In an era where the vacation rental market is booming and competition is fierce, having the right software solution can make the difference between success and falling behind. Both Lodgify and Hostaway offer a comprehensive suite of tools designed to simplify the management of your vacation rental properties. From handling reservations and automating guest communication to streamlining distribution across multiple booking channels, both platforms promise to revolutionize the way you run your business.
But how do Lodgify and Hostaway stack up against each other? Whether you’re a seasoned professional or just dipping your toes into the vacation rental industry, our in-depth comparison will equip you with the knowledge to make a decision that aligns with your unique needs and goals.
Who is it for?
Lodgify
Whether you own a single vacation property or manage a portfolio of 30+ rentals, Lodgify is designed to cater to all types of vacation rental businesses. With its intuitive and user-friendly features, Lodgify empowers hosts to effortlessly manage their operations, all from one convenient app.
Hostaway
Hostaway is for more experienced property managers with 10 properties or more. They reject customers who only manage one property. It’s a more expensive and complex software solution than others on the market, so it’s not for those who want more lightweight software or looking for a hands-off, do-it-yourself platform.
How much does it cost?
Lodgify
Lodgify offers three cost-effective pricing plans, with the lowest one starting at an affordable $15 per month. This includes all the essential features needed to effectively and efficiently run your business, such as a channel manager, a bookable website, a reservation and payment system, and a property management system.
Lodgify’s Professional plan stands out as the most popular choice, providing access to more advanced features and starting at a modest $43 per month.
The Ultimate plan is tailored toward businesses requiring even more advanced features, such as reporting, cleaning, and task management tools. This plan starts at just $55 per month.
Lodgify’s subscription plans can be charged in U.S. Dollars (USD), Euros (EUR), or British Pounds (GBP).
Hostaway
Hostaway doesn’t provide much transparency regarding its pricing. Each customer’s plan is dependent on their specific needs. However, the average subscription starts at $50 per property per month, making it one of the most expensive on the market.
What are the main differences?
Website builder
Lodgify
Lodgify’s website builder tool is well-known in the industry for its user-friendly interface and customizable templates. With just a few clicks, users can create their own bookable website under their desired domain (www.yourwebsite.com) in less than five minutes without requiring any technical expertise.
What sets Lodgify apart is that its websites are optimized for SEO, resulting in an average of 40% of bookings being made directly by customers. Additionally, the website builder enables you to personalize your website, add widgets, and create as many pages as you want—including pages with local attractions or content that will help you rank even higher in search results.
For users who already have a website created using WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, or any other content management system (CMS), Lodgify offers seamless integration. By embedding the Lodgify booking widget, guests can now book properties directly on their website, even if it was previously not equipped for bookings.
Hostaway
Hostaway provides a simple website builder that allows you to accept direct bookings for your listings. Although it is sufficient for most needs, Hostaway’s website builder is more basic and offers fewer templates and customization options than Lodgify.
Furthermore, Hostaway does not provide its users with their desired domain name. Users wishing to use a specific domain name will need to register and purchase it separately through an external provider.
Onboarding
Lodgify
Every customer receives a free, personalized onboarding experience. An expert from Lodgify carefully evaluates the unique requirements of each user’s business and collaborates with them to establish their account, integrate their listings, and provide comprehensive guidance on utilizing all the available features. Although thorough, it’s a quick and simple process.
Hostaway
Hostaway offers users a personalized but lengthy onboarding process for a fee of $500, as confirmed by their customer support. Currently, it takes between three to five weeks for users to complete the onboarding process, which is comprehensive due to the complexity of the software.
Channel manager
Lodgify
With the channel manager, users have the ability to connect with and synchronize listings across all OTAs. Lodgify has established a two-way API connection with major platforms like Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and Expedia. This integration enables seamless synchronization of calendars, rates, bookings, and property data in real-time.
Moreover, Lodgify offers the flexibility to connect users with any alternative or local channels through iCal integration.
Hostaway
Hostaway offers a two-way API calendar sync for Booking.com and allows you to distribute your properties on Vrbo, Airbnb, Expedia, and many other channels, including Marriott Homes and Villas.
However, existing listings can only be imported from Airbnb, meaning that only these can be synchronized automatically with Hostaway.
If you have your property listed on other platforms like Vrbo or Booking.com, your calendars, and reservations will not be synchronized, and you will have to apply all changes manually in each of those platforms, including Hostaway.
Property management
Lodgify
Lodgify’s property management system comes with an array of top tools and features that meet the needs of all business sizes. With Lodgify, users can easily manage bookings and communicate with staff and guests across various platforms from one centralized dashboard.
Subscribers to the Ultimate plan (ranging from $73/month for a monthly subscription to $55/month for a two-year subscription) can also take advantage of more advanced features. For example, the task assignment feature allows property managers to assign cleaning and maintenance tasks automatically, while the analytics and reporting tools provide users with invaluable insights into finances, website traffic, and other business performance metrics.
Furthermore, users can integrate their PMS with numerous tools through Lodgify’s marketplace, from dynamic pricing solutions and vacation rental insurance to guest turnover automation and unauthorized party prevention tools.
Hostaway
Hostaway also offers a comprehensive list of tools and features. However, these have been tailored towards larger and more experienced property managers and hosts.
Setting your rental rates
Lodgify
Lodgify’s rental payment system is versatile, accommodating a wide range of currencies and rates, making it convenient for users. It offers various pricing options to suit different needs, including per night, per week, per month, per weekday, per person, and seasonal pricing.
Hostaway
Hostaway does not provide automatic currency exchange, meaning that when you set day rates on multiple channels like Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, etc., the numerical values (e.g., 50, 70, 100, etc.) you input will remain the same across all channels, regardless of their respective currencies.
Therefore, if you set a price of 100 CAD, for example, it will display as 100 CAD on Airbnb and 100£ on Booking.com, without any currency conversion taking place.
Google Vacation Rentals
Lodgify
Lodgify is dedicated to empowering vacation rental owners and property managers by boosting their direct bookings. To achieve this, Lodgify provides the opportunity for hosts to seamlessly integrate their listings with Google’s innovative metasearch engine, Google Vacation Rentals (GVR), completely free of charge.
Hosts can list their Lodgify website through GVR, which will appear above all other organic searches, outranking even the most prominent OTAs. When guests discover a vacation rental listing on GVR and proceed to book, they will be directed to the host’s own website rather than a Lodgify page.
Hostaway
Hostaway has only recently added the ability to connect to Google. However, when a user’s listing appears on Google, the Hostaway logo is displayed instead of the customer’s own logo.
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. Users who sign up for the Lodgify Academy can learn how to attract more direct bookings, use social media as a marketing tool, take high-quality photos for their property listing, and more.
Hostaway
This service is not provided.
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.
Hostaway
There is no free trial option for Hostaway. Instead, users may pay for a trial or request a demo call. Hostaway says they don’t offer free trials because it takes between 2-8 hours to set up a user account.
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
Which vacation rental software should I use?
In conclusion, both Lodgify and Hostaway offer powerful features to simplify vacation rental management. Lodgify stands out with its user-friendly website builder and focuses on direct bookings, while Hostaway’s channel management and automation capabilities are of interest to larger vacation rental businesses.
Your choice ultimately depends on your specific needs, preferences, and business objectives. However, if you’re planning to connect your listings with more platforms than just Airbnb, offer rates in different currencies, or showcase your property on Google Vacation Rentals, Hostaway should not be your go-to choice, as they currently don’t offer any of these features. Lodgify would serve your needs far more efficiently.
We recommend exploring free trials, demo versions, and customer reviews to make an informed decision that aligns with your goals. Remember to consider value for money, integration options, customer support, and scalability factors to ensure your chosen solution can accommodate your growing vacation rental business.