A PMS for your holiday rental: what to look for when you rent out a whole house

Short answer: compare a holiday rental PMS on what makes renting out a whole house different from B&B rooms. Can one booking take the whole property, with a price that rises with the number of guests? Can you set a fixed changeover day and a minimum stay that also apply on Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo? Does the final cleaning land on every booking automatically, can you take a security deposit and settle electricity or water usage? If a package scores on those points, it fits. If it's mainly built for hotels with a front desk and key cards, you pay for things you won't use.

Below are the eight points, in order of how much they matter in practice. Rent out just one house in season and mostly worried about cost? Then also read automating a single holiday home on a budget.

1. One booking = the whole house, priced per number of guests

A B&B sells rooms; a holiday rental sells the whole house. In the PMS that should be one unit: once it's booked, the calendar is full. Sounds obvious, but some systems still make you charge per room or per bed.

The price matters more. A house for six rarely costs the same for two people as for six. Check whether the price can rise with the number of guests: with a factor per occupancy (two people pay the base rate, four a bit more), or with a surcharge per extra person above a set number. And check that this price also goes to the channels, not just to your own website.

In BedFlow PMS you pick the Vacation home type and create one room for the whole house. Setting the price per number of guests is explained step by step in the guide on setting up BedFlow for a holiday home.

2. Fixed changeover day and minimum stay, on every channel

Many holiday rentals let by the week in summer, Saturday to Saturday, and by the weekend or midweek in low season. For that you need two things:

• A fixed arrival and departure day that you can change per period (other days in winter than in summer, for example);
• A minimum number of nights, say seven in July and August and two outside that.

Make sure those rules go to every channel. Set them only on your own site and someone on Airbnb will still book Tuesday to Thursday in the middle of your summer week. Whether a fixed changeover day pays off for you is covered in fixed changeover day or not.

3. Final cleaning and linen on every booking, automatically

Almost every holiday rental charges for final cleaning, often linen and towels too. Adding that by hand to each invoice means you'll forget it sooner or later.

A good PMS lets you set those costs up once as a mandatory line that lands on every direct booking, which guests see in the total straight away in your booking engine. On Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo the channel decides how extra fees are shown; there you set the cleaning fee in the extranet or fold it into the nightly rate. More in charging cleaning fees.

4. Security deposit and utilities

This is where a holiday rental differs most from a B&B. A deposit isn't revenue: the guest pays it upfront and gets it back after the stay, minus any damage or usage. If you charge electricity, water or heating oil separately, you want to record meter readings at check-in and check-out and settle the usage against the deposit.

So check whether the PMS keeps the deposit separate from the price (no VAT, not on the invoice), sends the guest a payment link for it automatically, and handles the refund after the stay. In BedFlow PMS the guide covers the security deposit and meter readings. Whether to charge energy separately or include it in the price is discussed in passing on energy costs.

5. A long cancellation window and a deposit payment

Holiday rentals are booked months ahead, and cancellation windows run in weeks, not days. Check that you can set, say, six weeks, and that guests see that window when booking and in their confirmation. You'll also want to take a down payment at booking and the balance a few weeks before arrival, with an automatic reminder.

6. Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo through a real connection

A holiday rental often sells on Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo at the same time. Many owners start with iCal calendars between those sites. That works until two guests book the same week within the hour: iCal syncs with a delay and doesn't carry rates, changeover days or minimum stays.

A PMS with a built-in channel manager connects those channels through their API: availability, rates and restrictions go across automatically and bookings come in straight away. The difference is explained in connecting Airbnb: API or iCal. In BedFlow PMS a holiday home can also appear in Google Vacation Rentals from the Starter plan upwards, commission-free.

7. Check-in without handing over keys

Holiday rental owners rarely live next door. Waiting with a key every Saturday at four costs you a day a week. Look at:

• Keyless access with a personal code that only works during the stay. BedFlow PMS works with TTLock and Salto KS code locks; see smart locks.
• A guest page with directions, the wifi, the house rules and how the heating or bin collection works.
• Automatic messages before arrival, by email or WhatsApp, with the code and arrival details.

A worked example is in self check-in with smart locks.

8. Cleaning on changeover day

On changeover day one guest leaves at 10 am and the next arrives at 4 pm. Your cleaners need to know which house comes free when, especially if you have several. A cleaning schedule that shows what's vacated each day, with a checklist per house, stops a guest walking into an unmade bed.

Several houses at different addresses

Have two or three houses in different villages? Check that each one can have its own address, photos, times and policies, so the confirmation email and guest page always show the right house. A park with dozens of identical chalets is a different story; for that we wrote a PMS for a holiday park or campsite.

Managing houses for other owners and need a statement per owner? Ask each vendor how they handle that, because packages differ a lot there.

How to test it

Take your busiest summer week. Set up your house in the PMS with a price for two and for six people, a Saturday changeover day, a seven-night minimum and mandatory final cleaning. Make a test booking for four people on your own website and check that the total is right, that the guest sees the right cancellation window and that the arrival details go out. Then check on Airbnb that Saturday is the only arrival day there too. If that works, the rest will.

BedFlow PMS pricing is on /pricing and every setting is in the guide.

Got a holiday home or gîte to let? Try BedFlow PMS free for 30 days, no credit card required.