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Dear friends,
Recently signed up for smartbnb trial, the service is fine and helpful, but i would like to compare if someone else applied for other similar services to compare the service fees:
so far can tell that “+” of smartbnb service are: messages sent to guests while i am sleeping or working out, calendars get updated automatically
“-” of service: it does not directly increase your bookings as all serious guests book instantly right away, most of ones who send the inquiries require very personalized messages and wont book after
service is extremely pricey it is 15 Euro per listing which in my case a one full night cost and about 5% of my income, which with profit of 8 present doesn’t worth doing
particular interested in:
automated message sending to guests
automated updating calendar
would appreciate any advice
don`t mind to buy a software or find a service which charges fee per profile rather than per listing
Thank you for your reply, i have 44 listings but all very cheap not more than 15 euro per night.
I tried to google about blogs/websites that do comparisons between the different automated services but it mostly services which change prices not the automatic replies.
At this point it’s just a fun project. If it starts to become a pain or
expensive to maintain I might charge a few bucks per month. At this point
I’m just having a good time with it.
In case you haven’t found a solution yet, take a look at Uplisting.io (I’m one of the founders).
We have automated messages and much more. Based on your number of listings we charge €4.5 per month per listing.
I’m very happy to have a call or demo with you to see what you think!
A few features:
Unified inbox (great for those using multiple Airbnb accounts)
Personalised automated guest messaging
Smart rates (booking site commission is automatically calculated)
Sync dynamic prices to Booking-com
Advanced linked listings
Reporting
Member review:
“We’ve been relying on Uplisting since we started with just 5 properties, now growing to 30+ at AirManaged. We tried a number of similar products before settling on Uplisting. They listen to feedback and the user-friendly design gives us a hub to manage our properties. The team are great when we have a query. Micheal from AirManaged”
Our base plan is €15 for the first 2 listings. That is the plan that would apply for most Airbnb hosts, and that would be €7.5/listing.
Any extra listing is charged 1/ only if they are profitable (there was at least a check-in in the past 30 days, you have received a payout from this reservation) and 2/ with a fixed fee 3/ which is decreased as you scale.
For example, a user from Mexico connected 316 listings on Smartbnb. Based on their reservation history, only 12 were profitable, so he would be offered a price of $95. (not $4,740!)
What was the quote given to you by Smartbnb @Ivan_Joorevic?
Since you are asking for an automation tool for a reasonable price, I can suggest you to take a look at Your Porter App. It is a powerful automation tool with iOS, Android and web apps.
For the features you are interested in, the price is around €5-7 and you can have some corporate discounts if you have 20+ listings.
You can update your calendars to boost your search rankings, automate all kind of guest communication and enjoy our mobile apps to manage your business on the go.
I’m one of the creators of this app and would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
I really appreciate those effort and patience you use to promote your product. I personally dont see any point of doing airbnb if you dont have any reservations during the month. So me like host with many cheap listings rather looking for a fixed rate for my profile not depending on bookings and number of listings.
For example if it is 45 listings and 7.5 euro per listing it will make it 340 euro per month, which makes it actually considering:
Hiring a person to reply messages
Using a property management software similar to smartbnb - you can order one for one year cheaper than 340*12 euro
Keep doing it myself as it is like 20% of what i make a month
@Ivan_Joorevic - if you’re still looking for a software, I’m looking for beta testers and will provide this service free for a while.
It does messaging automation, calendar syncs, staff and task integrations, and smart home management (if you have smart locks it will automatically set pins and message your guests, etc).
It also integrates with HomeAway if you’re using that platform as well.
Let me know and I can provide you information privately.
Hi there HomeBotty! If you are still looking for beta testers, I would be glad to give it a go.
I have one vacation rental property that is listed on both airbnb and VRBO. I also do have a smart lock that I’m currently configuring with the Vera controller. It would be great to see if your service would be of interest.
I am looking to scale my STR business over the next few years, and have been quite keen on finding a good automation solution.
@carsonheim - that’s perfect, Vera is one of the controllers we’re compatible with. It’s about 2 months out for beta, but please sync with me and I’ll hook you up!
For those looking for Airbnb messaging system, you might as well want to try AirGMS.
Apart from message automation, templates, the software offers auto reviews, cleaning management, financial reporting, multi-calendar and more. By the way, we have just extended our Free plan up to 4 listings! For those who have 5+ Airbnb listings, we still offer the Free trial.
We’d be happy to answer any of your questions here or on our website.
I can’t edit the original post (I don’t think) so am leaving a note here to say that we have since updated our prices and have a minimum of €45 (or $50/£40) for up to 5 listings. Once you hit 10 listings, each additional listing is still €4.50 (or $5/£4) as I mentioned.
Not sure why you wouldn’t want to put the info about your platform right here. You are sort of marketing it by putting this message, but not making it easy on consumers to find you. I understand your beta testing. but still
So far I have used SmartBnB and Your Porter; explored Uplisting, SuperHostTools, AirGMS, and HostAway. I have 1 listing/property.
My first criteria was that it has to work with more than just AirBnB, so that eliminated SuperHostTools and AirGMS.
Your Porter Favorite
It was a very tough decision between SmartBnB and Your Porter. But Your Porter is very affordable and I like it more for having one simple function: it can send out emails with attachments to guests. None of the other platforms that I was able to explore do this. Native messaging is great. But I believe an email ahead of arrival with my Arrival Guide (.pdf) attached offers guests a superior experience. I would really like an HTML email (with my arrival pictures and maps formatted nicely in-line on the email), but a close second is a plain text email with my Arrival Guide attached.
Pros: has an App, automated messaging (native and email), works with multiple platforms (AirBnB, HomeAway, and Booking).
Cons: User interface is not good. Doesn’t have robust metrics (gets monthly revenue wrong) .
SmartBnB Strong Platform
SmartBnB has a very nice interface and a lot of robust graphs and metrics. I love all the data they provide and will analyze many performance metrics for you regarding your ranking, bookings, profit, etc. It definitely helps you run a “business.” I also love how the website is laid out. But they only do native messaging, which is a significant drawback to me since automatically sending an email to my guest is my primary motivator
Pros: Robust performance metrics and business analysis tools, reasonable price, well designed user interface, compatible with HomeAway and AirBnB
Cons: No app, Won’t send emails to Guest, Not compatible with Booking(.)com or TripAdvisor yet.
Uplisting
It might be better suited to hosts with a high volume of rentals. But for 1 listing it is $50/month which is VERY expensive and also does not send guest emails (only native messaging).
HostAway
Very expensive and not compatible with HomeAway. Again it is probably better suited for someone with dozens of listing as for 1 listing they wanted a start up fee of about $250 plus a monthly fee of $75–which is absolutely absurd. On top of that they arent integrated with the booking websites.
Thanks for this great feedback @LaurenK, and happy you have found a solution that works for you, even if this is not Smartbnb!
The reason why we are not too excited by emails is about reliability. When a message is not received, guests are lost in a street, and that exposes you to losing $$$.
Sending emails is trivial nowadays. The challenge is ensuring that emails are delivered at scale, especially as the information delivered is critical. We are sending thousands of emails to customers each day, and we can assure that emails that are not being received or delivered still is probably the cause of 10% of our customer service inquiries (and that is with a paranoid implementation, and for our own domain name)
There are many moving parts to emails, and limited assurance that the emails will be read. Even if we do a great job, it may end up in another area of your guest’s inbox that they just won’t check
We have decided to put the priority on native messaging, because ultimately it’s the best option for you by a mile. Guests will receive notifications on their mobile app, on their mobile phone, via email, from Airbnb or HomeAway. We (Smartbnb) can check our message was delivered with 100% reliability, and have options when we know it was not delivered or sent.
Native messaging also protects you against the risk of blowback when the guest calls Airbnb to request a cancellation because they have not received check-in instructions… and you would have little to defend yourself against such a claim.
Lastly, you can add links to Dropbox or Google Docs to share a PDF on native messages, and enable you to track if the user has accessed it. We also support picture attachments; so if the document is visual enough, you can include it as a screenshot to your check-in instructions rule.
