Matt Landau
  • Founder, VRMB
Staff member
Ambassadors
Keystone Retreat

Monday Morning Motivation [Apples to Apples]

Matt Landau
Matt Landau Founder, VRMB
Staff member
Ambassadors
Keystone Retreat
IDEA: One single piece of management software sits at the core of all great vacation rental businesses. From 1 property to 1,000, put lightly, the right property management software can help grow your business. In stronger terms, you simply cannot grow your business to its full potential without one.

However, because different PMS softwares do so many different things, it is very easy to make the mistake of comparing apples to oranges (lumping all the features into one) and choosing the wrong software as a result.

This week, together with Terry Terry we released VRMB's first annual Keystone Awards. After 100+ hours of demos with more than 30 softwares, here are some of the universal features that we compared side-by-side:

  • Customizable Rates
  • Revenue Management
  • Guest Portal
  • Owner's Portal
  • Credit Card Processing
  • Automation
  • E-Signatures
  • CRM Functionality
  • Texting
  • Up-selling
  • Booking Source Reporting (being able to see where your bookings come from)
  • Housekeeping Module
  • Tech Support Availability (including phone support)
  • Channel Management
  • Unified Inbox
ACTION: Avoid comparing "apples to oranges" by identifying the feature(s) that can be compared head to head. Go into each demo with your prioritized features and share them with your demo provider. Do this and more accurately compare "apples to apples" and make a step in the right direction towards the best choice for you.
 
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Well, I am gobsmacked at the amount of work that has gone in to this project. I have been testing out PMS programs for a long time without knowing what features I needed at this stage of my "STR life". I needed to try a few programs to actually figure out what features were important to me right now. So, I did put the cart before the horse.
 
Matt Landau said:
IDEA: One single piece of management software sits at the core of all great vacation rental businesses. From 1 property to 1,000, put lightly, the right property management software can help grow your business. In stronger terms, you simply cannot grow your business to its full potential without one.

However, because different PMS softwares do so many different things, it is very easy to make the mistake of comparing apples to oranges (lumping all the features into one) and choosing the wrong software as a result.

This week, together with Terry Terry we released VRMB's first annual Keystone Awards. After 100+ hours of demos with more than 30 softwares, here are some of the universal features that we compared side-by-side:

  • Customizable Rates
  • Revenue Management
  • Guest Portal
  • Owner's Portal
  • Credit Card Processing
  • Automation
  • E-Signatures
  • CRM Functionality
  • Texting
  • Up-selling
  • Booking Source Reporting (being able to see where your bookings come from)
  • Housekeeping Module
  • Tech Support Availability (including phone support)
  • Channel Management
  • Unified Inbox
ACTION: Avoid comparing "apples to oranges" by identifying the feature(s) that can be compared head to head. Go into each demo with your prioritized features and share them with your demo provider. Do this and more accurately compare "apples to apples" and make a step in the right direction towards the best choice for you.
Click to expand...

Matt Landau Matt Landau does not make public all features, details and data we discuss. Some critical information is retained for IC members only. A critical part of choosing the right software is fees>monthly subscription fees>data migration fees>and the killer fee we discussed in the podcast>channel integration fees<. Fees should be broken down into two categories >the cost< and the >actual cost<

As discussed in the podcast my monthly fee for using my software is $300.00. Pretty much ever month I get at least an $800.00 channel integration invoice and in January it exceeded $1300.00. It is critical to ask the right questions and know the difference between the cost and the actual cost of using a software and don't forget data migration fees. Other fees can but not always include texting, up-selling, training, e-signatures and crm.
 
Terry said:
Matt Landau Matt Landau does not make public all features, details and data we discuss. Some critical information is retained for IC members only. A critical part of choosing the right software is fees>monthly subscription fees>data migration fees>and the killer fee we discussed in the podcast>channel integration fees<. Fees should be broken down into two categories >the cost< and the >actual cost<

As discussed in the podcast my monthly fee for using my software is $300.00. Pretty much ever month I get at least an $800.00 channel integration invoice and in January it exceeded $1300.00. It is critical to ask the right questions and know the difference between the cost and the actual cost of using a software and don't forget data migration fees. Other fees can but not always include texting, up-selling, training, e-signatures and crm.
Click to expand...
Great point Terry Terry worth sharing.

IC members should know that there are a handful of other “features” that we may go into at some point that are far more nuanced and subjective. Fees being a great example: you can’t just say “does it have good fees or bad fees” — you’ve gotta come up with a sub-algorithm within to determine what is universally ‘advantageous’ and what is disadvantageous.

Another good example is support: I can’t remember who but someone in the IC said that the biggest mistake they ever made in choosing a PMS was choosing a company that didn’t have live phone support IN THEIR TIME ZONE (meaning the tickets and responses were hours upon hours of delay). These nuances are are built into the PMS Selector Tool.

Like Terry says, we chose not to reveal all the features because some would get people more confused. But it’s worth pointing out.
 
Terry said:
Matt Landau Matt Landau does not make public all features, details and data we discuss. Some critical information is retained for IC members only. A critical part of choosing the right software is fees>monthly subscription fees>data migration fees>and the killer fee we discussed in the podcast>channel integration fees<. Fees should be broken down into two categories >the cost< and the >actual cost<

As discussed in the podcast my monthly fee for using my software is $300.00. Pretty much ever month I get at least an $800.00 channel integration invoice and in January it exceeded $1300.00. It is critical to ask the right questions and know the difference between the cost and the actual cost of using a software and don't forget data migration fees. Other fees can but not always include texting, up-selling, training, e-signatures and crm.
Click to expand...

I am curious what software you are using? I agree that the whole distribution network concept can be a mine field. We use a flat rate per property channel manager (Rentals United) but our software doesn't integrate so its a manual process. Cheap on one hand and expensive on the other.
 
We have found a problem with support. Our business in one timezone and our HQ in another. The tools we use now are party picked on how responsive the support team is. Not much good having great functionality, but when you need a hand, not one is listening. In my experience the worst support comes from communication companies. Broadband supplies. phone companies. They are as bad as each other.

We have entered into the spirit of this great work and completed the survey on more than one occasion and interestingly received different results, with the same answers. Great work Terry Terry and Matt Landau Matt Landau
 
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Matt Landau
Matt Landau
Founder, VRMB
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Ambassadors
Keystone Retreat
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