Best Vacation Rental Management Software 2021

Smoobu vs. Lodgify: Compare Vacation Rental Management Software

Is Smoobu or Lodgify the better solution for you? This in-depth, feature-by-feature breakdown will help you select the best vacation rental management software (VRMS) to help support your rental management business.

Individuals and management companies use vacation rental management software tools to manage vacation properties across different channels, automate property tasks and guest messages, and more. Most end-to-end solutions usually offer direct booking websites, a channel manager, listing management features, and reporting and analytics.

There are many VRMS tools on the market today, all best suited for a certain kind of business. This article will discuss the major differences between Smoobu and Lodgify by highlighting the strengths and drawbacks of each. Throughout the article, we’ll make recommendations to help you choose the best software for your business.

All of our recommendations are based on research, product demos with the software companies, and dozens of hours spent hand-testing the vacation rental management tools. More details regarding our research process can be found on our vacation rental management category page.

Smoobu & Lodgify Comparison Summary

Smoobu and Lodgify are two modern VRMS tools. They were both rated in the middle of our vacation rental management category because they have some unique strengths, as well as notable drawbacks.

Here's a breakdown of our review criteria and how Smoobu and Lodgify ranked in each category:

CriteriaAnalyst RatingFeaturesUsabilityPricingCustomer Support
Lodgify8481088
Smoobu848899

Smoobu is a great choice if you need your VRMS platform to function in multiple languages or if you need API integrations with more platforms. The main Smoobu drawbacks are its customer support hours and the lack of data exporting abilities. Overall, Smoobu is a mid-tier tool that has a particularly large list of API channel connections, which includes both large channels like Airbnb and regional channels specific to Europe. Pricing begins at $23 per month and can go as high as $200 per month for 30 properties. There’s also a limited free plan.

Lodgify, on the other hand, offers strong website templates that would benefit a property manager with up to 15 properties. There are fewer API integrations, but stronger website templates than Smoobu. Lodgify pricing begins at $11 per month with the Starter Plan and can cost hundreds of dollars per month depending on your plan and number of properties. It was overall reliable, though is missing some details found in pricier premium tools.

Here are a few quick points to summarize who we recommend each tool for:

You'll prefer Smoobu if:

  • You own or manage properties in Europe
  • You want comparably more features for a lower price
  • You’ll find the Guest Guides feature helpful for guest management

Try Smoobu Today

You'll prefer Lodgify if:

  • You have between five and twenty properties
  • You want modern and customizable website templates
  • You prefer a simple tool that provides a seamless experience

Try Lodgify Today


Table of Contents

Who Should Purchase Smoobu?

Smoobu will be a valuable tool for anyone who manages properties in Europe (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in particular). The tool is well-priced at around $50 for five properties, so it’ll also benefit those looking to pay a modest amount for a VRMS. Prospective customers can try the product free for 14 days, which makes it easy to test whether or not the tool is right for you.

During our testing, we found an issue with the hosted Smoobu websites, which were unavailable for use for a week or two. Other than that, it was also a drawback that you cannot export information from the statistics section. Otherwise, though, Smoobu is a solid mid-tier choice with lots of features, many integrations, and a broad range of API connections. Compared with Lodgify, it’s also much cheaper for the same number of features.

Who Should Purchase Lodgify?

Those with up to twenty properties will benefit from using Lodgify due to its direct booking websites and the ease of use. Lodgify’s main value lies in its Ultimate Plan, which includes all available features such as accounting, task management, and owner reports. The price of the Ultimate Plan is quite a bit higher than the cost of Smoobu, so it’s for those who have a larger budget to spend on a VRMS.

Customers have noted that the Lodgify team is not quite as responsive as they’d like, so that’s definitely one of the tool’s drawbacks. Additionally, listings will most likely only be imported from Airbnb, rather than with all API-integrated channels. Overall, Lodgify is a solid mid-tier tool that will benefit those looking for a straightforward option.

Smoobu & Lodgify Price Comparison

Smoobu and Lodgify are both priced on a per-property basis, and Smoobu will cost less overall unless you choose Lodgify’s Starter Plan. However, in order to get the same amount of features in Lodgify that are offered in Smoobu’s paid plan, you’d have to choose the more expensive Professional or Ultimate Plans.

Smoobu has one paid plan, which starts at $23 per month for one property. Lodgify, on the other hand, has three different plans that can be paid monthly, yearly, or for two years, and therefore has a more complex pricing system that will be explained below.

Smoobu Pricing Details

Smoobu pricing details are outlined below. There’s a basic free plan, which offers three features, and the paid plan, which has all features. Pricing changes depending on the number of properties you manage.

Free Plan
  • Website (subdomain)
  • Statistics
  • Reservation system
Professional Plan
  • One Property: $23 per month
  • Five Properties: $47 per month
  • Ten Properties: $77 per month

Lodgify Pricing Details

Lodgify pricing begins at $11 per month for a two-year contract with the Starter Plan. There’s a Starter Plan, a Professional Plan, and an Ultimate Plan. For the Ultimate Plan, customers will pay $154 per month for five properties. An overview of the plans and pricing for monthly contract lengths is below.

Starter
  • One Property: $17 per month
  • Five Properties: $39 per month
  • Ten Properties: $56 per month
  • This plan includes the channel manager and mobile application
Professional
  • One Property: $46 per month
  • Five Properties: $114 per month
  • Ten Properties: $164 per month
  • This plan includes manual payments
Ultimate
  • One Property: $69 per month
  • Five Properties: $154 per month
  • Ten Properties: $266 per month
  • This plan includes owner reports and task management

Smoobu & Lodgify Feature Comparison

Other than Smoobu’s Guest Guides feature, the two software platforms offer a very similar list of features. Smoobu has more API integrations, while Lodgify allows reports to be exported from the dashboard. For a full analysis of each solution’s features, read our Smoobu review and Lodgify review.

FeatureSmoobuLodgify
Airbnb APIYesYes
Agoda APIYesNo
Booking.com APIYesYes
Expedia APIYesYes
HomeAway/Vrbo APIYesYes
Trip.com APIYesNo
Direct Booking WebsiteYesYes
Property Management FeaturesYesYes
Automated Guest MessagingYesYes
Task ManagementYesYes (Ultimate Plan only)
Owner Access and ReportsYesYes
Digital GuidebooksYesNo
Robust IntegrationsYesYes
Mobile ApplicationYesYes

Smoobu's Top Features

Smoobu’s top features include the dashboard, channel manager, integration list, and Guest Guides. We’ll briefly describe these features and provide images of each to give you a sense of what the tool looks like.

Dashboard

The dashboard in Smoobu is a helpful overview of occupancy, booking statistics, and a calendar that displays the next few weeks of property bookings. This view is definitely helpful for property owners or managers to see performance at a glance.

Smoobu Dashboard

Channel Manager & Centralized Calendar

As mentioned above, Smoobu offers a particularly strong list of API integrations with both large, worldwide channels as well as with smaller channels that are specific to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The centralized calendar, which houses booking information pulled from all channels, allows you to drill down into the booking information.

Smoobu Centralized Calendar

Integrations

Smoobu offers significantly more integrations than Lodgify, with property management tools across seven categories. These categories include:

  • Cleaning and maintenance
  • Luggage
  • Online check-in
  • Payments
  • Smart locks
  • Smart pricing
  • Other (analytics, SMS messaging, etc)

The list of integrations includes large companies, like Stripe, as well as smaller regional companies like Vikey.

Guest Guides

This feature, which Lodgify doesn’t offer, is a digital guide containing all pertinent rental and vacation information. This feature does well to provide guests with crucial information like a map, any extra applications, and a way to message hosts directly. Guidebooks will also save hosts time and energy, as guests can reference the guides rather than asking hosts for information.

Smoobu guest Guide

Lodgify's Top Features

The variety of modern website templates is the biggest benefit of the Lodgify platform. There are iCal and API integrations, though not nearly as many as Smoobu offers. Other strong features include the listing management and task management tools. For a more in-depth overview of Lodgify’s features, check out the full review here.

Direct Booking Websites

This feature, which we found to be stronger than Smoobu’s during testing, was Lodgify’s first offering and is therefore notably strong among the pool of VRMS platforms. There are four templates to choose from, and the editor makes it easy to customize the site to match your business. You will be able to add custom CSS, HTML, or JavaScript injections or set the site to operate in one of over 30 languages.

Lodgify Website

Listing Management

To manage listings and bookings, you’ll be able to view all bookings and details of all bookings. Once you select the booking view, shown below, you’ll be shown the quotes given to guests, the length of the stay, guest details, and more. While this is not particularly advanced, it’s definitely helpful and easy to both access and modify.

Lodgify Listing Management

Task Management

The task management feature is a helpful way to schedule and automate tasks that need to be completed between bookings. While this feature is great for both owners and property teams given its calendar view, it’s also confined to the most expensive plan, which may hinder some customers from getting to use it.

Lodgify Task Management

Bottom Line

Smoobu is better for those who own and manage properties in Europe. It also offers more features for less money, so it’ll end up being the more cost-effective choice. Lodgify, on the other hand, is a mid-tier option with comparably stronger website templates and statistics features.

  • Smoobu is a modern tool with some unique features like the Guest Guides. It’s a solid option for those who manage any number of properties.
  • Lodgify will benefit customers looking to list their portfolio of properties primarily on Airbnb, HomeAway/Vrbo, and Booking.com.

If you’re interested, visit Smoobu or Lodgify today to get started.

Katelyn Anderson

Katelyn is a Junior Research Analyst at SoftwarePundit, where she conducts in-depth analyses of technology markets & products and writes software-related content. She graduated summa cum laude with degrees in English and Psychology. Her main areas of interest are content creation, user experience, and search engine optimization. You can connect with Katelyn on LinkedIn.

Katelyn is an expert in several software categories including:

  • Accounting software
  • Integration software
  • Live chat software
  • Vacation rental software
  • Video conferencing software

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