All About Rentals United Vacation Rental Software (Review) (2024)

“We’re the game-changing software in the short-term rental ecosystem.”

Founded in 2015, Rentals United functions as a cloud-based channel management solution, rather than a full property management system. It was created with vacation rental properties in mind and is best suited for websites and property suppliers that manage between ten and 49 properties.

Overview

Rentals United works with a range of property management systems such as Guesty, 365villas, CiiRUS, and Vreasy. It includes functions for integrated online booking, real-time updates, and rate management. With Rentals United, vacation rental owners and managers can manage their listings across multiple sites, including HomeAway, TripAdvisor, Airbnb, Expedia, Agoda, Booking.com, and others. It features automatic synchronization across the distribution channels.

Users can upload properties to the platform in a few different ways: manually, through a connected PMS, or with the Rentals United API. Handy checklists ensure users have completed all of the required steps for each distribution site.

Another practical feature of Rentals United is the flexible price upload tool. The platform also enables users to save changeover days and minimum stays. MangoPay integration with Rentals United means vacation rental owners can accept credit card payments. Plus, guests can book directly through provided rental property pages.

Features

Rentals United has several features available for users:

• Channel Manager – The Channel Manager allows users to automatically sync and update their listings on various booking websites. This helps you keep your calendar up-to-date, avoid double bookings, and cut back on admin time. Rentals United’s Channel Manager encourages you to improve your marketing mix and diversify your distribution. You can mix and match short-term and mid-term rental listing sites, online travel agents, niche listing channels, local booking channels, meta searches, and wholesalers.

• Guest Planner – With the Guest Planner, you can easily visualize your guests’ journey. The planner enables you to organize cleaning tasks and guest arrivals using a drag-and-drop dashboard. You can also connect your email and communicate with guests through the Rentals United platform.

• Guest Communication – One unified inbox allows users to save time on guest communications. You can also automate the process to make it even simpler.

• Book Direct Pages – Book Direct Pages from Rentals United include an auto-generated page for each listing. This page covers all of your property data, policies, and pricing model. Plus, it features a full checkout engine that accepts credit card payments from guests.

• Quality Checker – Rentals United has a Quality Checker that looks for gaps in your content. Its goal is to create essentially perfect listings that will improve users’ bookings and overall performance.

• Data Studio – The Data Studio is focused on revenue management and features a variety of reports that will help you understand your business and where it needs to improve. Some of the reports include Property Health Cards, Stay Date Breakdown, Booking Window Analysis, Top/Bottom 20 Properties, Cancellation Detail, Property Year Performance, and Origin of Booker.

Platforms

Rentals United can be accessed through the internet, but it does not currently have iPhone/iPad and Android apps.

Users

Typical users of Rentals United are vacation rental businesses that own or manage between ten and 49 properties. While owners and managers with 50+ properties can potentially work with Rentals United, those with less than 10 properties will need to find an alternative solution.

Support

Rentals United offers a few options for support. They have an email help desk function, as well as chat and an online knowledge base where users can seek out answers.

Training

Training for Rentals United is covered by various documents, webinars, and live online training. Using the Rentals United platform begins with uploading your property information. You can do this manually, via your existing PMS (Rentals United connects with 50 common PMS softwares), or through the Rentals United API (Application Programming Interface). This allows you to connect your system directly with the Rentals United system.

After uploading, you simply choose the listing sites you want to work with. Over the first three weeks of using Rentals United, you’ll go through the onboarding process, which includes three calls from the Rentals United staff. Although it is self-service software, the company helps you get started and answers any questions you have as you get acclimated to the platform.

Awards

Rentals United won the 2021 Shortyz Best Vacation Rental Channel Manager Award. Shortyz is an industry event hosted by Short Term Rentalz.

Pricing

The pricing for Rentals United starts at €199 or about $231 per month, and this price covers between ten to 19 properties. This fee includes the storage of your property info, use of the Channel Manager, and other tools, including the Booking Engine, Guest Planner, Guest Communication, iCal sync, Multi-Calendar, and Quality Checker.

If you have 20-29 properties, the price rises to €279; for 30-39, it’s €329, and for 40-49, it costs €349. In US dollars, this comes out to about $324, $382, and $405, respectively. If you own or manage 50 or more properties, then Rentals United will work with you to determine a customized price. Meanwhile, if you have less than ten properties, you won’t be able to work with Rentals United. Instead, you can work with one of its partners, Vacayz or Shomy.

Rentals United doesn’t have a set-up fee, and during the first month after sign-up, you’ll receive training from staff. Larger accounts will also receive a Key Account Manager. Learn more about Rentals United’s pricing plan directly from the source here.

What Makes Rentals United Stand Out?

Rentals United is not a full property management system; it’s a channel manager. However, it can be integrated with various property management systems to create a full solution for your vacation rental business.

As a channel manager, Rentals United’s main focus is managing your vacation rental listing on a variety of websites from one simple, easy-to-use platform.

What Do Users Like About Rentals United?

On GetApp, Rentals United received an average rating of four stars out of five from a total of 129 reviews. The reviews were 74% positive, with 74% saying they would recommend Rentals United to others. Below, find some of the most frequently praised features of the software.

Three Ways To Import Property Information

The first thing that users appreciated about Rentals United is the three different ways that property information can be imported. You can use the property upload tool, a connected PMS, or the Rentals United API to import property information.

Automatic Updates

Another benefit of Rentals United is automatically updated availability every time a stay is booked on any channel. It’s also possible to update property descriptions, pictures, and prices throughout all channels through the main Rentals United platform.

Pricing Upload System

Users also liked the pricing upload system, which allows them to set up price scaling for each channel based on various factors. This could include the number of guests, the length of stay (and any length of stay discounts), as well as last-minute booking discounts.

Credit Card Payments Accepted

Also praised was the ability to directly accept credit card payments through the Rentals United dashboard. Rentals United has a partnership with MangoPay, a reliable payment processor.

Direct Booking with Rental Property Pages

In their reviews, users mentioned the fact that guests can book directly. Rentals United provides rental property pages with customizable availability, content, photos, and prices.

Ease of Use

Overall, most users noted that Rentals United was easy to use, with a nice layout and design.

What Do Users Dislike About Rentals United?

We’ve covered the best parts of Rentals United, and now we’ll get into some common user complaints.

No Freebies

The first potential drawback to know about Rentals United is that no free plan or free trial is available.

Hit or Miss Customer Service

When it comes to customer service, some users report amazing experiences, while others complain that their issues weren’t handled as quickly as they wanted them to be.

High Price Point

Another point of contention for users, especially those who own smaller companies, is that the price point can be a bit high if you’re not using Rentals United to manage numerous properties.

Issues with Individual Channels

Some users also reported issues with double booking and were frustrated that it was necessary to read through all the rules and requirements for each individual channel. Another complaint regarding the individual channels is that it’s not possible to block a specific day from your calendar on all channels; instead, users must call each channel’s support team and do this manually.

Long Integration Process

A final issue that some users mentioned is that the integration process can be long and tedious, depending on the number of properties you’re managing.

Main Takeaways

• Rentals United is suitable for small-to-midsize vacation rental businesses that manage between 10 and 49 properties.
• You can upload properties to the channel manager manually, through a connected PMS, or with the Rentals United API.
• Main features include the channel manager, guest planner and communication, book direct webpages, the quality checker, and the data studio.
• Pricing starts at around $231 per month.
• Users praise Rentals United for its ease of use, but they complain about hit or miss customer service experiences and a tedious integration process.