Guesty is a popular choice among vacation rental property managers, but does the Guesty pricing model make it worth it for professionals?
Guesty claims to be a comprehensive platform that helps both hosts and professional managers optimize hospitality operations and maximize revenue. Moreover, it claims to offer a pricing structure tailored to the specific needs of different users and customers.
Table of Contents
- Understanding Guesty Pricing
- Key Features of Guesty for Property Managers
- Calculating the ROI of Using Guesty
- Is There a Better Guesty Alternative?
In this article, we will review all the costs associated with using the platform, as well as the available tools and features.
In addition, we will conduct a cost-benefit analysis to conclude whether the subscription fee is worth the potential savings in terms of time- and labor-efficiency. After all, property managers must ensure every investment in their business pays off in order to succeed and continue expanding in the local market.
Finally, we will check whether any of Guesty’s vacation rental competitors offer a better ratio between cost and benefit.
Understanding Guesty Pricing
We will begin our Guesty review with a detailed breakdown of the Guesty pricing model. It includes all the one-time costs and recurring fees that short term rental management companies or professionals need to cover in order to to use the tool. We will discuss what features are included in the offered packages and if any features need to be paid for separately.
Breakdown of Guesty’s Pricing Model
Based on the information available on the company website, Guesty aims to provide a pricing model that is not a one-size-fits-all. Instead, the cost structure is meant to meet the needs and requirements of all different operators within the hospitality industry, no matter how big or small their Airbnb business is.
In brief, Guesty runs a subscription-based pricing model. Importantly, there don’t seem to be any start-up costs such as onboarding, adding your short term rental properties to the platform, or integrating with third-party tools.
Guesty Subscription Plans
There are three Guesty subscription plans that include:
- Lite: The Guesty Lite plan is perfect for managing 1-3 properties, which makes it suboptimal for property managers unless they are just starting. The plan is more appropriate for Airbnb hosts instead. Lite covers basic features like direct reservations, multi-calendar, unified inbox, task management, and payment solutions.
- Pro: The Guesty Pro plan is tailored for managing 4-199 listings. The plan is a good option for individual property managers and small- and medium-sized vacation rental property management companies. Pro covers all features in Lite plus multi-unit management, revenue management, advanced analytics, etc.
- Enterprise: The Guesty Enterprise plan provides solutions for managing 200+ properties, making it ideal for companies with regional or even national market coverage. Enterprise includes everything in Pro plus enterprise-grade features and automation, advanced analytics, and premium support.
Regarding the Guesty cost, each plan comes with its own price, and the total cost depends on the access to features. It differentiates Guesty from some alternatives that charge separately for adding more properties to their platform.
The monthly cost starts at $39 for the Lite plan when billed monthly and $27 when billed annually. The Guesty pricing for Pro and Enterprise is customized, so interested property managers need to contact the support team and ask for a quote depending on their business’s structure and exact needs.
An estimate of the cost of the two plans appropriate for property managers is necessary to know how much you will need to pay before talking with a Guesty representative. Moreover, it’s not possible to decide whether the software cost will be worth it when compared to the efficiency it’s supposed to bring to your business.
Guesty Additional Costs
In addition to a monthly or annual subscription fee, property managers might need to pay extra to use all necessary functionalities of the Guesty platform. The tool offers multiple add-ons to help with finances, guest experience, and business growth.
Each plan comes with different additional features, the prices of which are not specified on the company website. They are likely different for each plan and might add substantially to the recurring costs of using this Airbnb management software.
Following is a list of the add-ons that are priced separately, organized by their corresponding category in terms of purpose:
- Growth: Custom website builder and Guesty PriceOptimizer
- Finances: Trust accounting, advanced analytics, and Damage Protection
- Guest experience: Guesty Locks Manager and guest communication services
Once again, interested property management company owners need to contact the Guesty team and ask for custom pricing.
How to Save on Guesty Cost
If you are considering getting Guesty for your property management business, you should look into possible ways to save on the total cost of the platform. There are a few ways in which it can be done.
First of all, Guesty pricing offers both monthly and annual subscriptions, at least for the Lite plan, and this is likely to be the case for the Pro and Enterprise plans, too.
Property managers can save 31% when billed annually, which is a relatively big discount. However, you need to be convinced that it is the right tool for the needs of your business before committing for an entire year. So, it might be a good idea to try the product for a couple of months before deciding to purchase an annual subscription.
Second, you can limit the number of add-ons that you get and only focus on the ones that you really need to run your business smoothly. On the other hand, it’s worth scheduling a detailed discussion with the Guesty support team, as multiple add-ons might benefit from a discounted rate.
Third, of course, you can look into Guesty alternatives that offer more cost-efficient options for property managers.
In any case, it’s crucial to try to lower the cost as much as possible as the operating costs of your business directly—and negatively—impact your Airbnb profit.
Comparison With Traditional Property Management Costs
Before you get started with Guesty, it’s important to compare the Guesty pricing with the costs that traditionally go into managing a short term rental property as a professional. You are likely switching to Guesty from a conventional management model, so you need to ensure that it will bring the expected financial benefits.
An article on the Guesty blog claims that the platform helps short term property management companies save as much as 20 hours a week. It is a result of streamlining and automating processes.
Taking into consideration the Airbnb management fees prevailing in your market and that you are currently paying your employees, you can calculate the exact potential savings.
Meanwhile, if we consider a 40-hour work week, it means Guesty cuts in half the time needed for property management. Alternatively, you can double the number of properties you currently manage and grow your vacation rental management business.
But before you can compare the cost of Guesty with your current operating costs, you need to get in touch with them and obtain a quote. That’s the only way to make an accurate and reliable comparison.
Key Features of Guesty for Property Managers
Now that you understand how the Guesty pricing model works for property managers, you need to know what features and functionalities you can access for the stated fee.
Next, we offer a detailed overview and analysis of the tools provided by the vacation rental software and how they help hospitality professionals.
Management Tools and Automation
First and foremost, Guesty offers a number of features that help automate the management of numerous properties, multiple listings, and different tasks and processes.
For one, the Guesty channel manager facilitates the management of listings across several websites from a single dashboard, which helps boost visibility, reservations, and earnings.
Additionally, the multi-unit management tool allows the grouping of single units and multi-units into a hotel complex for easier and more efficient marketing, management, and operations.
With the direct reservations and manual reservations functionalities, property managers can create business rules and override pre-set business rules. They can also customize promotions, adjust rate strategies, and send personalized quotes in an automated manner. They can help increase reservations, which is at the core of a successful vacation rental management business.
Furthermore, automation tools included in the standard Guesty pricing help establish visualized workflows and set up tasks for yourself and your team. It can include things like cleaning, restocking, or even maintaining the properties in your portfolio.
Yet another process that can be automated with Guesty is payment collection. Property managers can set up specific rules for when and how payments from guests need to be collected for efficient revenue management with minimum manual effort.
Guest Experience and Communication
Another group of Guesty tools and features focuses on managing all aspects of the guest experience, including but not limited to bookings, communication, and reviews.
For instance, the Guesty unified inbox ensures that all guest communication – emails, SMSs, WhatsApp messages, and OTA messages – comes to a single place. You can use the unified inbox to view, respond to, and manage all communication. Efficient and quick communication is a must in the hospitality industry. Otherwise, you’ll be losing a lot of potential guests.
Meanwhile, the Guesty Locks Manager (an add-on feature) automates generating and sending unique codes to each guest before check-in. In such a way, you don’t need to attend check-ins in person, while your guests can easily enter the property.
Another aspect of guest management that Guesty helps with is reviews. You can use readily available templates to send requests for guest reviews at the right time after check-out. Getting a lot of positive reviews from guests is a key component in how to list on Airbnb and other channels for optimal ranking and maximum bookings.
Reporting and Analytics
In addition, the Guesty platform offers a few tools that help with pricing, reporting, analytics, and revenue management.
For instance, the Guesty Analytics tool provides Airbnb data to benchmark your properties against competitors, analyze the market, and map revenue. However, Guesty does not explain the exact sources of the short term rental data and their reliability.
At the same time, the reporting tools allow property managers to create customized reports to track and evaluate the performance of their vacation rentals. Reports can be automated and scheduled on specific dates.
Guesty also helps with accounting, which can be one of the most tedious—yet demanding—parts of the property management process.
Meanwhile, the security measures implemented by the platform ensure that you can collect payments from guests directly, without unnecessary risks.
Add-On Features
Most of the features described above are included in the Guesty pricing plans, but some other features need to be paid for separately as they are considered add-ons.
In this section, we’ll discuss some of the add-ons that might be worth getting to optimize your business operations.
The Guesty PriceOptimizer is an Airbnb dynamic pricing tool that should help set up the right daily prices and boost income. While it allows applying dynamic pricing across multiple channels, Guesty does not explain how it is done in detail.
Guesty Websites offers a website builder designed for the hospitality industry. In such a way, you can build a website for your listings and drive direct reservations, outside booking channels.
Guesty Damage Protection acts as a type of Airbnb insurance that protects your property against guest damage during stays. However, the coverage is somewhat limited, and liability is not included.
One more additional feature worth highlighting is Guesty Capital. The funding solution provides funds for improving the performance of your business based on the past performance of your property. You can use the funding to renovate your rentals, expand your team, build your brand, or grow your portfolio.
Integrations With Other Platforms
In order for the features described above to work properly and effectively, Guesty provides integrations with multiple third-party tools in the hospitality industry and other fields. Indeed, the integrations available on the Guesty Marketplace are one of the platform’s main benefits over its competitors.
Following is a list of the Guesty integrations by category, in addition to the most noteworthy examples in each category:
- Booking channels: Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, Tripadvisor, Expedia, Google, Hopper, HomeToGo, Whimpstay, and other vacation rental listing platforms across the globe
- Channel managers: Rentals United, BookingPal, and SiteMinder
- Financials and accounting: Rented, DPGO, SmartPricing, Clearing, AirDNA, Key Data, Wheelhouse, Beyond, PriceLabs, SecureStay, InsuraGuest, Perfect Price, Proper Insurance, and other financial and Airbnb accounting software tools
- Guest management: YourWelcome, Hostkit, Welcome, GuestView Guide, LugLess, Virtual Front Desk, TourDesk, UpsellGuru, Bnsellit, HelloGuest, Calirom, Hello George, Viggo, and others
- Home automation and security: Brivo, KeyNest, Sharebox, Vikey, PowerSetter, Jervis Systems, KeyNinja, OK2Charge, LoopKey, BeHome247, SuiteOp, GateGoing, 4WiFi, StayFi, Keycafe, Operto, Minut, Dack, and others
- Marketing: Beyondbooking, Teliportme, Online Tourism, Toast, Boostly, Repuso, Revyoos, Boom, hostAI, Simplex, Sparrow, and others
- New arrivals: Maveriks
- Operations, cleaning, and maintenance: Fulhaus, Doinn, Flexkeeping, EZcare, PayEm, Simpra, HKeeper, ResortCleaning, Turnify, Tulogy, Cleanster.com, Vintory, TopTitter, Bongo Stays, Propertyhero, PropFit, HostGPO, Sweeply, and others
- Payment processing: Stripe, Merchant Warrior, and Hyp
While the above list sounds like Guesty integrates with many different Airbnb tools, you should keep in mind that customer reviews—discussed shortly—mention problems with integrations. It pertains even to integrations with basic tools like distribution channels.
It’s worth confirming with the Guesty support team how the integrations with the tools you need are implemented and what support you can get in case you face any issues. Unless working seamlessly, all the said integrations are completely useless.
Calculating the ROI of Using Guesty
Being familiar with the Guesty pricing structure and the features you can access with each plan is important. Still, it’s not enough to make a decision as a savvy property manager. You need to conduct a cost-benefit analysis and take the results into consideration when choosing the best option for your business.
Cost-Benefit Analysis
For an effective cost-benefit analysis of property management tools like the Guesty platform, first, you must calculate the cost of introducing it to your business. For an accurate estimate of the property management software pricing, you need to contact the Guesty team.
Make sure to get a precise quote for all the tools and features you need, based on the size of your portfolio and your team. Know what are subscription fees and what are additional costs. Understand the differences between monthly and annual prices. Double-check if there are any onboarding fees.
Second, you must assess the financial benefits that using Guesty is expected to bring to your company. As mentioned above, the software can help save about 20 hours per week or about half the time you currently spend managing your portfolio.
Besides, you need to consider potential advantages that are not necessarily quantifiable. For instance, streamlining and automating the property management process under a single roof is expected to eliminate missed communication, remove delays, and improve listings. They can all lead to higher revenue and ROI.
Ultimately, you need to compare the costs of Guesty with the anticipated benefits – both quantifiable and unquantifiable – and check if the price is worth it. This analysis is highly individual and depends on the current state of your business, team, skills, and processes.
What Users Say
Before deciding in favor of or against the software, you cannot rely only on Guesty pricing and features. You must also consider what property managers already using the platform think about it. Customer reviews are an excellent source of information when analyzing potential new tools.
There are hundreds of reviews on Guesty on multiple third-party websites.
You can find some on:
As you can see from the rankings above, most customers are generally satisfied with the Guesty features and benefits.
The positive reviews focus on bringing all rentals into a single platform, the easier experiences, the ongoing software developments, and the helpful support team.
At the same time, though, some property managers who used Guesty previously or are currently using it mention areas of significant potential improvement.
Some reported problems with the Airbnb integration, which messed up their calendar and led to double bookings, one of the main problems the platform promises to solve. Others encountered issues with the channel manager not working properly.
A common complaint among property managers is the lack of transparency in Guesty pricing. They were misled during the initial communication and onboarding, so they ended up paying considerably more than expected. Many customers think that Guesty is expensive compared to alternatives, and the cost is not worth it considering the functionalities.
Is There a Better Guesty Alternative?
While Guesty offers multiple tools and customer reviews are generally positive, it doesn’t mean that it is the best option for vacation rental property managers.
Indeed, there is a Guesty alternative that brings much more to the table, at a much better price—Mashvisor. What makes Mashvisor different from Guesty and all its other competitors is the fact that Mashvisor is a truly all-in-one vacation rental property management software platform.
Mashvisor Property Management Features
The available features cover all the needs of property managers and their portfolio rentals, including:
- Dynamic Pricing: The Mashvisor Airbnb Dynamic Pricing Tool is different from other options available on the market. While most tools focus on maximizing reservations and occupancy, our software uses data directly from short term rental comps to ensure that revenue is optimized. And more revenue for your customers means more income for you.
- Airbnb Data: The Mashvisor Airbnb Data covers all the vacation rental data points and analytics you might need to manage short term rentals. It includes but is not limited to daily rates, occupancy rates, monthly income, cash on cash return, and cap rate.
- Short Term Rental Insurance: Mashvisor’s partnership with Steadily, a leading rental property insurance company, allows it to offer policies that meet the exact needs of vacation rentals. Policies are customizable for different property types and markets, while pricing is affordable.
Meanwhile, the Mashvisor customer support team is available to answer all your questions and help you with any difficulties before, during, and after onboarding.
Mashvisor’s Dynamic Pricing tool
Conclusion
Our review of the Guesty platform shows that it does indeed offer many of the tools and features that property managers need in their day-to-day work. However, the Guesty pricing information available on the website does not suffice to categorically decide if the software is worth it for hospitality professionals.
Before deciding whether Guesty is the right tool for your particular situation, you need to discuss it openly with their team. You must know exactly how much you will be expected to pay and what features the fee will cover. Then, you need to calculate the cost and the expected savings and make a final decision.
Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a truly comprehensive vacation rental software platform, you can check out Mashvisor. Our tools are built based on our long experience in the short term rental market and rely on solid data from reliable sources.
With our dynamic pricing, automated property management, and improved communication features, you can bring your vacation rental management business to the success that it really deserves.
