Looking for something better than Guesty to help you manage your vacation rental business? Lucky for you, several easy-to-use Guesty alternatives offer competitive pricing alongside business-boosting integrations and features.
To help you choose the best vacation rental software options for your needs, we’ve compared five Guesty alternatives, including everything from their key features and pricing to which types of vacation rental owners and property managers each is best for.
Who is Guesty best for?
Guesty is a property management solution that can help manage daily operations and multi-channel online reservations. However, it might not be suitable for everyone due to the complexity of the software, pricing, and other factors.
For instance, features such as a direct booking widget and marketplace apps are only available with a pricier Guesty Pro subscription.
Perhaps most notably, Guesty lacks free onboarding support for its basic plan and charges even premium customers for these sessions—something generally included with other vacation rental software.
Guesty plans
Previously, Guesty used two separate apps to target different customers—larger property management companies and hosts with three or fewer properties. At the beginning of 2024, however, they introduced Guesty Lite, aimed at owners with one to three listings, alongside their Pro and Enterprise plans.
Guesty pricing
Guesty Lite currently costs $27 per month for US-based customers. Otherwise, Guesty doesn’t publish much about its pricing, but they do charge an onboarding fee for their Lite plan, which isn’t the case for alternatives like Lodgify or Little Hotelier.
If you have more than three properties and, therefore, don’t qualify for Guesty Lite, you have to reach out to request a quote for their Pro or Enterprise plan.
Guesty trial
While Guesty does offer a 14-day free trial for their Lite plan, they currently do not extend this opportunity to their premium plans. This means that while you can request a demo, a hands-on experience with their more robust options is unavailable without purchase.
In contrast, Lodgify, a leading alternative to Guesty, offers three unique methods to test its software, including a…
- Free 7-day trial
- Product demo with a specialized sales consultant
- Demo account
With the demo account, for example, you gain access to an account already populated with data, such as bookings and properties. This gives you a realistic glimpse into the backend of a functioning vacation rental business.
Other Guesty alternatives like Streamline and Hospitable also offer free trial periods and demos.
Why do customers switch from Guesty?
Choosing the right vacation rental software often comes down to usability, customer support, and effective integrations with popular platforms like Vrbo. Reviews on trusted sites like Capterra show that Guesty alternatives consistently score higher in these areas.
Several users have noted issues with Guesty’s customer support, describing it as virtually non-existent. Customers also complain about the lack of direct relationships with major channels (mainly Vrbo, Airbnb, and Booking.com) and price automation functionalities.
Users have reported problems with prices not syncing, random date blocks, and incorrect income reporting. This forced one host to have to constantly check their calendar and adjust pricing manually—talk about a nightmare.
Double bookings have also been a recurring problem, with one customer noting that the issue negatively impacted guest experience and resulted in issues with investors.
Top 5 Guesty alternatives
Choosing the right Guesty alternative mostly comes down to how large your vacation rental business is, which features are most important to you, and how you hope to scale in the future.
To help you make the right choice, we’ve compiled a list of the top five Guesty alternatives, highlighting their key features, pricing, and other relevant details.
Remember, the best choice is one that not only meets your needs today but can also accommodate your business as it grows and evolves.
1. Lodgify
Lodgify is a comprehensive vacation rental software that empowers property owners and managers to efficiently manage and expand their vacation rental businesses.
It’s recognized as one of the leading Guesty alternatives, offering easy-to-use property management features, powerful automation capabilities, and a direct booking engine that integrates directly into existing websites.
Moreover, it’s among the most robust, cost-effective solutions, especially compared to Guesty’s pricing.
Lodgify key features
- Comprehensive property management solution: Lodgify is an all-in-one vacation rental property management tool offering clear pricing and plans. No need for expensive add-ons to access the essential features of the software.
- Channel management: Automatically synchronize your property listings from platforms like Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and Google Vacation Rentals with your property management system. This ensures instant updates across all channels, avoids double bookings, and allows rate automation, margin markups, and personalized quotes.
- Automation capabilities: Reduce your workload, streamline your operations, and cut down on repetitive tasks by automating everything from emails and tasks to guest communication. A unified inbox brings all messages into one place, while an advanced AI Assistant messaging tool simplifies communication.
- Website builder with free domain: Lodgify offers professional, mobile-friendly vacation rental website templates that come with a free, customizable domain and an integrated booking engine for direct bookings and credit card payments.
- Booking widget: If you already have a website on WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, or another CMS, you can integrate Lodgify’s booking widget to let your guests book properties directly on your existing site.
- Free onboarding: Unlike some Guesty and other competitors that charge for onboarding, Lodgify provides free, personalized onboarding. A specialist will help you set up your account, integrate your listings, and guide you through all the features.
- 24/7 multilingual customer support: Benefit from 24/7 support in five different languages via email, phone, or chat whenever you have inquiries or problems.
- Property management modules: Manage and automate property management-specific tasks like cleaning and task management while also accessing sophisticated analytics and reporting tools.
- User management and permissions: Do you manage check-in agents, cleaning staff, and a whole property management team? Assign roles to each team member and control what they can view or do on the platform.
- Mobile application: The Lodgify mobile app allows you to manage bookings, schedules, employee tasks, and guest communications from anywhere. The easy-to-use dashboard offers a straightforward overview of upcoming reservations and guest details and enables direct communication with guests via WhatsApp or your integrated inbox.
Lodgify pricing
Starting at just $15 per month for a single property and a 1.9% booking fee, Lodgify’s two-year plans position it as one of the most cost-effective Guesty alternatives, especially when compared to Guesty Lite, which is $27 per month for similar features.
The Professional and Ultimate plans, which are favored by property managers for their sophisticated features such as property management modules and advanced owner management, do not charge a booking fee. These plans start at $43 and $55 per month, respectively, for those subscribing for two years.
As your business grows, Lodgify’s pricing scales according to the number of rentals you manage. You can try Lodgify free for seven days to see if it’s the right fit for you.
2. Smoobu
Smoobu positions itself as a property management software primarily serving the European market.
While it offers advanced features, you pay more for those features. It’s one of the pricier alternatives to Guesty, especially considering the basic plan lacks features like domain setup and prioritized customer support, functionalities that other basic plans on the market offer.
Smoobu key features
- Channel manager: Like all of the other best Guesty alternatives, Smoobu syncs reservations across all linked booking platforms, including Airbnb and Booking.com, and allows direct bookings.
- Reservations: Smoobu’s reservation dashboard includes a calendar with booking information, guest details, and special requests.
- Direct bookings: Similar to Lodgify, you can incorporate the booking engine or calendar into your existing third-party website. However, you cannot customize this unless you upgrade to their Team plan.
- Centralized Inbox: Smoobu consolidates messages from popular vacation rental sites into one inbox, providing a streamlined communication process.
- Integrations: Smoobu supports integrations with tools like Chekin, Charge Automation, and RemoteLock, much like other alternatives.
Smoobu pricing
Smoobu’s entry-level plan is free but lacks essential features like a vacation rental channel manager.
The cheapest paid plan starts at $28.16 monthly for one property when paid annually.
However, for access to advanced features, including customizing your booking system and setting up your domain (both crucial features any great vacation rental property management software should have), you’ll need to shell out $193.24 per month for one property.
3. Hostfully
Hostfully is an alternative to Guesty with strengths the latter doesn’t have, such as its guest guidebooks and robust communication features.
Overall, it’s more costly for hosts with fewer properties than Guesty and Guesty alternatives. That said, it does offer unique integrations that could be beneficial for other types of vacation rental businesses or property managers.
Hostfully key features
- Hostfully Open API: Hostfully advertises that it includes “full API sync with all channels,” but its pricing page currently shows that feature is only available for users with a Premium plan (i.e., over 20 listings).
- Booking pipeline: The platform’s comprehensive booking pipeline offers a quick overview of confirmed bookings and lead statuses, complete with tools for guest workflow automation. However, note that all listings created for Airbnb are automatically set to “Instant Book,” which can be inconvenient for some hosts managing direct bookings, too.
- Task management: Hostfully offers various task management features, including catering and activity management, both of which Guesty doesn’t currently support.
- Unified inbox: Access a unified inbox and automated guest messaging system to enhance communication efficiency. Note that Hostfully cannot accept messages via WhatsApp, though, a feature that a few other Guesty alternatives do have.
- Direct bookings: Hosftully offers the ability to accept direct bookings and/or an inventory widget that integrates seamlessly with your website. However, managing a direct booking site through Hostfully can be complex for non-technical users and customization capabilities are limited.
Hostfully pricing
Hostfully’s pricing structure mainly depends on the number of properties you manage.
If you have one to four properties, the Starter plan is the most affordable option at $109 per month, although they also charge a one-time implementation fee of $600 (which applies to other plans as well).
In general, Hostfully’s subscription plans are somewhat limited by your number of listings. For instance, if you only have three properties, you won’t be able to opt for the Pro, Pro Plus, or Premium plans, which makes the platform less flexible than other alternatives.
4. Hospitable
Hospitable is designed primarily for independent property owners and small agencies overseeing short-term rentals.
While its features offer basic vacation rental management capabilities like the ability to sync your calendars and assign tasks, its one-size-fits-all pricing structure can be limiting.
Hospitable key features
- Smart messaging: AI tools have quickly become a norm in the vacation rental property management software sector, and Hospitable is among many Guesty alternatives that let you leverage AI to automate responses to frequent queries.
- Unified inbox: Hospitable’s unified inbox lets you synchronize messages across various OTAs. It’s unclear whether you can sync it with your direct booking website, though.
- Multichannel management: Like most other Guesty alternatives, Hospitable allows you to synchronize with leading platforms such as Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, and others.
- Direct booking: You can either create your own website or connect Hospitable’s widget to your existing one. Keep in mind that unlike Guesty alternatives like Lodgify or Smoobu, premium payment integrations are currently unavailable on Hospitable for hosts outside the U.S., Australia, or the U.K.
Hospitable Pricing
Hospitable’s plans start at $40 monthly, with costs rising as more properties are included.
5. Little Hotelier
Little Hotelier, powered by SiteMinder technology, is a property management system crafted explicitly for small accommodation properties like boutique hotels.
If you’re drawn to Guesty Lite but want a solution with a more hotel-centric focus, Little Hotelier might be a good alternative, as it includes features like metasearch bookings via Google Hotel Ads and housekeeping reports.
Little Hotelier key features
- Front Desk: The reservation system is called “Front Desk” and boasts a drag-and-drop reservation calendar, personalized guest emails, housekeeping reports, and more. This caters to the specific needs of hotels, offering a unique twist to the booking and reservation systems found in other Guesty alternatives.
- Dedicated support: Unlike Guesty, known for its limited support or personalized onboarding, Little Hotelier provides access to support and online learning resources. However, it’s worth noting that this comes at an additional cost, similar to Guesty’s.
- Google Hotel Ads: Included in their monthly plan (but with a caveat of potential extra fees) is the ability to get metasearch bookings through Google Hotel Ads. This service lets your hotel appear in Google search results when potential guests are looking for accommodations.
- Channel manager: With hundreds of booking channels and the ability to update rooms and rates across all channels, Little Hotelier is a valuable tool for those managing individual rooms rather than entire properties.
Little Hotelier pricing
Little Hotelier seems to have done away with its Basic plan, which means there’s currently only one pricing structure that varies based on the number of properties you have.
For example, for hosts managing one to five properties, the cost is €109, while those with six to ten properties pay €119. They also note that there “may be setup fees” but don’t clarify what those are.
Choosing the right Guesty alternative
Choosing a vacation rental PMS isn’t just about ticking off features from a list—it’s about finding something that fits with your team, your portfolio, and where you’re headed with your vacation rental business.
Among the sea of options, Lodgify stands out as a top pick, ready to adapt to your needs and grow with you.
Try Lodgify with a free 7-day trial, or get a personalized product demo. It’s the best way to see if it feels right for you.