Being a vacation rental host means keeping up with property maintenance, organising cleaning schedules, communicating with guests, coordinating check-ins, managing listings across all your channels, and much more.
The right combination of tools can make life as a vacation rental host much easier (and more profitable!)
Vacation rental apps can help you:
- Run your business efficiently
- Get more bookings and increase your profit
- Give guests a better experience
- Keep your property and guests safe
There are many tools created specifically for the vacation rental industry. In this article, we’ll cover 10 essential apps for running a vacation rental business.
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Powerhost: an all-in-one software for hosts.
Listing your properties on a diverse range of channels helps you secure more bookings and boost your profits. Designed especially for hosts with up to 9 properties, Powerhost lets you connect your listings to online booking sites to receive reservations. It saves you the time and hassle of having to log in and out of each booking site separately to manage your listings.
With Powerhost, you never have to worry about disastrous double bookings or price discrepancies across channels. You can connect to a wide range of mainstream and niche channels with our certified and reliable API connections.
Your bookings and calendars will sync in real time, and all your content will update instantly across channels.
In addition to channel management, Powerhost has many other features to help you run your vacation rental business, such as:
- Website builder — Create a professional website where guests can book directly from you in just a few clicks.
- Guest communication — Chat with all your guests from a singe inbox.
- Multi-calendar — View all your bookings from each channel in a single calendar.
- Data platform — Review property and market data in clear dashboards to get an overview of your performance.
Price: From €19 a month, +1% booking fee. Free trial available
To see how Powerhost can save time and boost your efficiency, try it for free today.
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Chekin: Self-check-in app
You can make the check-in process easier and faster for you and your guests using Chekin. This simple-to-use app helps you automate check-in, so your guests can check themselves in when they arrive.
In addition to online check-in, the tool can also help with identity verification, customisation and signing rental contacts. You can charge your guests for tourist taxes, accept deposits or purchase insurance during the check-in process, and even send relevant documents to local authorities to make sure you comply with legal requirements.
The app also gives you the ability to upsell personalised experiences and services, like early or late check-out, services, transportation and activities.
Price: Basic plan starts at €4 a month per property.
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YourWelcome: Digital welcome book
YourWelcome is a digital welcome book tablet you place in your property to give your guests easy access to all the information they need about your property and the local area.
The digital guidebook can provide contactless check-in, property guides, and guest surveys where you can collect feedback and details. You can also upsell services, advertise local businesses, and collect guest reviews during their stay.
A digital welcome book helps promote your brand and elevate the guest experience to encourage repeat bookings.
Price: $240 per property per year.
4. Minut: Home monitoring and noise control
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A noise alarm will help protect against unwanted parties, property damage and problems with your neighbours.
Minut home monitoring alarm will alert you if there high levels of noise or crowds in your home. This means you can stop parties before they get out of control.
You can also monitor outdoor noise as well as temperature and humidity, and you’ll be alerted if a fire alarm goes off while your property is vacant.
The Minut alarm does not record any sound so you can protect your home without invading your guests privacy.
Price: Starts from $10 per month per property.
5. Ecobee: Smart thermostat
With a smart thermostat, you can save money on your utilities bill by staying in control of energy usage in your properties. You may be able to save up to $284 per year on your bill by using the Ecobee smart thermostat.
With this tool you can schedule your heating so your home is always at the right temperature, so you can keep your guests more comfortable without wasting energy. As a host, you can prevent guests overspending on energy by leaving the air conditioning or heating running while they’re out of the house.
Ecobee also provide home security systems that integrate with your smart thermostat. You can protect your home around the clock with professional monitoring that could even reduce your home insurance costs.
Price: Starts from $149.99
6. Igloohome: smart lock
Igloo home is a smart lock that lets you grant access to guests remotely through a pin code.
You can create unique pin codes for each guest, that will only last for the duration of their stay. Then, change the pin or revoke access when your guests have checked out.
This makes the check-in process easier for guests and saves you the time of meeting guests to hand over keys. Smart locks can also improve your property security and give you and your guests peace of mind.
There’s no need to download an app to access the property, and the smart lock will still work offline.
Price: Starts from $499
7. Safely – Insurance and guest screening
Safely is a guest screening and insurance app to help you protect your property. You can insure your property against damage and screen guests to make sure you know who is sleeping in your home.
You’ll be insured for each reservation, with up to $1,000,000 in coverage for your home, contents, and bodily injury.
In the event that you need to make a claim, you can submit your in 5 minutes and may get paid within just 4 days. You can even use the tool’s predictive analytics to avoid potential “bad guests” in the first place.
Price: Coverage starts from $8 a night.
Grow your business with the right combination of tools
With the right selection of tools you can go from struggling to maintain your vacation rental business, to growing your profits and building a successful brand. Despite the upfront investment, vacation rental apps can save you time and money in the long run and help you deliver amazing guest experiences. Check out this article on ways to stay in control of your vacation rental business.
If you’re new to vacation rental tools, there’s nothing more important that choosing the right channel manager. Try Powerhost for free today to see how we can help you earn more and work less.
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