Sixty-six percent of property managers in the short-term rental industry are expecting revenue growth in 2025 while 55% anticipate an increase in competition, according to KeyData’s 2025 Vacation Rental Industry Outlook report.
For vacation rental hosts looking to thrive in the coming year, using the best vacation rental software that transforms property management from manual, time-intensive processes into seamless, automated workflows is essential.
This is true if you’re managing a single cozy apartment or a portfolio of luxury vacation homes. The right vacation rental software empowers you to do all your tasks more effectively and with less effort.
In this article, we’ll discuss the benefits of property management software, the must-have features of a worthy platform and explore the best vacation rental software solutions for 2025.
Vacation rental software is software that is designed to support vacation rental managers with efficiently managing the many aspects of their overall operations and to ultimately deliver a delightful customer journey throughout their stay.
It is also referred to as Airbnb management software, short-term rental management software and property management software (PMS).
The centralized solution is used by vacation rental hosts and property managers to oversee every aspect of their operations. With short-term vacation rental industry software, they can track, monitor, manage and evaluate their processes including multichannel distribution, reservations, sales and marketing, customer management, revenue management and vacation rental team.
Vacation rental software also integrates with various more specialized applications that operators may need to enhance their vacation rental operations.
Property management software can be used to manage one or multiple properties or even hundreds of properties across one or many distribution platforms.
Vacation rental software or PMS offers hosts a broad range of benefits and is considered essential to manage and operate a high-performance, vacation rental business.
The advantages of using property management software include:
Listing and marketing your property across booking platforms is critical for getting more bookings and growing revenue.
By synchronizing availability across multiple OTAs and your direct booking website, vacation rental software allows you to diversify your channel mix while preventing double bookings.
It can also populate listing information such as pricing and amenities across channels so you don’t have to do it manually, platform by platform.
Integrating with third-party tools like guest screening, vacation rental insurance and AI chatbots allows property managers to unlock additional functionalities and improve efficiency and effectiveness.
By centralizing vacation rental management, streamlining workflows and automating repetitive tasks, vacation rental software saves you considerable time and effort.
The automation and efficiency provided by Airbnb management software significantly reduces the need for a large workforce, allowing property managers to operate alone or with only a small team.
With powerful tools and streamlined operations, Airbnb hosts and property managers can manage more properties without significantly increasing overheads, enabling faster growth at lower costs.
Increased efficiency, automated multi-channel distribution and dynamic pricing lead to higher occupancy rates, optimized pricing strategies and ultimately, greater revenue.
Offering a more centralized platform and dashboard for data, bookings, communications and more, property management software provides full control over all aspects of property management.
The best vacation rental software will include all these essential features.
The central component of vacation rental software is management of reservations.
A robust central reservation system allows you to handle the entire guest journey, from the first inquiry to booking confirmation, messaging, cleaning scheduling, check-in, invoicing and payment processing and reviews.
The channel manager syncs listings, pricing and availability across multiple vacation rental platforms and direct booking websites to maximize occupancy and ensure seamless multi-channel distribution.
A centralized calendar or multi-calendar displays your updated bookings across multiple listings and properties in a unified view.
A unified inbox consolidates all guest communications into a single interface. This centralized hub allows property managers to read and respond to all their guests more easily and faster.
A great vacation rental software will enable automation of repetitive tasks like cleaning scheduling, guest messaging, payments, reviews, reminders, etc.
A property management system accrues large amounts of data about the properties you operate allowing you to generate insights on key performance metrics like occupancy rates, revenue per available room (RevPAR) and guest reviews through detailed reports.
A good vacation rental software will also provide direct booking engines and website building features so you can create, operate and integrate your direct booking website and add on a new revenue and marketing stream.
The best vacation rental software providers also offer integrations with additional property management tools such as cleaning services vendors, accounting and payment processors so you can increase and improve the capabilities of your short-term rental business.
A fully-functional mobile app is a must-have if hosts are to continue to manage their properties on the go.
Perhaps the most essential feature of vacation rental software, hosts must expect help and support services they can count on 24/7.
An all-in-one software solution give hosts and property owners the ability to grow their business, taking on new listings and investment opportunities, at far less cost. This vacation rental software comparison highlights the top solutions to help property owners and hosts streamline operations, maximize occupancy and grow revenue and profits.
Discover the best vacation rental software options for 2025:
Hostaway is an all-in-one vacation rental software solution that can streamline and automate across your operations. It connects every stage of the guest journey in a single platform, even across hundreds of listings, and boasts a customer satisfaction rating of over 97%.
The vacation rental software market leader in the U.S., Hostaway is present across six continents with established presence in the EU, UK, APAC and LATAM.
Property management including automated task management
Channel manager including multi-unit and cross listings support
Reservations management
CRM & Lead management
Unified inbox
Guest communication including automated messages and ChatGPT integration
Guest portal
Owner portal
Financial management including invoicing, payment processing and automate payments
Automated reviews
Upselling, discounts, offers and coupons
Direct booking engine and website builder
SMS & Whatsapp
Analytics & reporting
Dynamic pricing
Smart locks management
Pre-approved funding for eligible U.S.-based users
Hostaway is a triple crown holder, having achieved top partnership status with the three major booking platforms — Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com. This means it offers the most reliable connection to each of the OTAs.
It also integrates with a wide range of booking platforms, from large OTAs like Expedia to luxury offerings like Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy and niche channels like GlampingHub and WeChalet. It also connects to Google Vacation Rentals.
Home to the largest marketplace of integrations for short-term rentals, it offers a tool set of over 200 apps across categories like cleaning management, amenities, dynamic pricing, accounting, payment processing, automation, website development, AI, guest experience management, insurance, amenities, guest screening, electric vehicle charging, trust accounting, reputation management and more.
Hostaway also integrates with Zapier, so hosts can build workflows across over 7,000 apps.
What’s more, Hostaway has an open API, so you can even build and connect your own product to the property management platform.
Worldwide
The platform supports multiple languages, including:
English
Portuguese
Spanish
French
Italian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
German
Greek
Yes, highest rated mobile app in the industry
Hostaway provides various support channels:
Email/Help desk
24/7 phone support
24/7 Live representative
Extensive knowledge base
Chat
The software is accessible via:
Cloud
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Web-based platforms
Android and iOS mobile applications
GetApp: 4.8/5 based on 1,145 reviews
G2: 4.7/5 based on 218 reviews
Software Advice: 4.8/5 based on 1,145 reviews
Subscription based
No
Yes
RMS Cloud is a cloud-based property management system that caters to a wide range of properties including marinas and campgrounds.
Property management
Channel manager
Reservations management
Guest portal
Booking engine
Reporting & analytics
RMS PAY for payment processing
RMS POS hardware
RMS Cloud integrates with a variety of large and niche OTAs, from Agoda to Campedia.
It also integrates with a number of standalone channel managers, payment processors, housekeeping, guest management, revenue management, CRM, accounting and compliance, web development, dynamic pricing, POS and more.
Worldwide
The platform supports multiple languages, including:
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
English
French
German
Japanese
Spanish
Thai
RMS Cloud provides various support channels:
24/7 service requests
Regional phone support
Knowledge base
Online training
The software is accessible via:
Cloud
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Web-based platforms
GetApp: 4.4/5 based on 417 reviews
Software Advice: 4.4/5 based on 417 reviews
Subscription based
No
Yes
Streamline is a vacation rental property software provider for short-term rental hosts. It also offers Streamline One, a more scalable solution.
CRM & lead management
Phone system
Dynamic pricing and accounting
Guest communications
BI reporting
Reservations management
Property maintenance
Travel agent tools including direct booking engine
Separate mobile apps for property care, owners and guests
Streamline directly integrates with top and niche OTAs like Airbnb and Ski.com. Because it doesn’t offer an in-built channel management, it also connects with standalone channel managers.
Its integration marketplace also includes tools for payment processing, insurance, dynamic pricing, hospitality industry guest experience management, cleaning management, keyless entry, website design, tax compliance and staff and supplier management.
North America based users
No
The platform supports two languages:
English
Spanish
Streamline provides various support channels:
Phone support
24/7 live representative
Knowledge base
Online training
The software is accessible via:
Cloud
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Web-based platforms
GetApp: 4.5/5 based on 79 reviews
G2: 4.1/5 based on 11 reviews
Software Advice: 4.5/5 based on 79 reviews
Subscription-based
No
Yes
SuperControl is a self-catering property management system that caters to both property owners and property management companies and agencies.
Channel manager
Booking engine
Guest communication & experience
Reporting & analysis
Owner services (for agencies only)
SuperControl integrates with third-party tools including global and UK-based booking platforms, dynamic pricing, accounting, payment processing and guest management.
UK and Ireland based users
No
English
SuperControl provides multiple support channels:
In-app support ticket
Phone
Help center with articles and guides
Facebook user community
Workshops
The software is accessible via:
Cloud
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Web-based platforms
G2: 4/5 based on 1 review
For owners: Monthly subscription based on number of properties + service fee per booking via Booking.com, Airbnb, Vrbo, Expedia, Cottages.com and TripAdvisor.
For agencies: Custom quotes
Yes. Free 7-day trial.
Yes
PropertyMe is an online, cloud-based real estate software that streamlines operations for property managers and landlords.
Communications
Inspections
Maintenance
Payment management
Tenancy and arrears management
Trust accounting
Compliance
PropertyMe doesn’t have a channel manager so it doesn’t integrate with vacation rental platforms like Airbnb or Booking.com.
It does offer integrations with a number of payment, inspection, maintenance, safety, utilities and document management tools.
Australia and New Zealand based users
Yes
English
PropertyMe provides multiple customer support channels:
Phone
Live Chat during working hours
Knowledge base /Support articles and videos
Online training
User community
The software is accessible via:
Cloud
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Web-based platforms
GetApp: 4.6/5 based on 45 reviews
G2: 4.5/5 based on 1 review
Software Advice: 4.6/5 based on 45 reviews
Subscription-based
Yes
Yes
Selecting the right technology for your short-term rental business can feel overwhelming with so many options available. The key is to focus on your specific needs and business goals.
Make sure it offers essential features like a robust channel manager, centralized calendar, automation tools and integrations with third-party apps to enhance functionality.
Additionally, consider the software's usability, mobile accessibility and customer support. A user-friendly interface and reliable 24/7 support can save you from unnecessary headaches down the road. Before committing, take advantage of free demos or trials to test the platform and ensure it meets your expectations.
By choosing software tailored to your needs, you can streamline operations, enhance guest experiences and drive profitability, ensuring you stay ahead in the competitive vacation rental market of 2025.