Guesty Competitors & Alternatives
Guesty is an advanced vacation rental management software (VRMS) with around 1,000 customers. It’s an expensive, premium solution designed for those who are either already professional property managers with many properties, or for those who are looking to quickly scale their rental management business.
There are many other VRMS tools available, all with different features and different target organizations. Before you purchase Guesty, it’s best to understand the market and some Guesty competitors and alternatives. We recommend reading this article to see how Guesty stacks up against its competitors in the VRMS space.
Throughout this article, we’ll provide an overview of a few alternatives to Guesty. These alternatives and competitors were chosen based on their similarities to Guesty, and we also compare a few that we’d recommend for different types of customers.
All of our recommendations are based on research, product demos with the software companies, and dozens of hours spent hand-testing these vacation rental management tools. More details regarding our research process can be found on our vacation rental management category page.
Table of Contents
- Guesty Features
- Guesty Competitor Overview: Features
- Guesty Competitor Overview: Pricing
- Top Guesty Competitors
- Bottom Line
Guesty Features
The table below outlines the main features that Guesty offers. Guesty has strong API integrations with the largest online travel agencies (OTAs) and many automation features. This table is just an overview of the main features, so to learn more, read our full Guesty review.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Direct Booking Website | Guesty offers one website template that customers can use to quickly get a direct booking site up and running. The template is not particularly customizable, but many edits can be done to ensure that the website fits with your business. |
| Channel Manager | A channel manager synchronizes property information across different OTAs like Airbnb and Booking.com. Guesty offers API integrations with Airbnb, Booking.com, Agoda, and TripAdvisor. |
| Centralized Calendar | A centralized calendar goes hand-in-hand with the channel manager and pulls together booking information from across OTAs. Guesty’s centralized calendar shows a list view of all properties and their bookings, as well as showing which channel the booking came from. |
| Listing & Booking Management | Within Guesty’s dashboard, customers can create listings from directly within the dashboard and import existing bookings from channels like Airbnb. |
| Inbox & Messaging | Guesty’s centralized inbox will collect messages whether the guest sends their message from Airbnb, Booking.com, or their email account. Guesty customers can send messages back via Airbnb, SMS, email, or WhatsApp. |
| Owner Portals & Reports | Customers can create owner portals to allow owners to see how their properties are performing. Reports about said properties can also be pulled together to provide an overview of performance. |
| Automations | Guesty includes automations regarding guest reviews, task management, messaging, and more. These automations are particularly helpful for those who manage many properties, as once automations are initiated, the process will be on autopilot. |
| Integrations | Guesty has nearly 100 available integrations across categories like payments, home automations, task management, and more. |
Guesty Competitor Overview: Features
There are many vacation rental management solutions on the market, and we’ve focused this article on solutions that are either ideal for those with many properties or that are modern and streamlined like Guesty. These four Guesty competitors are included in this article because of similar features, power, or pricing.
Some top Guesty competitors and alternatives are:
- Hostaway
- Hostfully
- Lodgify
- Smoobu
Below is a chart that compares the features between the five software tools. Many features are the same across tools, though API integrations and the availability of mobile applications varies a bit. Pay particular attention to which tool integrates with which channels, as this is a crucial aspect of vacation rental management. If a software tool doesn’t have a pre-built two-way API integration with your preferred OTA, it won’t benefit your business.
In general, Guesty has one of the most complete and well-designed set of features. However, other solutions have unique strengths that will appeal to some property managers:
- Hostaway has one of the best task management sections across tools
- Hostfully is known for its Guest Guidebooks
- Lodgify is known for its varied and customizable website templates
- Smoobu has the best list of integrations with European channels
Guesty Competitor Overview: Pricing
Guesty pricing isn’t publicly available and can vary wildly because, rather than charging a fixed rate per month, they charge between 2% and 5% of all bookings. For many customers, this ends up being quite expensive—more expensive than many competitors in the space. Customers have also reported that there is a one-time onboarding fee.
Vacation rental management solutions use many different pricing models, and some companies also don’t publicize pricing because they customize a quote for each potential customer. This makes it difficult to directly compare pricing. However, we have listed the pricing information for available platforms below. Here are some pricing comparisons.
| Company | Pricing Details |
|---|---|
| Guesty |
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| Hostaway |
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| Hostfully |
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| Lodgify |
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| Smoobu |
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Top Guesty Competitors
Brief comparisons of Guesty’s competitors are provided below. For each competitor, we’ll provide a short description of our experience using the software and an explanation of who would benefit most from each option. If there’s a VRMS that you feel will fit your needs better than Guesty, read our full reviews to learn more.
Hostaway
Hostaway is very similar to Guesty in the power, pricing, and target customer. Hostaway pricing hovers around $50 per property per month and has powerful API integrations with Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia, HomeAway/Vrbo, and TripAdvisor. Both tools are ideal for customers who are either professional management companies or those who individually manage more than 15 properties. Consider both only if you need a very powerful VRMS that comes with an accordingly high price.
- You want a tool that’s more modern
- You want to use a tool that’s a bit more intuitive to navigate
- You don’t need an API integration with Expedia
- You want a wider range of API integrations
- You’re okay with a tool that’s a bit more difficult to learn to use
- You want to easily connect and import Airbnb listings
Hostfully
Hostfully is a tool that, like Guesty, is advanced and pricey. Hostfully’s main draw is their Guest Guidebooks, which are digital guides that are sent to guests for the duration of their booking. Hostfully starts at $79 per month and includes a $400 implementation fee. While Guesty’s pricing isn’t public, it’s likely similarly expensive. Overall, we recommend Guesty for those who have many properties but prefer a software that’s a bit more intuitive to navigate. Hostfully, on the other hand, is also advanced and preferable for professional property managers, but will be best if you want to go the extra mile with Guest Guidebooks.
- You want a tool that’s easier to learn to navigate
- You have at least 20 properties
- You’re comfortable paying a percentage of each booking to Guesty
- You want the Guest Guidebooks feature for guest support
- You don’t need an Agoda integration
- You’re able to work with a more complex VRMS
Lodgify
Lodgify is a tool that’s geared towards those with up to around 15 properties. It’s a great choice for those who need a simpler software tool with particularly strong direct booking website templates. Compared with Guesty, it’s a much simpler tool, though both are equally as modern and easy to use. Guesty is much better for those with a larger number of properties.
- You have a larger number of properties to manage
- You want to list properties on Agoda
- You have the budget to pay for an advanced VRMS
- You list any of your properties on Expedia
- You need varied and more customizable website templates
- You don’t need to an API connection with Agoda
Smoobu
Smoobu is a more basic VRMS that, though modern, is not nearly as advanced as some of its competitors. It comes with a fantastic list of API integrations with European OTAs, so if you host properties in Europe, it’s a great choice. However, customers can’t import listings from most channels and many details are missing. Guesty is therefore a much better choice for professional property managers who need a reliable software tool.
- You have more than 20 properties
- You want advanced automation capabilities
- You want access to nearly 100 integrations across many categories
- You manage properties in Europe
- You need multi-language support and capabilities
- You’d like a guest guidebook feature
Bottom Line
Among VRMS tools, Guesty is one of the most advanced and reliable options for professional vacation rental property managers. It’s great for connections with Airbnb and Booking.com, has a great messaging feature, and is well-rounded overall.
Before choosing a solution, make sure you decide which features are going to be most important for your rental management purposes. For some property managers, automated messaging will be the most important; for others, having a strong, varied channel manager is crucial. If you have 20 or more properties and want something that’ll make it easier to keep track of your rental management business, Guesty is highly recommended.
If you’re interested in scheduling a product demo with Guesty, sign up here.