Lodgify

Avantages

Relatively simple to use. I was able to set up my site and reservation system in less than a week. Site works extremely well on mobile devices (which is huge). I am starting to get a lot of direct online bookings which is amazing. The customer service is very good - I have asked several detailed how-to questions. In one case, I wanted to do something that is not part of the Lodgify product. The service rep researched other ways to accomplish the task and integrate into my site. She sent me detailed instructions and even links to assist me. Not many companies will take the time to do that!

Finally, the workflow aspect of the reservation system is a huge time saver. It is so nice to be able to set up automatic payment reminders, send rental agreements and canned emails automatically! Gives me time to worry about running my business and expanding the website instead of doing all the manual processes associated with bookings.

Inconvénients

Some of the widgets are a little restrictive. I have managed to work around most of them.

My only other complaint is that if you respond to an inquiry with a quote, the system automatically blocks the dates with a tentative booking. I sync my HomeAway, VRBO etc calendars with my Lodgify calendar, so the tentative block causes those calendars to show unavailable. In this business, the conversion rate on inquiries is not high enough to block dates simply because someone sent an inquiry.

Avantages

• Website was really easy to set up to take direct bookings and allows customization. I set it up on my own and had it ready to go in just a couple of days.
• Great blogs with tips on set up and other ways to improve your business.
• Integration with Pricelabs, AirBnB, VRBO, and booking.com are great - Lodgify takes prices from pricelabs and moves those to VRBO since VRBO and pricelabs do not have integration
• Payment processing is expensive but works well
• New integrations and features happen quite often
• Customer support is very responsive
I first tried Tokeet, then Beds24 and then switched to Lodgify which has been much better.

Inconvénients

• Software doesn't allow monthly automatic charging for guests who book for a few months at a time which is something AirBnB does so makes it hard to convert these types of guests to direct bookings. Contractors get paid monthly from their company so want to be able to pay monthly also so I need to manage these payments manually.
• There is an ability to create canned messages but no way to schedule these to send automatically. There should be a way to send messages automatically when a booking is made, before and after check-in for example. I use SmartBnB for this now which works great for AirBnB and VRBO but doesn't help for direct bookings.

Avantages

My experience with lodgify started off very rocky. I wasn't happy with the features, experienced many crashes of the site in the first year that were very frustrating, and there were a few features that were broken entirely. Initially, I had the impression that they didn't have any intention of improving their software.

Now that I've been using lodgify for a year and a half there are many broken features that are now working. The coupon codes actually work on mobile now which is something we had contacted them about at least a dozen times.

Customer service responds quickly though there are delays because they are in Spain. There can also be some communication issues.

We are a long established company with a well recognized brand that has always taken bookings off of our website, for years before switching to lodgify. This is why the platforms functionality was even more important to us. We have over a dozen properties and do around half a million in revenue a year.

Inconvénients

Lodgify isn't exactly honest when you are signing up. We were told that if we signed up for the yearly subscription of $1,100 that we would be locked into that price for life. Well, just two years later and they raised the price $472.00 and told us that they would not be honoring their promised of their lifetime locked in price. They said that their website had been much improved since we signed up and used that as the reason for their price hike. Honestly though, nothing has changed on their website aside from a few broken features actually being fixed. They also charge $1,200 a year to integrate to stripe, so just to use lodgify you are looking at use shy of 3 grand if you have less than 15 properties. That on top of the 2.9% processing fees you are already paying with stripe.

Our biggest disappointment with Lodgify came about a month ago when they decided to publish a blog that they sent to all of their email subscribers. In their blog they used our business and claimed our success was due to building a website with lodgify---a tall claim considering we only use their reservation system and we were a nationally recognized brand long before we ever adopted their software. In the blog they linked to our website, used our copyrighted photos without permission, and encouraged others to copy our very unique business model.

In conclusion: Not a lot of integrity with lodgify in our experience. We like the reservation system but there is still room for improvement.

Avantages

- For small operators, this software contains all you need for a first jump into online hotel management system.
- Very good and responsive support team. Employees are skilled not puppets like.
- Fair prices. No hack here !
- Good support in french for french speeking owner like I am.
- Clean interface for both customers and administrators
- Quick learning curve.

Inconvénients

- Lack of professional reporting functionalities.
They propose you to use Zapier automation without saying that It will cost you a Zapier suscription to use reporting and accounting functions with accuracy and proper booking updates when changes occurs.
- No transparency over upcomming features and software version.

Avantages

This software has enabled me to amalgamate my booking calendars, property information and online payments in one platform as well as a guest friendly website

Inconvénients

Pricing can be difficult to set up and didn't offer all configurations I was looking for