Guesty PMS is one of the most popular vacation rental property management software platforms, used equally well by investors, hosts, and professional property managers. The system offers multiple tools that help streamline and automate many of the aspects of the short term rental property management process.
However, Guesty is not the only option available to owners and managers, so they should carefully consider the pros and cons as well as available alternatives before making a decision.
In this overview of Guesty PMS, we’ll take a look at the platform’s key features, main integrations, advantages and disadvantages, pricing, and customer reviews. We’ll also review the top Guesty competitors and check how the system compares to them.
What Is Guesty PMS?
Guesty is a property management system for vacation rentals. This means that Guesty PMS comprises an online platform that brings together a range of different tools and features that help optimize and automate Airbnb property management.
Guesty offers three different subscription plans which make it a possible option for both small and big vacation rental owners as well as professional Airbnb property managers and entire property management companies.
In terms of property types, Guesty PMS works with vacation rentals, urban rentals, serviced apartments, guesthouses, B&Bs, aparthotels, and outdoor stays.
With regards to market coverage, most Guesty tools are available globally, while others – like Guesty Damage Protection – are only available in the US and Mexico.
Key Features of Guesty PMS
Main features provided by the Guesty PMS
To understand how Guesty PMS brings operational efficiency in property management, we need to have a look at the main tools and features available on the platform.
Channel Manager
One of the most important features provided by the Guesty property management software is the Airbnb channel manager. This tool facilitates the process of how to list on Airbnb along with a few other vacation rental websites and then manage these multiple listings from a single platform.
The channel management and integration capacity ensures that all booking data is synchronized in real time, boosting visibility, reservations, and revenue.
Direct Reservations
The reservation and booking management feature allows for direct reservations through the Guesty PMS. This is enabled via a website builder, manual reservations, pre-set business rules, customized rate strategies, and customized quotes. This helps in enhancing guest experience in vacation rentals, bringing in more bookings and more income.
Unified Inbox
The unified inbox allows property owners and managers to perform all communication with guests in a single place, eliminating the need to keep an eye on numerous inboxes across various booking websites. Guesty PMS also provides options for automated communication and messaging to decrease waiting times, speed up reservations, and attract more possible guests.
Multi-Calendar
The multi-calendar is another important Guesty feature that operates as a unified property management calendar. You can block dates, adjust pricing, create reservations, and manage bookings from a single calendar, no matter on how many platforms your vacation rental is listed for rent.
Everything that you do on the Guesty multi-calendar is automatically reflected across all your listings, whether on Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, or any of the other distribution channels Guesty integrates with.
Multi-Unit Management
The multi-unit management feature refers to the ability to manage and consolidate all listings on the Guesty property management software. This helps enhance occupancy while saving time and effort on behalf of both short term rental owners and property managers.
Payment Solutions
You can access payments for your vacation rentals directly on Guesty PMS through integrations with third-party tools such as Stripe, Hyp, and Merchant Warrior. In this way, you can receive payments, track earnings, and reduce risk.
Revenue Management
The Guesty revenue management feature helps owners and managers boost earnings in a number of different ways. Some capabilities include rate customization, flexible pricing plans, dynamic pricing, direct booking coupons, channel promotions, and nightly rate plan templates.
Automation Tools
Automation is key for any short term rental management software as owners and managers want to be able to make more money while spending less time and effort on managing their portfolio of Airbnb properties. Guesty PMS allows for the automation of guest messaging, workflows, pricing, team tasks, payment collection, and guest reviews.
Accounting
Guesty PMS also operates as an Airbnb accounting software although it’s missing some sophisticated features provided by dedicated software tools. The feature helps with end-to-end cash management and the automation of many of the aspects of the financial and accounting process required for running a vacation rental business.
Analytics
Guesty Analytics is a tool that’s embedded in the property management system to provide reliable data for the hospitality industry. The feature offers competitive benchmarking, revenue mapping, review insights, communication analysis, and task performance.
Guesty PMS Add-Ons
In addition to the core Guesty features and benefits listed above, the PMS also offers some additional features that owners and managers can opt in for if needed.
Guesty Capital
Guesty Capital allows property owners to get funding to improve various parts of their Airbnb business. Repayments are flexible so that hosts pay more on good weeks and less on bad weeks.
Guesty Damage Protection
The available damage protection works as a type of Airbnb insurance to protect short term rentals from guest damage. The coverage ranges between $3,000 and $20,000 for content damage with additional coverage for professional bed bug removal, smoking-related incidents, and real property damage.
Guest Communication Services (GMS)
Airbnb property investors and property managers can opt in for guest communication services provided by the Guesty PMS team when their own team is off. This helps speed up communication while giving your team the time to rest.
Guesty Locks Manager
Guesty helps manage multiple smart locks by creating unique codes to let in guests during check-in, monitoring activity in real time, and providing ongoing updates on smart lock health.
GuestyPay
GuestyPay allows hosts and managers to access payments from guests from all major credit cards, including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, JCB, and others.
Guesty PriceOptimizer
This Guesty PMS feature offers Airbnb dynamic pricing through customized pricing strategies, pricing limits, and market visibility.
Guesty Websites
The Guesty website builder allows you to connect your existing website or create your own vacation rental listing website from scratch. The tool comes with Airbnb SEO and Google Analytics tools and can be localized in 30 languages.
Guesty PMS Integrations
The Guesty property management software integrates with dozens of third-party tools to streamline and automate vacation rental management for different properties and different users.
Guesty integrations include tools across the following categories:
- Booking channels
- Channel managers
- Financials and accounting
- Guest management
- Home automation and security
- Marketing
- New arrivals
- Operations, cleaning, and maintenance
The most important integrations are with:
- Airbnb
- Vrbo
- Booking.com
- Expedia
- Hopper
- PriceLabs
- Wheelhouse
- Beyond
- AirDNA
- Key Data
- Ximplifi
- Breezeway
- Safely
- RemoteLock
- Turno
- Operto
- Keycafe
- Properly
- Host.AI
- SiteMinder
- Propertyhero
- RezRecover
- Besty AI
- SecureStay
- KeyNinja
Understanding Guesty PMS Pricing
Before deciding if Guesty PMS is the right vacation rental management software for your needs, you need to familiarize yourself with the cost.
The Guesty pricing model is subscription-based and offers three different tiers, with the cost depending on access to tools and the number of vacation rentals in your portfolio.
The plans include:
- Guesty Lite: This Guesty for Hosts plan is tailored to the needs of owners with 1-3 properties and offers access to the basic features. Pricing starts at $27/month.
- Guesty Pro: This plan is meant for those who manage 4-199 properties and require access to more sophisticated short term rental management software. Pricing is custom.
- Guesty Enterprise: This plan is ideal for users with 200+ properties and provides access to all Guesty features. Pricing is custom.
Guesty subscriptions can be monthly or annual, with discounts available with yearly plans.
Access to the add-on features is paid for separately.
Pros and Cons of Guesty PMS
Like any other Airbnb property management software platform, Guesty PMS comes with its own pros and cons.
Let’s take a look at the main advantages and disadvantages of this tool:
Guesty PMS Pros
The most important benefits provided by Guesty include:
- Multiple features
- Numerous integrations
- Automation capabilities
- Available customer support
- Suitability for both property owners and property managers
Guesty PMS Cons
The main drawbacks of Guesty are:
- Unclear pricing for multiple properties and all features
- Extra fees for access to the add-on features
- Buggy features and problematic integrations as reported by customers
Guesty PMS User Reviews and Testimonials
Customer reviews of Guesty PMS
When choosing the best vacation rental software for your business, you should consider the experiences of other hosts and property managers and the Guesty reviews they’ve written on third-party websites.
Following are the average rankings of the software platform on trustworthy online review websites based on Guesty user reviews:
- Trustpilot: 4.7/5 stars from 501 reviews
- Capterra: 4.4/5 stars from 259 reviews
- GetApp: 4.4/5 stars from 259 reviews
- Software Advice: 4.4/5 stars from 259 reviews
- G2: 4.5/5 stars from 40 reviews
Guesty PMS customers are generally satisfied with the platform. They highlight the automation processes, the frequent updates, and the good support. Unhappy hosts and property managers complain about buggy features, problems with channel integrations, the channel manager not working properly, the lack of pricing transparency, the high cost, and others.
Comparing Guesty PMS to Competitors
While Guesty is well-known in the vacation rental software industry, it’s not the only platform available to hosts and managers.
Next, we’ll cover the best Guesty competitors and what makes them different from this PMS.
Mashvisor
Mashvisor is the best Guesty competitor as the only all-in-one vacation rental software platform. The Mashvisor Market Finder and Property Finder help investors find the best short term rental markets and the top-performing Airbnb properties for sale based on their specific requirements and needs.
Then, the Mashvisor Airbnb Dynamic Pricing Software Tool allows hosts and property managers to set up the optimal rate for each day, based on market dynamics, comp performance, and seasonal trends. Unlike other dynamic pricing tools, Mashvisor works to maximize revenue and ROI rather than bookings and occupancy.
At the same time, the Mashvisor Channel Manager, Multi-Calendar, and Unified Inbox streamline, improve, and automate the various aspects of vacation rental property management. This allows hosts and property managers to focus on what really matters in their business.
The Mashvisor Vacation Rental Website Builder helps both property owners and managers launch a dedicated property website. In this way, you can give direct reservations a boost and give your occupancy rate an additional push. Meanwhile, this requires no software development skills or experience.
Furthermore, through its partnership with Steadily, Mashvisor offers short term rental insurance that is specifically tailored to the needs of Airbnb-style properties. This combines comprehensive coverage with competitive rates.
It’s important to note that the Mashvisor real estate data analytics platform works with both short term and long term rental data so that investors can choose the best strategy for their needs. Moreover, they can find a location and a property that can operate equally well when rented out on a daily or monthly basis.
iGMS
iGMS is another short term rental property management software that provides an alternative to Guesty PMS. iGMS reviews show that the platform offers all the most important tools, while pricing might be a bit more affordable than Guesty pricing.
Lodgify
Lodgify is a leading provider of vacation rental software that includes all must-have features. Pricing starts at $13/month, less than Guesty and iGMS.
Hostfully
While Hostfully, as a Guesty competitor, can be used by both hosts and property managers, Hostfully reviews that that it is a better fit for the needs of the latter. Pricing is rather prohibitive for owners with just a few properties.
Hostaway
The Hostaway functionalities are comparable to the Guesty PMS functionalities. A main con is that pricing is not clearly defined on the company website.
Host Tools
Among all Guesty PMS alternatives, Host Tools offers the most limited options in terms of tools and features. Meanwhile, pricing is similar to Guesty, at least for the most basic plan.
Is Guesty PMS the Right Choice for Your Vacation Rental Business?
This Guesty PMS overview shows that this is a comprehensive platform that covers most of the needs of vacation rental property owners and managers in terms of the streamlining and automation of short term rental management. Pricing is competitive and depends on the number of features and the number of properties.
However, if you require a software platform that will be able to help you with everything in your short term rental business – from finding a profitable property, through insuring it properly, all the way to managing listings, pricing, and bookings – you should check out Mashvisor. Our all-in-one real estate platform will help you put your vacation rental management on autopilot, while you work towards growing your portfolio and your business.