The Best Money Making Tools For Short Term Rentals
With the competitive nature of the short-term rental market, hosts need to be savvier about managing their marketing efforts.
Also: How to Market Your Airbnb: The Ultimate Guide 2023
That’s why marketing and pricing tools are necessary to leverage your efforts to achieve more.
In this article, I will highlight some of the best tools you can get started with immediately to boost your revenues and scale your business.
Table of Contents
Property Management Systems
Property Management Systems (PMS) are essential to your marketing and revenue management efforts.
The quality of your PMS will determine your flexibility in using third-party marketing and pricing tools.
Many PMS have their own pricing and revenue management tools already built in.
When shopping for a PMS, you should look for one with a channel manager and robust guest communication features.
It is also a plus to find one that has a website builder.
A website builder is essential for owners that do not plan to try to get organic traffic. If you want Organic traffic, go with a WordPress website instead.
The two PMS we recommend here give you the flexibility of building a website on their platform or using your WordPress website along with their widget.
Any ambitious short-term rental owner needs to lean on a PMS to manage their operations effectively.
Based on my surveys of hosts, here are my top recommendations.
Hostaway
Hostaway is a popular all-in-one property management system with many tools and features to help hosts accelerate growth and boost efficiencies.
It is versatile and offers a website builder and robust guest communication tools. It also features revenue management tools and an API integration that will help you further automate and customize the system.
Ownerrez
Ownerrez is another popular property management system flexible enough to integrate with useful third-party tools like Pricelabs.
It has a CRM system and numerous automated guest messaging tools.
It has a website builder and a WordPress widget which makes a good choice if you have a direct booking strategy.
Pricing Tools
Revenue Management is a constant activity.
It needs attention daily and is just too tedious for one person to manage manually, even if you only have one property.
With the emergence of dynamic pricing tools, you can save time and boost your revenues by deploying one of these handy tools.
We have picked Pricelabs and Wheelhouse as the two best in class.
Click the links below to see for yourself.
Wheelhouse vs. Pricelabs
They are both relatively evenly matched when it comes to how they function.
Where the difference lies is versatility.
Pricelabs is much more versatile with its integrations.
Pricelabs can be integrated with many more Property Management Systems and other apps.
Pricelabs can also be directly integrated with VRBO, while you must integrate through a property management system with Wheelhouse.
It is also more straightforward to integrate Pricelabs with Airbnb; you only have to download the browser extension and log into your Airbnb account.
With Wheelhouse, you have to connect through the API.
Wheelhouse does have the edge by being slightly more user-friendly.
Regarding value for money, Pricelabs wins again with a cheaper pricing structure for multiple properties.
Wheelhouse offers a pricing option where you pay 1% of your revenues, but this is only worthwhile if your property is in a highly seasonal market and you earn less than $2,000 per month on average.
Pricelabs wins.
Market Research Tools
Market intelligence is critical when planning your business strategy. There are several data sources out there, but the two most renowned and trusted are:
These tools are accurate and will give you a wealth of information to help you make informed decisions about your business strategy.
Lead Generation Tools
A direct booking strategy must be one of your goals if you are an ambitious host.
Stay Fi is a wifi access tool that interfaces with your guests on the property.
When logging in, they are prompted to provide you with an email address, and you can engage them with helpful info and tips as they access your wifi.
It builds your email list, which you can use to engage with guests and build a relationship with them, leading to loyalty and more repeat bookings.
Listing Optimization Tools
Rankbreeze is a pricing and listing optimization tool.
Where it excels is in listing optimization.
It offers a suite of solutions that helps you find the words and amenities that are most likely to improve the click-through rates on your listing and also boost your revenues.
See this article for a comparison between Rankbreeze and Pricelabs.
See Also: Best Vacation Rental Marketing Tools
Final Thoughts
By leveraging the best tools and resources available, you can enhance your guest experience, streamline your workflow, and maximize your profits.
At STR Booster, we are more than just a marketing agency. We are your dedicated partner in maximizing revenue and achieving growth for your short-term rental business. If you’re a growth-minded Short-Term Rental Manager looking to boost your revenue, look no further!
With our comprehensive range of services and expertise in the vacation rental industry, we offer a personalized approach to help you plan and execute activities that drive net revenue growth. Whether you’re just starting out or already have an established portfolio of properties, we have the knowledge and tools to take your business to the next level.
Ready to take your short-term rental business to new heights? Contact us today, and let’s discuss how we can work together to boost your revenue and maximize your growth potential.