Smoobu is one of the many property management system platforms available to Airbnb hosts and managers that aims to help them streamline operations. With multiple features that include a channel manager, booking system, availability calendar, and many others, the app seems capable of automating some of the most tedious processes associated with the management of short-term rentals. But what exactly is Smoobu? And is it worth it for STR operators?
In this in-depth review, we’ll evaluate Smoobu’s core features, strengths, limitations, integrations, pricing, and user reviews. Beyond surface-level ratings, we’ve also analyzed direct feedback from real customers to identify consistent pros and cons—helping you decide whether Smoobu is a smart choice or if you should consider other options.
We'll also highlight top alternatives and complementary platforms. Our ultimate goal is to help operators in the vacation rental industry like you decide if Smoobu is the right tool for your business needs or you need to look somewhere else.
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What is Smoobu?
Smoobu is vacation rental software that aims to provide comprehensive solutions that facilitate the ownership and management of short-term rentals. Fabian Beckers and Philipp Reuter founded the company in 2014 with headquarters in Berlin, Germany, but Smoobu has the capacity to help Airbnb hosts and managers worldwide. The platform works in multiple languages and supports a number of currencies. The app was launched by hosts as a solution to the obstacles that they were facing in the hospitality industry. Since then, the majority of features have been developed in response to feedback from customers.
Currently, Smoobu works with the largest booking channels and is a Preferred Software Partner for many of them. The platform helps with the management of 50k active accommodations and 200k active listings. Smoobu hosts get 400k bookings per month.
Who is Smoobu best for?
The tools and features available on Smoobu make it a potentially good fit for different operators in the short-term rental business.
The main groups of Smoobu customers include:
- Beginner and experienced hosts with properties listed on different booking channels
- Small- and large-scale professional property managers with local or national portfolios of client properties
- National and international Airbnb management companies with multi-member teams
With translations in 30+ languages, Smoobu can be used globally including in the U.S. market.
What is Smoobu used for?
An Airbnb management software, like Smoobu, is only as good as the features that it provides to users. So, let’s take a look at the tools available on the Smoobu PMS platform:
Channel manager
Smoobu is most famous for its Airbnb channel manager which helps synchronize all booking portals in real time and boost productivity. With this tool, hosts can prevent double bookings while also managing direct bookings, manual calendar blocks, reservation modifications, and cancellations.
The most important features of the channel manager include:
- Reservation syncing: You can manage availability and active bookings across multiple vacation rental websites from a single place.
- Daily rates synchronization: You can sync nightly prices on different portals including your own website by setting up a base price for single days, periods, or days of the week and adding a percentage mark-up for each channel.
- Entire listing and sub-unit syncing: You can break a property into sub-units and easily manage the renting of the entire property as well as the individual sub-units. For instance, if a sub-unit gets booked, the entire property becomes blocked, but other sub-units remain available for booking.
The Smoobu vacation rental channel manager works with 80+ booking portals including but not limited to:
- Airbnb
- Vrbo
- Booking.com
- Expedia
- Tripadvisor
- Agoda
- Flipkey
- VacationRentals.com
- Trip.com
- HouseTrip
- Orbitz
- WaytoStay
- HomeToGo
Moreover, via individual iCals, Smoobu can be connected to listings on any booking channel.
Reservation system
The Smoobu PMS reservation system facilitates the management of vacation rentals. With cloud-based technology, you can access all necessary information about your short-term rental business anywhere at any time. A mobile app is also available.
One of the main features of the reservation system is the central calendar that syncs booking calendars from all platforms and brings together all reservations with relevant aggregated data. You can search for bookings and add new ones manually.
The Smoobu PMS offers a CRM tool that makes the management of guests easier and more transparent. The customizable fields allow you to sort and organize guest information without interfering with bookings. Guest data can be exported for further analysis or used for personalized communication.
Website builder
The Smoobu website builder helps Airbnb hosts and property managers launch their own vacation rental website to drive direct bookings to their properties. While listing your property on Airbnb, Vrbo, and other major booking channels is a great way to get started, having your own website offers an important opportunity to generate additional reservations. And the best part is that you don’t have to pay Airbnb host fees on them, which helps boost your overall revenue.
With Smoobu, you can generate a responsive website that doesn't require any coding or software development skills and works on all devices. You can add photos, location, and description details to optimize it for Google SEO. Each website built with the Smoobu tool comes with its own domain, availability calendar, custom branding, multilingual options, other customization options, and payment processing in multiple currencies.
Importantly, websites integrate with all Smoobu tools to ensure smooth operations and syncing across listings.
Booking system
The Smoobu booking system allows you to start accepting reservations and payments from your own website–whether built with Smoobu or in another way–without the need for complicated manual processes. These bookings are commission-free unlike bookings that come from platforms like Airbnb and Booking.com.
The booking system allows you to set custom prices per night, per season, per booking, per person per night, per person per booking, and others. You can also charge extra fees for things like breakfast, bike rentals, and tours. At the same time, you can offer long-stay discounts and provide unique promo codes for additional reservations. Meanwhile, the booking system accepts payments via different methods including Stripe and PayPal.
The Smoobu booking system works with the rest of the tools available on the platform.
Availability calendar
The Smoobu availability calendar is another feature that helps you generate direct reservations, whether you choose to list on major booking portals or not. It comes as a simple widget that can be embedded on your short-term rental website.
The availability calendar widget works with websites built using the following systems:
- WordPress
- Wix
- Squareplace
- Google Sites
- Weebly
- Strato
- Drupal
- Jimdo
- Joomla!
- Typo3
Guest communications
Smoobu offers a number of tools that help unify and automate guest communication from different channels. Responding to guest messages is a major factor that affects your Airbnb Superhost status, ranking on guest searches, guest experiences, and reviews. At the same time, it could easily turn into one of the most time-consuming tasks in the life of a property manager unless it’s handled properly.
Smoobu provides:
- Unified inbox: You can receive, read, respond to, and review all messages from guests in a single inbox, no matter which booking platform they come from. This includes chatting with guests and sending them emails.
- Automated messaging: You can automate most communication with guests with the help of custom message templates and trigger event definitions such as certain time before or after booking, check-in, or check-out. In this way, you can streamline check-ins and check-outs as well as automate part of the guest review collection process.
Guest communication can be conducted in multiple languages to accommodate the needs of hosts and guests across the globe.
Online check-in
The Smoobu check-in functionalities optimize the check-in process and make it entirely contactless while ensuring compliance with relevant local laws and requirements. Specifically, you can automatically collect all necessary guest information with standard, yet customizable fields including but not limited to name, age, gender, nationality, ID document, and others. You also have the option to require e-signature if that’s demanded by your short-term rental regulations.
Guest reviews
In addition to automating messages that ask guests for reviews after the end of their stay, Smoobu helps you read reviews by guests, respond to them, and review guests as well. The main convenience stems from the fact that you can do this from the Smoobu platform where you already have all the information and details that you need about your guests in highlighting their adherence to things such as cleanliness, communication, and house rules.
Guest guide
With Smoobu, you can automate the creation and distribution of customizable guest guides that feature all necessary information. This helps ensure compliance with house rules, enhance guest comfort and experience, and eliminate a lot of the back-and-forth between hosts and guests.
In your guide book, you can include check-in and check-out instructions, appliance manuals, WiFi login, amenity description, local area information, maps, videos, and anything else that will make the stay of your guests more pleasant and fulfilling, for 5-star reviews. Furthermore, guest guides can help upsell extra services and can be used for direct messaging by guests.
Smoobu guide books can be created in 40+ languages.
KPIs and statistics
Next, Smoobu statistics bring the most important Airbnb metrics together to evaluate and track the performance of your short-term rentals. Some data points include number of bookings, occupancy rate, cancellation rate, portal distribution, revenue breakdown, and others.
All booking data and KPIs can be downloaded in an Excel, CSV, or PDF format for reporting to owners or deeper performance analysis.
Shared accounts
Finally, Smoobu allows you to create a number of different accounts with various permissions to get your entire team onboard. You can allocate read, write, or no access permissions to each member of your team including co-hosts, investment partners, housekeeping staff, accountants, and others. Shared accounts can be organized for all properties or by individual property. This feature is particularly useful to vacation rental management companies with more or less complex teams.
The multiple tools available on Smoobu mean that it can help with the automation of many day-to-day tasks that are of indispensable importance but take lots of time.
What’s missing
Our review of Smoobu shows that while it can help with a wide range of processes, it misses some capabilities that are offered by the best short-term rental software.
Specifically, Smoobu does not have:
- Dynamic pricing: Smoobu has a dynamic pricing feature add-on but it costs an extra $15 per month, per property. There is no pricing plan that has the Smoobu dynamic pricing tool feature built in but the Pro+ plan includes two months of the dynamic pricing tool. Smoobu does offer a 30-day free trial of dynamic pricing.
- Smart locks management: Smoobu integrates with keyless access apps, but it doesn’t have a specific feature that automates the management of Airbnb smart locks from end to end.
- Team collaboration: While Smoobu allows you to share access with team members, it doesn’t have sophisticated features in terms of managing teams for effortless collaboration.
- Task management: Smoobu doesn’t have the same comprehensive capabilities to assign tasks and track progress on them as many competitors.
- Accounting: Smoobu does not provide built-in Airbnb accounting software for tracking revenue and expenses and managing payments.
Based on our review so far, Smoobu is definitely capable of making vacation rental management easier and more efficient. However, it lacks some more sophisticated features compared to alternative solutions such as Hostaway and Lodgify.
Smoobu pricing
When deciding whether a certain vacation rental management software is a good fit for your business, it’s important to consider the total cost that you can expect. Comparing the price with the available features, you can find the best value for money.
Similar to alternatives, Smoobu runs a subscription-based pricing model with three available options that provide access to different tools. There are monthly, annual (10% discount), and biannual (20% discount) subscriptions. Each plan comes with a 14-day free trial.
Note that each plan’s price increases with the number of properties you own. Below are the costs for one property. But, always check their website for the most up-to-date pricing.
Smoobu plans include:
- Professional Flex: This plan includes everything in Professional Prepaid but with a booking commission. The price starts at $27/month plus a 0.9% booking fee.
- Professional Prepaid: This plan includes a channel manager, booking system, communication automation, dynamic guest guide, website builder, customer service chat, iOS and Android apps, an invoicing tool,and many other tools for streamlining operations. $32/month for one property when billed annually.
- Pro+: This plan includes everything in Professional plus 2 months free trial of dynamic pricing, e-voicing, prioritized customer support, additional write-access accounts, and other features supporting team collaboration. $51/month for one property when billed annually.
Smoobu integrations
A good short-term rental management software needs to work directly with a diverse range of third-party Airbnb host tools to provide for features that are missing from its own suite of tools. So, the next step in our Smoobu review is to take a look at the third-party integrations that the product offers.
Smoobu connects with 50+ software apps from the following categories with the most prominent examples in each:
- Payments: Stripe, PayPal, Swikly, and Charge Automation
- Smart pricing: PriceLabs, Beyond, Wheelhouse, and Smartpricing
- Online check-in: Chekin, Duve, Vikey, Yagoo, MyMaison, AVS, Feratel, XDOM BNB, and others
- Smart home and locks: Minut, Operto, RemoteLock, KeyNest, YourWelcome, Keysoft, Igloohome, Nuki, TheKeys, and others
- Cleaning and maintenance: Turno, Properly, Tidy, Doinn, VRScheduler, and others
- Luggage: LuggageHero and Nannybag
- Others: Rental Ninja, Boostly, Roamlike, Superhog, Revyoos, RentAssistant, Lodgea, and others
The number and type of Smoobu integrations is comparable to those provided by other tools in the industry, such as Hospitable and Lodgify, but is less than the integrations offered by tools like Hostaway and Guesty.
Smoobu reviews: What customers say
Smoobu has an average rating of 4.2/5 stars based on 1,800+ unique customer reviews on a number of reliable websites, with additional customer experiences shared on the Airbnb Community Center and Reddit.
Smoobu reviews are available on:
- Facebook: 92% recommend from 340 reviews
- Trustpilot: 3.9/5 stars from 336 reviews
- Capterra: 4.5/5 stars from 190 reviews
- Software Finder: 4.7/5 stars from 38 reviews
- G2: 3.8/5 stars from 13 reviews
- Airbnb Community Center
But let’s have a look at the specific features of Smoobu that users like the most and the least.
Positive Smoobu reviews
Many customers are very happy with the Smoobu platform and would recommend it to fellow hosts and property managers over other tools.
The main advantages that Smoobu offers according to customer reviews include the following:
Simplifies operations
Many Smoobu customers confirm that the app is indeed able to deliver what it promises to its customers: namely, streamlining and facilitating the management of vacation rentals. They comment on the operations they have been able to automate and the time this has saved.
In specific, Daniel highlighted the strong potential of Smoobu on G2:
“This piece of software changed the way we managed our company. It simplified our activity to an unexpected degree. Double bookings became a thing of the past.”
Similarly, VLS’s review on Trustpilot praises Smoobu as follows:
“Smoobu made managing my vacation rentals so easy. Setting up listings and syncing calendars was quick and hassle free. It honestly didn’t take long at all. My boyfriend got to just relax (for once) while I got everything sorted. The dashboard is super straightforward, and I loved having all the guest messages, bookings, and stats in one place. It’s such a time saver and keeps things running smoothly without any stress.”
Ana shared her satisfaction with Smoobu on Facebook:
“Excellent rental software, that simplified your listing connectivity with booking partners. Plus quick support service.”
Comprehensive tools
Another strength of the platform highlighted in customer reviews of Smoobu is the strong suite of tools which covers all the main needs of operators in the Airbnb market.
Ghena wrote the following on Trustpilot:
“Smoobu is a total game-changer! From synced calendars to automated guest messages, it’s like having a personal assistant for my rentals. Easy, efficient, and honestly a lifesaver. Love it!”
Andrew left this review on Capterra:
“As a single property tourism letting company, we need a one-stop solution for our market visibility, communications, calendar and price management (linked to the WHOLE market) and and a 100% reliable point-of-sale interface with our payment provider platform. The SMOOBU property rental management software package gives us all the above and several other options that we don't use. Very good value for money when one considers its vital role. It's an EXCELLENT tool.”
Jan expressed his happiness with the Smoobu tools on G2:
“Has all needed features that i need (channel synch, automated messages, etc.).”
Easy-to-use, intuitive platform
Another pro of Smoobu that transpires in online reviews of the app is the straightforward-to-use interface which does not require any specific technical knowledge. This means that there is no learning curve, so users can start optimizing the management and performance of their short-term rental business right away.
Abaye Luxury Charm Apartments reviewed Smoobu on Facebook, saying:
“The program is well-structured, very intuitive and easy to use.”
Cristian shared his experience with Smoobu on Capterra:
“The platform is very easy to use, very good explained videos to use in any step your in.”
Lukas commended the following on Trustpilot:
“Very easy to use. I’ve been using smoobu for a few months now. It’s very easy to setup the account and the customer support was very helpful.”
Great money for value
There is a general consensus among Smoobu users that this is one of the most affordable options on the market with a particularly good ratio of tools to price.
Stefano wrote the following on Capterra:
“The simplicity of setup and use, great performances, money for value, made life easier Exceptional Italian customer support!”
Logan left the following Smoobu review on G2:
“Software is affordable and robust enabling hosts to connect over 30 booking channels (including the majors like Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia, Flipkey, HomeAway/VRBO, etc.”
In addition, an anonymous, verified user commented this on G2:
“Many functions - channel manager, website builder, affordable price for this package.”
Fantastic customer support team
Finally, a great number of users praise the availability and expertise of the Smoobu customer services team. This means that even if a problem occurs, there is someone to help solve it.
In specific, that’s what Caro wrote on Trustpilot:
“I just talked to Estelle from Smooboo and the service was great, she explained everything in detail to me and was very patient with me. I’m happy I found out about smooboo and that they offer such great service.”
Daniela shared similar sentiments on Facebook:
“For me the most important: they have a top support team with real people who answer very quickly and also very helpful. Highly recommend.”
Victoria expressed her satisfaction with Smoobu customer support in her review on Trustpilot:
“I really loved their customer support. Maria their agent. She was knowledgeable friendly, helpful and persistent.”
Negative Smoobu reviews
While many customers have positive experiences with Smoobu, some note challenges that may be important to consider, depending on your specific needs.
According to customer feedback, the main drawbacks mentioned include the following.
Limited functionality
While the majority of customers consider Smoobu to be rather comprehensive, some users find the available tools to be limited.
Xavier shared this note on G2:
“The billing section needs improvements, especially in the management of additional items. Additionally, the web edition does not allow for complete adaptation to the desired aesthetics, the preprogrammed mixes need to be able to create more triggers on different days for the same mix.”
Samantha left this Smoobu review on Software Finder:
“Some features could be more advanced, like scheduling automated emails, which would save a lot of time compared to the manual work currently required.”
Integration issues
Some users also want more integrations provided by Smoobu. Direct connections with key software apps are missing, while others had connection problems.
Vincent commented the following on Trustpilot:
“Does not synchronise with expedia / vrbo. The objective of a channel manager is to synchronise across multiple platforms. A huge miss that there are missing synchronisation with one of the leading platforms. Only calendar can synchronise.”
Mark wrote this in his review on Software Finder:
“The channel management price sync with Expedia/VRBO frequently disconnects.”
Occasional technical problems and glitches
Smoobu seems to be generally stable, but some users report bugs and malfunctions that affect operations, mess up bookings, and cause the need for manual fixes.
Is Smoobu reliable?
The excellent ratings of Smoobu on most review websites and the fact that the vast majority of users would recommend the platform speak to its reliability and trustworthiness. This seems like a feasible solution to the main problems that hosts and property managers face.
However, some customers report technical bugs and support hiccups. In some cases, the support team seems unable to solve these problems. However, given the number of positive reviews to negative reviews, these cases seem to be isolated.
Smoobu alternatives and add-ons
Smoobu is a property management platform that brings real value to individual hosts and smaller-scale property managers. Its intuitive design, built-in channel manager, and easy-to-use booking and calendar tools make it a strong entry point for those looking to streamline short-term rental operations.
However, based on user feedback, there are areas where the platform could improve. Some users have also noted occasional issues with third-party integrations and system reliability. That said, for hosts with simpler needs or those just getting started, Smoobu can be a solid foundation for growing your Airbnb business.
The following are the top PMS add-ons and alternatives to Smooboo.
1. SummerOS
If you're using Smoobu to manage your vacation rental business, pairing it with the right supporting tools can help you unlock even more value. One of the most powerful complements is SummerOS, an asset management platform purpose-built for short-term rental professionals.
Unlike traditional PMS software, SummerOS doesn’t replace Smoobu, it enhances it. By unifying data across your PMS, pricing tools, and other integrations, SummerOS becomes your command center for performance, growth, and operational insight.
SummerOS helps STR operators go beyond basic automation with powerful revenue and analytics features, including:
- Portfolio-wide data centralization for easy performance tracking across all listings
- Real-time analytics to monitor revenue, occupancy, and performance trends
- Custom comp sets for local, relevant Airbnb benchmarking
- Owner-ready reports that build trust and improve retention
- Proactive alerts to spot and solve revenue shortfalls before they become problems
- Underwriting and pro forma tools to model acquisition performance and financial health
Whether you manage 3 properties or 300, SummerOS turns scattered data into strategic clarity, giving you the insight and control you need to scale with confidence.
🔍 Start your free trial today and see how SummerOS helps you turn your PMS into a performance machine.
2. Beds24
Beds24 is an alternative to Smoobu that offers very similar features to manage short-term rental properties. As a PMS platform, it makes the work of Airbnb hosts and managers easier and more efficient.
The main tools available on Beds24 include a channel manager, front desk system, online booking system, multi-property management, guest communication, and payment processing. One feature that’s available on Smoobu but missing from Beds24 which is worth noting is guest review management. Meanwhile, Smoobu has an Airbnb dynamic pricing tool for an additional fee, while Bed24 does not. However, both integrate with third-party apps, such as Wheelhouse and PriceLabs.
Speaking of integrations, Smoobu and Beds24 offer comparable options in this regard. This allows hosts and property managers to automate some aspects of management that are missing from the two platforms.
Unlike Smoobu, Beds24 doesn’t have subscription plans but allows customers to build their own package based on the tools they need, the rentals they have, and the number of channels on which they list them. It’s difficult to compare the pricing of the two apps as there are a lot of factors at play.
3. Guesty
Guesty is one of the most popular competitors of Smoobu. This PMS works for individual hosts, professional property managers, and operators of different types of accommodations such as urban rentals, serviced apartments, aparthotels, guesthouses, and others. In other words, Guesty is capable of helping more types of users than Smoobu.
The core Guesty features include a channel manager, multi calendar, website builder, unified inbox, payment solutions, CRM, and analytics. Guesty has a few tools that are missing from Smoobu, namely built-in dynamic pricing, guest communication services, accounting software, smart locks management, property damage protection, and short-term rental business financing. This makes Guesty a potentially better fit for Airbnb managers than Smoobu.
While both Smoobu and Guesty integrate with multiple third-party software tools, Guesty has more integration capabilities.
Similar to Smoobu, Guesty offers three subscription plans. Pricing starts at $9/month plus a 1% reservation fee for one property when billed annually. The cost of more sophisticated plans is custom.
Is Smoobu worth it?
Our Smoobu review shows that this is a legitimate property management system that can streamline and organize some of the most time- and energy-consuming tasks in the Airbnb business. While many hosts and property managers find real value in the tools provided by the platform, as revealed in online reviews, Smoobu features are limited compared to what some alternatives offer. The most important limitations are the lack of a dynamic pricing tool and task and team management capabilities. Meanwhile, Smoobu could be an affordable option for DIY hosts with just a few listings who want to automate some processes.
Looking for the best way to take charge of your short-term term business? Check out SummerOS. Whether you’re using Smoobu or another PMS, SummerOS complements your current tools and brings all data and operations under a single roof, from finding new leads and onboarding new customers, to supporting guests and coordinating team members. We take the complexity out of managing your vacation rentals and turn it into an effortless growth.
Start your SummerOS free trial now — and see what performance-first management feels like.
