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Reading time 5+ minsWhat is vacation rental software?
Vacation rental software is a versatile solution that covers everything from online booking and reservation management to seamless payment processing and automatic guest communication.
It’s like having a trusted partner by your side, designed to simplify and supercharge the management of your charming hotel or vacation property. Whether you run a cosy countryside inn, a beachfront villa, or a vibrant hostel, this software is tailor-made to fit your needs and elevate your guest experience.
Little Hotelier
Little Hotelier is rental management software designed for small hotels, offering an all-in-one solution for streamlining day-to-day tasks as well as offering multiple third-party integrations to expand its toolset. It’s cloud-based, making it one of the best online vacation rental software solutions, and enables hoteliers to stay on-the-go while still managing their property. Explicitly created for small property owners (around 20 rooms or under), this is a tailored solution for boutique hoteliers.
Features
Booking and reservation management
Little Hotelier offers a user-friendly booking and reservation management system, allowing small hoteliers to efficiently manage bookings, check availability, and confirm reservations. This feature helps streamline the booking process, reducing the risk of overbooking and ensuring a smooth check-in experience for guests.
Online booking engine
Little Hotelier provides a customisable online booking engine that can be seamlessly integrated into a hotel’s website. This feature enables guests to make bookings through the hotel’s website, increasing direct bookings and reducing reliance on third-party booking platforms and avoiding OTA fees.
Easy property management
Little Hotelier offers comprehensive property management tools, including room inventory management, rate setting, and guest profile management. It simplifies day-to-day operations by centralising all property management tasks in one system, saving time and reducing manual errors.
Reporting and analytics
The software includes robust reporting and analytics capabilities, allowing hoteliers to track key performance metrics, such as occupancy rates, revenue, and guest demographics. Access to actionable insights helps in making informed decisions and optimising pricing strategies. One popular feature includes tracking how rooms are sold across major OTAs and how rates stack up against competitors.
Simple channel management
Little Hotelier’s channel management feature allows small hoteliers to expand their reach by connecting their property to various online travel agencies and distribution channels. This ensures that room availability and rates are automatically updated across all platforms, reducing the risk of double bookings and maximising online exposure.
Third-party integrations
Little Hotelier offers integrations with a wide range of third-party services, including payment processors, accounting software, and guest review platforms. This allows hoteliers to enhance their operations and guest experiences by connecting with other relevant tools and services.
Guest engagement
Little Hotelier includes guest engagement features like automated messaging and communication tools. This enables hoteliers to provide guests with pre-stay information, check-in details, and post-stay feedback requests, enhancing overall guest satisfaction and experience.
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AdobeBooking
AdobeBooking is an accommodation booking system that offers a “one-stop-shop to simplify your hotels’ booking operations”. Intended to be flexible and easy to use, it’s a cloud-based solution that provides customisable platform features but may be too complex for smaller hoteliers looking for a more simple solution.
Features
- Automated booking updates: AbodeBooking updates itself when bookings are made, aiming to reduce manual errors and prevent double bookings.
- Website booking engine: The software includes a standard website booking engine that works on both computers and mobile devices, allowing for direct bookings on the hotel’s website.
- Customisable interface: The interface of AbodeBooking allows for customisation of the booking calendar and provides straightforward options to manage bookings.
Alacer
Alacer is vacation rental software that promises to make “light work of providing an impeccable service”, designed for inns, boutique hotels, resorts, spas, as well as restaurants and bars. Based in the United Kingdom, Alacer is a solution that is created for a broad range of hospitality businesses – hotels included – but isn’t necessarily tailored specifically for smaller hoteliers.
Features
- General management software: Alacer’s software provides tools for managing various aspects of hospitality businesses, aiming to simplify routine operations and improve staff efficiency. It offers a package that covers several areas of hotel management.
- Integrated web booking: The software allows for direct bookings via the hotel’s own website, including rooms, restaurant reservations, and spa services. These bookings are integrated with the hotel’s main management system for easier handling.
- Event and conference management tool: Alacer offers a tool for organising events and conferences, including the management of related hotel services like room reservations and restaurant bookings. This feature is designed to assist in coordinating different business areas related to an event.
BedLoop
BedLoop is a relatively new addition to the vacation rental software industry, with features designed to assist both hotel managers and individual homeowners with optimising their property management processes. However, it lacks some important features that some accommodation providers would need to find elsewhere.
Features
- Property management system: Bedloop’s PMS is aimed at simplifying work processes, providing a dashboard to manage bookings. It allows for moving bookings between properties or rooms and helps in avoiding overbookings.
- Multi-unit rental management: The software offers functionality to manage multiple apartments, similar to managing hotel rooms. It supports moving bookings between similar properties and assists in inventory management.
- Team task assignment: Bedloop includes a tool for assigning tasks to team members, either individually or as a group. This feature helps in organising tasks and setting reminders for team efficiency.
Benefits of using vacation rental management software
Essentially, using vacation rental takes the hassle out of daily operations, saving you precious time and resources. Rather than having to manage every aspect of your hotel, from communicating with guests to managing bookings to organising housekeeping schedules manually, vacation rental software automates many (if not all) of the admin for you.
This means you have more time to grow your business, rather than spending hours in the back office – and the best hotel management software solutions include bespoke tools that give you strategic insights into where you beat out the competition.
Whether you’re managing a quaint B&B, a charming countryside retreat, or a boutique gem, vacation rental software is your path to efficient property management.
Choosing the best vacation rental software for small accommodation providers
There’s a wide variety of hotel management software available on the market today, but not all are created equally, and not all are the best fit for your unique needs as a hotel owner. Here’s a further breakdown on some of the most popular providers out there and what they can do for your business.
| Little Hotelier | No lock-in contract. Cancel anytime. | A feature tracking how rooms are sold across major OTAs and how rates stack up against competitors. | Single calendar view to prevent overbookings or reservations being missed. |
| Abode Booking | Option to offer events and benefit from ticket sales in the system. | Customer details can be entered via a passport scanner. | Virtual Rooms feature allows flexible accommodation and custom room rate structures. |
| Alacer | Provides broader hospitality features for restaurants and bars. | Ability to add guest transactions anywhere on the property to 1 room invoice. | Stock management software saves time and generates a reordering list direct to suppliers |
| Bedloop | A system feature keeps track of which properties have been cleaned. | A system feature allows all maintenance reports to be recorded and expenses tracked. | A cash module which provides broader financial management vs. bank transactions. |
By Dean Elphick
Dean is the Senior Content Marketing Specialist of Little Hotelier, the all-in-one software solution purpose-built to make the lives of small accommodation providers easier. Dean has made writing and creating content his passion for the entirety of his professional life, which includes more than six years at Little Hotelier. Through content, Dean aims to provide education, inspiration, assistance, and, ultimately, value for small accommodation businesses looking to improve the way they run their operations (and live their life).
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“We’ve seen a 10-15% revenue increase with Little Hotelier. We had great support and met expectations during training. It’s very easy to manage via mobile app.”
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