Hostaway vs BrightSide

Guesty Lite

Hostfully

Escapia

Hospitable.com

Barefoot

RNS Vacation Rental Software

Compare Hostaway and BrightSide based on features, pricing, verified reviews, integrations & more on GetApp. Find out which software is best for your business in 2026.

Guesty Lite is the leading all-in-one platform for short-term rental hosts with up to three properties. It centralizes bookings, guest messaging, and operations, with seamless OTA sync and optional add-ons. Hosts switching to Guesty Lite see an average 9% revenue growth in just 12 months. 

Hostfully Property Management Platform is a cloud-based solution designed to help vacation rental businesses manage reservations across multiple channels. Key features include payment processing, instant messaging, team collaboration, upselling, analytics, and reporting.

Hospitable gifts short-term rental hosts their valuable time back. 

Trusted by 20,000+ property managers worldwide, Hostaway is the industry leading, AI-powered vacation rental management platform designed for professional short-term rental operators.

Access Controls/Permissions

Accounting

Activity Dashboard

Activity Tracking

Alerts/Notifications

Appointment Management

Availability Indicator

Availability Management

Billing & Invoicing

Billing Rate Management

Booking Management

Booking Notes

Built-in Accounting

Calendar Management

Calendar Sync

Campaign Management

Catering Management

Channel Analytics

Channel Management

Collaboration Tools

Commission Management

Communication Management

Contact Management

Content Management

Credit Card Processing

Customer Database

Customer History

Customer Support

Customizable Branding

Customizable Fields

Customizable Reports

Customizable Templates

Dashboard

Data Import/Export

Data Synchronization

Discount Management

Document Management

Drag & Drop

Dynamic Pricing

Electronic Payments

Electronic Signature

Email Management

Email Templates

Employee Management

Event Calendar

Expense Tracking

Extended Stay

Financial Management

For Hospitality Industry

For Vacation Rentals

Front Desk Management

GDS/OTA Integration

Guest Check-in/Check-out

Guest Communications

Guest Experience Management

Guest Tracking

Housekeeping Management

Inbox Management

Incentive Management

Inventory Control

Inventory Management

Inventory Tracking

Invoice Management

Lead Management

Listing Management

Loyalty Program

Maintenance Management

Maintenance Scheduling

Marketing Automation

Marketing Management

Mobile Access

Mobile App

Multi-Channel Campaigns

Multi-Channel Distribution

Multi-Channel Management

Multi-Channel Marketing

Multi-Channel Sync

Multi-Currency

Multi-Language

Multi-Location

Multi-Property

Occupancy Management

Online Booking

Online Payments

Opportunity Management

Order Management

Owner Portal

Owner Statements

Partner Management

Partner Portal

Payment Processing

Performance Metrics

Pipeline Management

Point of Sale (POS)

Price/Margin Management

Promotions Management

Property Database

Property Management

Hostaway

Android

Linux

Web-based

Windows

iPad

iPhone

Long time to receive an answer and they reply without looking at your enquiry, just sending random links to their knowledge base. Just useless if you have an urgent problem.

owner

Easy to use, good connection with few platform, good user friendly design. Some of the features are good.

House manager

It has been good working with them and the customer support has been wonderful. The learning curve is really steep so it just takes time to get things really set up and understood.

Owner

How it is able to help with so many aspects of my business. I love how I can use it to help with guest communications or just use it to sync calendars.

Founder

I like this company, their culture, and their obvious commitment to the client. The software is very intuitive, user-friendly, and has a fantastic design.

Vacation Rental Assistant

We've had an excellent experience thus far. From the seamless integrations with all OTA channels to the free booking engine website to drive direct bookings; Hostaway has been really helpful.

The other great thing about Hostaway are the constant improvements and customer support. It seems there are new and improved features every month which is exciting.

I love the task feature as well. I am still learning how to use a lot of it and I am excited about that.

Director

Excellent product with all the necessary features. Fabulous customer support.

Partner

I'm pretty satisfied overall. Once these features have changed I'm very happy.

Difficult functionality, unable to put in standard restrictions or rules that you can when dealing with the channels directly.

CEO / Founder

The fact that there is a lot of automation possibilities in the product makes our lives a lot easier and time won can be focused on other Business Development tasks.

Owner/Manager

The product itself is intuitive, user friendly. Hostaway's pricing/business model fits perfectly with my type of vacation rental business.

Realtor and Office Administrator

Happy with ease of use with software and costumer service response time.

And I never encountered a glitch, something I appreciate a lot. Also, costumer service is really good.

Inventory Manager

Integration worked well with our current software. I love the multiple levels of services offered, with the dashboard, the email system, and the website build for my specific properties.

Response time can be delayed due to timezone challenges.

They had this corrected in just a week. The most recent issue I reported was also something that affected every user and they are working hard even now to correct it in a timely manner.

Hostaway screenshot: Hostaway PMS and Channel Manager

Hostaway screenshot: Hostaway multi-calendar

Hostaway screenshot: Hostaway automate messages regarding check-in, check-out, guest screening, payments and upsell services, using the native interface of Airbnb, email, text messages or Whatsapp.

Hostaway screenshot: Hostaway manage maintenance, cleaning, setup schedules and assign tasks 

Hostaway screenshot: Hostaway manage finances 

Freelancers

Large Enterprises

Mid Size Business

Small Business

Escapia is vacation rental software for managing reservations, accounting, property listings. maintenance, housekeeping, and more.

RNS Vacation Rental Software is a cloud-based platform designed to help businesses streamline administrative processes and manage their vacation rental properties. Key features include guest management system, payment processing and online bookings.


Barefoot is a cloud-based software designed to help businesses in the vacation rental industry manage trust accounting and online reservations operations via a unified portal. The platform allows organizations to gather and store information about vendors, guests, suppliers, properties, and more in a centralized repository for future reference.

BrightSide PMS is a cloud-based platform for vacation rental agencies and acts as a central tool for managing your listings, reservations, owner statements, and property maintenance.

We have more than 18 years experience. BrightSide integrates with the leading OTAs and property management tools.

Rate Management

Ratings/Reviews

Real-Time Notifications

Real-Time Updates

Reminders

Reporting & Statistics

Reporting/Analytics

Reservations Management

Revenue Management

Reviews Management

Search/Filter

Single Property

Task Management

Template Management

Third-Party Integrations

User Management

Website Management

Work Order Management

BrightSide

Owner/ President

If there is anything I disliked about the software it was because of my own lack of understanding.

owner/manager

Never had a worry--Brightside has outstanding uptime. Great customer service--the team listens to your concerns and helps you find solutions or answers.

Front desk manager

I love the fact that we can customize it for the way we need it to work best for the front desk and our guests.

And the value is solid--we're a small rental business and feel fortunate to have found such an affordable software solution.

Inability to  differentiate between discount periods.

Media and Marketing coordinator

To be honest I can't think of anything that stands out. Most of the problems in the software are operator error.

Manager

We have made quite a few changes to fit our company and they have taken care of almost everything very quickly.

I cant think of anything that I would consider a problem with the software.

Admin Assistant

I like how User Friendly it is. Takes no time to figure out how to work it.

Reservationist

The Hawkins team is always available to help, answer any questions, and offer advice. They are always quick to fix anything we need.

BrightSide screenshot: The BrightSide Unit Calendar is a simple way to make a reservation. Use the amenity filters to narrow down available units, then click on the arrival date and drag your curse to the last day of the stay. The popup will show you the rates, discounts, etc.

BrightSide screenshot: BrightSide source analysis gives you the tools you need to track and analyze the sources of our reservations. Utilize a number of reports to help you book more nights.

BrightSide screenshot: The BrightSide maintenance tracker provides you with an easy way to enter work orders, assign them to the correct personnel, upload invoices and photos, and deduct the amount from the owner statements.

Hostaway vs BrightSide Comparison (2026)

Hostaway vs BrightSide Comparison (2026)

Hostaway

BrightSide

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives