Lodgify is one of the leading all-in-one property management systems for holiday lets and short-term rentals. It’s best known for its user-friendly website builder, commission-free booking engine, and powerful channel manager that keeps your availability and rates in sync across platforms like Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo.
For owners and managers, Lodgify offers a balance of simplicity and flexibility. You can build a professional website, take direct bookings with secure payments, and manage everything from reservations and guest communications to reports and housekeeping in one place.
If you’re looking for a platform that makes it easy to grow your direct bookings while still staying connected to the big OTAs, Lodgify is a solid option worth exploring.
If you have an airbnb listing this couldn’t be simpler – import the listing which connects it to Airbnb, pulls in all the details and sets everything up. Word of caution this will switch you to simple pricing where you pay 15% and the guest pays 0% fees! So the second step is to add a 15% uplift so that your guests pay the same-ish and you get the same-ish – otherwise future guests will be getting a bargain!
If you don’t have an Airbnb listing yet then choose the manual option and you’ll be taken through a neat wizard to add your property – super, super simple. Once set up the interface is pretty intuitive – though some of the global settings are a bit of a hunt at first.
If you get stuck during set up you can set up a free onboarding support call (even in the trial) to walk you through. This is unusual – many PMS tools only offer this once they have your money and some only for an additional fee. Support on the basic plan is basic – there is no chat or AI bot though the knowledgebase is very good. Support on the Pro and Ultitmate plans is excellent – just pick up the phone. On ultimate you also get 1:1 chat support. They also have webinars and events to give industry help and advice to grow your bookings.
On the face of it the basic plan looks great value at £15 per month. However there is a 1.9% per booking fee for channel bookings. On a turnover of, say, £20,000 this is going to add £380 or £32 a month. So good value if you have one property and ONLY direct bookings or are happy using ical. The £37 per month price tag on the pro plan means it’s not the cheapest BUT there are no extra fees. We have used the Pro plan in the pricing breakdown as this is more aligned in functionality to the other tools we have used. If you are scaling above 5 properties additional properties are around £7 each – making this a great solution.
Lodgify have invested heavily in API’s with connections to all the industry leading tools including dynamic pricing, guest verification, smart locks, guest books, stayfi, accounting. This means that for growing businesses more and more can be integrated and streamlined. They also have a Zapier connection so you can automated other things like reporting and accounting – this will become important for making tax digital in the UK. My one criticism would be that some of the integrations are only really for US based hosts and it would be good if they could make that clearer.
The start of the guest booking journey is a little clumsy as it’s a form rather than a calendar – clicking on the from date opens a calendar. Not a huge deal but we show availability in a separate ical driven calendar alongside the widget on our websites. From there on in the booking journey is straightforward and familiar as it mimics the airbnb process to some degree. If you have the ultimate plan then there is a guest login with a guidebook and the ability for the guest to manage the booking.
The customisation on Lodgify is a nice feature. You can use your own colours and fonts in the widget (and we have enhanced that further on our Lodgify widget) so it matches the look and feel of your site. You can also add a logo on the booking pages that takes the guest back to your main website.
You can also customise all the standard emails so they are voiced appropriately for your ideal guest. You cannot add custom fields to the booking form though.
Lodgify connects to Airbnb, Booking.com, VRBO and Expedia (which gives access to lots of other brands). On Pro and Ultimate plans you also get Google Vacation Rentals. For Airbnb and VRBO you can opt to synch rental details as well as availability and pricing. For booking.com and Expedia it is most information about availability and pricing but they do have great guidance in the knowledgebase about what you need to still manage on each channel. Goggle vacation rentals provides a direct link to your website – so that you get a direct booking!
Upsells and mandatory fees are set up in each rental where you set pricing. It’s very straightforward to do and upsells are shown to the guest as part of the booking process. It’s a shame that they don’t have global upsells and mandatory fees to save time though when you add a new one you can select other rentals to add it to. You also can’t add free options – for example to split Kings into Singles etc
You can add vouchers and discounts in the same way as add-ons as part of the pricing set up. Again very easy to do and you can set validity conditions to both booked dates and stay dates. The only thing missing is the ability to set for x number of uses (for prizes or first 10 bookers type promotions)
Reports are a little more comprehensive than some of their competitors and the Ultimate plan gives more comprehensive reports. You can see on a dashboard all the usual metrics broken down by month and/or channel. You can also download transactions – useful for accounting. But like many tools there is no comparison feature so you can’t see how this year is doing compared to last – which gives real insight into how operational changes and investment have impacted profitability.
You can add as many ical integrations as you need and assign them to the relevant listings – nothing needed to improve this.
The Ultimate plan is really designed for agencies with improved reporting and owner statements etc.
Pricing setup is a little different to other tools. First you set a base price – the price most commonly charged. You can add custom day of week rates here too. Then you create seasons and apply those to the relevant dates. Once you get your head around it, it does make pricing much quicker and more straightforward. Channel pricing is based off this with the addition of any markup you want to use (to cover those pesky fees).
The communications system is pretty powerful. Out of the box it comes with a set of pre-defined messages in an automation. You can toggle the messages on and off according to your needs. You can also update the wording of the messages so that they reflect your brand voice and are more personal. In addition you can create your own custom scheduled messages.
Frequently asked questions can be set up as quick responses and there is also an AI engine to ensure guests are responded to quickly (we have NOT tested this)
Strong channel manager – syncs calendars, rates and availability with major OTAs like Airbnb, Booking.com, and Vrbo.
Automation tools – schedule guest emails, reminders, and tasks to save time.
Scalable – suitable for single-property owners right through to small portfolios.
Clear, modern interface – easy to learn and navigate, even for beginners.
Fewer advanced features compared to some high-end PMS (e.g. deep reporting, custom owner statements).
Customer support response times can vary depending on plan.
Lodgify is a good solid choice. Whilst the Pro fees initially seem quite high there are no hidden extras. The cost per property soon comes down for scaling businesses making it an affordable choice with lots of integrations. All those integrations also are a big help to a scaling business – cutting down on manual admin.
This is the easiest tool to get started with – just import from Airbnb and you’re off, that and the great communications system, easy pricing system and unified inbox mean that the Pro version gives you a great system with a very shallow learning curve.
Login to access our members areas where you’ll have access to all our tools and tips! Not already a member? Just click on the registration link below – it’s free!
