Airbnb tools for managing multiple listings
Developer · Decatur, GA · Member since 2011 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
Airbnb tools for managing multiple listings
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Investor · Milpitas, CA · Member since 2015 · 278 posts · 155 votes
8yI started using something called Guesty. $500 on boarding fee, and 3% of bookings.
It was cheap, and it did the job. I think across the board, they are all ugly and have hard to use user interfaces. It's like corporate software stuck in the 90s.
I also looked at Streamline VRS and LiveRez, but they were pretty pricy, like $5000 to onboard.
I just found out about Tokeet recently, and would've tried it out.
79 Replies
- Investor · Milpitas, CA · Member since 2015 · 278 posts · 155 votes8y
I started using something called Guesty. $500 on boarding fee, and 3% of bookings.
It was cheap, and it did the job. I think across the board, they are all ugly and have hard to use user interfaces. It's like corporate software stuck in the 90s.
I also looked at Streamline VRS and LiveRez, but they were pretty pricy, like $5000 to onboard.
I just found out about Tokeet recently, and would've tried it out.
- Real Estate Agent · Sevierville, TN · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes8y
$500 to onboard plus 3%?? Maybe I'm just too cheap (and not busy enough) but can't see myself springing for something like that any time soon, not for the three listings I have, anyway - I'm sure it'd be more worthwhile if I had more listings. (I knew Guesty charged a percentage, didn't know about the onboarding fee. LOL I complain about VRBO's listing fee!)
I'm not currently using anything (aside from my Google Calendar) to assist, but I'm interested in hearing what people are using - I'd like to get a system up to automate most of my guest contacts.
- Branson, MO · Member since 2015 · 145 posts · 96 votes8y
Wow! That is steep.
Okay, I am going to earn my membership to this board then.
We use a program called Availability Online. The total for the program is $175 a year - that's it. Has iCal interface, seasonal rates, easy to use and even easier to get tech support. CC processing can be done yourself with either Stripe at 3% or PP for 1.75%
When our new program comes out next month, we will even be able to beat that price as we are going to semi partner with them to offer more to our subscribers.
(And no, I - specifically ME - am not making a dime off of it. I just love the company and think their service is next to best.)
http://availabilityonline.com - Investor · Milpitas, CA · Member since 2015 · 278 posts · 155 votes8y
@Julie McCoy, definitely, three listings is easy. Now ten, that's a different story.
@Michael Kugler, still waiting for your software! Excited to see what it is.
- Realtor and Investor · Scottsdale, AZ · Member since 2017 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes8y
So, if you are JUST talking about a CRM for managing contacts and even communications with the contacts, I just started using lessannoyingcrm.com. Yes. That is what it is called. lol.
It is AMAZING from what I have tested out so far. It is $10 per month after a free 30 day trial (no limited services during trial). It is very easy to do anything (user friendly) AND you get an emal address assigned to your CRM, so when you are communicating with your guests through whatever email program you use, you can BCC your CRM, and it will automatically put the email communication into their contact record. What a time saver for documenting communication in one place!! I added the CRM email as a contact within my email program so that all I have to do is type CRM, and it autopopulates. Equally, if you use gmail or yahoo, or any other number of emails, you can send emails directly from the CRM.
It will also email you every day to give you your task list, your events for the day and so forth. I just print this off and have my day already out in front of me.
It is VERY user friendly, and I haven't found a bad thing about it yet! It's just crazy simple and packed with goodness. Love it.
I have no affiliation with this company, and I receive nothing for telling you about it. :)
- Branson, MO · Member since 2015 · 145 posts · 96 votes8y
@Andrew Wong - at the time when I was speaking of it, we were in the middle of attorneys, CPAs, brokers and everything else and did not physically have the domain name. As I now own it and the wire transfers have went through - I can tell you the domain is Vacation.Rentals
I did not hyperlink that because the site is not live at this moment and we are working around the clock to develop it and it is in beta mode right now.
Give it another 3 weeks or so and we should be live. Thanks for asking.
And here, this will give you something to smile about in the meantime. Again - there is no site at this moment.
Vacation Rentals - Developer · Decatur, GA · Member since 2011 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes8y
I'm sure we'll see a lot of new players as the space grows. Here's another new player offering a suite of tools... $99/mo per listing.
Here's a company, myVR, that offers :
CENTRALIZED PROPERTY MANAGEMENT
Calendar, reservations, communications, and moreRESERVATIONS & PAYMENTS PROCESSING
Take bookings and payments online under your own brandWORKFLOW & EMAIL AUTOMATION
Automate inquiry responses, stay emails, reminders, and moreREPORTING & ANALYTICS
Track business-wide performance with our centralized reporting and analyticsBASIC CHANNEL MANAGEMENT (CALENDAR-ONLY)
Update calendars across top vacation rental sites via iCalADVANCED CHANNEL MANAGEMENT (FULL INTEGRATION)
Sync rates, property details, inquiries, and bookings (varies by channel)INTEGRATED WEBSITE
Add a mobile-ready, bookable template w/ blog or integrate third-party websitesEMAIL MARKETING
Integration with MailChimp or Constant ContactINCLUDES PREMIUM LISTINGS
Includes cost of HomeAway and TripAdvisor subscriptions. - Rental Property Investor · Jacksonville, FL · Member since 2016 · 155 posts · 68 votes8y
We manage 14 listings through a combination of Smartbnb and VReasy. They work for now, but as we expand we will probably develop our own software. The off the shelf products have some drawbacks at large scale (100+ units).
- Investor · Milpitas, CA · Member since 2015 · 278 posts · 155 votes8y
Originally posted by @Michael McKay:
We manage 14 listings through a combination of Smartbnb and VReasy. They work for now, but as we expand we will probably develop our own software. The off the shelf products have some drawbacks at large scale (100+ units).
What drawbacks have you noticed for software?
- Investor · Arvada, CO · Member since 2017 · 11 posts · 4 votes8yI’m currently using evolve to manage the listings and calendars. They charge 10%. Of each booking
- Developer · Decatur, GA · Member since 2011 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes8y
@Damian Solorzano That's a significant charge. Did you analyze some of other tools being mentioned for Airbnb and STR management? How did your arrive at Evolve being worth the high price?
@Michael McKay Why did you pick Smartbnb? Why two tools?
- Real Estate Broker · Chicago, IL · Member since 2013 · 6k+ posts · 5k+ votes8y
@Syed Lateef manages a bunch in Chicago, he may be able to chime in
Second City Real Estate4.821 Reviews - Rental Property Investor · Jacksonville, FL · Member since 2016 · 155 posts · 68 votes8y
@Andrew Wong There are two big drawbacks of all of the off the shelf software that is currently available:
- Lack of a true unified inbox that allows team members to to respond to guests on the same medium they reach out on (platform message, SMS, email, call). Guests should receive a response in the same way the reach out. E.g. from the same SMS number. A few of the platforms claim they do this, but it doesn't work well. I don't like the idea of having property managers communicate with guests from their cell phones. That becomes a single point of failure that can ruin a guests stay (think being locked out at 2 am and the property manager is asleep).
- Inability to assign multiple cleaning staff to a listing. I'd like to be able to assign 5 cleaners to a listing. If the first one doens't accept the job within an hour, it should automatically invite the next cleaner to the job until one accepts. VReasy kind of has the function, but it doesn't work well. Managing cleaning staff is easy now, but once we hit scale it becomes very time consuming.
There are a lot of other smaller drawbacks and features I'd like to see, but these are the two main ones.
@Rick BaggenstossSmartbnb has the ability to auto respond to messages on the Airbnb platform itself, as well as send time messages. Since one of Airbnb's factors in search rank is response time, this keeps our response time always under 30 seconds. It also reminds guests to check their email for check-in instructions from VR Easy, which saves us a lot of time sending these messages manually.
- Professional · Chicago, IL · Member since 2012 · 197 posts · 131 votes8y
Awesome thread.
SmartBNB is probably the best move I have done for my airbnb business. 90 percent of my communication is done by this software. It has saved me so much time and worries. The automated messages are essential to grow your business.
For pricing I switched from beyond pricing to price labs.
For am moving away from percentage of revenue pricing models to cost per listing pricing models as my airbnbs generate high revenues and the other software became expensive.
The only drawback for SmartBNB and price labs is that it's for airbnb only. I'd be nice if it did it for vrbo too.
Currently I manage 17 units in Chicago and growing
- Developer · Decatur, GA · Member since 2011 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes8y
@Andrew Wong Did you evaluate SmartBnb? Anyone evaluate SmartBnb and NOT like it?
- Investor · The worst town to live in, KS · Member since 2016 · 4k+ posts · 4k+ votes8y
I'm a dinosaur.
My calendar is a poster board with 22 horizontal lines. Each space between a line I write down an address of a property. I have 5 groups of 7 vertical lines. That represents 5 weeks. It's a 22 x 35 grid for each day for each property. I use a post it note to write down who is staying where and what company they work for. I mark an X on the day they pay and an X on the last day their rent is paid for. In between the X's I write down how many weeks they have stayed and how much they pay each week. I collect rent the day after an X.
- Developer · Decatur, GA · Member since 2011 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes8y
@Paul Sandhu That's a lot of post-it notes! Is your pricing tool equally sophisticated?
- Investor · The worst town to live in, KS · Member since 2016 · 4k+ posts · 4k+ votes8y
My pricing tool is the equivalent of restaurant that serves two items. Steak and potatoes or Hamburger and French fries.
My better houses with nice amenities are steak and potatoes. $200/week for each real bedroom in the house. No charge for the extra beds.
My basic houses with nothing fancy are hamburger and French fry. $175/week for each real bedroom in the house. No charge for the extra beds.
- Rental Property Investor · Jacksonville, FL · Member since 2016 · 155 posts · 68 votes8y
@Rick Baggenstoss the main downside to Smartbnb is that it only works on Airbnb. I also find their staff notifications a but limiting.
@Syed Lateef Price Labs can push pricing to VRBO/Homeway and other pricing platforms through your PMS. That's the main reason I'm experimenting with Price Labs and considering switching from Wheelhouse. I also like their minimum stay based on how far our a reservation is and orphan day function.
The way I have it setup, Price Labs pushes directly to Airbnb. For other channels, it pushes to VR Easy, which then pushes to other channels (in my case booking.com).
- Investor · Milpitas, CA · Member since 2015 · 278 posts · 155 votes8y
Originally posted by @Rick Baggenstoss:
@Andrew Wong Did you evaluate SmartBnb? Anyone evaluate SmartBnb and NOT like it?
I evaluated SmartBnb, I really liked it. But it's not a property management system.
My issue was that I was bringing on someone to my team to help me, someone who wasn't there from the start. My partner and I had everything on Google Drive in various docs and excel sheets. But for someone new, having to decipher everything and try to realize what is happening, we needed some software to help with that.
SmartBnb helped with messaging, but I needed a place to centralize messaging across platforms, keep track of tasks, ability to modify listings in one place, amongst other things. Pretty much consolidate information in an easy way in one place for people to look.
- Property Manager · Aurora, CO · Member since 2014 · 221 posts · 210 votes8y
I wrote the following post on another forum in 2016. Since then, I've begun using MyVR to handle communications for my own properties, but I still use the process described below for my clients' properties.
===========================================================
I use Gmail accounts to manage all emails for my vacation rental properties as well as those of my clients. I was using a Gmail app called "Boomerang" to schedule future emails, but was limited to 10 "credits" per month per Gmail account.
Searching for ways to streamline my process and become more efficient with my time, I wanted to find a way to combine all of the separate Gmail accounts into one (so that I didn't have to log into many different Gmail accounts.) But the limit of 10 Boomerang credits always created an obstacle because I would need to schedule many more than 10 future emails if I was to work from one Gmail account.
This is when I found the "Gmail Scheduler", a Chrome extension created by Amit Agarwal.This handy tool allows me to schedule an unlimited number of emails to be sent in the future. Now I can handle all of my VR properties and those of my clients from one Gmail account and won't be constrained by limited credits to schedule future emails.
I simply create the email that I want to send in my Gmail account and then close the draft after it has been saved.
Then I use the Gmail Scheduler to "Fetch" the drafts onto the Scheduler spreadsheet. I add details about when the message should be sent ("Once" or repeat messages) and pick a date for the message to be sent. That is all there is to it!
The Gmail Scheduler Premium (unlimited messages) is not free, but costs a one-time fee of $39.99. I felt it was worth the price to gain the efficiency I was looking for, and I've been very pleased with it ever since I've started using it.====================================================================
The great part about this tool is that it only cost me a one-time fee of $39.99 for unlimited use.
The drawback is that I still have to create each email that I want to schedule manually. But per reservation it only takes a few minutes to do, and once the emails are scheduled I don't have to keep revisiting the reservation to take care of that task.
Gmail has the ability to create canned messages so that when you want to schedule an email all you need to do is create the email, insert and if necessary personalize your canned message, add the recipients' email address and then close the draft when it is constructed the way you want.
But there is another tool that I've found that expedites the process even further. It is well worth the annual fee ($39.96). "TextExpander" allows me to create "snippets" (or canned messages) and quickly insert them into a text function by hitting a few keystrokes that have been assigned to the message. For instance, by typing 3 characters (vjr) my name instantly populates: Val Rogers. This tool helps by making the creation of the emails for the Gmail Scheduler very fast and easy.
These tools are great efficiency tools for someone with 1 - ? listings, but at some point more automation will be required and I think that is when some of these other options that have been mentioned might be good ones to investigate.
- Santa Clara, CA · Member since 2016 · 7 posts · 4 votes8y
Originally posted by @Andrew Wong:
Originally posted by @Rick Baggenstoss:
@Andrew Wong Did you evaluate SmartBnb? Anyone evaluate SmartBnb and NOT like it?
I evaluated SmartBnb, I really liked it. But it's not a property management system.
My issue was that I was bringing on someone to my team to help me, someone who wasn't there from the start. My partner and I had everything on Google Drive in various docs and excel sheets. But for someone new, having to decipher everything and try to realize what is happening, we needed some software to help with that.
SmartBnb helped with messaging, but I needed a place to centralize messaging across platforms, keep track of tasks, ability to modify listings in one place, amongst other things. Pretty much consolidate information in an easy way in one place for people to look.
@Andrew Wong So what software packages are you using to help with onboarding new employees, centralize messaging, keep track of tasks, modify listings, etc.?
- Investor · Milpitas, CA · Member since 2015 · 278 posts · 155 votes8y
Originally posted by @Stephen Stefanini:
Originally posted by @Andrew Wong:
Originally posted by @Rick Baggenstoss:
@Andrew Wong Did you evaluate SmartBnb? Anyone evaluate SmartBnb and NOT like it?
I evaluated SmartBnb, I really liked it. But it's not a property management system.
My issue was that I was bringing on someone to my team to help me, someone who wasn't there from the start. My partner and I had everything on Google Drive in various docs and excel sheets. But for someone new, having to decipher everything and try to realize what is happening, we needed some software to help with that.
SmartBnb helped with messaging, but I needed a place to centralize messaging across platforms, keep track of tasks, ability to modify listings in one place, amongst other things. Pretty much consolidate information in an easy way in one place for people to look.
@Andrew Wong So what software packages are you using to help with onboarding new employees, centralize messaging, keep track of tasks, modify listings, etc.?
I'm using Guesty.
- Rental Property Investor · Denver, CO · Member since 2017 · 179 posts · 208 votes8y
@Rick Baggenstoss Not sure if anyone on this thread is actually using Tokeet but I do and can speak to it. I second everyone on Smartbnb, by far the best and significantly cheaper than some of the other automation tools I've used such as AirGMS. It would be great if it worked on all platforms but for a bootstrapped startup I don't anticipate that feature coming anytime soon.
Tokeet's message automation definitely leaves something to be desired but it does work as advertised and gets the job done. Sending invoices and guest rental agreements is incredibly fast once you have it set up. I personally don't want to give away 3% of my rental revenue revenue to Guesty, or 10% of it to Evolve, so I have made do with Tokeet and Smartbnb to "manage" my rentals. Tokeet has no onboarding fee and their pricing model is set up to scale. Support is pretty good and I'm going to stick with them for now until something better comes out. Another local company in town uses Lodgix for their 100+ listings so I have to assume that it also works well.
Tokeet integrates with Slack, Mailchimp, and allegedly soon will integrate with Quickbooks. Their website tool is a bit crude for my taste but allows me to take direct bookings and market outside of Airbnb to save guests 10-20% on booking fees. Overall it is pretty powerful for what you pay for. I've done the demos on platforms that have $1500+ onboarding fees and I just don't see the major difference.
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