What is a PMS in seasonal rental?
The PMS stands for Property Management System, a management software package for your vacation rental.
There are PMS for concierge services such as Hostaway, and you’ll find an article on this software here: Hostaway reviews
This is a software package, such as Amenitiz, that lets you manage your accommodation’s listing from a single interface. This all-in-one solution is packed with features to help owners manage their seasonal rental business.
Most will feature a channel manager to facilitate management on online booking platforms such as Booking and Airbnb.
Historically, hotels were equipped with such systems, but in recent years PMS systems have been introduced for seasonal rentals.
Simple seasonal rental: is the airbnb PMS necessary?
Yes, thanks to the PMS, you can say goodbye to time-consuming, repetitive tasks with no added value, and concentrate on satisfying your travellers.
Save time, money and, above all, energy! It’s the essential tool for your Airbnb rental business.
Criteria for choosing a PMS for your vacation rental:
Choosing your Airbnb PMS may seem complicated, given the plethora of offers on the market. However, it’s important not to make a mistake. Of course, it’s possible to change your PMS after a few months’ use, but this will be a tedious task, as you’ll have to migrate all the data on your current listings and reservations. The first step is to assess your needs for managing your business.
Find out what you need for your rental business:
The first step is to determine your needs. Ask yourself the right questions about the features you’re looking for. The ones you consider indispensable. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:
- Does the PMS have a channel manager partner?
- Will the PMS channel manager be able to connect to Airbnb, Booking, and other “niche” online platforms?
- Does the channel manager offer API and Ical connections?
- Is ease of use more important than a multitude of functionalities that can make it difficult to learn?
- Does my software need to be able to connect to external solutions?
- What is my monthly/annual budget?
- Does my software include an online website?
- Will I be the only user?
- Does the software offer a high-performance mobile application?
- Are customer service and support of good quality and in French?
- Does it have an invoicing tool?
- What is your growth ambition? 2 units? 10? 50?
Follow the step-by-step method to determine your choice!
How to choose your PMS: Step-by-step method :
There are many PMS on the market. As with investing in your own home, it’s important to think carefully before making any decisions. Ask yourself the right questions about your hosting business, your development ambitions, the time you’re going to devote to it, and the degree of involvement you’ll need to get to grips with the tool.
Identify your needs:
Ask yourself the questions above
Prospect among existing tools:
Make a list of software that meets your criteria. Do some research on Google and Youtube. Start reading reviews to get an idea.
Test the software!
The good thing is that most software offers a free demo to give you an idea of its features. So don’t hesitate to ask for one or more!
What’s more, if you’re still hesitating, free trial periods are available to confirm your choice!
Mandatory features of a PMS for vacation rentals :
Are you a short-term rental operator? Discover below the list of mandatory features for your short-term rental PMS.
Channel manager :
THE most important PMS feature for visibility on Airbnb: the channel manager. This tool enables you to synchronize your calendars, prices and availability across your various distribution channels. The software is indispensable for avoiding overbooking and double bookings, thanks to real-time closing of your calendars following a booking. Here you can find the best channel manager
Some also offer minimum length of stay management, useful for avoiding one-night bookings in the middle of the week during school vacations, for example.
Pay particular attention to your channel manager’s connectivity to the platforms you plan to use, especially if you’re in a niche market.
Finally, choose one equipped with a channel manager “Airbnb partners” such as Lodgify, which also lets you synchronize your listings, photos and accommodation equipment.
Centralized calendar :
This unique interface lets you manage bookings from a single screen, making it easier to consult and modify your vacation rentals. Manage from a single online platform without connecting to OTAS (Booking, Airbnb etc…)
Unified inbox :
We advise you to opt for a PMS that is fully integrated with Airbnb and offers a single inbox for all your communication with your travelers.
Mail from platforms, exchanged SMS messages, Whatsapp, everything can be grouped together by the best tools.
Note that some of them do not offer this type of display.
The advantage is that you have an overview of your exchanges with your guests. This saves time and ensures that you don’t forget your guests’ requests.
Automated traveler communication:
Having a single box is great, but being able to automate part of your communication with your travelers is even better!
In fact, the most powerful ones let you :
- automate an e-mail or SMS sequence to distribute important information to your guests at the RIGHT time;
- personalize your exchanges with “shortcodes” to bring your e-mails to life. (Traveler’s first name, date of stay, check-in time, etc.).
- transfer documents such as rental contracts and digital welcome booklets.
Website builder included :
If you want to be more profitable in the long term. Creating a website will be a must for you to get live bookings.
Booking direct means booking WITHOUT commissions, which on average represent 18% less of your sales! For that the best channel manager is Lodgify
Offering a website for your vacation rentals will be an additional source of revenue for you.
To avoid the high cost of a website, some tools allow you to generate your own easily, using templates to create a professional, designer site.
Determine your own colors, fonts and brand identity to enhance your homes!
Task manager :
Like its name, PMS lets you manage your property. Task management is one of the software’s key features.
It’s easy for you to create and assign a task to a member of your team following a reservation (cleaning, maintenance).
Some of them offer a chat between teams and notification of completed tasks. This is a reassuring option, especially when it comes to monitoring cleaning teams.
Last but not least, create checklists to pass on to your employees according to the tasks they need to complete. This reduces the risk of your teams forgetting!
Features by user :
Of course, a PMS must be able to lock the available functionalities according to the user who uses it
Each type of employee or service provider will have their own level of access. Assign a role to each member of your team, and the level of information they need to carry out their task.
This is a real asset when it comes to protecting your business’s sensitive data (sales, personal customer data, for example).
Mobile application :
Make sure that PMS offers a mobile application – it’s now essential if you want to be as responsive as possible to your travelers, especially in your exchanges.
What’s more, find out about the application’s functionalities. It should be as complete as possible, enabling you to :
- manage reservations (date modification, for example)
- add a reservation
- modify your prices and availability
- respond to guest messages
- obtain information on your performance in real time, etc.
Dashboards and financial statements available:
A good vacation rental PMS lets you track the financial performance of each of your accommodations.
Create and edit reports with the data you need:
- Sales by platform (Airbnb, booking, direct, other…)
- Occupancy rate
- RevPar
- Number of guests
- Commissions and tourist tax paid
All the data you need to analyze your figures, but also to help you file your various tax returns.
Use your PMS to generate detailed reports to help you manage your investment!
Integration of external solutions :
PMS saves you time on tasks directly concerning your property and your guests.
For even greater performance and time savings, the best PMS integrate with external tools. What’s the point? To save even more time and simplify your day-to-day operations!
Accounting tools :
Some of these tools can connect to your accounting software, enabling you to synchronize financial data. Say goodbye to manual data entry, and everything is transferred to your accounting system in just a few minutes!
Dynamic pricing :
As we all know, dynamic pricing is no longer reserved for the hotel industry – it’s now a must if you want to succeed in the vacation rental business. It often enables you to significantly increase your revenues.
If this is not the case, make sure you can connect to specialized external tools such as Pricelabs.
Stand-alone input :
If you want to manage your customers’ entrances remotely, with a connected lock for example, make sure your PMS is capable of managing this type of equipment automatically. Peace of mind and time savings guaranteed!
Online customer payment :
Your PMS must be able to integrate an online payment system to collect the deposit or upsell requests you offer.
Customer consumption monitoring:
One of the points that can erode your profitability is overconsumption of heating and electricity. Equip your home with home automation and link it to your PMS.
What’s more, anti-nuisance systems can also be connected to your favorite software!
Advantages of a PMS for seasonal renters :
To help you choose the best PMS for your rental, we’ll describe the main functions it should perform.
The information management tool :
Thanks to this tool, all the information linked to your reservations will be centralized on a single interface. You’ll see at a glance :
- the day’s arrivals and departures;
- the names and numbers of customers in a booking;
- the duration and price of booked stays;
- listings of your accommodations with their content (photos, description, capacity, equipment in the apartments, etc.).
- creation of quotes, invoices, deposit collection.
Help with the performance of your seasonal rental:
Among other features, they can propose seasonal and competitive rates for your property.
In fact, some of them offer dynamic pricing to boost the profitability of your vacation rental!
What’s more, price proposals centralize strategic and financial data on your vacation rental.
You’ll find all the information you need to steer your strategy. Some PMS systems allow you to edit or even customize dashboards to determine which vacation rental is the best performer!
An asset for passenger satisfaction:
Your customer should be the focus of your attention, without taking up all your energy. It helps you satisfy your passengers’ needs.
For example, adding an extra service, setting up an automated entrance to offer greater flexibility.
Program automatic e-mails and SMS messages to your customers. A way for you to be present and make their stay irreproachable, while ensuring their complete satisfaction.
Seasonal rental PMS: a profitability booster
As mentioned above, the best PMS like Lodgify offer you a website with a booking engine to boost your profitability. Renting directly becomes essential to ensure the future of your vacation rental.
Price of a PMS for vacation rentals:
Prices vary from one software package to another. It may even offer several price plans with more or less options available.
Expect to pay around 50 euros per month per home for a PMS. Once you’ve tested it, and if you’re sure of your choice, opt for theannual subscription , which will give you a significant discount of 15% to 20%.
It’s not cheap, but we believe it’s necessary, and will give you peace of mind and save you considerable time in managing your accommodation.
What’s the ideal PMS?
The ideal PMS should meet your expectations, and be intuitive and easy to use.
It must help you optimize your tasks, saving you time, not wasting it! It has to simplify your life! Go ahead and subscribe to the one that seduced you and start the Airbnb adventure 🙂
