Undergrad Sophomore · Lesson 49 of 66
Do You Need a PMS?
What a property management system does, what it costs, and the unit count where it starts paying for itself.
5 min read +10 XP
Honest answer: not on day one. Possibly not in year one.
This is the piece of software that gets sold hardest at conferences and is needed least by the people in the room.
What it does
Guesty, Hostaway, OwnerRez and the rest run roughly $40 to $120 per unit per month. On one listing that is an Airbnb calendar with extra steps and a bill attached.
When it starts earning its keep
The tipping point is not unit count exactly — it is the number of relationships you are coordinating. Three units with one cleaner and one channel is manageable. One unit on three channels with two cleaners is not.
Got it? Here is what you actually need first.
The thing a PMS is usually bought to fix
Most owners who buy a PMS are trying to solve message volume. You can solve most of that for free, inside the platform, with four scheduled messages — and it is the highest-return hour of setup in this business.
The four:
- On booking — thanks, here is what happens next, here is when you will get the codes.
- Day before arrival — door code, gate code, wifi name and password, parking, check-in time. This one kills most of your inbox.
- Morning after arrival — everything okay? This catches problems while they are still fixable rather than in a review.
- Morning of checkout — checkout time, what to do with towels and trash, thank you.