Short-term rental softwareHow to choose short-term rental software

When you need it

• You list on more than one site and close nights by hand.
• You coordinate cleanings and check-ins over scattered chats.
• At the end of the month you build each owner’s numbers in a spreadsheet.
• You don’t know for sure what each property made after expenses.

The basics: booking sites and calendar

The first thing is a channel manager connected by API to the sites you use, with one calendar and a rate per site. If you work in Latin America, make sure it includes Despegar.

Day-to-day operations

• A schedule where every check-out creates its cleaning and gets assigned to someone on the team.
• Messages from every site in a single inbox.
• Guest identity verification before arrival.
• Recurring maintenance tasks, set up just once.

The money

• A direct booking website with built-in payments, in your guests’ currency.
• Each owner’s statement calculated from actual bookings and expenses.
• Reports per property: occupancy, revenue and expenses.

How the software charges

The most common models are a fixed price per property, a percentage of each booking, or plans by number of properties with different features. With a percentage, the software makes more the more you sell; with a price per property, you know in advance what you’ll pay.

Also check whether there is a free trial, whether it asks for a card to try it and whether support answers in your language.

Migrating

Loading properties by hand is what holds back most switches. Ask whether the system imports your listings from Airbnb and Booking and what it brings over: title, description, photos, amenities. Check what you need to fill in afterwards, such as rates.