igms Vs. Your Porter Vs. Smartbnb Vs. ?
Luke CarlPro Member
Rental Property Investor · Tennessee Florida · Member since 2016 · 4k+ posts · 5k+ votesFor Short Term Rental Rockstars!
I've been with igms for a while but it seems to be getting more and more glitchy.
Does anyone have experience with multiple channel managers? I'm leaning towards switching to YourPorter as per @Julie McCoy suggestion but I want to make sure it's worth the set up time.
THOUGHTS?
Thanks
Hey @Poteau Thomas that’s fair ask. @Luke Carl and I were chatting about the comparison spreadsheet already and while I have been reluctant to this point to put something out there that I then had to “support” by adding a bunch of other checklist items I don’t care about myself, perhaps it can serve as a starting point and help others that stumble on this little thread to compare the market options, since there does appear to be a quite a bit of confusion on what does what and for what price in order to simply decide for yourself the best fit.
So without further adieu and in the spirit that “sharing is caring” here you go!
Everyone keeps mentioning Airbnb and VRBO integration, but:
Which of these apps fully integrate with Booking.com & Flipkey too?
@Julie McCoy - keep us updated on Lodgix. We currently use Smartbnb for messaging, and Tokeet for PMS and channel distribution. There really is not one solution that does everything needed, that is why we use a few different products. There is some overlap, but different products excel at different things, like the auto-messaging from Smartbnb is the best in the industry. But they only integrate with Airbnb and VRBO. Tokeet pushes our products out to Booking.com and runs our direct booking website. Tokeet seems to have some other good features, but they charge extra for them. Like digital signatures on rental agreements, they charge an extra $100 per month for their @signatures add on. They have a pricing solution, but it is not as robust as pricelabs, and they charge more for it. We are currently working on making what we need with SignNow, for less than half that cost.
Task management is available on Smartbnb and Tokeet, but Breezeway is a much better product. When you are running 50+ units, you need to have great team manage. Now Breezeway is building an SMS messaging product that may become more useful to us in the future. Imagine if your guest gets auto texts that the maintenance tech is delayed 30 min in dropping off those extra towels requested! Breezeway also automatically created a COVID-19 cleaning checklist, and made it very easy to implement on all cleaning tasks assigned.
What is certain is that these companies will continue to innovate, and maybe someday there will be one that is the clear best choice. Until then, we all need to keep exploring new products, and pushing developers to improve faster!
@Benjamin Vail Yeah there’s certainly a lot of solutions out there that are really robust that I’m not even considering, because with my portfolio of <10 properties I don’t need them. For example, task management isn’t a thing I need because I have no employees! And my communication with my cleaners is about as easy as it gets. So I readily admit those things that are essential to some operators aren’t factoring into my analysis at all.
That said, I will come back with an update for Lodgix, though I don’t think I’ll start a trial just yet - I want to be able to put it through its paces, and I need bookings for that! lol Hopefully I’ll give it a shot in May sometime.
@Julie McCoy. Great information, thank you. Do you already have a Wordpress site or is that something you'd do while you're "waiting"?
@Nancy Bachety I don’t have a site yet but it’s definitely on the agenda. I’m open to recommendations if anyone knows a web designer who can create a bookable site!
While there's no one tool for everyone, keep in mind that most of the STR tools out there have a core set of capabilities in common which really should be considered the lowest common denominator for offering a product in this space. Things like automated messaging, unified inbox, calendar sync, ranking optimization, and direct booking. These capabilities exist on most of the major players in the space, with providers like SmartBnB offering differentiation through things like AI messaging or (in Porter's case) a truly mobile-first interface
@Julie McCoy +1 to hearing more on what you learn about Lodgix. While I'm always looking at options for improving my operations/tools, I also found some of the more comprehensive solutions like Beds24/BookingAutomation (same product, different name) ultimately got to 10k features by completely ignoring usability, which was not something I was willing to sacrifice. If you're one that likes a lot of options though, they do offer one of the most extensive channel manager lists, a WordPress plugin, and more integrations than you can shake a stick at, without (to my knowledge) charging additional percentage fees by channel, as Lodgix appears to be doing.
Having been one of those nuts that actually did build my own website, setup my own customer mailing list, and promote direct booking I will also be the first to admit it's not easy to keep a website of any kind in sync with your listing if it's not already integrated to one of the PM suites. Granted, for many of us here listings may well be set it and forget it, but in my competitive market I find small tweaks in listings, photos, and pricing over time can make a big difference in booking rates and search rank.
Also my experience is that most of the tools that offer WordPress plugins are using it mostly as a marketing ploy. Many of these are little more than a snippet of PHP code to create a webpage embed and additional inbound leads from the existing WordPress dev community, while offering little more than a link back to a small subset of functionality of the primary site/service. I know some of the more expensive suites like Lodgify and (maybe) Hostfully have more flexibility in building out custom pages off their direct booking website template, but you'd want to trial them out to really know if it would meet your needs.
Everyone keeps mentioning Airbnb and VRBO integration, but:
Which of these apps fully integrate with Booking.com & Flipkey too?
Thanks @Cliff H. great info! I agree that there's a baseline level of features that any system should come with, though it surprised me how many of the entry level players lack one or more (for example, when I started using YourPorter >1 year ago, there did not seem to be that many "affordable" options that offered automated messaging that would trigger off a reservation date; there seem to be a lot more now).
I am not thrilled at the 1% premium Lodgix charges for AirBNB bookings, but since I am going to make a concerted effort to transition away from AirBNB, it's not a deal-breaker (yet).
I'll dig into the WordPress widget - while I think it's more on the simple side, as you point out I do want my site to be able to have dynamic pricing, so I need to look into if that's possible at all. It may not be possible for me to have all the key things I want: dynamic pricing with a booking interface that doesn't break the bank! (or, I think Lodgify will do it, as you point out, but Lodgify doesn't integrate with Key Data which is another feature I really want). Hostfully looks awesome but is far more expensive than I am looking for at this point.
*off to investigate more*
Tokeet + SmartBnb + breezeway = Zen
I am interested in this - what features do you use in each system, and why do you feel it necessary to use three different systems to run your business? At a glance it doesn't strike me as very efficient (from either a cost or workflow standpoint) but I'd like to hear more about why it works for you.
@Nancy Bachety I don’t have a site yet but it’s definitely on the agenda. I’m open to recommendations if anyone knows a web designer who can create a bookable site!
That's an easy one! Only like 100,000 highly skilled unemployed web designers sitting around who would LOVE to help you with this for very little money...
https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/530/topics/823922-surplus-of-freelancers-not-seen-in-hundreds-of-years
Tokeet + SmartBnb + breezeway = Zen
I am interested in this - what features do you use in each system, and why do you feel it necessary to use three different systems to run your business? At a glance it doesn't strike me as very efficient (from either a cost or workflow standpoint) but I'd like to hear more about why it works for you.
I will admit up front it is not the most efficient system, and we do have a lot of over-lap of features that we only use one tool for. However, after lots of research and searching, we still see the value for what we pay for these tools.
For this stack of **4** software tools per property, we end up paying about $25/month per property for all 4 total. Some of them make us more money, and some of them just save us time. As long as each one makes or saves us about $6/month per property, then I see it as a net gain.
Tokeet (PMS) = mostly valued for its channel management, direct booking capabilities, and direct booking website. We do not pay for any ad-ons, just their basic product. This is valuable because for every direct booking we can save about 10% from Airbnb guest fees. Also we can fill more nights and get slightly higher rates being on multiple platforms.
Smartbnb = Mostly valued for messaging. They have great auto messaging, and AI messaging features that do most all of the heavy lifting for our guest services department. As mentioned above, they also have a fantastic inbox tool, that integrates data from Airbnb and Vrbo, so that guest communication and vetting is a much faster and more robust data. Not to mention I still value their SEO boosting tools, I use their data analysis tools (metrics) several times a day, and I pull market reports to check up on each listings SEO often.
Breezeway = task management, scheduling, photo reports from each task stored in the cloud, keeping and tracking information and photos of listings to track things like theft of items, live communication with crews in the field, capturing and tracking expenses per task, or per property and then being able to bill those expenses to the owners. This provides value in transparency for our owner/clients, time saved in calls/texts/ect., and also increased revenue from tracking and billing tasks.
(and I forgot the most valuable!) Pricelabs = Dynamic pricing and dynamic min. night stays. I have tried beyond pricing, and wheelhouse, but Pricelabs is by far the most valuable product on the market in pricing. If you spend time learning the data of your local market, you can set specific pricing rules in pricelabs that optimize revenue, and minimize headaches. I honestly believe that the implementation of Pricelabs (and proper rule sets) increased our overall gross revenue by 10% - 20%. When you consider the price they charge per property, it is a no-brainer. One of the highest ROI investments I have ever made.
I am happy to answer questions anyone else has about these tools, or similar tools needed to run STR properties.
Great thread guys! Let's keep it up, keep it positive, and keep sharing information that helps everyone out right now in the STR industry.
@Benjamin Vail Thanks for this! I just looked at Tokeet for the first time in awhile, and yeah, their system looks great (though the site says HomeAway integration is "coming soon"?!?!?). I assume that you like SmartBNB's messaging that much better than Tokeet's to justify using a second software just for that? And by the same token, I assume you find PriceLabs much better than Tokeet's dynamic pricing tool? (not surprising, dynamic pricing is one of those things that is complex enough I definitely see a dedicated product being worthwhile that is developed by data specialists, vs. an add-on for some larger organizational system) Cost isn't bad, either. My one hesitation with them is they don't appear to integrate with Key Data.
@Luke Carl happy to chat further on this topic. I have an entire spreadsheet I used to compare all the major platforms before deciding on Porter. I’ll send you a connection. Mentioned in other threads as well, but spent months comparing the different tools, lost more time than I care to share, and at the end of it could probably write a book on them that would find its way to that 75% off shelf over by the registers at the local Barnes & Noble.
@cliff, I am also in search of the "best" platform to manage my properties and since I am a spreadsheet addict, would you mind sharing yours? I am curious to see what you found in your comparaison.
Thanks!
Hey @Poteau Thomas that’s fair ask. @Luke Carl and I were chatting about the comparison spreadsheet already and while I have been reluctant to this point to put something out there that I then had to “support” by adding a bunch of other checklist items I don’t care about myself, perhaps it can serve as a starting point and help others that stumble on this little thread to compare the market options, since there does appear to be a quite a bit of confusion on what does what and for what price in order to simply decide for yourself the best fit.
So without further adieu and in the spirit that “sharing is caring” here you go!
Is anyone having issues with Your Porter properly syncing with Airbnb? My Your Porter is not recognizing that some reservations have been cancelled and are keeping them blocked out on my calendars. I’ve tried deleting my Airbnb account and adding it again, but it’s still not syncing properly. I’ve reached out to their customer service, but they are not responding.
Is anyone having issues with Your Porter properly syncing with Airbnb? My Your Porter is not recognizing that some reservations have been cancelled and are keeping them blocked out on my calendars. I’ve tried deleting my Airbnb account and adding it again, but it’s still not syncing properly. I’ve reached out to their customer service, but they are not responding.
Nothing like that here and I have Porter linked to AirBnB, HomeAway, and Booking. Have you tried the manual “Sync Reservations” option in the Menu section of the site/app? I’ve found Porter’s support team usually gets back to me most often between 20-24 hours after I ping them, which may be due to time zone differences.
So, I've been scouring everything to find a solution for this. Owner invoicing. I'm currently using Hostaway and have been for a while. I've used Smartbnb, IGMS, and YourPorter in the past. I'm about to begin managing 6 more properties (I previously only had my own to worry about). What I'm trying to find is a system that has all the features I'm already using (specifically integration with Pricelabs and the ability to also update VRBO), AND has the ability to invoice the owners. That's the issue I'm trying to figure out. I'd like to be able to have some kind of print out that I can send to owners every month. Your porter has it but it's super buggy. Hostaway doesn't have this feature for some reason. And they're one of the most expensive PMS's. They also don't do auto reviews which sucks too.
@Ryan Liner Hey Ryan - I'm using Hostaway also right now and have tried iGMS & YourPorter before making that switch. I can tell you with certainty that no platform is going to do it all and they are going to have tradeoffs. We finally landed on Hostaway for many of the same reasons and consider those features critical (integration with Pricelabs & push those rates to VRBO).
I'm not sure if you have seen this, but Hostaway about a week ago just launched the auto-review feature. I haven't got ours set up but I agree with you its critical and may be worth exploring before making the switch.
For owner invoicing, I know Hostaway doens't have native invoicing or automatic invoicing for owners, but we personally use the "Financial Reporting" section in Hostaway to create those same reports that YourPorter would generate, and we send those out manually to each owner. Note that we did do some customization of those formulas to make it work for how we calculate payouts. It's a little bit of extra work each month to generate each owners report and send to them, but I also think its important to review those reports before invoicing an owner anyways so it hasn't been a huge deterent for us yet. This may not work for a larger company though with 20+ properties under management.
@Ryan Liner Hey Ryan - I'm using Hostaway also right now and have tried iGMS & YourPorter before making that switch. I can tell you with certainty that no platform is going to do it all and they are going to have tradeoffs. We finally landed on Hostaway for many of the same reasons and consider those features critical (integration with Pricelabs & push those rates to VRBO).
I'm not sure if you have seen this, but Hostaway about a week ago just launched the auto-review feature. I haven't got ours set up but I agree with you its critical and may be worth exploring before making the switch.
For owner invoicing, I know Hostaway doens't have native invoicing or automatic invoicing for owners, but we personally use the "Financial Reporting" section in Hostaway to create those same reports that YourPorter would generate, and we send those out manually to each owner. Note that we did do some customization of those formulas to make it work for how we calculate payouts. It's a little bit of extra work each month to generate each owners report and send to them, but I also think its important to review those reports before invoicing an owner anyways so it hasn't been a huge deterent for us yet. This may not work for a larger company though with 20+ properties under management.
@Luke Carl @Cliff H. at what point did you start using tools for messaging and as a pms? I have one seasonal unit in NY for the summer and am about to buy one year round rental condo in Orlando. Should I stick with self managing right now just directly on VRBO, Airbnb and Booking or already pick up something like MyPorter to make my life easier and maybe more profitable?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
@Louis Zameryka. If you’re asking that question..... you are ready!
@Louis Zameryka are you typing the same thing into more than one place? That’s when. Your time is money, make more of it.
Resurrecting this old thread... I'm also in the same boat. Looking for that "almost perfect" solution. I only use ABB and Vrbo, and I understand now that you don't need 5 properties under the same account to get the Vrbo Api integration. I have multiple properties, but since our area has taxes collected/remitted and income tax withheld by Vrbo, every property has its own login.
What is everyone's opinion on which PMS has great reporting capability? I'm demo-ing YourPorter and it seems to only have 4 options--Accommodation, Cleaning fee, Service fee, Other. I need way more line items and I can't find any help files that show how/if it's possible. Not good help files at all :(