Smoobu vs Hostfully (2025): The Definitive Comparison for Vacation Rental Management
Selecting the ideal vacation rental software is crucial for enhancing the efficiency of your property management workflow. With a plethora of platforms available, offering everything from channel management to guest communication, it's essential to evaluate each option based on its functionality, value, and user-friendliness.
In this article, we’ll dive into a comprehensive comparison of Smoobu and Hostfully, two respected names in the vacation rental management industry. We’ll discover their features, pricing, add-ons, and overall user experience to help you find the perfect fit for your needs as a host or property manager.
Whether you’re just beginning your journey or looking to expand, our goal is to provide you with a clear and straightforward perspective to make the best decision possible.
Who has the most effective Channel Manager?
Smoobu: Effortless real-time synchronization across all platforms
Smoobu’s channel manager is a user-friendly tool that integrates with major booking platforms, such as Airbnb and Booking.com, ensuring real-time updates to prevent double bookings. Its intuitive interface allows easy addition or removal of platforms without technical expertise, letting hosts focus on hospitality.
What distinguishes Smoobu is its automation rules, enabling custom updates for availability, rates, and minimum stays across channels, ensuring consistent pricing and trust with guests. This feature optimizes occupancy and revenue without manual intervention.
For teams managing multiple properties, Smoobu offers bulk editing and team-level permissions, allowing role assignments for co-hosts while maintaining an audit trail of changes. This simplifies management and enhances transparency, offering a clear advantage over Hostfully.
Hostfully: Limited setup and hidden complexity
Hostfully’s channel manager integration can feel cumbersome during setup and may require multiple manual steps to connect each platform. Although it supports major OTAs, some integrations are indirect and prone to syncing delays or mismatches. Hosts have reported hidden fees for channel connections or advanced synchronization. Moreover, Hostfully lacks intuitive bulk editing, making it time-consuming to manage rate changes across multiple listings.
See how Smoobu’s powerful Channel Manager can streamline your day-to-day workload.
Which platform offers the best Website Builder and Booking Engine?
Smoobu: All-in-one booking website
Smoobu’s website builder is a comprehensive tool that provides easy drag-and-drop tools to design a professional and responsive website in minutes. Whether you want a sleek multi-property showcase or a single-home landing page, Smoobu’s templates adapt to your branding and optimize conversion.
Every website features a fully integrated booking engine, allowing for direct bookings with no commissions and maximizing your net revenue. This all-in-one solution ensures you have everything you need to attract and manage bookings.
The integrated booking engine supports instant availability, dynamic rate adjustments, and flexible policies. You can customize cancellation rules, minimum stay requirements, and extra services, granting guests full autonomy while making management simple.
All booking data is directly entered into Smoobu’s dashboard, eliminating the need for scattered spreadsheets and reducing manual errors. Smoobu also offers automatic notifications (email and SMS) to confirm bookings, send reminders, and request reviews. This automates the guest journey from booking to feedback, eliminating the need for third-party tools and saving both time and integration costs.
Hostfully: Lacking direct booking and incurring extra charges
Much like Smoobu’s offering, Hostfully’s ‘Direct Booking Site’ is responsive, SEO-ready, and included with all plans, offering custom branding, domain support, and calendar sync. However, unlike Smoobu’s drag-and-drop website builder, Hostfully lacks advanced layout control, multilingual support, and deeper SEO customization.
Smoobu also offers seamless integration with dynamic pricing, guest messaging, and upsell tools, thus making it a more robust solution for hosts seeking a fully featured direct booking website.
See why Smoobu's Website Builder is best.
Who leads in Dynamic Pricing solutions?
Smoobu: Built-in & Integrated Solutions
Smoobu’s dynamic pricing integrates natively with your listings, enabling real-time rate adjustments based on seasonality, occupancy, and advanced rules. Hosts can define rules such as minimum length-of-stay discounts or weekend premiums, and the system automatically adjusts across all channels. This automation ensures that your rates stay competitive without daily manual updates.
Additionally, Smoobu provides data-driven insights and historical benchmarks to guide optimal pricing. Daily analytics enable you to compare your rates to market averages. The combination of automation and intelligence helps maximize revenue while minimizing the risk of underpricing.
If you prefer granular control, Smoobu’s custom pricing tables provide the flexibility to set rates manually for high-demand periods, while automatically handling the rest. This hybrid approach caters to both tech-savvy hosts and those who prefer a more hands-on method, giving you the control you need to manage your revenue effectively.
For even greater flexibility, Smoobu also partners with leading industry tools, such as PriceLabs, Beyond, and Wheelhouse, providing users with a wide range of dynamic pricing integrations to suit their strategy.
Hostfully: Basic pricing with limited flexibility
Hostfully does not offer a native dynamic pricing solution; instead, it relies on third-party integrations for this purpose. That way, Hostfully falls behind in terms of features, which typically translates into a higher cost for the vacation rental host. Likewise, the cost of these is often more when compared to Smoobu’s built-in solution price of €12.99 per property per month.
Why not sign up to Smoobu today and try Dynamic Pricing for free for 30 days?
Which provides the best mobile app and on-the-go experience?
Smoobu: Excellent mobile app for host empowerment
Smoobu’s mobile app puts the full power of your account at your fingertips. You can manage reservations, synchronize calendars, send guest communications, check analytics, and update pricing—all from your smartphone or tablet. The app features push notifications for new bookings, cancellations, and guest inquiries, ensuring you stay responsive no matter where you are.
The mobile messaging interface is streamlined, combining templates and auto‑responses that let you reply quickly. Whether confirming a stay or addressing a late-night question, Smoobu’s messaging tools help you maintain professional communication without delays. The app also supports guest profiles and payment review, giving you complete visibility while on the go.
Hostfully: Fragmented mobile access
Hostfully offers a mobile app, but many core features remain web-only. Hosts frequently report needing to switch back to the desktop portal to manage pricing, website updates, or reports. The app is helpful for read-only notifications but lacks complete control and customization, which undermines its mobile convenience.
Stay connected on the go with Smoobu’s comprehensive mobile app: Download the Smoobu app for iOS or Android.
Which platform delivers superior customer support and onboarding?
Smoobu: Expert support tailored to your success
Smoobu offers fast customer support in multiple languages through live chat, email, and scheduled onboarding calls. Hosts receive guided setup assistance and personalized tips, enabling them to learn how to use the platform quickly. The support team is available every Monday to Saturday and responds quickly.
Additionally, Smoobu has a growing help center, blog, and community forum filled with best practices, tutorial videos, and strategic webinars. Whether you’re new to property management or have experience, Smoobu provides the resources you need to succeed and grow.
Smoobu’s support model is clear—there are no hidden fees or paywalls. All plans give you full access to the support team, so you won’t face unexpected costs when you need help.
Hostfully: Paywalls and basic onboarding
Hostfully offers standard email support and documentation, but comprehensive onboarding and live support are generally available only in higher-tier plans. Some users report experiencing long email response times and incurring additional fees for setup calls. The self-service center offers helpful resources, but it may not fully address technical issues without the assistance of live support.
Contact Smoobu’s support team anytime.
Which offers better value for money?
Smoobu: Transparent pricing with maximum bang for your buck
Smoobu offers a monthly pricing model with no commission fees on bookings, charging a consistent fee per property. This subscription-based service provides comprehensive access to a range of features, including a Channel Manager, Website Builder, Booking Engine, Guest Communication capabilities, a mobile app, and customer support, all included in the subscription.
Additionally, Smoobu provides a 14-day free trial for users to explore the platform before committing.
The comprehensive feature set means you don’t need to invest in additional tools or plug-ins, but you can make use of Smoobu’s vast library of integrations. Many hosts find Smoobu’s all-included bundle pays for itself in direct bookings and time saved, delivering clear value from day one. Pricing starts from just €23.20.
Hostfully: Hidden costs reduce value
Hostfully’s base fees can be competitive, but essential extras such as commission-free direct bookings, messaging, dynamic pricing, or onboarding support often require higher-tier plans or add-ons. This can increase your total cost, resulting in a lower overall return on investment compared to Smoobu’s all-inclusive structure.
Hostfully’s cheapest plan, the Starter, starts at $117 per month and is available for up to four listings.
Get the best value on the market with Smoobu: Compare the various Smoobu plans now.
Compare Smoobu and Hostfully side by side:
| Feature | Smoobu | Hostfully |
| Channel Manager | Real-time synchronisation, bulk edits, automation rules | Manual setup, no bulk editing, hidden fees for channels |
| Website + Booking Engine | Commission-free direct bookings, drag-and-drop builder, integrated engine | Limited website features, 3rd-party plugins with fees, complex setup |
| Dynamic Pricing | Automated rules, data-driven insights, and hybrid manual control | Basic pricing calendar, manual updates, no automation |
| Mobile App | Full booking management, messaging, analytics, and offline mode | Read-only notifications lack full control |
| Support & Onboarding | Live chat, email, onboarding calls, Knowledge Center, and fast response | Email support only, onboarding paywall, delayed responses |
| Pricing Transparency | Flat monthly fee, no commission, all features included, 14-day free trial | Tiered plans, commission fees, add-ons required, no full free trial |
| Value for Money | All-in-one solution maximising ROI and direct bookings | Basic plan may seem cheap, but essential features cost extra, reducing ROI |
Why choose Smoobu over Hostfully?
Smoobu is an innovative and transparent solution for vacation rental hosts in 2025, offering a comprehensive suite of features like a channel manager, direct booking website, dynamic pricing, messaging, support, and a mobile app—all without hidden fees. Its technology helps hosts manage properties efficiently, maximize revenue, and enhance guest experiences.
With Smoobu, you achieve advanced automation and real-time updates while enjoying expert guidance and multi-language support—all at predictable pricing. Hosts switching to Smoobu often see improved occupancy, higher direct bookings, and more time to focus on hosting.
Ready to experience the Smoobu advantage?
Start your 14-day free trial with Smoobu now and transform your hosting business!
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