STRONG POINTS1. Rentals United is mostly a solid CHANNEL MANAGER with the broadest spectrum of OTAs available on the market. I've connected to most of them, but 5 top performers generate almost all bookings in London.Still, there were hardly any connection issues after nearly 2 years, and I avoided the nuisance and stress of double bookings and iCals failing, improving my OTA mix and revenue. 2. PRICEThe more properties you have better the price. After our research and having circa 40 units to manage, it was the best value for money as the price is fixed and you know exactly how much you will pay. You can integrate some external software which I describe below and that costs extra.3. INTEGRATION WITH OTHER SERVICESWe found external DYNAMIC PRICING integration (Pricelabs, Beyond Pricing or Wheelhouse) and OPERATIONAL APPS (Wishbox, Chekinn, Doinn, HelloHere, SuperHog) great. For payments for direct bookings, you can integrate STRIPE (a flat fee per charge if generated from RU, free if you take payment manually).These apps are optional, and you pay extra for them, but we are glad we found them!RU FEATURES - strengths and weaknesses1. BOOK DIRECT Free website generator creates one page per listing, but guest cannot search for availability between all your listings, which makes it not very useful. We mostly get bookings from the OTAs, and direct bookings are from returning guests, so it is not a deal-breaker, but it would be great to have this function. 2. GUEST PLANNER is a place where you can see a snapshot of what is happening at your properties: your current reservations, check-in / check-out; You can also communicate with guests there. It's a bit difficult to use when you have many properties - in our case, we used the multicalendar available in the software and integrated external communication service available on RU.3. GUEST COMMUNICATION - you will receive messages from all platforms on your email, and you can message guests on most platforms (I believe not all, but I'm not sure) from Rentals United directly. Instead we use one of the integrated software providers for that as it allows us to upsell, take pre-check-in data, security deposit, etc. and communicate via WhatsApp, text message, online chat, so that guests cannot miss our messages - not everyone can access their email at all times, so the text message backup is great.4. QUALITY CHECKER Good to understand if you need to upload any new information so that your listings have more visibility on the OTAs. Your account manager for each channel may give you more tips on how to get even higher in ranks.5. Data Studio Free basic data to better understand your properties. I have not tried expensive advance option as it was only released recently. It's their first own premium ad-on.ALL IN ALL, good value for money and a solid product that is being improved constantly.Prepare for bumps and sweat during integration and use extra external services to generate extra income and make it easier and more guest friendly.
Claim your business profile now and gain access to all features and respond to customer reviews.
Rentals United is the revenue-first channel management platform trusted by leading vacation rental property managers worldwide.
Built for professionals, our 2-way API sync and Analytics Premium platform connects with over 90 global channels and integrates seamlessly with +15 PMS software providers.
With best-in class technology and over 15 years expertise we empower property managers to grow revenue, improve occupancy and overall performance. A flexible add-on that turns your existing workflow into a powerful distribution engine.See more
