The competition among property management software providers is fierce in the ever-evolving landscape of vacation rentals. Whether you’re a seasoned host or just starting out, finding the right platform to streamline your operations and maximize your rental revenue is crucial.
Enter Lodgify and Hospitable, two dynamic players in the market, each vying to be the go-to solution for vacation rental owners and property managers.
To help you make the right choice for your business, we’ve analyzed them extensively, so you don’t have to.
Who is it for?
Lodgify
Lodgify is a versatile solution that caters to various vacation rental businesses, whether you manage a single property or oversee a portfolio of more than 30 rentals. It’s designed to provide hosts with an intuitive and user-friendly experience, enabling them to handle their operations effortlessly.
Hospitable
Hospitable caters primarily to smaller businesses, specifically independent landlords and smaller agencies. Consequently, its offerings and features are relatively simple in comparison to Lodgify and may prove to be a cause of dissatisfaction for larger short-term rental businesses.
Additionally, Hospitable’s starting price ($40/month) is the same for both one and two properties. So, it may not make sense for single property owners who are looking to get a better deal.
How much does it cost?
Lodgify
Lodgify provides a range of affordable pricing options designed to meet different budget needs. Pricing plans are structured in three tiers, with the most economical plan starting at a reasonable $15 per month. This plan includes all the necessary features essential for effectively managing your business, including a channel manager, a bookable website, a reservation and payment system, and a property management system.
The Professional plan offered by Lodgify is highly popular among users, as it offers access to more advanced features. Starting at a modest $43 per month, this plan provides additional features to enhance your business operations.
For businesses seeking even more extensive features, Lodgify offers the Ultimate plan. This plan is tailored to meet the requirements of businesses that need accounting, cleaning, and task management tools, among others. The Ultimate plan starts at an affordable price of $55 per month, providing a comprehensive solution for such businesses.
Hospitable
Hospitable starts at €29 a month for property managers with one property and €39 a month for those with two properties, increasing in cost as more properties are added.
What are the main differences?
Website builder and booking widget
Lodgify
Lodgify is renowned for its user-friendly interface and customizable templates, making it a popular choice for website building. It enables users to effortlessly create their own bookable website with their preferred domain (e.g., www.yourwebsite.com) in less than 5 minutes, regardless of technical expertise. One standout feature of Lodgify is its focus on SEO optimization, which has resulted in approximately 40% of bookings being made directly by customers.
For individuals who already have a website using platforms like WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, or any other content management system (CMS), Lodgify offers seamless integration. Through the incorporation of the Lodgify booking widget, guests can now conveniently make property reservations directly on their website, even if it lacked previous booking capabilities.
Hospitable
Hospitable offers users the ability to create their own direct bookable website. However, it comes with fewer options for customization.
Furthermore, users have to pay an additional cost for this feature, and there are two plans to choose between, Direct Basic and Direct Premium.
Direct Basic costs $8 per month per property for one to nine properties and, due to the minimal support on offer, is only suitable for those who are accustomed to handling direct bookings and prefer a self-reliant approach. Users are responsible for connecting their own Stripe account, covering payment processing fees, chargebacks, and lodging tax rates for all their properties, and will have to cope without integrated solutions for guest vetting and damage protection.
Direct Premium costs $5 per property per month for one to nine properties, on top of a guest service fee of 6% and $10 on each booking. Despite offering more support to Premium users, customization is still limited, as are the options for further integrations.
Soon (although there is no set date), Hospitable is set to release Direct Lite, designed for customers whose properties are located in regions where Stripe isn’t available.
Property management
Lodgify
Lodgify offers a comprehensive property management system that caters to businesses of all sizes, providing a wide range of tools and features. Through Lodgify, users can conveniently handle bookings and communication with both staff and guests across multiple platforms, all from a centralized dashboard.
Moreover, the task assignment functionality enables property managers to automatically assign cleaning and maintenance tasks, while the analytics and reporting tools offer valuable insights into financial aspects, website traffic, and other key performance metrics.
Additionally, users have the option to integrate their PMS with various tools available in Lodgify’s marketplace. These include dynamic pricing solutions, vacation rental insurance, guest turnover automation, and tools for preventing unauthorized parties.
Hospitable
Hospitable also offers an effective property management system; however, it is specially designed for much smaller property managers who require fewer features.
Channel manager
Lodgify
The channel manager provided by Lodgify empowers users to establish connections and synchronize their listings across various OTAs. Lodgify has successfully developed a two-way API connection with prominent platforms such as Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and Expedia. This integration ensures the smooth real-time synchronization of calendars, rates, bookings, and property data.
Additionally, Lodgify offers users the flexibility to connect with alternative or local channels by utilizing iCal integration.
Hospitable
Hospitable’s channel manager allows users to connect their listings and manage their bookings from one centralized calendar. However, users can only connect to Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, Google Vacation Rentals, Homelidays, bookabach, Abritel, FeWo-direkt, and stayz.
Accounting
Lodgify
With Lodgify’s accounting tools on the Ultimate plan, you can easily evaluate the financial performance of your vacation rental business by assessing its earnings and expenditures. You can compile the overall revenue generated from your properties and listings and apply filters to extract data for bookings during specific timeframes.
Users can also effortlessly monitor payments made by both employees and guests, including both completed and pending transactions.
Furthermore, you can generate invoices and statements, automatically count revenue and costs, and send payments and invoices to staff.
Hospitable
Hospitable currently offers limited accounting features. Users can only export financial and operational data.
Financial control
Lodgify
Users are in complete control of their finances, with all payments processed immediately and directly. In addition, users can choose when to process and request payments.
Hospitable
Hospitable acts as the Merchant of Record, meaning users aren’t in complete control of their booking revenue and will only receive payment for their bookings at least 24 hours after check-in.
In the event that a guest makes a reservation within four days of their intended check-in, there is a possibility that the payment won’t be processed by the time guests arrive.
Customer support
Lodgify
Lodgify offers round-the-clock customer support to all its subscribers and trial users, providing them with various benefits. Users can access assistance through phone, chat, or email and receive prompt responses from the dedicated support team.
The Contact page conveniently displays telephone numbers for the Customer Success team in multiple regions, such as the U.S. & Canada, the U.K., Spain, and Italy.
Hospitable
Unlike Lodgify, Hospitable has no direct contact number for its support team, so all communication takes place through email or online chat.
Mobile app
Lodgify
Hosts can manage their business on the go on the recently updated mobile app, which is available for Android and iOS. Users on the Ultimate plan can also download the Lodgify PM app to connect with cleaners, check-in agents, and rental managers. Plus, guests can download the Lodgify Guest app to easily access host resources, such as guidebooks, WiFi passwords, check-in details, etc.
The Lodgify mobile app is rated 4.9 stars on Google Play and 3.6 stars on the App Store.
Hospitable
Hospitable’s mobile offers similar features to their desktop app.
The Hospitable mobile app is rated 3.7 stars on Google Play and 3 stars on the App Store.
Preferred Partner awards
Lodgify
Lodgify prides itself on being recognized as one of the top channel managers in the market. Our outstanding reputation is reinforced by numerous badges, awards, and the esteemed status of being a Preferred Software Partner with Airbnb and an Elite Partner with Vrbo.
Hospitable
Hospitable hasn’t been recognized as a connectivity partner for either Airbnb or Vrbo.
Vacation rental courses
Lodgify
Lodgify provides free vacation rental courses to help and educate users on everything they need to know to start and grow a successful vacation rental business. By enrolling in the Lodgify Academy, users can learn about enhancing direct bookings, leveraging social media for marketing, and capturing quality photographs to showcase their property.
Hospitable
This service is not provided, but they do have some webinars and helpful videos uploaded to their YouTube page.
What do customers say about Lodgify?
Finding reliable and unbiased information while researching products online can pose a challenge for prospective customers. As a result, a significant majority of consumers, approximately 93%, state that online reviews have a significant impact on their purchasing choices.
When it comes to vacation rental owners and property managers, making informed decisions is crucial for the success of their business. Users can explore and compare Lodgify online, along with assessing the opinions of Lodgify customers. Here’s where to compare us:
Trustpilot
What people on Trustpilot are saying about Lodgify:
“Using Lodgify has been an awesome and easy experience from start to finish. Not only is the platform intuitive and really easy to use, they offer an onboarding service that teaches you how to make the most of the Service. Sara (our onboarding team member) could not have been more helpful, really supported us to make sense of the platform and how to get it to do most of the hardwork so we can focus on other things. Highly recommend to anyone managing short term holiday lets.”
-Charlie H.
Lodgify rating: 4.6
Capterra
What people on Capterra are saying about Lodgify:
“We have no doubt that we chose well. The price is fair, service is excellent, the software is easy to use and it is a company that is always innovating and improving.”
-Djamila D.
Lodgify rating: 4.5
GetApp
What people on GetApp are saying about Lodgify:
“The best feature about this product is the seamless-ness between third party software and my own website. It has all the information from everywhere in one place.”
-Tara S.
Lodgify rating: 4.5
G2.com
What people on G2.com are saying about Lodgify:
“We went from being held back by AirBNB to in control of our own bookings! Occasionally, AirBNB would not authorize a booking or hold our account until an issue was resolved. Now we can offer direct bookings and VRBO booking options to our best guests. We love the ease of use of Lodgify, and how their customer support made it easy to implement both direct bookings and VRBO integration. We now only use Lodgify’s interface every day…”
-Steven W.
Lodgify rating: 4.0
Can I try it before I buy?
Lodgify
Property managers have the opportunity to explore Lodgify at no cost with a 7-day trial, which can be extended upon request. They can also gain insights into Lodgify’s functionality by scheduling a personalized demo call with a knowledgeable product expert. During the demo, the expert will provide a comprehensive overview of all the features and recommend the most suitable subscription plan.
For immediate testing without the need to input rental or user data, Lodgify offers access to a pre-configured test demo account.
Hospitable
Hospitable offers a free 14-day trial. There is no option for a personalized call or a demo account.
Which vacation rental software should I use?
If you’re looking for top-notch vacation rental software solutions, Lodgify and Hospitable are two platforms offering exceptional features, each with unique strengths. But there are key differences that set them apart.
Lodgify is visually appealing and provides an excellent user experience. With its comprehensive property management features and integrations, as well as an unbeatable website builder, Lodgify stands out from the crowd. Boosting direct bookings has never been easier!
On the other hand, Hospitable also offers a streamlined and user-friendly experience. While it may lack the extensive customer support of Lodgify, Hospitable remains a solid choice for small businesses with a minimum of two properties. However, it’s important to note that Hospitable can be a bit pricey depending on your business model. Additionally, it has limited features and integrations compared to its competitors.
So, how do you choose between these two platforms? Well, it all comes down to your specific needs, budget, and priorities. If you’re on the lookout for an affordable property management system (PMS) with an efficient channel manager and booking system that will help you grow and scale your business, Lodgify is the perfect fit.
Before making your final decision, take some time to assess your requirements. Consider factors like features, pricing, and value for money. To make things easier, we suggest exploring free trials, demo versions, and customer reviews. These valuable resources will provide valuable insights to aid your decision-making process.
Why not take Lodgify for a spin? Complete the form below and enjoy a free trial. Discover how Lodgify can revolutionize your vacation rental business today!