Kigo

Pros

Nothing really good because we just get troubles and problems

Cons

I ask around 20 times the assistance of Kigo to help me and after 6 months without be able to synchronize my calendar I decide to stop this service because during that 6 months I paid each month around 60 Euros (54 Usd) for nothing. I didn’t get any service for the monthly fees I paid during 6 months.
At the end I paid 500 usd of penalty + 6 months of subscription… and all for nothing.

Pros

This is stable software - it works well and this is because it is an old legacy product. As such dont expect developements or progress, it is how it is and they are unwilling to risk breaking anything by changing anything. Take this as either a positive or a negative up to you. Personally it is the opposite of agile which is really where you need to be aiming for in the future.

Cons

One issue is they appear to have had to shoehorn in certain aspects maybe where channels etc have changed API - as such the interface is unintuitive and rather dated feeling.

The main reason I do not recommend this software is their charging model. They charge a percentage of all bookings (okay I guess) - even direct booking not via channels (still maybe ok I guess) - HOWEVER! They still charge their commission even on cancelled bookings!!!! Even direct cancelled bookings!! Eg if you have a large corporate multi month guest who decides to cancel well in advance you can end up paying hundreds/ thousands in fees. This is wholly unacceptable - AVOID

Pros

Good Integration with AirBnb, Booking.com etc. & very efficient Implementation Specialist.

Cons

• Kigo Legacy was shutting down, before the new Kigo software was completed and properly tested. When we signed up in March 2019, we were instructed to work in 2 separate -not yet compatible- platforms, Kigo & KigoPro.

• All 3 below Kigo features were paid for, but never used. The process was so unnecessary complicated that we had to use our own custom-made applications instead.
- To use Operations, we needed to switch between 6-7 different tabs both on KIGOPRO and KIGO.
- No All-in-one Calendar. There was one Reservations’ calendar on KIGO, another on KIGOPRO, an Overview under Operations, another Overview under Schedule and so on… No availability search option on the main RESERVATIONS’ Calendar.
- Owners XP had no option to send monthly owner statements & payouts, so didn't apply to us.

• No customizable templates with variables, only notification emails with a general content that must apply to all properties and all guests.

• A Current & a New Statement popped up when a reservation was edited, that needed to be compared thoroughly every time, because in several cases the Statements were inconsistent with the changes made.

• Constant issues/ bugs & annoying details: Photos not syncing, Deposit refunds not updating, properties disappearing from the website, reviews displayed twice, dates in both US & European formats, time in both am/pm & 24-hour formats, etc.

Pros

Been with them for going on 4 years now and although like all companies they had some growing pains but their ultra positive attitude and work ethic have really made a great product

Cons

Nothing really, they are adding news api’s and services all the time

Pros

I have been using this software for 5 years and always appreciated the ease of use and the stable connection it has with a vast number of OTA's and distributors.

Cons

The software is less flexible than other solutions and modifications can hardly be implemented if not at a certain cost.

Pros

No set up fees
Relatively rapid onboarding
Decent price (1.25% for non payment bookings (e.g. ABB)) and 4% for paid bookings (e.g. VRBO, Booking, Direct...note that amount inc CC processing which I was paying 2.8% for at stripe so approx 1.2% for those and about that overall as well).

Cons

Let me count the ways:
1. outdated payment requirements on Kigo Pay
2. Messaging has never worked on mobile
3. Calendar is unreadable and the recent update made it worse (mobile especially)
4. Ops management is a joke (no cal for the cleaners, no email or text capability to let them know about a booking, app is unbearably unfriendly to use
5. API integrations are shite (no discount push to AirBNB as a line item or ability to push info to the detailed sections of the ABB ads, Booking paymetns always fail (see #1 for this), VRBO won't push rules (pet friendly, non smoking no parties) to the ads correctly
6. Owner XP is ludicrous (no $ , calendars still incorrect (off by a day)
7. Statements are uneditable (only able to discount)

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Kigo

Reasons for Switching to Kigo

Pros

Intuitive and OK when it works.... If you do not have your back office it may be helpful.

Cons

Expensive
Lack of flexibility
Can not do SEO in the web page they sell
Awful client management.

Pros

one-stop all-inclusive, flexible if you know how to work it, Accounting feature

Cons

It takes to long to implement requested feature upgrades. The software isn't the real problem. Although there is a learning curve and ongoing support is necessary. The back office is whats holding back the good reviews. Sales over-promise or sell features that arent possible.
Say they will call or email back to hear nothing and become unresponsive. They are completely comfortable washing the consumers time.

Pros

It is truly amazing how much you can do with the system from managing all the channels, to your guests, cleaners, maintenance and so much more. The best part of KIGO is the support, you will be assigned an implementation manager to help you get started and they will guide you through all the aspects of the system. We have been assigned a customer agent to help us with our launch with KIGO and who has been an absolute star! Very knowledgable and was always there if we had any questions. Would highly recommend them!

Cons

The system can be a bit confusing at times as there is so many functions, and there are multiple ways of doing some of the things which can be a bit frustrating at times, but as far as I am aware they are working on resolving these issues and are always improving the system which is great!

Pros

The passion of the team behind the software set this apart in the crowded vacation rentals market. The software was a simplification of multiple platforms with an all-in-one cost model that made it scale well for small-medium businesses. Their seamless integration to the major 3rd party channels opened up sales revenue that business may otherwise struggle to place their product in.

The Sales Director, and VP for Tech were an absolute pleasure to deal with during the analysis period.

Cons

It wasn't quite right for our company due to the integration to our existing website and some queries over the cost model working at our size of company.

Pros

I was a Kigo customer from 2015-2016 and left in March to try BookingPal, Guesty, and Next. Kigo overall at this point in time was truly horrendous. Our team encountered problems with the software everyday, support never solved our issues and often said they were solved even though they were not. This was impossible to stay on top of. Our website was an embarrassment and continuously had glitches. The onboarding process was a complete nightmare to put it mildly. Fast-forward to end of last year. I received a call from Mat Hoffman. When I realized the purpose of the call was to invite me back, I hung up. To his credit he called back a week later. Surprisingly, it was to apologize for the businesses previous shortcomings, that Kigo had a new product team, and that if I were to give Kigo another shot, if it wasn't different this time, they would refund 2 times whatever we spent inside the first 6 months. I can respect a company that takes accountability. Kigo has undergone a complete transformation. Credit where credit's due. The software, especially the guest app and new website platform. The implementation process still requires a lot of work, but at least this time it was very well organized. My implementation manager at times was reminding our team what we were missing on. The frontline customer teams at Kigo today are far more informed and have a respectable understanding of our business needs. Great job Kigo with 2nd chances and the amazing turnaround.

Cons

While I would still like to receive more options for training then offered today. Recorded videos that were in Spanish as well would be helpful.

Pros

The reason we chose Kigo was because it promised to be able to do all the things that were important to us. They said it could handle channel management, an owner portal, housecleaning management, website integration, guest app and guest communication. The truth is it does all of that - just in the worst way possible.

Cons

First off understand that Kigo is 2 platforms. A legacy platform that all your properties need to be set up on and then a newer platform for the overall management. This is ridiculous and I should have run away the instant I saw that. The communication between the two platforms is poor. You constantly find yourself trying to figure out which platform to go to to fix an issue - and trust me there will be issues. In every single training session (which took a month) my trainer had to apologize for something not working. Now all that being said all the functionality is there - It is just confusing, buried and difficult to find. Kigo states that the management website is responsive - until you try to see the calendar (the most important part) . Then you have to turn your phone sideways and adjust the view dates so that you can see farther than 10 days ahead. Change anything over 10 days ahead and when you hit save it defaults back to the 10 day window - making anything you do slow and painful.

Then there is the website - "the extrodinary experience" for your guests. Actually it is a stripped down wordpress website that limits you, the user, from adjusting the look, adding plugins, adding booking widgets outside of the presets and adding any sort of style to the platform. Instead of offering a simple plugin solution they have given you a website that is bland, useless and does nothing to represent your business or brand. That and they slap powered by kigo all over it.

Pros

Calendar availability. Guest communication

Cons

Document management. Cleaning vendors schedule

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Kigo

Pros

the ease of creating a reservation and sending a quote and the link to pay

Cons

The quality of the website and the poor display of the photos online. All the photos online are not display as original size and quality and give a very poor basic kigo website

Pros

The calendars and pricing sync well for Homeaway and Airbnb.

Cons

Set up and integration is a nightmare. Frequent issues that take days or even weeks to correct. Loss of functionality with Channels. Ease of use.

Pros

Keeping our calendar updated and making reservations is easy

Cons

Since the change to Kigo Pro, there have been many unsolved issues. But I think what I like the least is not having better accounting reports.

Pros

Easy feature, easy to use best customer services

Cons

Taxes has to be made manually, inspection don't have check list and don't have a place to upload the pictures for inspection and housekeeping

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Kigo

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Kigo

Pros

The management with the OTA's, bookings and the automated payments

Cons

Operations management for the cleaners and handymand

Pros

third property management, reporting about it, and area extra-net to owners log-in.
direct linked to web site
reporting area
e-mails triggers

Cons

web site SEO
photo loader without any edit program to correct
payment register
lack of a complete manual (even if the system is very easy to use and to learn, sometime a manual that explain you the overall functions to teach you how to manage it or give you some goods idea to implement your job, could be useful)

Pros

I have been using Kigo Legacy for 2 years and 9 months. My experience with the software is very positive: it is very stable system, the support team is very responsive (Speacially Russian speaking agent Magda), Channel manager is very good. Thanks to Kigo Legacy my apartments are listed in many vacation rentals portals. Now I have more bookings and the communication with the guests is easier. Thank you for everything Kigo Legacy team.

Cons

No updates done for Kigo Legacy. I would like you update the channel manager more and add the new functionalities.

Pros

backoffice:
Global view of all properties and availability dates
Easy to keep track of all imported data
Super email inquiry import system (it litteraly takes me less than 30sec to reply to a flipkey / tripadvisor booking request) and as being fast is the key to get more booking, i really get more every months!
Pre setting of all mails, so quick to send info to potential clients
Have not used the channel manager but looks like a great tool to connect with other user and get more bookings. will do next month!!
Possibility to individualise each property settings, again super time saver
I manage 20+ properties by myself, without Kigo, i would not have been able to do it (especially without mistakes!)

Cons

After 8 months, so far i do not see many...
It just take quite some time to set up the back office for each property as well as for the email templates but once this is created 80% of the job is done and i can use more time to develop the business
At this point, only one user to log in (basically the agency). would like to have 2 or 3 users to be able to track things done if pbs occurs
would love the email import tool to recognize airbnb confirmations so not have to enter the , but it is a small thing
Maybe Kigo CSS stylesheet template makes it difficult to create your website easily.
I have used 3 webmasters and it has not been easy. We are almost there so if i can update the webiste directly from my back office, i will be very happy, and it looks like it now.

Pros

Revenue management, and OPS / Guest App
Synchronisation with numbers of plateforms
Management of properties and reservations

Cons

Miss an optimisation tool of occupation rate by having possibilities to have special prices and stay duration on empty dates
Miss a full synchronisation both ways with Google Calendar
To be improve radically the accounting chapter. Very difficult to communicate with owners on that

Pros

When it works, it is easy to see where my bookings are. The website is fairly user friendly and as good as others that I have seen.

Cons

As a property owner, my rental manager uses Kigo to manage the properties under her care. Over a week ago, it was noticed that my property could not be accessed on the rental managers website (scroll down to my property, click, and it takes you back to the previous page rather than the details of our condo). Reported over a week ago to Kigo - still no fix. Latest from Kigo is that "they don't know what the problem is" I'm told, this is happening on about 4 properties out of about 60 managed by our rental manager manages. Really? Can't figure out the problem

Pros

The software is excellent, several functionalities. Objective and functional is able to manage the entire process of administration, booking, services, etc.
The fact that having a dedicated team in each particularity of the software makes the implementation process unique and tailored to their specific needs. The team really knows the product, in a simple and objective way you learn to operate the system without having to be an ace of information technology.

Pros

We liked the comprehensiveness of the software. It does everything that we need. Kigo makes running our vacation rental business a bit easier.

Cons

As a smaller company with a smaller vacation rental inventory we had concerns regarding the price point and the minimum monthly fees.

Pros

Many of the functions are easy to learn, or teach to new employees.

Cons

Within "All Reservations" "Check In" reports, I wish it would show what the balance is, not just "Partially Paid" and the due dates, instead of having to completely open each reservation.

Pros

I start by saying that i think no one suffer as much with kigo as we did! Looking back (8 years) i consider that the learning curve and expertise we got form all the problems we faced made us the company we are today and for this we are very thankful.

For all potentional clients looking to Kigo this is what you need to know:

1) There are no perfect software systems (gold rule), but after all the changes Kigo did in 2017 i know that Kigo is not only the best software on the market but also will change the way that many PM do their business and is always adding new features and solutions that will surprise you and put your business on the right track.

2) The customer support is incredible, and allow me the personal BIG thank you to Júlia Peixoto that completely changed the relation and vision we had with Kigo through her work.

3) the leader of Kigo, is a visionary and I know he is already changing our market and a lot more will come.
4) I would need to highlight the rest of the team, but having people like is a game changer and give us all the trust on their future.

5) Finally, i do remember an ad Kigo had few years ago that said "Do not bring a Knife to a Guns Fight" (i know it´s to American) but actually it honestly represents what working with kigo means: you count with a system (that is not perfect) but allows you to be on top of the game, feel protected and prepared for the future!

Cons

To be fair, with 8 years experience using the system, 1500 characters wouldn´t be enough! However, i would like to add my value to this question by focusing on something diferent that you will find from the other reviews:

1) There are no perfect systems, so there is no point of putting all the faults on a system and expect all the solutions just because you are paying a small fee per month.

2) It´s very funny to see clients from Kigo or other PMS, making huge complains about the service provided when everybody makes errors and bad experiences on their companies, pointing the finger it´s easy, how you contribute to avoid them and make a better service is what is important and on this field, kigo, since 2017, have been delivering.

3) In RentExperience, we learned a basic rule, a company like Kigo won´t make a solution for one specific client so you need to understand your business, your goals and how you will achieve them. The value proposition of Kigo nowadays is to give you a software that can give you "peace of mind" of the day to day work and make your company more efficient but the rest it will have to come from you!

To finalize, there is a reason why we still work with Kigo....because we are believers! We believe on Kigo system and their team! They are always looking to the future and developing new tools to companies like us to be better and at the end of the day, allow us to make more money!

Pros

Easy to user interface. Quick learning curve. Booking from calendar view. Integration with AirBnb, Booking.com and others. Nice front page booking bar. E-commerce for initial booking deposit and refunds (but not for the balance which has be done manually). Allows for lots of different fee structures. Built in revenue management system for an extra fee (haven't used it yet).

Cons

No channel connection with Expedia, which alone will cost this property thousands in lost bookings. Website changes are slow to show up because of the way that they cache the files. Takes hours or sometimes days for a change to show up on the site. If they mess something up, there is nothing you can do to fix your site, you have to wait for them. You can create specials but they do not show up until after the guest has made the booking, so they are useless. Support is good, but slow. Issues can take a few days or longer to get resolved. Seasonal price feature is good idea, but buggy and I think no longer supported. There is no way to track when features are being released (they may or may not be). There is no group booking feature. Only 6 slideshows and no video allowed for front page on paid website packages.

Pros

good support even though support are at the mercy of the developers when it comes to more serious issues. Calendars update nicely across the channel manager

Cons

Kigo seems more intent on rolling out new more expensive software rather than addressing issues that I, and no doubt many other current customers have. Many of my issues, although relatively minor have not been resolved in the last 12months. The Kigo websites look decent enough but their functionality for would be online bookers is very poor. To add, I am now told that my ongoing issues won't be resolved as Kigo will roll out an updated version of the software as well as new look/functionality websites. Rather than do the right thing and give old customers access to these new features Kigo want me to signa new contract and pay more per month + tack on a monthly hosting website fee (a hosting fee that was already included in my current contract).

Pros

The calendar is helpful. I am just typing now because of minimum characters.

Cons

Everything else.

The functionality is clunky. My concept of what KIGO was when I signed up and what I think it should be vs. what it actually is for me is totally different. I only use it because I dont have time to find something better.

Pros

The Booking Engine Setup is very straightforward to use for setting up booking rules, whilst the App Bookings Manager functionality itself is equally easy to use for receiving payments, issuing refunds, communicating with Customers, and in general for managing all the various different aspects of vacation bookings.

The Analytics Dashboard within the App is an exceptionally useful tool for providing a snapshot of the current status of reservations, which helps a great deal in organising property housekeeping and maintenance services, besides enabling us to quickly and efficiently produce detailed real-time progress reports to the reservations team and overall performance reports for company shareholders.

Apart from the functionalities, we continue to receive an outstanding level of customer support from all areas, be that from our dedicated Account Manager, Web Development Expert or Members of the Billing Team. Queries are promptly resolved within a timely and satisfactory manner.

All in all, most of the software functionalities are intuitive and user friendly, whilst the Team behind the software is continuously fine tuning them and keeps adding new features.

Using KIGO has gone a long way towards ensuring the success of our business during the past two years, and has significantly contributed to our expansion. I would highly recommend it for anyone looking to enter the hospitality industry, or for existing businesses looking to maximise their revenue.

Cons

The translation of the Document Templates within the Setup functionality is not 100% accurate; this should be highlighted as an area for further improvement, as it is likely to be a concern for a business with a large pool of international clientele, who may not necessarily speak or understand English.

The Search Engine Optimisation functionality within Setup is not very easy to understand for a layman, and would require the involvement of a professional SEO expert.

Pros

speaking about the pros, it is really useful in the sync of the prices and all related to the properties and its owners.

Cons

Regarding the cost i would like to sugesst a report that provides the actual information of our needs. for example: We need to have the real information about what happened in the 1st quarter of the semester and when i extract some information from several reports... it gives me DIFERENT result every time, so at the end i dont know which information is the most reliable.

i´d like to know how much money i got in months in specific (Jan, Feb and March) regardless the date of the booking (for example: if i got a booking in september for january i would like to see it in January, not in september)

If i get an info from the occupancy dashboard it has to match with the "booking by lead source" report, or the "bookings by agent" report.

We try to compare our performance from 2017 with 2018 and it is really hard when you have different information with the same parameters or dates. and that leads you to not knowing which one is the right one.

i think that all the reports should match... one that says the right % of occupancy, other one with the main lead sources, other one that says how much money you have collected etc etc where at the end all of them match with the number of booking, number of money, number of occupancy, booked nights, and so on.

and with all of these you can EXACTLY measure your performance per season, per quarters and so on.

Pros

Nothing but the idea that we were sold on.

Cons

Everything.

CONS
Poorly designed and executed software
Slow clunky platform
Bounces admins from two different platforms to do very simple functions
NO APP - despite what they tell you in their sales pitch
Software is full of glitches and rarely works correctly
The support and implementation team is lacking simple knowledge on how their software operates
No notifications when guests communicate
The calendar is set up in row format making it very difficult to view
Data is not consistent in Kigo
The client platform is sold as interactive but is really incredibly basic and doesn't allow clients to view their rental data/reporting as advertised
Causes error's within channel managers

Pros

There is nothing I like about this software or company. They are liars and thieves.

I have never had an experience like this and recommend that you consider your other options.

Pros

Kigo allows API connections with the majority of the main stream channels for short term rentals. It is pretty easy to use, constantly developed with new upgrades, 24/7 customer service available for your needs. So many features available, you can customize its usage to make it a bespoke SaaS for your business.

Cons

As it is on-cloud, the common objections are about its responsiveness (very good itself but in some cases, the staff had to fix some delays with connections to portals, probably caused by portals too. These type of issues can prevent rates&avaiability updates depending on the portal you are going to deal with: for e.g., Booking.com does not allow a manual un-lock if the connetcion with Kigo is down for a while (I have experienced this a couple of times in the year). This means that you have to put yourself in touch with the customer service immediately in order to avoid overbookings or reservations with wrong fares. However, this is a common issue you will find working with channel managers and the strength of Kigo is its prompt help provided by his team that you could not find joining others.

Pros

Versatility, adaptability, progress, UI, general suport

Cons

minor dis-functionalities, channel lists and set-up process, part of the set-up.

Pros

Support manager is very warm and helpful, but technical support is mostly useless, one iteration per week is not enough.

Cons

1) Endless and innumerous bugs in the system,: buttons are not clickable, does not work correctly with Safari, they ask you to download other browsers (why? ) Very hard to use and we are quite advanced as a company in the IT technologies.

2) Unstable and unreliable connection between KIGO and Bookimg.com, failed bookings, discrepancies in calendars which we update in KIGO (correctly) and those which KIGO sends to the channels (incorrectly), practically manual uploading of each property and the necessity to supervise it.

3) Promises unkept, late response or no response: Expedia with content api was promised last year, latest end of Jan, still not there, no clear understanding of when it is launched at full scale, credit/refunds issue has been raised, promises given and never kept, bookings in Bookimg. com failed and need to be cancelled, penalisations waived: promises to speak to Booking.com given, no further action of at least we are aware of.

Pros

Websites look good when they function. The booking engine is easy to use and includes good features. Auto responders work well enough.

Cons

Customer support is terrible and mostly off shore. Constant software and integration issues.

Pros

1 is the service. I've never seen a company this large with a culture so strong. I've yet to meet ONE person that's been in a sales OR support role that didn't go above and beyond what their role scope called for to ensure our experience is great.
2 is the simplicity of the software
3 - The dynamic price tool
4- Channel connections
5- Always willing to improve and listens to all their customers(Very Important for me)

Cons

I wish the software had better reporting(which i know is coming very soon for the KIGO PAY which is a new product)
Also, it's not yet connected with Trip Advisor
Waiting on Home automation

Pros

Not too many pros we can vouch for. Kigo worked for us as a very basic reservation platform but we quickly outgrew it's capabilities.

Cons

Over promise, under deliver should be their motto. There is no sync option with Airbnb. No analytics to track demographic using website. No accounting software . Customer service are located overseas in different time zones. Lack of English speaking staff makes for difficult assistance . Terrible value for money and no guarantee of features being sold. Head office does not respond to issues. There is no account manager assigned - you deal with multiple staff who do not know your company, website, or history.

Pros

ok software

Cons

Bugs + customer support

Pros

Not a single thing worked or functioned. Minimal training, embarrassing support.

Cons

Every single thing. Rude management and account managers, who nit only tell you they couldn't care less about your company, they prove it to you. I was genuinely shocked at how aware they are this software doesn't work, but bill you so far above and beyond what you signed and agreed to. When you question it, expect to be hung up on.

Pros

Easy of use. The system has a lot of potential to be the biggest and the best. Learning the needs of the clients and adding that to the system would make it almost perfect. Kigo is growing and learning and getting better in being there for the client.

Cons

The system isn't open for changes. It takes to much time to adjust or ad something new to the product. Isn't ready for social media or MailChimp. Removing the benefits from the software:
Ical, API with software of Kigo, not having a website development department anymore and not learning from the clients. Adjusting to the changes of the rental market.

Pros

What I like most about Kigo is that it is very easy to synchronize the photos and information reserves with all the pages and above all it has a good technical support team that always helps you at all times and with much interest, they are fantastic.

Cons

There are two things I do not like about Kigo. One is that the synchronization with tripadvisor is not done automatically. I have had a reserve 8000 a week booking in a villa in Marbella from tripadvisor and I had to close the calendar manually so I created a lot of stress because it was a very important reservation. I do not like that of so many pages with Kigo collaborates only three or four send us reservations. Of 20 pages only 3 have Booking for us.