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[00:00:00] Sarah: Hello. Welcome back for another great episode. My name is Sarah Karakaian.

[00:00:03] Annette: I am Annette Grant. And together we are–

[00:00:05] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.

[00:00:06] Sarah: And this is the–

[00:00:06] Both Annette & Sarah: Hosting Hotline.

[00:00:07] Sarah: If you want to get your hosting question answered here on the podcast, all you have to do is go to hostinghotline.com. We’ll ask you to ask your question and then we’ll share it here on the podcast and we’ll get it answered. Today we have a question from Marie.

[00:00:21] Question: Hey, ladies. Thank you so much for this podcast. We have four properties and you have helped us every single step of the way, unreal. Right now, we are wondering if we should get a PMS. We have four properties. They’re all on Airbnb, and they’re doing well. But we’re about to bring on a fifth and we’re wondering if now is the time.

[00:00:45] But we are truly overwhelmed with all the options. So how do we decide which PMS to use? How did you guys decide, and what is important to look for when you are deciding? Thank you, guys, so much. Love you.

[00:01:00] Sarah: Marie, we love you too. And the enthusiasm behind the podcast was really appreciated. No, that’s great. And I was just reminiscing with Annette. I was telling her like, I remember exactly where I was when I just finally decided to get a spreadsheet out and all the different property management software I was considering back in the day and then doing like a pros and cons list and doing my own comparison because there are a ton of options. It is overwhelming. Everyone has a reason why they like the one that they’re using. And–

[00:01:31] Annette: Every host has a reason why, and then every business has a reason why they’re better than the other company.

[00:01:36] Sarah: Yeah. And we’re going to answer Marie’s question, but then we’re also going to get into the nuances of the PMS software itself.

[00:01:45] To answer your question, Marie, how did we decide? What was like that? We did a pros and cons. And if you haven’t yet used a property management software, which is in most cases, you have to ask yourself, what do you wish you could do now that you cannot do very easily or it’s taking you a lot of time that’s really frustrating you about only being on, whether it’s Airbnb or Vrbo or what have you?

[00:02:11] That’s what I did. And I didn’t like how I had to log into– because at that time, I’m trying to remember. I had a couple of pieces of software, and they weren’t talking to anything because at the time Airbnb didn’t talk to software either. So I was having to go to all these different places to run the business. It was somewhere around 2016 or something, ’17 like that.

[00:02:31] And so it’s not like it was back in the early days. Automations and technology existed. There has to be a better way. And so then I started shopping around. Obviously I went and found out reviews from other hosts. I would go into, whether it was Facebook groups or ask my hosting friends or local hosting groups and just get authentic feedback, like what are you using?

[00:02:52] What do you like about it? What don’t you like about it? And I would write those remarks down. And here’s the I think everyone should do, is narrow it down to two or three options and then hop on a sales call with them and see who you jive with. What salesperson is the most helpful?

[00:03:09] Ask them like, if I have a question– I don’t know you guys, but sometimes I’m doing my hosting work at 10 o’clock at night, my time, 11 o’clock, I do it when I can sometimes. And I want to be able to ask a question in chat and not have to wait to the next day. That’s where we’re at here in this world of customer support, is customers want help when they want it and how they want it.

[00:03:29] And so there’s so much tech out there. Whoever can have the best customer service in my opinion wins because getting my questions answered ASAP, I hate having to put a support ticket in and then waiting to get a response, what, day, two days later. Especially when it comes to hosting, you want to know right away. So customer support for me too was huge.

[00:03:48] Annette: I think knowing where you want to go with your business is important too, 1,000%. That’s something I feel like a lot of us will choose something before we really think through. Am I going to grow the business? Is this something that I can grow into? We always want to put band aids on problems. At least that’s normally what I do, is just get the quick fix of what’s going to help but not really thinking through growth.

[00:04:09] And also, in that decision making process, sometimes I fell victim to falling for the least expensive solution because that’s what I could afford at the time. Sarah and I have experienced a lot of growing pains this way. And then having to do those upgrades, which were like, why did we not just invest a little bit more at the time?

[00:04:30] And we understand. You’ve always got to make the decision on money, but I think really thinking through your growth, and if you get to that next stage, how much time is it going to take you to switch over? Or is it going to be able to be capable to do what you want to do?

[00:04:43] So I also just taking a moment once you’re doing that review of just thinking about your business to have like, hey, if I incorporate this PMS, could I bring on make me co-hosting clients? And what does that look like? And can I bring on more properties? Think about if you do streamline this stuff, what is that going to open up for you? And so just taking a little step away from your current status and thinking about the future.

[00:05:04] Sarah: And that’s why it’s really important too. This exercise is going to be difficult, but taking the time to really think through it, just get a pen and paper and just sit and quiet and then really think about it. Because what I didn’t realize, and whenever I got a sales call, I talked through the salesperson with how I run my business.

[00:05:19] So let me give you an example. I’m still co-hosting. I’m a property manager, but I was like, okay, so I’m a co-host on, whatever it was, 12 other properties. Plus, I own my own, and I need to make sure that all these properties can– and the salesperson’s like, oh, okay, wait a minute.

[00:05:37] So if they’re not all under your Airbnb account and you co-host other people’s Airbnb account, then you’re going to have to move them to yours. And at the time I didn’t want to do that. I was selling the feature that my clients had their own Airbnb listings. I became a co-host on it.

[00:05:53] So if ever we didn’t work out, they kept their listing with all the reviews. It was a marketing situation for us. And so that wouldn’t work with a lot of property management software at the time. So right there, it narrowed down. So really thinking about how you run your business now, plus what Annette just said with where you want to go is going to be crucial because I will tell you this.

[00:06:15] Changing from one PMS to another is hard. They will sell you on the fact that they’ll help you migrate, whether you want to upgrade or whatever. And they will, but make no mistake, you still have to be involved, and it is still time consuming and double bookings will happen. Reservations will get lost.

[00:06:32] The emails will go out to your guests when you don’t want them to. So if you can, think about where you’re at, plus where you want to be, and try to find the best software for you. Taking all that into consideration, I think, is best.

[00:06:47] Annette: And making sure you have the time to implement it too. I think that’s the other thing that people want to get up and running like yesterday on things, but it’s also slow down to speed up, and make sure that you have the proper time in your life carved out that you can onboard with the PMS that you choose also.

[00:07:04] Sarah: Before pressing record, Annette and I were talking about this too. We’re like, hmm, okay, four properties. Well, Airbnb’s host fees are getting to be so astronomical for some hosts. It’s 15% for a lot of hosts. And there’s debate on whether or not that 15% is whether you’re connected to a PMS or not.

[00:07:22] We’ve seen it for both, so I don’t think there’s a hard and true fact there regardless. And I was like, I understand that it is expensive. Airbnb is charging you this host fee, so maybe you should just use Airbnb. But then you think about, well, no, that’s expensive. So if I’m in this for the long haul, I need to work on my direct booking site, and I need to work on getting email addresses so I can do my own marketing and get to a point.

[00:07:49] It might take one, two, three years to see the results of that labor, but I still believe it to be very important because there’s also those stories, and we’ve talked about them here in the podcast where hosts get suspended. They get removed completely. No explanation. Maybe it’s a glitch, but then how much money did you lose because you have no control over being on that OTA.

[00:08:12] So while, yes, Airbnb gives us so much for so little, 15% or some of you are still at the 3% or what have you, and you’re like, well, why do I need to get off this platform? And I’m just saying, if you were in this for the long haul, investing in a PMS, I do believe is an important business decision that you need to make.

[00:08:29] Annette: And thinking about that direct booking through your PMS and how they could help you with that also.

[00:08:35] Sarah: Let’s give Marie some options of software that people talk about often in our sphere, from our mastermind group to our DMs. We talk to a ton of you in our Instagram DMs. You guys email us. And of course we go to a ton of live events and we get to meet the software companies too. So off the bat, the easiest one to share with all of you is Hostfully because that’s the software that we use.

[00:09:03] And I have been using it for years and years and years now, and here’s how I came to choose Hostfully amongst all the options that were available. I liked how Hostfully wasn’t trying to be good at all the different functions. It wasn’t saying like, use our dynamic pricing tool, use our lock tool. It wasn’t trying to be good at every single thing.

[00:09:31] It boasted having a strong API connection with all the other technology that I wanted to bring in, or someday bring in. That’s what they were. And I liked that because I was like, you know what, when you try to be good at everything, then you’re good at nothing. And so I remember wanting to get PriceLabs and trusted that brand that I had heard so many hosts who had great success with it.

[00:09:55] So I wanted it to connect with that, and I didn’t want to use a software’s built in because it probably would be not as good as when you focus on something and it expands, I guess is what I’m trying to say. So that’s why I chose Hostfully. Plus, I’m not going to lie, I love the CEO. I think Margot is awesome. She’s a female. I like that.

[00:10:14] Plus, David, the co-founder with Margot, he got started hosting himself. I just liked that they were involved in the short-term rental industry and they understood because they were hosts themselves. That meant a lot to me. And so that’s why I chose Hostfully. I still use Hostfully today.

[00:10:31] My favorite thing about Hostfully still is the customer support. I can be on there at 2:00 AM, and sometimes it takes 10, 15, 20 minutes then get back to me, but there is always someone who can at least point me in the right direction. If they don’t have the exact answer, they’re like, hey, read this. Here’s this thing from our wiki, our education for the software.

[00:10:49] I think I interpret it like this, but if this doesn’t help you, I’ll definitely connect you with our tech in the morning. So at the very least, it’s that. It’s not like, hey, submit a ticket and we’ll get back to you 24 hours, 48 hours from now. So I love that. And for me, it’s been just easy to use and make work for my business, no matter how I property manage, whether I’m a co-host on someone’s account or not, that doesn’t matter. 

[00:11:12] But Annette and I always want to be trustworthy and transparent too. So there are other great software out there other than Hostfully. And we think it’s important that you know about that because there might be a reason why Hostfully isn’t right for you. And we don’t want to pigeonhole you into something that’s not right for you.

[00:11:26] For example, one of our community members, Carrie, loves Lodgify. So does one of our coaches, Mike. Mike loves Lodgify as well. And one thing they love about Lodgify is their beautiful websites that you can get through using the software. And Lodgify really promotes SEO. It’s something they’re very good at, and they really champion direct booking.

[00:11:47] So there’s a lot of education there. The way they build their websites is to help you really maximize your direct booking capability. They all do. Hostfully does as well. But I do know that Carrie and Mike and many others in our mastermind have gotten a lot of great growth from using Lodgify.

[00:12:03] So that’s another one that gets talked about a lot. A third one, back in the day, I would work with hosts and help them onboard onto their property management software, and OwnerRez is really cool. Because, man, OwnerRez was built for hosts by hosts, and the capabilities in the technology is incredible.

[00:12:23] But here’s where I don’t think OwnerRez is incredible, is it’s not very pretty on the back end, and it’s hard to, I don’t know, wrap your– some people are very visual. Like our coach Wendy, she loves Hospitable. And Hospitable feels very Airbnb to me. It’s very pretty.

[00:12:40] Annette: The design is good, yeah.

[00:12:41] Sarah: Yeah.

[00:12:41] Annette: It’s more Mac versus PC. So OwnerRez is probably more PC.

[00:12:45] Sarah: 1,000%.

[00:12:46] Annette: That’s how you’d make that design differential that people can relate to. Or like Microsoft Office versus Google Suite.

[00:12:55] Sarah: And I want to be fair to OwnerRez too. It’s like, yes, it’s like Microsoft Office sounds outdated and old, and while it looks that way, it’s features are not. You can do all the automations of the direct booking and the emailing and the triggerings that the guest gets this if this happens and whatnot, and it connects with all the software out there.

[00:13:15] But Wendy, our other coach, loves Hospitable, and she’s been a Hospitable user and champion for years. Yes, because it’s pretty, but also because it has evolved over the past five, six years, and it’s really a powerful tool for us, smaller hosts. I’m trying to think if there’s any other software.

[00:13:33] Annette: Guesty, Hostaway, Futurestay.

[00:13:37] Sarah: I can comment on all those. Guesty is very expensive, but our other coach Amy swears by it. She’s like, it’s worth it. And so it is our friend Ben. And Ben manages well over 100 properties and he loves the capabilities of the reporting. And it actually has its own payment processing feature. So those are very interesting features. What else did you say? Hostaway?

[00:14:04] Annette: Hostaway.

[00:14:05] Sarah: Hostaway has this feature that if you run more like a hotel– I don’t actually know if Lodgify and Hostfully don’t do these things. So I don’t want to say these software don’t. But I know Hostaway. For example, a property I used to manage, wasn’t with Hostaway because they sell these bungalows and instead of telling the guests like, hey, you can choose which bungalow you want, it’s more like a hotel where, oh, if you want a one-bedroom, one bath, it’ll assign you the first one that’s available for the dates that you want.

[00:14:34] And then it’ll automatically tell the next guest to go to that next one. So it’s got that more like, I don’t know what to call that, but it’s like a hotel-type feature. And then if you want to be huge, if you’re out there, you’re a co-host, and you’re aspiring to be big, two software that come to mind that people love are Track and Streamline.

[00:14:54] I know Pam from our group just upgraded to Streamline because of where she’s going in the growth of her business, and she’s been obsessed. First of all, she commented on how great the migration from her current PMS is to Streamline and that the support has been incredible, but it’s a very powerful property management software. You do pay for it. There’s a pretty penny when you come to pay for it.

[00:15:16] So I hope, Marie, all of these options help you decide, but it really comes down to, I would put pen to paper, really think about how you operate in your business now, what’s important for you to keep, what’s important for your future growth. But anyone listening, who’s interested, we do have really some special offers with both Hostfully and Lodgify.

[00:15:37] And we’re working with Lodgify this month to amplify how great they are, especially when it comes to building your direct booking website and promoting SEO. But we’ll also link to Hospitable. We’ll link to OwnerRez and the other PMS that we’ve mentioned in this episode if you want to check them out. And we didn’t even skim the surface. There are so many out there. But to help you narrow it down, those are some great options to get you going. And with that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

[00:16:05] Annette: I am Annette Grant. And together we are–

[00:16:07] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.

[00:16:08] Sarah: Talk to you next time.