Hostaway Reviews

Pros

I had multiple sessions with an onboarding specialist, [sensitive content hidden]. These sessions included setting up all of our listings across relevant channels and exploring all the features Hostaway offers. This included calendar sync, reservation management, smart locks, inbox integration with all channels, automated tasks like cleaning, Stripe setup for receiving payments, and creating our own website (which was very straightforward).

Without the onboarding and walkthroughs with [sensitive content hidden], setting everything up would have been a daunting task.

So far, everything syncs up well and on time!

Cons

The integration with Booking.com could be smoother, but this appears to be an issue on Booking.com's side, not with Hostaway.

Alternatives Considered

Guesty and Lodgify

Reasons for Switching to Hostaway

Hostaway's accessible and available support was a major factor in my decision. Additionally, the cost structure of Hostaway is more attractive to me since it is a fixed cost rather than a percentage-based fee. Furthermore, I understand that Lodgify and Guesty use third-party APIs, whereas Hostaway has its own APIs. This means I expect Hostaway to resolve any issues much faster without relying on third parties.

Pros

Our onboarding specialist, [sensitive content hidden] was Awesome!

Cons

The Formulas never seem to line up how I would like, but not a huge deal

Alternatives Considered

Guesty

Reasons for Switching to Hostaway

Ease of use and having all the additional add ons

Pros

A website that provides basic management information in one place. It ties various short term rental applications into one dashboard such as posting on multiple sites, reservation calendar management, revenue tracking. For add on cost will provide variable pricing.

Cons

Each of the functions this app provides is available on other web sites. Hostaway simply ties them together in an easier format to use.

Property managers can do this as well. Not much of a benefit for the cost. The PM has to still register with any site they want to post their property with. Any customer contact is only through the PM. Hostaway does not assist with anything.

In order to set up the application the user has to have a Arbnb account that is active. The user then duplicates that account to other sites through hostaway. User updates the accounts manually.

The individual apps for multiple posting, reservation management, revenue tracking, insurance etc are easy to find and set up.

No weekend support. A ticket is created to be addressed the following week.

There is no benefit to using this application

Pros

The technology and functionality is brilliant but without the customer support, I would have struggled and [sensitive content hidden] has been amazing.

Cons

Living in a seasonal area, it’s necessary to snooze properties over the winter but you have to delete them or pay which is a problem as lose all the data

Alternatives Considered

Smoobu, StayFi and Boostly

Reasons for Choosing Hostaway

PTK Connect, Pass the keys are a franchise who took a lot of money and had an over complicated system

Reasons for Switching to Hostaway

Best price with all the functionality I needed

Pros

The sharing of screen and learning some new things on how best to run my business

Cons

There was nothing that I didn’t like on this occasion. [sensitive content hidden] was very helpful and easy to understand.

Alternatives Considered

Hostfully Property Management Platform

Reasons for Choosing Hostaway

It was more for hotels and places that had many rooms or options at the same locality

Switched From

Seekom

Reasons for Switching to Hostaway

Price and support. I don’t remember entirely as it was too long ago.

Pros

The software works well so far. Although I am pretty techy, it does require some patience and playing around to understand. The kick-off course gives good insight but it's still some work. The best thing about Hostaway is [sensitive content hidden]. I have been about to throw in the towel a couple of times and he's a game changer.

Cons

A bit complex for the basic user. For example, I was struggling to add a new formula to an owner's report and it wasn't showing up. It was a simple "refresh" that had to be clicked. The "refresh" is hidden in the "more" button. I don't see a reason why a refresh would be required - the system should automatically refresh itself once you add a new formula. This is just an example of how I think Hostaway is very good but could be better.

Alternatives Considered

Homebase

Reasons for Switching to Hostaway

Seemed to have better reviews. One of my friends uses it.

Pros

I really like how easy and intuitive the platform is to use, despite its complexity. Melania helped me with all my questions and she was also quickly available for questions in addition to the onboarding video calls.
Hostaway is the right platform for people who want to rent out several holiday flats and just want to do it a little more professionally. After creating the advert, you can let everything run more or less fully automatically - but it doesn't have to. The programme and the team behind it are great and I would recommend it to anyone. So far, I haven't found a single point that I don't find good.

Cons

There is no German support yet - but this is not really a con, because the English of all employees is more than understandable. A big compliment to Melania from the onboarding team and Léah from the sales team. Both made the introduction to the programme much easier for us.

Pros

very professional and if i ever need anything they answer right away

Cons

the only thing that they have no control over is the transfer of info to different platforms, some info goes and some you have to do manually. but that is controlled by the other platforms.

Alternatives Considered

Guesty Lite

Reasons for Switching to Hostaway

Great intro in the demo meeting, as well as great price for product

Pros

Helpful when there is an issue and quite proactive.
Easy to use

Cons

Needs further development for some user sections. Quite frustrating I cant give my Property Manager task bars on the calendar to assign cleans to the cleaners without giving her full Admin access.

Alternatives Considered

Kigo

Reasons for Choosing Hostaway

They were bought out by Guesty so things were changing anyway, so we decided to look over all other products and carry out a full review of where we went next.

Switched From

Kigo

Reasons for Switching to Hostaway

Ease of use. Price competitively. Reputation for continuous development of product. No up sells of extra services. Once you paid your agreed price, you receive any upgrades as standard. The last point was the most important. Hated Guesty trying to upsell us when they brought something new out

Pros

After having nightmares with Guesty and the very expensive Eviivo (Lodigfy doesn't even deserve my attention--sorry:(

Cons

So far nothing---I like it a lot.
Easy to work with, friendly, and PHONE SUPPORT that actually helpful.
Guesty's phone support (if you're to get it), is useless. Their agents are not trained well. They will simply create a ticket which you could have done from the email---It was very annoying.

Pros

Supports a few diffrent softwares API's, but most of the other channel managers now do too..

Cons

The company policies are terrible, and there is a significant amount of bugs. The support team often blames the user, but in my case, it was always the system's fault. I had to spend an enormous amount of time providing step-by-step instructions on how things happened, and even then, I was assumed to be at fault. They overcharged for the service by almost 2x. Luckily, I noticed it after a couple of months. However, the worst part was that I almost had to beg them and prove multiple times there was an overcharge just for them to realize they had charged double the service price multiple times. The same happened multiple times with their finance service. I undercharged my customers multiple times, losing a ton of money. The worst part was that the same issue occurred twice, and both times they did not even bother to look into their system. I had to spend about 5 hours on emails and video calls just for them to fix it. They also do not follow through on what they promise. After the first finance issue, I asked their support to agree to compensation if it was not my mistake; they would compensate for the error. In response, after the issue was finally addressed and proven to indeed be a system error, they sent a nonsensical ChatGPT answer back. I am extremely disappointed and very unhappy with the service. It was my most stressful 8 months out of all other services I have used in my 5 years of hosting using different channel managers.

Pros

[sensitive content hidden]!!! I LOVE [sensitive content hidden] O!! He has been the most amazing guide! Incredibly helpful, funny, nice, intuitive, and friendly mentor in this setup process I could’ve ever asked for!! I didn’t even dream that a person like this existed in my industry.

I dreamed of having STRs & unfortunately, I have been struggling to streamline the backend processes of this business with Guesty for Hosts. I have felt solo the entire time learning on my own by desperately surfing the Internet and researching resolutions. Guesty offered me ZERO assistance setting up, and long waits to speak with uneducated employees who could not easily answer my questions. [sensitive content hidden] took away ALL of those issues! He eradicated all of those concerns and easily handled any questions that arose, I just am soooooo thankful to have found this company, the intuitiveness of the software, and the people that you have hired are simply amazing. [sensitive content hidden] was amazing, everyone I’ve encountered has been amazing, punctual, friendly, & professional. If I could give 20 stars, I would! I feel as though I have partners now, and I am no longer alone, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

Cons

Haven't found anything yet. Maybe HTML abilities in the message templates & automation? Would be nice to have a preview of them before sending them out? But I am sure you all are working on this already!

Pros

It is a complex system, but once you finish onboarding, it's a simple process. Gabriel was our onboarding specialist and he did an outstanding job.

Cons

Nothing so far, it's been a great experience.

Pros

The integration with VRBO and AirBnB is seamless, the automated messaging is very flexible and customizable, easy to integrate with payment systems. The new integrated smart lock feature works very well and once setup, the time needed for me to be on hostaway to maintain is minimal. Also integration with pricelabs is seamless.

Cons

SMS messaging feature limits to 140 characters; the guest contact section does not have notes feature to capture notes about the guest;

Alternatives Considered

Escapia, Uplisting, OwnerRez, Avantio, Guesty Lite, iGMS, Hostfully Property Management Platform, Hospitable.com and Lodgify

Reasons for Choosing Hostaway

Have more control over discounts, cancelation policy etc.

Switched From

Evolve

Reasons for Switching to Hostaway

Integrates with a lot more OTAs than most others, has phone support and this was a biggie for me, direct booking site is very well designed out of the box

Pros

There are no positive aspects because, from the implementation process onwards, you are assisted by unprepared individuals, and thereafter, support is non-existent

Cons

The system is not designed with the property manager in mind; there are serious interface issues that, once discovered, have already caused significant losses. To make matters worse, the support team's response falls below the minimum expectations for a hospitality business.

Alternatives Considered

Guesty Lite

Switched From

Lodgify

Reasons for Switching to Hostaway

Sales team is very good, the price was better. Buts didn t works

Pros

I had the chance to work with [sensitive content hidden] for the on-boarding program
He is super professionnal and super cool : 10/10 !!!
The platform has everything you need, from multi-calendars to messages automations, etc : many many functionalities and granularity
Also, the possibility to create in a few seconds a new direct website integrating all accodomation listing with a booking engine is AWESOME !
In just 4 sessions, I have now integrated all the communication and calendar of my different platforms (AIRBNB, BOOKING, VRBO) and this has clearly changed my life! :)

Cons

Very small request for R&D teams : Adding chinese language for the website

Alternatives Considered

Guesty

Reasons for Switching to Hostaway

On-boarding process was offered, and [sensitive content hidden] (Sales AE) made an interesting discountA lot of direct integrations with application in their marketplaceCreating a direct booking website is included into the offer

Pros

Hostaway is extremely robust and offers more of the features I was looking for than any of its competitors. The design is clean and the user experience is fantastic on both desktop and in the app. Whenever I have a question, I am connected quickly with a team member and continue to be impressed with how knowledgeable and professional the support team is. With the help of Hostaway, my business is growing and scaling in a way that wasn't possible with our old channel manager. I am grateful to have made the switch every single day!

Cons

That I didn't switch sooner! No product or company is perfect, but Hostaway is always willing to listen when I have a feature request and offer support when an issue is encountered.

Pros

Billy has been most helpful. Although, like most CSRs, he does not have the ability to fix bugs, he is very helpful in moving identified issues forward to the engineers for future consideration.

Cons

the length of time to get a bug fixed, The corporate energy seems to be focused on growing the company instead of fixing/improving the system which is already in place.

Pros

Easy setup. User friendly. Good support.

Cons

Simple features such as booking extensions should be a basic feature set is not available. The Guest portal GUI needs to be improved. Can use Charge Automation as an example in order to improve your product!?

Alternatives Considered

Avantio

Reasons for Choosing Hostaway

Many issues with Zeevou, old , clunky, complicated, full of bugs, slow support...

Switched From

Zeevou

Reasons for Switching to Hostaway

Their onboarding team failed me so I switched to Hostaway at the final hour!

Pros

What I have truly enjoyed about Hostaway is its ease of use! And a lot of the different features and options that it has to make additional monies.

We had a competitor prior to Hostaway, and the channels really didn’t speak well to the Integration service that we had. And it came to a point where I had to handle everything manually, and I had bookings overlap, which made our guest very unhappy when I had to cancel. Keep everything neat and tidy.

Working with my sales consultant has been wonderful as well! Answering every question I’ve ever had. And working with the on boarding. Team has been wonderful as well. I absolutely love this product.

Cons

One thing I think that Hostaway could work on is the website feature that it offers. If you’re going to offer a website, it should not be as rudimentary and basic as it is. There are limited amount of pictures that you can add, and the fonts are very boring and the color schemes are also very basic. It’s OK for what it is but it does not suffice if you really want to promote your product. my suggestion would be that if it is too expensive to have a nicer website for Hostaway, then maybe offer a tiered program. And let the customer choose what they want to pay.
I have not been 100% happy with Customer Service. A lot of times my questions had to be asked to higher-ups as well as the lack of response to them. The issues I’ve had have worked themselves out by themselves. But I would like help as soon as I make that phone call , and, of course, having English as a first language speakers would help also. The good thing is I haven’t really had to call Customer Service as the system is pretty simple to use.

Pros

The things I love about Hostaway:
- Easy to use
- Enables us to connect to more platforms than we could before
- Enables us to have a professional booking engine on our website
- All messages, from any platform, can be answered in Hostaway
- Excellent reporting, including the ability to customise our reports ourselves
- Easy to see what channels we're connected to, and to manage the connections
- Intuitive to use
- So many features that are not available on other sites
- Onboarding was very comprehensive and extremely well done. [sensitive content hidden] was an excellent tutor and made it so easy.

Cons

It's not a criticism, but there's so many features it's hard to remember them all!

Pros

It has make my job lot easier and organized

Cons

Pricing, Booking engine it’s not easy for someone not used on coding or those skills… should have a price and some specialist to assist on designing the booking engines, and that there are still some things that may need to add in order to be perfect hehe

Pros

[sensitive content hidden] was over the top helpful in helping me navigate hostaway. He listened and understood my concerns and issues I was having and helped set up ways to make sure I set up and take advantage of all that hostaway has to offer to protect myself and my company.

Cons

What my initial concerns were have been completely taken care of and I know if something arises again I can just call and ask for help!

Pros

It integrates with my other items and software.

Cons

Its confusing sometimes and doesn't work how I want it to all the time.

Pros

It has all the features I need, and more.

Cons

Takes awhile to get set up. I signed up and had to wait a week to start the onboarding process (trust me, it's needed).

Alternatives Considered

Lodgify

Reasons for Choosing Hostaway

I switched to Hosthub because I liked it's features. I was worried about guest integration because they didn't have VRBO inbox options. THey assured me it would be coming and they sent emails instead. Sure enough, my VRBO guests got left behind as emails were not sent, and since they do not send notifications, it took me way to long to know when something was wrong.

Switched From

Hosthub

Reasons for Switching to Hostaway

Cost and ease of speaking with someone for a demo. Corry de Candole was quick to answer questions through email and the demo.