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When you manage multiple properties listed across different booking websites, coordinating your team can take hours as you make sure cleaners go where they’re supposed to when they’re supposed to.
But, despite all that intensive work, just one missed clean or double-booking will throw everything off course. Instead of marketing your services to new homeowners, you’re left dealing with the fallout, including a flurry of last-minute WhatsApp messages with cleaners or dealing with a frustrated guest.
Short-term rental management software eliminates scheduling mistakes, cuts down guest messaging, and reduces your workload while helping you enhance the guest experience.
This article shows you solutions in:
- Property care: Including automated scheduling, cleaning checklists, and a team mobile app
- Property management: With streamlined ops, automated payments, and business reporting
- Channel distribution: To sync and manage your property listings
- Pricing: To automatically optimize your nightly rates
- Smart tools: Including solutions for keyless entry, noise monitoring, and energy efficiency
You’ll also learn how short-term rental management software helps you avoid missed cleans, reduce costs, and increase revenue.
| Eliminate missed cleans and reduce your workload |
Where short-term rental management software makes a difference
The first step to developing a sustainably profitable vacation rental business is implementing efficient processes that reduce your workload, decrease operational costs, and avoid human error. That’s how you can extract yourself from time-consuming manual tasks while delivering a personalized guest experience that rivals the hotel standards your guests expect.
To make this possible, you need specialized software with features for short-term rental automation, analytics and reporting, and a centralized manager’s dashboard.
Here are some key areas where this software makes running your short-term rental business easier and more scalable.
Internal operations
Coordinating staff and tracking their progress takes up a good portion of your day. If you’re not on top of every scheduled job, mistakes happen and cleaning tasks get delayed—or worse, overlooked.
The best property care software automates scheduling and gives you an overview of all your recurring maintenance tasks. Consequently, you save time on managing cleaners as you deliver on the expectations of your guests and owners.
| “When we switched to Breezeway, creating work orders got a lot easier. The way the app works in the field is super smooth and so user-friendly for all of our contractors to work with. Breezeway has created the best task management system, I don’t think there’s even a question there.” -Jonathan Wicks, Founder of Well and Good Property Services |
Guest experience
Constantly answering questions like ‘What’s the WiFi code?’ and ‘Where’s the nearest grocery store?’ isn’t scalable—how can you expand your inventory if you’re still expected to be on hand for every guest issue. Yet, when you don’t quickly respond to guest messages, your ratings drop.
Guest messaging software centralizes all your communications in a unified inbox, so you can manage texts, emails, and online travel agency (OTA) platform messages all in one place. These tools also provide pre-built, customizable templates to automate guest messaging, improve your responsiveness, and eliminate the risk of messages getting missed.
Meanwhile, digital welcome books provide information about properties and local neighborhoods to preemptively answer your guests’ frequently asked questions about their stay. So, no doubts or confusion for guests, and fewer messages for you to answer.
Channel distribution and pricing
The more rental properties you manage, the more pricing information you have to track. And when you add listing sites to the mix, you can easily lose track of what deals you’re offering and where.
That’s when you can benefit from software that simplifies the coordination of your listings, syncs the latest booking information and availability across all your channels, and applies the optimal nightly rates alongside any special deals based on your customized rules.
Reporting and analytics
A clear understanding of your business performance and the ability to pinpoint areas for improvement is crucial as you scale.
Also, property owners want to see fundamental business metrics, like occupancy rates, revenue per stay, and guest ratings.
With automatically generated reports, you can gain the insights you need to streamline your operations and provide compelling evidence to owners as you look to grow your business.
5 short-term rental management software solutions
Rental property management is never just an easy path to “passive income,” despite what the YouTube videos claim. However, with the following software solutions, you can save time and energy, so you can focus on scaling your business and providing a stellar guest experience.
Breezeway: Your path to streamlined property care operations
Breezeway makes property care management more efficient.
Overview
If you want to streamline your operations, make turnover more efficient, and enhance the guest experience, Breezeway is the leading property care platform in the industry.
The software connects with your PMS to create instant cleaning schedules based on your property, guest, and staff data. But every home has its idiosyncrasies, which is why you can add special task rules for each property you manage, which you can set to automatically update for an owner stay.
We know coordination doesn’t end with scheduling—you also have to check teams have completed their work to your standards before a new guest checks in. So, Breezeway also provides mobile-friendly cleaning checklists and in-app messaging to make inspections simple and clear.
Finally, inventory and asset management is essential for running efficient operations. Breezeway gives you an overview of all the linens, amenities, and appliances at each property so you know when to schedule supplies, repairs, and replacements. That way, you won’t be caught off guard by missing towels or a broken lamp.
| "Before using Breezeway, little things like replacing a light bulb on the front porch would get lost in the shuffle and stack up to impact the guest experience in a big way.” -Jed Stevens, Co-founder of Koloa Kai |
Breezeway’s powerful time-saving features
- Automated scheduling based on guest, team, and property data, unit location, and cleaner availability
- Inventory and asset management to stay on top of linen packing, repairs, and replacements
- Customizable checklists for quality assurance and remote inspections
- User-friendly mobile app for you and your teams
- Extended stays function with automated guest messaging to fill gap nights
- Detailed reporting so owners have an overview of their property’s performance
- Guest and team messaging for quick responses to issues
- Welcome book that informs guests about the property, its amenities, and the local area
Why Breezeway stands out
The Breezeway property care platform is user-friendly, easy-to-implement software that saves you time instead of adding to your to-do list.
Despite it being intuitively simple to use for your managers and cleaners, Breezeway has a fantastic range of features that don’t just help property managers solve scheduling and task management, but also guest messaging.
For example, one of our customers reduced guest phone calls by 58% with our messaging feature and cut invoicing time down by 20 hours a week.
Pricing
We base pricing on the number of properties you operate. Contact our team to get your quote.
What our customers say
| “My team would quit if we stopped using Breezeway. There have been huge improvements to the manual scheduling we had prior to Breezeway. Communications across the team have sped up our turnover days and improved the overall guest experience.” -Adam. N, Vice President of Business Development |
| Eliminate missed cleans and reduce your workload |
NextPax: channel manager
You can easily manage bookings with the channel manager, NextPax.
Overview
NextPax spares you from manually adding and managing all your listings across booking sites and OTAs. The channel manager also synchronizes listing information so all your content is consistent and accurate, no matter where it’s displayed.
And because property availability is synced, too, you don’t have to worry about the possibility of a costly double-booking.
Key features
- Connects to over 150 channels
- Centralized and synchronized booking
- Built-in email templates
- Integrations with popular PMSs and vacation rental software
Why it stands out
OTAs like Vrbo and Booking.com are good places to attract some guests, but they’re highly competitive. On these platforms, you have to outshine hundreds of other vacation rental businesses in your area.
That’s how Nextpax can help: The channel manager connects to over 150 channels meaning you can maximize occupancy by marketing yourself to a bigger pool of guests across more booking platforms.
NextPax also helps you list on niche sites and guides you to the right ones to target your ideal guests. This lets you narrow down your offering and target your ideal guests more directly based on your amenities and location.
For similar other top channel managers, you can also check out:
- Uplisting
- Smoobu
- Hosthub
Pricing
NextPax has a pay-per-booking model instead of a fixed rate, so the average monthly cost depends on your number of reservations.
PriceLabs: revenue management tool
PriceLabs helps you find the best nightly rates and automatically applies them.
Overview
You can get every other aspect of your vacation rental business right, but if your prices are too low or high, you won’t turn a profit. But constantly researching your competitors to find the optimal nightly rate isn’t sustainable, especially when you’re doing it for multiple properties.
PriceLabs analyzes the market in real-time and adjusts your rates accordingly.
This revenue management and pricing tool also helps you spot trends in your own business. So if some properties have an unexpected downturn one month, you can spot it quickly and figure out why.
Key features
- Booking analytics and reporting
- Dynamic pricing tools that automatically connect to OTAs or your PMS
- Market insights to help you make better pricing and investment decisions
Why it stands out
Not many platforms can rival PriceLabs for return on investment. The dynamic pricing tool helps you find the sweet spot between occupancy rates and pricing to maximize your revenue. Some users report making approximately $20,000 a year more per property because of the dynamic pricing software.
To compare against other revenue management and pricing tools, look at:
- Wheelhouse
- Beyond
- AirDNA
Pricing
PriceLabs charges a fixed rate of US$19 per property, but there are discounts available for volume.
Operto Tech: smart tech centralization for hospitality
Stop energy bills and unnecessary damages from cutting into your profits with Operto Tech.
Overview
The operational costs of your vacation rental business can rise significantly due to excessive energy bills. For example, when guests leave air conditioning or appliances on after they’ve left the property.
Guest parties and the risk of property and contents damage is also an ongoing concern. At the same time, guests could give you a bad review if they have to wait around to get the keys instead of being able to access the property on arrival.
Operto helps address all these issues with its range of smart device integrations.
As with Breezeway’s access and security features, Operto connects to your smart locks and PMS to generate and share a unique passcode for each guest and stay. That way, there are no keys to lose or hand over, and guests can enjoy a smooth, contactless check-in experience.
Operto also integrates with noise monitoring devices so you can intensively keep a check on your properties. If the noise level exceeds a certain threshold for a period of time, you receive an automated alert so you can address the problem before it gets out of hand.
And for absent-minded guests who leave the lights or heating on when they leave, Operto’s energy control solutions automatically kick in based on check-in and check-out times—saving you money and improving the guest experience, too.
Key features
- Noise and occupancy monitoring
- Energy control
- Smart locks with keyless entry
Why it stands out
If you manage your portfolio remotely, you have to rely on guests and their neighbors for reports on what’s happening at your property. But with Operto, you can monitor occupancy, noise levels, and energy consumption from a centralized dashboard. You can also adjust the temperature or switch off lights without having to visit the property, saving you time and money.
Interested in software similar to Operto? One of the following providers may interest you:
- NoiseAware
- Minut
- PointCentral
Pricing
Operto doesn’t publish their pricing information online.
Dormakaba: Keyless entry and remote access control
Oracode Live is a remote access control system that gives guests autonomy.
Overview
Dormakaba provides web-based remote access systems to short-term rental businesses with pushbutton smart locks. Not only does this give you greater visibility and control over access permissions and unit status, it allows you to automate the check-in process.
For example, using Dormakaba’s integration with Breezeway, you can give your guests independence throughout their stay by sharing with them a unique access code for their stay, which also saves you the job of meeting and welcoming guests in person.
Key features
- Automated generation of unique access codes for each stay
- Code sent via SMS or email to smart device
- Access management from a centralized location
- Real-time notifications and alerts
Why it stands out
With Dormakaba’s Oracode Keyless Access and Live, you can centralize keyless access management, as you provide temporary access to guests, cleaners, and maintenance workers.
Used alongside Breezeway’s communication tools, you can streamline how you manage access and security, automate messages to guests and staff to share their access credentials, and use the check-out information the smart locks provide to alert your team as soon as a property is available for cleaning.
Pricing
Pricing will depend on the type of access control solution you want and the hardware you choose to install.
Transform your business with the right vacation rental management software
Running a property management company is often overwhelming and stressful. But using the right technology can be a game changer that saves you from the chaos of day-to-day operations and helps you increase revenue with hands-off solutions.
This goes beyond saving time and simplifying tasks—the right tools help you deliver excellence across all your services as you grow your business.
The key to success lies in choosing great software solutions that seamlessly connect with each other. Because when your tools work together harmoniously, you reap the benefits of a powerful tech stack that optimizes your processes, reduces your workload, and drives profitability.
That’s why it’s essential to look for complete solutions like Breezeway that manage the most challenging aspects of your business and help you enhance the guest experience.
| “I can rest easy knowing that my operations are running smoothly with Breezeway, and that I finally have data to help drive continued improvements. Using separate technology that sits on top of our PMS system has allowed us to excel at our property care and diversify our vendor risk." -Drew Liebentritt, Director of Operations at HolidayRental.com |
| Eliminate missed cleans and reduce your workload |
Frequently asked questions about the best short-term rental management software
How do I manage a short-term rental from afar?
You can remotely manage a short-term rental with:
- Cleaning management tools for a clear overview of property status, stock, and inventory
- Messaging tools to coordinate guests and cleaning crews
- A reliable local team of cleaners and maintenance staff
- Smart tech, like door lock codes, noise monitors, and energy control systems
- Insightful guides for guests (with automated messaging and a digital guide book)
How do I make my short-term rental stand out?
You can make your short-term rental property stand out with a combination of strategies. Here are some of the most popular ways:
- Develop an instantly-recognizable brand and market across popular and niche booking sites
- Highlight what differentiates your properties from the competition
- Maintain an excellent guest experience with pristine rentals, excellent amenities, and quick responses to messages
- Build trust and loyalty with guests to encourage five-star reviews and referrals