Integrating Their Way to Success with Hostaway

Tell us if this story sounds familiar to you. Digital nomads who love traveling the world, looking to make some extra cash by renting out their former primary residence “Bellflower House”. Not an uncommon way to start a short-term rental business, but the way Jacob and Elissa at Rent Live Play go about it is special. 

Rent Live Play is in the top-tier of Hostaway clients who take advantage of the partner integrations available through Hostaway’s marketplace. And their story is one worth telling.

Choosing Hostaway

They tried the rest and landed on the best. After stints using Guesty and Hospitable didn’t work out, Jacob and Elissa turned to Hostaway. 

“We wanted a PMS that was growing alongside all the new tools added to this industry,” says Jacob. “We wanted something that was robust enough to build out.” 

Using new tools and building on top of Hostaway’s core features is a must. The ethos of Rent Live Play is one of data-driven decision making. Truly understanding the demographics of a guest from a quantitative point of view, combined with listening to their guests and then implementing their ideas into the property. 

“We focus on systems to give our guests all the tools they’ll need to understand each unique property. We also pride ourselves on our quick response time, making sure to be available to guests despite hosting remotely.”

To that end, Hostaway’s mobile app makes hosting remotely a breeze. In fact, it was a primary factor in their decision to go with Hostaway.  

But the mobile app only begins to tell the high-tech story of Hostaway and Rent Live Play. It’s in their use of integrations where magic happens. 

Integrations and the Hostaway Marketplace

Hostaway is the central command, the engine moving things forward. All guest bookings from OTAs (Airbnb, VRBO, Google Vacation Rentals, Hopper, and GoLightly) and their direct booking websites pass through Hostaway — ditto for payment collection, automated messaging and financial reporting. What sets Rent Live Play apart is how they leverage the Hostaway marketplace. 

• RemoteLock for smart locks

• Turno for communication, checklists and inventory with their cleaning team

• StayFi for guest data collection 

• HubSpot as a CRM and for email marketing. 

• Minut, Google and myQ for security and monitoring

• Squarespace for websites (integrated with Hostaway’s direct booking engine)

• Stripe for payment collection

• Enso Connect for guest messaging, rental agreements and ID verification 

• PriceLabs for dynamic pricing and comps

This is just a selection of all the tools Jacob and Elissa use to run their business. And it’s what they need to deliver on their goal of providing a great, seamless guest experience. Guests have suggestions, Jacob and Elissa find solutions, whether those solutions are found in Hostaway’s platform or in the marketplace. 

Life Since Joining Hostaway 

Beyond the mobile app and robust integrations, Jacob chose Hostaway based on intuition. He drew a comparison between Hostaway and another one of his favorite software solutions, HubSpot. 

“Hostaway seemed like a company following a similar path to HubSpot, the look and feel of the interface, ease and use of tools, and rapid software improvements.” 

Since making that all important decision, Jacob’s hunch has proven true. He says the onboarding process was great, and got them up and running within a few weeks. But the great experience didn’t stop at onboarding. 

Jacob and Elissa point to fast and quick access to tech support when they need it as a reason for loving Hostaway. And, just like Jacob figured would be the case, he loves that Hostaway is continually innovating and adding new tools. 

Hostaway has continued to allow Jacob and Elissa to scale and they are one year into their second property, Casa Saguaro (managing it completely remotely) which has ranked in the top 1% of Airbnb homes due largely in part to using Hostaway as the PMS.

A Piece of Peer Advice 

Not everyone wants or needs a property management system (PMS) to work the way Jacob and Elissa have done. What every short-term property manager does need, however, is a deep understanding of their own business needs. Once those are understood, it’s time to make the switch to the right system to fit those needs as soon as possible. 

“Think about where you want to go with your business. Are you going to get to five rentals? 10? 50? Ask yourself, what are your needs going to be at scale, then find a PMS that can support those needs.”

That’s what Rent Live Play did with Hostaway. Together, they’re well on their way to achieving Jacob and Elissa’s goals. Add new properties, explore new opportunities, and grow.