My STR Tech Stack

[Sherylyn Holden]

I'm a big proponent of not over complicating your Short Term Rental (STR) business with "tech clutter". There are hundred of softwares, apps, and services aimed at STR hosts that claim to make hosting easy as 1-2-3. $10 a month here, $25 a month there, and the costs start to creep up. I did an audit of my tech stack and realized I was spending an extra $300 a month on useless subscriptions and tools I wasn't even using! Now I'm not some STR mogul, I have 5 short term rentals and 1 long term rental currently that we own so maybe I’m small potatoes. In any case, I want to share the tech stack I am using in 2026 after being in the STR business since 2019.

Property Management Software: Hospitable

This is your control room. It ensures all your calendars from all your listing platforms are synced to avoid double bookings, manages all communication in 1 spot, plus more. I was an early adopter of Hospitable (back when they were called Smartbnb!). I’ve seen the platform grow and improve and still thing its the BEST bang for your buck. Their prices have increased but so have their features which allowed me to cancel other subscriptions.

I’ve tried Hostfully and it was not as user friendly or intuitive and felt antiquated in the host userface and functionality plus it was way more expensive.

Dynamic Pricing Software: Hospitable again!

I used to use Pricelabs but since Hospitable added its own dynamic pricing I switched to them to reduce my monthly recurring expenses. It have no complaints with it but have only been using it for about 3 months.

Guidebooks: Notion

I used to use Hostfully and Guidey for digital guidebooks for my properties. It wasn’t a lot (maybe $35 a month) but I found my guests rarely used the guidebooks… They have a lot of cool features and show nearby attractions and such. Maybe its my location but most people travelling to my STRs didn’t need all this. I now use a Notion guidebook template and just share that link with my guests. Simple, free 1 page guidebook with the most important items.

Cleaning: Turno

Formerly Turnoverbnb. I love that I can get competing bids for my properties and see reviews for the cleaners. Cheapest doesn’t always mean best! But it syncs with Hospitable so all my cleanings are automatically sent to my cleaners. No manual scheduling.

Smartlocks: Schlage Encode

Trusted brand and syncs with Hospitable (see a trend?) to automatically create unique entry codes for my guests for their days of their stay only.

Security Cameras: Blink

Affordable monthly subscription plan. I have had issues with the batteries going out too frequently so may explore other options but I do have older models which may be less efficient

Noise Monitors: NoiseAware

Alerts me by text when noise levels are above a certain threshold for a certain timeframe so I can contact my guests and stop any neighbor noise complaints before they happen (I’ve only had noise issues 2-3 times in my entire hosting journey)

Smart Thermostat: Ecobee

Syncs with Hospitable to change the temperature to my presets when a guest checks out and before a new guest checks in. Saves on utilities!

Others: Quickbooks (Accounting), Simplisafe (Security System), Quo (Business Phone #), Google Workspace

[Andrew Steffens]

Solid stack!