Smoobu, Lodgify, Guesty: which PMS should your rental business choose?

The PMS (Property Management System) is the backbone of a short-term rental business: it centralizes your bookings, syncs your calendars and prevents double bookings. But between Smoobu, Lodgify, Guesty, Hostaway and the rest, how do you choose? Here are the criteria that really matter.

What does a PMS do?

A good PMS bundles three essential functions:

• The channel manager: sync your listings and calendars across Airbnb, Booking, VRBO, Expedia and your direct bookings.
• Booking centralization: a single interface to see everything, instead of juggling extranets.
• Automation: guest messaging, dynamic pricing, cleaning tasks.

Without a PMS, syncing calendars by hand quickly becomes unmanageable past three or four properties — and a double booking is expensive, in money and in reputation.

The main players

Smoobu

Popular in Europe, known for its value for money and simplicity. The channel manager is solid and the interface is accessible to managers just starting out. A frequent choice for small and mid-sized businesses.

Lodgify

Strong on building a direct booking website (to capture commission-free bookings), on top of the classic channel manager. Interesting if your strategy leans on direct bookings.

Guesty

Geared toward large portfolios and professional operations: advanced automation, multi-user management, detailed reporting. Powerful, but pricier and more complex to onboard.

Hostaway

A direct competitor to Guesty in the professional segment, with a rich integrations ecosystem and advanced automation.

How to choose

Beyond the brand, ask yourself:

1. How many properties do you manage, and how fast do you plan to grow?
2. Do you need a direct booking website to cut platform commissions?
3. What level of automation actually saves you time (messaging, cleaning, pricing)?
4. Does the PMS integrate with your other tools (accounting, team compensation, smart locks)?
5. What is the total cost per property, once the add-ons are included?

There’s no “best PMS” in absolute terms: the right PMS is the one that fits the size of your portfolio and your distribution model.

The PMS doesn’t do everything

A point often overlooked: most PMS platforms don’t calculate your team’s pay. They know who booked and for how much, but not how much you owe your co-host, your cleaning team or the owner.

That’s where CastorBnb comes in: it connects to your PMS (Smoobu, Lodgify…), automatically pulls in your bookings and calculates compensation according to your rules — a layer the PMS alone doesn’t cover.

See the demo and connect CastorBnb to your PMS in one click.