How we make this list: we compare pricing pages, product documentation and public user reviews. Ratings come from G2, Capterra or Trustpilot, with the date we checked them.
Key takeaways
- One cabin on Airbnb needs a different tool than a 30-door agency: Hospitable (free Essentials plan) and iGMS (new $0 pilot plan) serve small hosts, while Guesty and Hostaway are built for portfolios.
- Guesty Lite starts at $9 per listing per month with a 14-day trial, but the full Pro and Enterprise tiers are quote-only, which makes real cost comparisons hard.
- The honest differentiator in this category is not the feature list: it is how the tool charges. OwnerRez ($40/month for one property) and Lodgify (from $14/month annually) take no booking fees, while commission-based plans take a cut of every reservation.
- Avantio and Hostaway do not publish prices, so budget at least one sales call before you can compare them against anything else.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|
 Guesty | Growing portfolios from one listing up to 200+ units | $9/listing/month (Guesty Lite; 14-day free trial) | Free trial (14 days, Lite plan) |
 Hostaway | Established property managers with larger portfolios | See website (custom quote based on portfolio and features) | No (free demo through the site; no self-serve trial) |
 Hospitable | Hosts with 1 to 5 properties who want automation cheap | $29/month (Host plan, 1-2 properties); Essentials plan is free | Yes (free Essentials plan; 14-day trial on paid plans) |
 OwnerRez | US hosts and managers who want flat pricing with zero booking fees | $40/month (1 property, sliding scale down as you add) | Free trial (14 days) |
 Lodgify | Hosts building a direct-booking brand with their own website | $14/month billed annually (Basic, 1 property) | Free trial (7 days) |
 iGMS | Independent hosts who want to start free | $0 (Free Plan pilot; 4% fee on direct Stripe payments only) | Yes (Free Plan pilot for new customers) |
 Smoobu | European hosts and small managers wanting predictable billing | From €23.20/month (Professional Flex, billed annually; plus 0.9% booking fee) | Free trial (14 days) |
 Avantio | Professional agencies managing 20+ properties | See website (European pricing page lists €14/property/month with a €295/month minimum for smaller portfolios) | No |
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
The best property management software for short term rentals
Two hosts can both call themselves property managers and have almost nothing in common. One runs a single cabin on Airbnb and mostly wants the calendar to stay synced and the guests answered. The other runs 40 doors across Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com and a direct site, with cleaners, owners and accountants waiting on reports. The best property management software for short term rentals depends entirely on which of those people you are, and most comparison lists pretend otherwise.
These eight tools cover the real market, from free starting points to enterprise platforms. The prices below come from vendor pricing pages and vendor-supplied listings, and where a vendor hides its price, we say so instead of guessing.
#1
Guesty
Best for: Growing portfolios from one listing up to 200+ units
Visit guesty.com
Starting price$9/listing/month (Guesty Lite; 14-day free trial)
Free planFree trial (14 days, Lite plan)
Guesty is the default recommendation for one reason: it is the only vendor here that genuinely covers the full journey from first listing to a hundred-plus portfolio on the same platform. Lite hosts start at $9 per listing per month (the cheapest Lite option pairs the base fee with a 1% booking fee), and move to Pro as they grow without rebuilding anything. Every plan includes a channel manager with real-time sync to Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com, a multi-calendar, a unified inbox, a direct booking website builder and automation workflows for cleaning tasks and guest messages.
The honest catch is opacity. Guesty publishes one price and hides the rest: Pro and Enterprise are quote-only, and operators report a wide range of Pro pricing, so the number that matters most is the one you cannot see on the site. Lite users also get help-center support rather than the 24/7 support Pro includes, and support complaints are the most consistent negative in Guesty reviews. If you are at 1-3 listings and plan to stay there, compare OwnerRez or Lodgify before signing.
What we like- One platform that scales from Lite (1-3 listings) to Pro (4-199) to Enterprise (200+) with no migration
- Wide channel coverage (60+ channels including Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com and Expedia)
- Built-in direct booking website builder and ReplyAI guest messaging on every plan
Watch out for- Pro and Enterprise pricing is quote-only, so you cannot compare the real cost without a sales call
- Lite caps at 3 listings and the cheapest Lite tier adds a 1% per-reservation fee
- Reviewers frequently cite support quality as a weak point
#2
Hostaway
Best for: Established property managers with larger portfolios
Visit hostaway.com
Starting priceSee website (custom quote based on portfolio and features)
Free planNo (free demo through the site; no self-serve trial)
Hostaway does not want your first listing. It wants your fortieth. The company positions itself as the all-in-one platform for professional managers: channel manager with best-in-class sync, unified inbox, automated guest messaging, owner statements, financial reporting, direct booking engine, dynamic pricing, smart lock management and a marketplace of 200+ apps. It holds top partnership status with all three major booking platforms, which shows up as fewer sync failures than smaller vendors can match.
Everything about the commercial side reflects that positioning. There is no free trial, no self-serve signup, no price on the site: the pricing page is a quote form, and the path in is a demo call with a product specialist. Third-party reports put small-portfolio pricing roughly in the $40-50 per property per month range with an onboarding fee, though Hostaway confirms none of this publicly. If you manage for other owners at real scale, the depth justifies the process.
What we like- Triple-crown top partner status with Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com, which means the most reliable channel connections
- 200+ integrations in the industry's largest marketplace plus an open API
- 24/7 phone and live support
Watch out for- No published pricing at all, so every quote comes through a sales call
- Reviewers and comparison sites consistently place it among the pricier options
- Not built for single-property owners, and small hosts get pushed into annual agreements
Starting price$29/month (Host plan, 1-2 properties); Essentials plan is free
Free planYes (free Essentials plan; 14-day trial on paid plans)
If Guesty is the enterprise answer, Hospitable is the small-host answer. The company started as an automated messaging tool and grew into a full PMS, and the pricing still reflects that host-first origin: Essentials is free with unlimited properties, Host is $29 per month, Professional $59, Mogul $99. There is no per-listing meter running and no booking commission anywhere, which makes the cost trivially easy to forecast. Dynamic pricing is included on all paid tiers, and Airbnb named Hospitable a Preferred Software Partner.
Watch the tier ceilings. The Host plan tops out at two properties, so a host adding a third listing jumps to Professional at $59 whether or not the extra features matter. Direct booking websites are not on the free tier, so hosts who care about book-direct need a paid plan. For 1-5 doors on the big channels, it is the value pick on this list.
What we like- A genuinely free Essentials tier with a unified inbox, calendar sync and basic automation for unlimited properties
- Published, simple pricing with no per-listing fee and no booking commissions
- AI-assisted messaging and dynamic pricing included on paid tiers
Watch out for- Host plan caps at 2 properties, so the third property forces a jump to the $59 Professional plan
- Direct booking websites and SMS features are reserved for paid plans
- Smaller feature set for large portfolios and owner management
#4
OwnerRez
Best for: US hosts and managers who want flat pricing with zero booking fees
Visit ownerrez.com
Starting price$40/month (1 property, sliding scale down as you add)
Free planFree trial (14 days)
OwnerRez is the operator's favorite, and its review scores back that up. The pricing model is the draw: $40 per month for one property, with the per-property cost sliding down as the portfolio grows, and zero booking fees at every tier. That structure favors hosts with real booking volume, because a 1-2% commission on a busy portfolio costs far more than the subscription difference. The platform goes deep on the things agencies actually live in: channel management via direct APIs to Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com, QuickBooks integration, owner portals with automated statements, and customizable rental agreements with signed PDFs for every guest.
The trade-offs are real. There is no phone support: email only, which the company compensates with unusually responsive replies, but it is a constraint during a live booking crisis. New users consistently report a learning curve measured in days, not hours, and the interface looks built by engineers rather than designers. If you want the most capability per dollar and can handle the onboarding, start here.
What we like- No booking fees, no setup fees and no contracts on a transparent sliding scale
- Deep accounting with QuickBooks sync, owner statements and e-sign rental agreements
- Highest-rated support reputation in the category (5.0 on G2, 4.9 on Capterra per comparison reviews)
Watch out for- Email-only support with no phone line
- Steeper learning curve and a functional-looking interface
- Built primarily for the US market, with gaps for non-US operators
#5
Lodgify
Best for: Hosts building a direct-booking brand with their own website
Visit lodgify.com
Starting price$14/month billed annually (Basic, 1 property)
Free planFree trial (7 days)
Lodgify is built around one bet: that the future belongs to hosts who own their guest relationships through direct bookings. Every plan orbits the website builder, which is genuinely the best in this category: drag-and-drop templates, an integrated booking engine with payment processing, custom domain support and built-in SEO tooling. The pricing is fully public: Basic at $14 per month billed annually, Starter $26, Professional $42, Ultimate $62, all with 0% booking fees. Dynamic pricing is included on Professional and Ultimate.
The sticker price needs context. It covers one property on the entry plan, and the total rises with each listing, so model your actual portfolio on Lodgify's pricing page before deciding. The 7-day free trial is short: barely enough to import listings and test the booking flow. For independent hosts whose strategy is reducing OTA dependence, Lodgify is the natural fit.
What we like- Four published plans with transparent pricing and 0% booking fees on every tier
- The best website builder in the category, with mobile-responsive templates, a booking engine, custom domain and SEO tools
- Direct API connections to Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com on all plans
Watch out for- Prices scale with property count, so a 10-property portfolio costs meaningfully more than the sticker price
- The 7-day trial is the shortest on this list
- Advanced operations (owner statements, task management) sit on the top Ultimate tier
#6
iGMS
Best for: Independent hosts who want to start free
Visit igms.com
Starting price$0 (Free Plan pilot; 4% fee on direct Stripe payments only)
Free planYes (Free Plan pilot for new customers)
iGMS made the boldest move in this category in 2026: a free plan that costs nothing per month and charges nothing on channel reservations. The company launched it as a pilot in September 2026 with a simple thesis: a host with two listings should not need a software budget to stop double bookings. The plan puts Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com into one calendar and one inbox, with automated messaging, mobile apps, cleaner access and direct booking websites. The only fee is 4% on payments collected directly through your own Stripe account.
Read the limits before committing. The free plan caps at 5 reservations and 10 guest messages total, so it is a genuine starting point, not a forever home for a busy listing. iGMS is also a smaller, bootstrapped company, and the feature depth does not match Guesty or Hostaway at scale. But for a new host deciding whether vacation rental software is worth it at all, a $0 plan from an established Airbnb Preferred Partner is the lowest-risk way to find out.
What we like- A real free plan at $0/month with a unified calendar and inbox across Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com
- No fees at all on channel reservations
- Official partner status with Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo and Google Vacation Rentals
Watch out for- The free plan is a pilot program with usage limits (up to 5 reservations and 10 guest messages)
- The only free revenue path is channels, since direct payments carry a 4% fee
- Smaller company with a narrower feature set than the enterprise platforms
#7
Smoobu
Best for: European hosts and small managers wanting predictable billing
Visit smoobu.com
Starting priceFrom €23.20/month (Professional Flex, billed annually; plus 0.9% booking fee)
Free planFree trial (14 days)
Smoobu is the Berlin-based answer to the same problem, and it shows in the details. Three plans: Professional Flex from €23.20 per month billed annually with a 0.9% booking fee, Professional Pre-Paid at €35 per month with no booking fee, and Teams Pro+ for larger teams. Every plan syncs 100+ channels, which is unusually generous for this price band, and the booking engine, website builder, online check-in and guest guide all come standard. It is part of the HomeToGo group, which gives it more staying power than most independent European vendors.
The honest catch is geography. Billing is in euros with VAT calculated at checkout, so US hosts get a moving target. The free booking websites default to European formatting, and reviewers outside Europe note limited phone support hours. For European hosts who want simple, predictable billing without a sales call, Smoobu is a solid middleweight.
What we like- Transparent plans published on the company's own support site
- The Pre-Paid plan charges no booking fee at all
- Syncs 100+ channels on every plan, with the booking engine, website builder and guest communication bundled
Watch out for- Billed in euros with VAT added at checkout, which complicates budgeting for US hosts
- Advanced team features require the Teams Pro+ tier
- US support availability is limited outside European business hours
Starting priceSee website (European pricing page lists €14/property/month with a €295/month minimum for smaller portfolios)
Free planNo
Avantio is the veteran European agency platform: founded in 2001, used by nearly a thousand vacation rental agencies, and built for operators who manage other people's properties. The channel manager connects to 50+ portals, the platform covers PMS, channel management and a booking system in one place, and it runs in seven languages with live multilingual onboarding. Avantio charges no commissions on bookings.
The commercial model screens out small hosts deliberately. The published European pricing is €14 per property per month with a €295 monthly minimum for portfolios under 20 properties, which means a 3-property host pays the same floor as a 19-property one. There is no free trial; onboarding goes through the sales team. If you are an agency at 20+ doors, it belongs on the shortlist.
What we like- Twenty-plus years in the business with a channel manager covering 50+ portals
- No booking commissions
- Built for agencies with owner portals, operations tooling and multilingual support (7 languages)
Watch out for- No self-serve trial and pricing largely quote-based outside Europe
- The monthly minimum makes it expensive for small portfolios
- Reviewers mention occasional sync issues and onboarding complexity
How we chose
We started with the searches buyers actually run: best property management software for short term rentals, vacation rental PMS and Airbnb management software. For each candidate we checked the vendor's own pricing page (or vendor-supplied pricing listings where the vendor does not publish one), read feature lists and help documentation, and compared them against public reviews on G2, Capterra and practitioner discussion on Reddit and STR operator blogs. We favored tools with real short-term rental operations (channel sync, automation, messaging) over generic property management software, and where a price could not be verified we wrote "See website" rather than guessing.
What to check before you sign up
Count your listings first, because almost every vendor in this category prices by property count and the tiers have ceilings. Guesty Lite caps at 3 listings, Hospitable's Host plan at 2, Lodgify Basic at 1: crossing a ceiling mid-year can force a plan jump you did not budget for. Then look at how the vendor charges. A 1% or 2% booking fee sounds small until you run it against real volume: on $5,000 a month in bookings, a 1% fee is $50 a month forever, while a flat $40 subscription never moves. Commission-free plans (OwnerRez, Lodgify, Avantio) win for busy portfolios; commission plans (Guesty Lite Flex, Smoobu Flex) win for quiet or seasonal listings.
Check the channels you actually list on. Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com are covered everywhere, but if you also use Google Vacation Rentals, Expedia or niche portals, confirm the specific connections: Hostaway and Guesty lead on breadth, and partner status (Airbnb Preferred, Vrbo Elite, Booking.com certified) is a reasonable proxy for sync reliability.
The per-listing math that decides your bill
Run the numbers for three properties, because that is the size where these tools diverge. Guesty Lite at $9 per listing billed annually is $27 a month plus a 1% booking fee. Hospitable Professional is $59 a month flat. OwnerRez is roughly in the $55-70 a month range on its sliding scale. Lodgify Professional on annual billing lands around $42-50 a month for three properties depending on billing cycle. iGMS is $0 on the free pilot. Smoobu Flex is about €70 a month at list price. Hostaway and Avantio will not give you a number without a call.
At ten properties the ranking reshuffles. Guesty Lite no longer applies (cap of 3), so you are on Guesty Pro with a quote-only price. OwnerRez's sliding scale drops the per-property cost, which is exactly what it is designed to do. Hospitable Mogul at $99 plus additional-property fees competes well. The lesson: price the tool at your 12-month-from-now portfolio size, not today's, and ask every vendor what happens to your rate when you cross a tier boundary. The cheapest quote at 3 properties is rarely the cheapest at 10.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best property management software for short term rentals?
It depends on portfolio size. Small hosts (1-5 properties) get the most value from Hospitable, OwnerRez or Lodgify, all with published prices and trials. Growing portfolios (4-50 properties) usually land on Guesty or Hostaway for automation depth. Agencies managing for other owners should compare Avantio and OwnerRez for owner reporting.
How much does vacation rental property management software cost?
From $0 to several hundred dollars a month. Entry pricing runs about $9-40 per month for a single property (Guesty Lite $9 per listing, Lodgify $14 annual, OwnerRez $40, Hospitable Host $29), with free plans from iGMS ($0 pilot) and Hospitable Essentials. Mid-size portfolios typically pay $100-400 per month. Enterprise tiers at Guesty and Hostaway are quote-only.
Do I need property management software for one Airbnb?
Not strictly, but it pays for itself fast if you list on more than one channel. The two problems it solves are double bookings (calendar sync across Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com) and guest messaging volume (automated check-in instructions, review requests). If you only list on Airbnb, the platform's own tools are usually enough.
What is the difference between a channel manager and a PMS?
A channel manager syncs calendars, rates and availability across booking platforms to prevent double bookings. A PMS (property management system) does that plus guest communication, payments, cleaning task coordination, owner reporting and direct booking websites. Most tools on this list are full PMS platforms with a channel manager built in.
Are there really free short term rental management tools?
Yes, with limits. iGMS runs a free pilot plan at $0 per month (capped at 5 reservations and 10 guest messages, with a 4% fee only on direct Stripe payments). Hospitable offers a free Essentials plan with a unified inbox and calendar sync for unlimited properties. Both are genuine starting points; busy portfolios will outgrow them.
Can I switch property management software mid-year?
Yes, and most vendors offer migration help, but timing matters. Mid-season switches risk sync gaps during the transition, so many hosts move during a quieter period. Month-to-month plans (OwnerRez, Hospitable, Lodgify, Smoobu) make switching cheap; annual contracts and onboarding fees (common with Hostaway) make it expensive. Export your guest and reservation data before you cancel anything.
Sources we checked (13)
- https://www.guesty.com/pricing/
- https://www.g2.com/products/hospitable-com/pricing
- https://www.lodgify.com/comparisons/hospitable-vs-hostaway/
- https://www.lodgify.com/comparisons/lodgify-alternatives/
- https://www.lodgify.com/comparisons/smoobu-alternatives/
- https://www.lodgify.com/comparisons/hostaway-vs-guesty/
- https://www.ownerrez.com/pricing
- https://support.smoobu.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003170680-How-much-does-Smoobu-cost-Plans-and-pricing-explained
- https://www.igms.com/free-vacation-rental-software/
- https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260928377226/en/iGMS-Launches-a-Free-Plan-for-Short-Term-Rental-Hosts-and-Earns-Only-When-Hosts-Are-Paid-Directly
- https://www.g2.com/products/ownerrez/pricing
- https://www.bnbcalc.com/reviews/avantio-review
- https://staystra.com/str-property-management-software-2026-hospitable-guesty-ownerrez-lodgify/
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Shihab Mia · Founder, Rankite
Shihab has 5+ years in B2B and SaaS SEO. He writes Rankite's software buying guides from pricing pages, documentation and public user reviews. More about Shihab.