All Forum Posts by: Bryce Cutler

 Hostaway was my first PMS. I was using OTA’s only prior to Hostaway.

Hey @Josh Ball

I wish my experience was as good as yours. My messaging issues was with automated messaging not going to the right properties. I have 6 listings on 5 properties and guest messaging was not aligned to the proper property. We fixed it after a few calls, but it came back for some reason after a software update and since I was switching to Hostfully anyway I just turned off auto messaging because it was creating more work for me.

Onboarding was definitely not what I had hoped for. It was basic on one property and the expectation was that I would just know what was done for one to be able to set up the others.

One of the benefits I found with Hostfully that I did not get with Hostaway was the ability to bulk upload things for multiple properties. Made it easy to set up other properties rather than one by one.

Glad to hear that your experience has been better than mine.

Bryce

@Sameul Ahsan Hostfully has the ability to get around the normal Marriott Villa requirements of 20 properties. Another plus, but not one that I am looking to add right now.

@Nicholas Joseph happy to help out and I do think that onboarding Hostfully was easier for me because I knew a little more about what to expect with set up and learned what I didn't like with Hostaway.

@Nicholas Joseph

I am wrapping up my onboarding with Hostfully and switching away from Hostaway.  The onboarding for me with Hostaway was not great, nearly 2 years ago now. The onboarding experience at Hostfully has been much better. Hostaway was hit and miss with service, sometimes good, sometimes many many calls on my part to get attention on something. I always felt like Hostaway was there for me if it benefited them but not necessarily if it was for me. Additional fees and not being upfront with their messaging was eventually what pushed me to look elsewhere and I landed with Hostfully.

I am going live with Hostfully within the next few days so I cant give you full insight on one is better than the other for certain things, but the onboarding has been amazing and I remember how laboring the onboarding was with Hostaway.

Last mention will be service. Hostaway has service reps that are not located near my time zone and it was often challenging to get times scheduled that fit my busy schedule. Hostfully has not had that issue and their follow up has been amazing.

 So far I am basing it on customer service. Price wise they are similar. Hostaway started off slow and never really got better. Not awful, just not what I was expecting.

I would also say that with 1 property I would probably not use a PMS but it is definitely helpful when you have multiple properties.

Sri, I am in the process of switching from Hostaway to Hostfully for my 5 listings. I used Hostaway for the last year and the they recently snuck in a 1.8% fee for our direct booking site. I will say it was disclosed to us in a fine print email, but it was definitely not clearly told to us and many people are migrating away because we have our direct sites listed as fee free and they no longer would be.

I did extensive research last year when signing up and Hostfully was my runner up and that’s why I am switching to them. I also liked that they are US based as I had issues with my bank with the Finland based Hostaway.

Finally, I highly recommend PriceLabs. The data points they use made me feel like it got my pricing right and I feel much more confident about what my nightly and seasonal rates are now.

 I will be there in January and I am bringing a fellow first time attendee as well. I look forward to connecting @Stephen Karathomas.

Welcome Stephen. Check out the CRREIA group which meets in Clifton Park for meetups. It’s a good sized group with experienced investors and newbies too.

 Hey Peter, I am guessing you are in the Mt Snow area?

I will PM you to get more details.

Thanks,

Bryce

Have any of you had any luck finding an investor friendly agent in Aruba who works with out of country investors?