: distribution channels, multi-calendar, multi-unit support, and cross-listings
- Automation tools: automated messages, automated reviews, automated tasks, and automated payments
- Communication: unified inbox, owner portal, guest portal, and SMS and WhatsApp
- Marketing: booking website, WordPress and Wix widgets, coupon management, and website builder
- Operations: payment processing, contract signature, guest invoicing, task management, and smart locks
- Services: notifications, mobile app, open API, and revenue management
- Analytics and reporting: occupancy reports, dynamic pricing, owner statements, financial reporting, and expense tracking
Hostaway offers access to comprehensive features, but pricing is unclear as hosts need to get in touch with the team to get a quote.
Hostfully
As a leading Guesty competitor, Hostfully offers access to:
- Channel manager
- Central calendar
- Unified inbox
- Direct booking website
- Automation
- Mobile app
- Open API
- Owner financial reports
- Guidebook integration
- Reporting
The pricing of the Hostfully property management platform is rather steep, starting at $109/month for one property. This makes it one of the least affordable Guesty for Host alternatives.
Host Tools
As the last Guesty competitor on our list, Host Tools provides:
- Automated messaging
- Syncing of multiple listings, calendars, and rental platforms
- Pricing optimization
- Cleaners management
- Smart lock integration
While Host Tools offers more limited features than other Guesty alternatives, the pricing is comparable, starting at $28/month for a single property.
Is Guesty for Hosts Worth the Investment for Vacation Rental Owners?
Our Guesty for Hosts review shows that this vacation rental software is capable of meeting the basic needs and requirements of hosts with one or multiple properties. The platform offers access to all the must-have features. However, the main limitation of Guesty and all other alternatives is that they support only owners who have already purchased a property, and they do not offer help to those just getting started or investors who’d like to grow their portfolio.
Mashvisor, on the other hand, is the only comprehensive platform that offers the full arsenal of tools needed by real estate investors, from finding the right market and property, all the way to pricing their rental right and automating its management.
