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Lodgify, a technology startup based in Barcelona, Spain, has announced the launch of a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution for marketing vacation rentals.
Lodgify enables both vacation rental owners and property managers to easily create their own Website with a “Book Now” function, centrally manage their reservations and synchronize their property information across major vacation rental portals. Lodgify has already integrated with 9flats and Roomorama, and integration with HomeAway/VRBO is currently in progress, the company said. Meanwhile, 20 additional channel partners will be included by year end.
“We are doing for vacation rental owners what Shopify is doing for shop owners,” Marco De Gregorio, CEO and co-founder of Lodgify, said in a statement. “In other words, we are making affordable and scalable technology available to vacation rental owners and helping them grow their accommodation businesses.”
“When we tell friends about Lodgify, we say that we’re the Shopify for vacation rental owners,” said Naveen Sharma, head of marketing and business development at Lodgify. “You can build your own vacation rental Website with a ‘Book Now’ function, synchronize with your Airbnbs and HomeAways, and manage it all from one place.”
Lodgify is launching its product at a time when leading vacation rental portals have started offering renters the ability to directly book and pay for their reservations online, in an attempt to meet the growing demand for a more simplified booking process. Lodgify’s commission-free Book Now function enables vacation rental owners to easily offer such a seamless booking experience on their own websites, allowing owners to accept credit card payments immediately or once the booking is confirmed. Check out the Lodgify video here.
In addition, Lodgify’s Channel Manager feature enables vacation rental owners to automatically sync their property information and reservations with external listings on major vacation rental portals. Bookings from multiple sources are managed centrally from a Lodgify dashboard, and availability calendars are automatically updated on all sites.
“Listing properties on as many major portals as possible is crucial for successful vacation rental marketing,” De Gregorio said. “However, it is also extremely time-consuming to manually create and maintain all these listings and manage the incoming reservations. Our software solves that issue.”
With portals like Airbnb bringing new renters into the market and trends indicating that more travelers are choosing to stay at vacation rentals rather than hotels, vacation rental owners and renters need more professional software solutions, the company said. Lodgify’s all-in-one solution provides vacation rental owners with the services and flexibility to meet growing customer expectations.
Lodgify offers scalable subscription plans based on a monthly fee for both vacation rental owners and managers with one to more than 500 properties. The integrated solution includes mobile-friendly Website templates, a booking engine, a reservation system and a channel manager. Lodgify’s booking engine integrates with both Stripe and PayPal.
“What makes us different to someone like buuteeq,” Sharma said, “we’re the new kids on the block with more features: cool UI, book now function—via Stripe and PayPal—responsive Website templates, multilingual. And who needs initial funding if one has three developers who make up for a team of 10?”