Running a short-term vacation rental business is all about doing a lot of work. From welcoming your guests to helping them check-out, from restocking your supplies to arranging the cleaners for upkeep, from communicating with inquirers to dealing with payments, a job of a host requires serious managerial and coordination skills. Things get even harder when an owner operates multiple vacation properties, and proper attention must be given to each of them, otherwise, they will not bring the desired income.
There are many software solutions helping owners manage their listings, but most of them are desktop, which does not simplify but rather brings lots of inconveniencies to the owner’s work, by literally tying them to the desk. Fortunately, thanks to technological achievements, many vacation rental management tools turned mobile, allowing you to get things done while on the go, without reliance on a site. We picked the most feature-packed, useful, and simply amazing mobile vacation rentals apps that can do everything your PC can, helping you harness mobile technologies to fuel your business success.
Airbnb
The company’s proprietary mobile service, Airbnb mobile app lets you manage your listings while away from your ground computer. The functionality is comprehensive to guarantee smooth business operation and help your guests feel supported throughout their stay. The main features include:
- Inbox. Messaging is, perhaps, the most heavily-used feature as an owner has to reply to numerous inquirers, communicate with guests, and collaborate with the maintenance team. The inbox keeps all your communications and archives old messages, as well as it is loaded with smart filters to quickly find what you are looking.
- Saved response feature saves you from the struggle to type the same messages over and over again.
- Calendar shows check-in and check-out dates with details on the day’s price and blocked dates as well as reminders about all sorts of things.
- Resolution center is an important feature allowing you to solve simple problems reported by your guests directly through your phone.
- Reservation management is a tool allowing you to make trip adjustments anytime, such as to send requests to the guests, approve or decline booking requests, and review reservations.
- Photo messaging helps you send pictures to your confirmed tenants.
- Statistics provide insights on your business performance, including rating stats and listings’ performance in different categories.
Hosty
Hosty is an all-inclusive vacation rentals app for Airbnb, allowing you to automate time- and effort-consuming procedures of a short-term hospitality business. Simple yet sophisticated, Hosty (https://www.hostyapp.com/vacation-rentals-app/) tackles virtually every concern a property manager or entrepreneur may have. The functionality is generous and meant to improve your business’s overall productivity:
- Automation. Save yourself from the stress of replying to questions and inquiries manually. Hosty Automation module takes the burden of communicating with prospects on itself, dramatically improving your response speed. This feature can also automate price adjustments and guest reviews for even greater time savings.
- Booking management. You can confirm, decline, view, and edit bookings from one powerful dashboard. Nifty filters ensure that the process of booking management will be quick and simple.
- Listing management lets you view and update your Airbnb publications across all accounts in a single app. The feature seamlessly integrates with different listings to ensure maximum productivity.
- Multiple accounts management. No matter how many listings you have, you can easily manage them all through a single interface. You can organize and control your numerous Airbnb lodgings without the necessity to switch between accounts.
- Multi-calendar gives you the opportunity to track daily calendar activities of your listings from different accounts. You can review and adjust reservations, modify rates, and set up calendar availability just by tapping on your smartphone screen.
- Multi-channel management. Hosty mobile app smoothly integrates with third-party short-stay booking platforms for comprehensive business orchestration.
Task management is a handy feature allowing you to allot tasks to your team and cleaners from the comfort of your smartphone, giving you peace of mind that every room will be spruced up timely. - Unified Inbox ensures that none of the messages will be lost or stay unnoticed. With the Unified Inbox tool, you can send, reply, and view messages from all your clients in one window.
VRBO
VRBO is a mobile app created for vacation rental businessmen and managers. With this app at your fingertips, you can stay connected with vacationers, administrate your bookings, and control your business activities using just your mobile device.
The software boasts of a nice notification system that alerts you whenever you receive an inquiry or a booking request. Replying to inquiries and accepting/declining reservations can be done directly from your phone.
VRBO also keeps communication histories in one place allowing you to always stay connected with your tenants and prospects.
The app also comes with a calendar feature to edit, add, or cancel reservations as well as manage date availability directly from your calendar. Moreover, you can edit your listings, update your home rules, and fully control your business with the convenience of a single mobile app.
Verdict
Operating short-stay rentals can be quite challenging, but without proper organization, control, and coordination between listings, teams, and guests, the success of your venture is doomed. Modern vacation rental apps offer the flexibility to run your business on the go, without the necessity to stay continuously at the desk or log in your site account.
While the market is full of all possible solutions for the hospitality business administration, the most popular, robust, and cost-effective options are Airbnb, VRBO and Hosty. Their functionality is aimed to help a host circulate business as efficiently as possible and boost a property’s earning potential. While the above-mentioned tools are all cutting-edge and appealing, Hosty, still, outshines the rivals. Not only it comes with full-fledged functionality to address every need of a rental entrepreneur, but also offers free-of-charge packages for the uttermost economy, yet without sacrificing the product quality.
