Hostaway vs Entrata: Which is a better fit?

Doug: Hi, I'm Doug. I'm the manager of The Pickleball Haven of Naples. I've been working with Hostaway now on the onboarding process, and I'd rate them a five on a scale of one to five. We're a brand new property that was just completed in Naples, Florida. The Pickleball Haven of Naples is a pickleball retreat that needs exposure, and we're brand new and we're just getting started, with Airbnb initially. And then we needed a channel manager to really work with Hostaway. That was the reason for working with the Hostaway company. So we did some research on the internet and looked at different companies, interviewed a few different companies for channel management. We'd actually been referenced to Lodgify, but we met with the Hostaway people, real impressed with the process, real impressed with the people, real impressed with the app. So we made the decision to go with them. So getting started with Hostaway was really quite simple. They do have an onboarding fee, which was quite reasonable compared to some of the other options we were looking at. The thing I'm most excited about with the onboarding process is we've got a wonderful leader that's taking us through the process, [inaudible 00:01:10]. And when you go through the process on these one-hour meetings, which are efficient, but they keep working with you until you get it right. So we've got a lot of complexity attached to what we're doing. We're building websites, we're doing payment processes for different sophisticated payment options for how we do the algorithms, and it takes a number of processes to go through that. So they just keep working with you on the onboarding process until you're satisfied with where you are, which is a huge advantage for us because if you try to rush this, you're going to miss stuff. So it's been a really good, healthy process so far. So I'd strongly recommend Hostaway to anybody that's in our situation of really trying to figure out the complexity of Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, Expedia, Google. I mean, it's complex. And the opportunity that we've had with working with Hostaway is really coordinating all of that and have a direct website as well. So you get challenges. It's not an easy process, but the support is fantastic. I just spent an hour with the support team yesterday on a particular problem I had with creating a new website, a new web domain that's integrated with the website Hostaway. And they just kept sticking with me. And I've just had so many calls with support teams in the past where they get frustrated, they throw their hands up. It's like, Booking.com is one of them, and they don't follow through on what they said they're going to do. And Hostaway, in their situation they just kept getting more people, frankly, to help with the complex situation I was in until we figured it out. So they stick with it, and it's a great app. The app does so much for you. It's almost limitless in terms of what it can do for you, but to take full advantage of it, you need the support to be able to get it right. And we're really trying to build a sophisticated process with the Pickleball Haven of Naples. It's a wonderful new property. It needs exposure, and it's getting us that exposure. And so far, so good. And we've already had two bookings before we're even fully onboarded with Hostaway. So Pickleball Haven of Naples is very happy with Hostaway at this point.

Tonya I.: Hello, my name is Tonya. I'm an Operations Manager for a mid-size property management firm located in Miami. We have been using Entrata for 16 years and have been very happy. I give this product definitely five out of five. Prior to switching to Entrata, we used one site, used a couple different products there, as well as ERD. Those were great, but definitely have benefited from switching. We were looking for all inclusive solution that also would be cost effective. The greatest benefit that we saw in Entrata is that it had all the different modules that were addressing our needs in terms of prospect portal, resident portal, accounting suite, as well as document management and generating [inaudible 00:00:50] lead management, really all in one and, throughout the years, we have used all those products. One other feature that I think really separates Entrata from others is that it caters to student properties and has a large number of operators and owners in student housing using this product. We really loved the roommate matching feature that exists in Entrata, so that was very helpful to us. The onboarding and migration process was very straightforward. We had a dedicated team that was assigned to us initially. We started way ahead and worked through the high level items in terms of setting up us as a company, general ledger, all GL codes, all the important stuff as well as everything on the leasing side. And then, we were migrating at first one property at a time and then a couple at a time, and it was pretty straightforward. The downtime was about maybe a week, and that was long time ago. Now, they have a self migration tool that allows to do it almost instantly, so long you're prepared and can roll with it. Currently, I think you have two options and we actually utilized both options recently with the recent migrations. You can have them help to migrate or you can do self migration, so both options were available. But, again, that was very organized, methodical, straightforward and, before you go live, you have a chance to review everything and sign off on everything to make sure you really confirmed and completed everything as you wanted. Just if someone had already made up their mind to switch, just really, prior to migration, make sure that you have everything cleaned up in your old system, so whatever data you're bringing in is clean and there are no errors remaining. Check your deposit reports, your resident aged payables, vendor aging, all of those reports, making sure you're 100% ready to migrate. Other than that, that will be smooth sailing.