⚠️ Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial, legal, or investment advice. Always do your own research and consult professionals before choosing property management software or making real estate decisions. RentalHowTo.com is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of the software providers mentioned.
If you’re managing short-term rentals in Florida, you know how much work it can be. Whether you’re handling vacation properties or a mix of short- and long-term rentals, finding a way to boost your productivity and cut down on the daily hassle is key. This guide breaks down some of the top property management tools that can help.
Learn how to prepare your Florida rental property for tenants before investing in management tools.
1. DoorLoop
First up is DoorLoop. This is a versatile property management tool that’s designed to work for just about any kind of Florida rental, whether it’s multi-family, single-family, commercial, or short-term. The main idea behind it is a streamlined dashboard that automates a lot of your day-to-day tasks. Think of things like collecting rent or nightly fees, handling maintenance requests, and keeping the books straight, all in one place.
Key Features
- Payment Collection: The system can automate your billing and send out reminders, whether you’re charging for a monthly stay or just a few nights. Plus, guests or tenants can pay online.
- Accounting: DoorLoop has a full-fledged accounting system built right in. It handles income and expense tracking, bank reconciliations, and financial reports. If you’re already a fan of QuickBooks, you can integrate that instead.
- Maintenance Management: It offers an integrated system for tracking maintenance requests. You can assign jobs to your vendors and see real-time updates as they happen.
- E-Leasing and Screening: This is handy if your properties sometimes switch from short-term to long-term. You can manage lease agreements, run background checks, and get e-signatures all from one portal.
- Communication Portal: To keep your messages from getting lost in a messy inbox, DoorLoop gives tenants and guests their own portal to manage communication and files.
- Scalability: The software is built to grow with you, so it can work whether you have just a handful of rentals or a portfolio in the thousands.
Plans
DoorLoop offers a few different tiers:
- Starter Plan: Gets you the core features: online payments, the tenant portal, maintenance management, two-way communication, and e-signatures.
- Pro Plan: Adds on advanced accounting, bank connectivity, the QuickBooks integration, tenant announcements, a more advanced maintenance system, and budgeting. This plan also includes support via email, chat, phone, and Zoom.
- Premium Plan: Tacks on more advanced features for larger-scale operations.
Who Should Use DoorLoop
DoorLoop is ideal for managers who juggle different property types or who see themselves expanding beyond just short-term rentals in the future. It’s a solid choice if you want a straightforward, affordable system that has a reputation for stable pricing and good customer service.
2. Hostaway
Next on the list is Hostaway. This is a dedicated tool built specifically for the short-term rental market in Florida. Its biggest strength is channel management, especially if you list on sites like Airbnb, Booking.com, and VRBO. It automates a huge part of your daily workload by syncing all your calendars, pricing, and availability across every platform, which is a massive help in preventing double bookings.
Key Features
- Channel Optimization: It can automatically tweak your rates and availability, push calendar updates to all the different OTAs (Online Travel Agencies), and pull all your reservation data into one place.
- Payment Automation: You can set up the system to send invoices and payment reminders to your guests, which is great for handling partial deposits or final balances.
- Reporting and Insights: You get real-time dashboards that show you how you’re doing with bookings, what your occupancy trends look like, and how each booking channel is performing.
- Messaging Tools: You can set up automated messages for things like booking confirmations and check-in instructions, ensuring your guests are always in the loop.
Latest Updates
- Direct Booking Page: Hostaway has been improving its tools, allowing you to create a basic direct booking page if you want to take reservations without going through the big OTAs.
- Expanded Integrations: They’ve also been adding more integrations with third-party software, like remote door locks and dynamic pricing tools.
Pricing
When it comes to pricing, Hostaway doesn’t list standard rates online. Instead, they provide a custom quote based on your number of properties and specific needs. The core features (Channel Manager, PMS, Guest Communications) are included in this quote. However, add-ons like Smart Locks or dynamic pricing tools will typically cost extra. It’s also worth noting that they don’t offer a free trial.
Who Should Use Hostaway
Hostaway is really built for hosts and managers who are all-in on short-term vacation rentals and depend on OTAs for their bookings. If you need serious help with cross-listing, dynamic pricing, and managing all those channels, this tool is designed for you.
3. Lodgify
Third, we have Lodgify. This platform is well-known for its user-friendly interface, especially its website builder. It’s designed to let property managers create a professional-looking, direct-booking website without needing to know any code. It also includes a multi-calendar to manage your schedule and can integrate with external channels.
Key Features
- Website Builder: This is Lodgify’s star feature. It’s a drag-and-drop builder that lets you set up your own direct booking site, complete with availability calendars and payment processing.
- Reservation Calendar: You get a single, unified view of all your bookings, including any that come in from connected accounts like your Airbnb or VRBO listings.
- Automated Messaging: The system lets you send automated messages to guests before and after their stay—perfect for check-in directions or “thanks for staying” reminders.
- Task Management: Lodgify includes some basic task management, so you can assign housekeeping or turnover jobs to your staff and make scheduling cleanings between stays much easier.
Recent Improvements
Lodgify is constantly tweaking its website builder, offering more modern templates and making sure they look good and work well on mobile devices. They’ve also added the ability to dynamically add local taxes or special charges (like cleaning fees) during the booking process.
Plans
- Starter Plan: Gives you the bookable website, channel manager, payment system, and guest messaging.
- Professional Plan: Includes everything from Starter but adds a Google Vacation Rentals integration, more advanced direct booking features, and manual payment processing.
- Ultimate Plan: Bundles all the Professional features and adds advanced tools like task management for cleaning, an owner portal, and accounting modules.
Who Should Use Lodgify
Lodgify is best suited for owners or managers who want a polished, direct-booking website at the center of their business. If your goal is to build a strong brand and get guests to book with you directly (instead of just relying on OTAs), Lodgify’s site builder is a fantastic feature.
4. Innago
Finally, let’s look at Innago. This is another all-in-one tool that works well for both short-term and long-term rentals in Florida. Its most significant feature is that it’s largely free for landlords to use. The platform makes its money from optional fees that tenants pay for certain services, which makes it very attractive if you’re on a tight budget or just want to test the waters.
Key Features
- Online Rent Collection: It provides a simple payment portal where guests or tenants can pay via ACH or credit card.
- Lease Management and e-Signatures: Landlords can create digital lease agreements, have them e-signed, and store all the documents right in the system.
- Maintenance Tracking: Guests or tenants can submit requests directly through the platform. You can then respond or assign the task immediately. It also includes basic income/expense tracking and can automatically calculate late fees.
Pricing
This is the simple part: Innago has no setup fees, no monthly fees, and no contracts for landlords. The company’s revenue comes from optional fees paid by tenants, such as a $2.00 fee for ACH payments or 2.99% for credit/debit card payments. Applicants also pay for their own screening.
Who Should Use Innago
Innago is ideal for landlords or property managers who just want the essential features—like rent collection, e-leasing, and maintenance tracking—without the monthly cost. It’s a great fit if you don’t need high-end vacation rental integrations and manage most of your short-term bookings directly.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, picking the right software for your Florida rentals really depends on your budget, how complex your operation is, and whether you need those advanced features for booking platforms. No matter which solution you lean toward, using professional management software is a critical step to maximize your profits, save yourself time, and give your guests a top-notch service.
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