Hostaway Review — An Honest Host's Perspective

I ran Hostaway on my portfolio for about four months in late 2024. I want to write the review I wish existed when I was evaluating tools — one that tells you where the product actually excels and where it quietly costs you time and money beyond the subscription fee.

Quick context: I host across three markets — Austin, Columbus GA, and a cabin in the Smoky Mountains. Twelve properties total, mix of Airbnb and VRBO, with Yale Assure 2 and Schlage Encode Plus locks on every door. What I care about most is automation that works when I'm not watching. That framing matters when we get to the gaps.

What Hostaway Actually Gets Right

Let's start with the honest part: Hostaway is a serious channel manager. If you're distributing to Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, Expedia, and a direct booking site simultaneously, Hostaway's unified availability sync is reliable. I didn't have a double-booking in four months. That matters more than any feature list.

The owner reporting module is the best I've seen below enterprise pricing. You can give property owners a branded login with automated monthly statements and occupancy summaries — without manually exporting a spreadsheet. For hosts who manage on behalf of investors, this is a real selling point. Guesty offers something similar, but Guesty starts at $77+/month per property and runs well past $300/month at portfolio scale.

Third: Hostaway's unified inbox works for teams. If you have two or three people fielding messages across platforms, the threading and assignment features keep conversations from falling through cracks. Hosts on the BiggerPockets STR forum consistently cite this as the reason they stick with Hostaway after their portfolio grows past ten properties.

Where Hostaway Creates Friction for Smart-Home-Heavy Hosts

Here's where I want to be specific, because "smart home integration" appears in every PMS comparison without meaning much. Hostaway connects to Schlage, Yale, RemoteLock, and Igloohome — but the automation is surface-level. You can push a door code at check-in. That's it. There's no native logic for "don't push the code until 3 days before arrival," no battery monitoring dashboard across your portfolio, no alert when a code fails to land on the lock, and no automatic revocation tied to a same-day cancellation.

In Q1 2026, a reservation cancelled 18 hours before check-in at my Columbus property. Hostaway updated the reservation status. The code sat on my Schlage Encode Plus for two days until I manually cleared it. That's a real security exposure at scale — a code that should be dead is still live, tied to a guest who is no longer coming. With purpose-built lock automation, that revocation fires the moment the cancellation webhook hits. Hostaway's integration doesn't get there.

Thermostats are the harder gap. Hostaway has no native thermostat scheduling tied to reservation lifecycle. If you want pre-arrival logic — set to 72°F two hours before check-in, drop to 62°F four hours after checkout — you're building it yourself in Zapier or paying for a separate service. My ecobee SmartThermostat Premium units were running unnecessary conditioning on vacant nights before I got this sorted. I estimate $40–60/month in wasted utility costs across 12 properties.

Camera monitoring: Hostaway doesn't touch it. Ring and Arlo camera motion events have no integration path, no AI screening for false positives (pets, shadows, wind), no alert routing tied to whether a guest is currently in-house. If cameras are part of your security setup, you're managing them entirely outside your PMS.

The Pricing Reality

Hostaway doesn't publish pricing publicly — you schedule a demo and get a custom quote. Based on what other hosts have shared in forums and direct conversations, expect $125–200+/month for most multi-property setups, often with a per-listing fee at scale. That's not unreasonable if you're doing $80k+/year in gross revenue and need the channel management depth. But it stacks: add PriceLabs at $19.99/month for dynamic pricing and possibly a separate lock automation tool, and your monthly platform spend approaches $200+ before a single cleaning bill.

By comparison, Smoobu runs $25–89/month. Lodgify runs $13–83/month (annual billing required for the lower end). Those tools have narrower OTA channel lists, but if your revenue is concentrated on Airbnb and VRBO with a direct site, they cover you at a fraction of the cost.

An Honest Flag

I built Koohost, which I'll describe below. I have an obvious interest in how this comparison reads. I've tried to be accurate about Hostaway's strengths because a one-sided review doesn't help you — and you'd spot it anyway. Weight my framing with that in mind. If I hosted five Airbnb-only properties with no smart locks and no thermostats, the math on Hostaway might look different than it does for my setup.

Where Koohost Fits (and Where It Doesn't)

Koohost was built around the premise that smart home automation — locks, thermostats, cameras — should be the foundation, with PMS channel integration as the second layer. The lock automation runs on Yale Assure 2, Schlage Encode Plus, and August locks with full lifecycle management: push on booking, revoke on checkout or cancellation, battery level monitoring, and failure notifications. Thermostat scheduling — Nest 3rd-gen, ecobee SmartThermostat Premium, Honeywell T9, Wyze — fires from reservation timing without a separate Zapier workflow.

Pricing is $15/month Solo Host (iCal sync, no PMS API) or $30/month Pro Host (full Hospitable, Lodgify, or Smoobu PMS integration). No per-property fees at either tier. What Koohost doesn't have: Hostaway's OTA channel breadth (Booking.com, Expedia), a built-in investor owner portal, or enterprise team workflow features. If you manage for investors or list on 8+ OTA platforms, Hostaway earns its price. If those aren't your reality, you're paying for capabilities you won't use.

For a broader look at the STR software landscape, the Airbnb management software overview and the alternatives comparison page have more context.

Feature Comparison

Pick Hostaway If / Pick Koohost If

Pick Hostaway if:

• You're listing on 5+ OTA platforms and need reliable multi-channel calendar sync including Booking.com and Expedia
• You manage properties for investors and need a branded owner portal with automated monthly revenue statements
• You have a team of 2+ staff handling guest communications and need workflow assignment features across channels
• Your gross STR revenue is $80k+/year and a $150/month PMS is justified by double-booking protection alone
• Booking.com or Expedia generate meaningful revenue for your listings — not just Airbnb and VRBO

Pick Koohost if:

• Your revenue is Airbnb + VRBO primary and PMS sync via Hospitable, Lodgify, or Smoobu already covers your distribution
• You have smart locks — Yale Assure 2, Schlage Encode Plus, August — and want full lifecycle automation: push on booking, revoke on cancellation, battery alerts, failure notifications
• You run thermostats (Nest 3rd-gen, ecobee SmartThermostat Premium) and want pre-arrival scheduling tied directly to reservations, not built in Zapier
• You want Ring, Arlo, or Blink camera motion alerts routing into the same dashboard as your guest messages
• You manage 1–15 properties solo and Hostaway's pricing structure doesn't make economic sense for your revenue volume

The full Hostaway alternative breakdown goes deeper on specific workflow comparisons. And if messaging automation is the main thing driving your evaluation, the Airbnb messaging software guide compares auto-reply approaches across multiple tools before you commit to any platform.

For independent PMS market coverage and pricing verification, Short Term Rentalz publishes periodic reviews worth checking before any annual subscription commitment.

FAQ

Is Hostaway worth the price for a small portfolio?

For 1–4 properties, probably not. The pricing structure makes sense when you're managing 6+ listings across multiple OTA channels with a team handling communications. For smaller portfolios, Hospitable ($29–99/month) or Smoobu ($25–89/month) cover most needs at a fraction of the cost.

Does Hostaway integrate with smart locks?

Yes — Schlage, Yale, RemoteLock, and Igloohome. But the integration is basic: you can auto-generate and push door codes at check-in. What it doesn't handle natively: revoking codes when a reservation cancels mid-stay, alerting you when a code fails to land on the lock, or monitoring battery levels across your portfolio. Those failure cases require manual intervention or a separate tool.

What's the difference between Hostaway and Hospitable?

Hospitable ($29–99/month) is optimized for Airbnb-primary hosts with strong AI messaging and clean automation. Hostaway is a full channel manager built for multi-OTA distribution, owner reporting, and team workflows. If 90%+ of your revenue comes from Airbnb, Hospitable usually wins on value per dollar. If Booking.com and VRBO are both significant revenue sources, Hostaway's channel sync earns its keep.

Does Hostaway include dynamic pricing?

No — Hostaway integrates with PriceLabs and Wheelhouse rather than building pricing logic natively. PriceLabs starts at $19.99/month flat. That cost stacks directly on top of your Hostaway subscription and should be factored into your real total platform spend before you compare against all-in tools.

Can I sign up for Hostaway without a demo call?

No. Hostaway requires a sales demo before you get pricing or trial access. Whether that's a feature (you get real setup guidance from someone who knows the product) or a friction point depends on how you prefer to evaluate software. If you want to test a tool on your own listings before talking to anyone, that's not how Hostaway works.

How does Hostaway's owner portal work?

You create owner logins scoped to their specific properties only. They see occupancy rates, revenue, and booking detail. You can brand the portal with your logo. Monthly statements can be auto-generated and emailed. This is one of Hostaway's clearest advantages over tools in the $25–100/month range — most don't offer investor portals at all, or they charge extra for them.

If you host your own listings and want to test what reservation-tied lock codes, thermostat scheduling, and one-tap AI reply approvals feel like in daily operation, try Koohost free for 30 days — no credit card.