Property management systems continue to be a significant challenge for vacation rental managers due to the marketplace being fragmented and platforms often not meeting requirements.
Research from Hostfully indicates no single system sticks out as “most valuable” for managers, with 66 different solutions mentioned when survey participants were asked about the most valuable software.
In addition, respondents mentioned 45 different bookings platforms as sources of inventory distribution.
PMS software was also the top fix for vacation rental managers who were quizzed on their priority if they could wave a magic wand.
David Jacoby, president and co-founder of Hostfully, says: "One consistent trend is that property management software still consistently fails on the hospitality side of things.
"PMSs are mostly focused on helping property managers get the reservation. But once that reservation is made, property managers want to provide additional services to the guests, and they are unable to through their PMS."
Such software was followed by guest communications and property cleaning.
Subscribe to our newsletter below
The study also found a big gap between what rental managers want to offer guests and what systems enable them to offer.
Elements such as tours and activities, pre-arrival groceries and more flexible check-in and check-out times were all high on the list.
The study dubs it an “84-point gap” calculated by counting the number of property managers who counted one or more gaps in their PMS.
In terms of distribution, Airbnb was the most cited by vacation rental managers, with a fifth of respondents having between one to five listings listing exclusively on the service.
The next most popular booking source in the category was referrals, with 19% getting bookings from this channel.
Those property managers in the one to five listing category were not found to be reliant on large online travel players such as Booking.com, Vrbo and TripAdvisor, and many claim they do not use them at all.
In contrast, property managers with six or more listings appear to hedge their distribution bets saying they list across multiple platforms.
Overall, findings in the study mirrored those in last year's report with many of the same challenges emerging and 58% of property managers unable to single out a technology that has most impact on their business.
The study, which can be downloaded here, was carried out with the participation of 220 vacation rental managers.