Property Management
Barefoot
Enterprise-grade vacation rental PMS built for customization and scale
Best for Scale
Enterprise PMS that rewards operators who outgrow simpler tools
From $800/listing • 14-day trial
Comparison
Barefoot vs Boom
Pricing, pros and cons, and buyer-fit side-by-side. Pick the one that matches your operation — or see why neither should.
Property Management
Boom
AI-first property management system for mid-to-large operators
Best for Automation
Ambitious AI-first PMS with real automation chops — but young, unpriced, and unproven at scale
Contact sales • No free trial
✓Editorial verdict
Which should you pick: Barefoot or Boom?
Pick Barefoot if you manage 50+ vacation rental units and need deeply configurable workflows, trust accounting, and a platform with 20+ years of stability and a 95% customer retention rate. Pick Boom if you want AI-driven guest messaging, review automation, and task generation that reduce manual operational work — and you're comfortable with opaque pricing and an early-stage platform launched in late 2024.
Editorial perspective from the Barefoot side; factual claims about Boom are drawn from its review.
Pricing side-by-side
Barefoot
Full pricing →From $800/listing • 14-day trial
1–50 units
$800/mo
50 listings
Booking fee: 1% of rent on Airbnb/VRBO bookings
- Full trust accounting
- Owner statements
- Reservation and booking management
- Customizable workflows, fees, and reporting
- Direct integrations to Airbnb, VRBO, TripAdvisor
- Open API access
51–100 units
$1,100/mo
100 listings
Booking fee: 1% of rent on Airbnb/VRBO bookings
- Everything in 1–50 tier
Boom
Full pricing →Contact sales • No free trial
custom
Pricing is not publicly disclosed; prospective customers must book a demo or contact sales. No pricing page exists on the website (/pricing returns 404). Boom is not listed on G2 or Capterra. Source: Lodgify comparison confirms 'does not provide any information regarding pricing on its site.'
What each tool does well — and where it falls short
What Barefoot does well
Highly configurable platform instead of preset workflows
Teams can customize processes, fees, communication, and reporting to match their operations rather than adapting to rigid defaults. Reviewers on Capterra consistently cite configurability as the top differentiator.
Exceptional customer support with 95% retention rate
Users report submitting questions by end of day and receiving solutions the next morning. The 95% customer retention rate backs up the support quality claims.
Rock-solid system stability after 20+ years
Multiple reviewers note the software has no bugs or glitches. Two decades of development have produced a mature, reliable codebase.
What Boom does well
Deep AI automation across guest comms and operations
Boom's BAM handles guest messaging 24/7, writes review responses, and auto-creates tasks from guest feedback. One operator said their front office team is 'now available to deal with making our guests happy, rather than dealing with repetitive stuff.'
White-glove onboarding and responsive support
Case studies and reviews consistently highlight hands-on migration support. One operator (250 properties) reported full PMS migration completed in one week with 24/7 support, including weekends.
Consolidates multiple tools, potentially cutting software spend
One reviewer reported saving ~$30k/year in add-on software costs after switching to Boom from a previous PMS stack, managing everything in one place.
Where Barefoot falls short
Steep learning curve and dated interface
The UI is not modern and onboarding requires significant setup and training investment. Operators should plan for a real ramp-up period.
Airbnb integration is problematic
Some features available before Airbnb integration are lost after connecting, and setting rates through the integration is challenging. Operators heavy on Airbnb should test carefully.
High entry cost shuts out small operators
At $800/mo for up to 50 units, an operator with 10 listings pays effectively $80/unit/mo — far more than per-listing competitors charging $10–20/unit.
Where Boom falls short
No public pricing — must contact sales
Boom discloses no pricing on its website and the /pricing URL returns a 404. This makes comparison shopping impossible and suggests custom enterprise-style quoting.
Young product with reported stability issues
Launched around September 2024, two of ten Trustpilot reviews (1-star each) cite bugs and unfinished features. One reviewer warned: 'go for a grown up PMS who have a product that works.'
No built-in direct booking website builder
Unlike Lodgify, Hostaway, and Hospitable, Boom has no native website builder or booking widget. Direct booking sites require a third-party partner integration with ICND.
Which should you pick
Pick Barefoot if
Established vacation rental companies with 20+ units who need robust customization and don't mind the learning curve.
Skip Barefoot if
You have under 20 units — the $800/mo base cost makes per-unit economics unfavorable compared to per-listing alternatives.
Pick Boom if
Mid-to-large STR operators (50–360+ listings) who want an AI-first, all-in-one PMS with automated guest comms, dynamic pricing, and white-glove onboarding support.
Skip Boom if
You're a solo host or small operator who needs transparent pricing, a built-in direct booking website builder, or a mature mobile app — Boom has none of these.
Where Barefoot and Boom actually differ
- Barefoot has operated for 20+ years with a 95% customer retention rate and reviewers report no bugs or glitches. Boom launched around September 2024 with $12.7M in venture funding and two of ten Trustpilot reviews (1-star each) citing bugs and unfinished features.
- Boom's BAM provides 24/7 AI guest messaging, automated review responses, and auto-generated tasks from guest feedback as a native agentic system. Barefoot offers customizable communication templates and configurable workflows but has no AI-powered guest messaging, review automation, or automated task creation.
- Barefoot publishes known pricing: $800/mo base for 1–50 units, $300 per additional 50-unit tier, plus 1% on Airbnb/VRBO rent. Boom discloses no pricing — the /pricing URL returns a 404 and requires a sales demo to get a quote.
- Barefoot includes full trust accounting with owner statements for multi-owner portfolio management. Boom has no documented trust accounting, owner statement generation, or 1099 processing capability.
- Boom claims 40+ channel integrations including Airbnb, Vrbo, Expedia, Booking.com, and Marriott Homes & Villas. Barefoot connects to only Airbnb, VRBO, and TripAdvisor — with the Airbnb integration flagged as problematic.
Common objections
- Boom's AI automation handles guest messaging, reviews, and task creation — doesn't Barefoot feel outdated without any AI capabilities?
- For AI-first operations, yes — Boom's BAM goes further than anything Barefoot offers natively. Barefoot has no built-in AI messaging or review automation. But Barefoot's value has never been communication automation — it's deep workflow customization that lets you build your exact operational model, trust accounting for multi-owner financials, and rock-solid stability earned over 20+ years. If your primary pain point is repetitive guest communication at 50+ listings, Boom addresses that directly. If your primary pain point is matching your PMS to complex fee structures, non-standard owner agreements, and custom reporting needs, Barefoot's configurability solves that and Boom doesn't.
- Barefoot has a 95% retention rate and 20+ years of stability — why would anyone risk switching to an 18-month-old platform?
- For most established Barefoot customers, they probably shouldn't — that retention rate exists because operators who invest in configuring Barefoot tend to stay. The switching case for Boom is narrow: operators drowning in manual guest communication and task management who value AI automation more than configurability and stability. One Boom operator reported saving ~$30k/year by consolidating tools and freeing staff from repetitive work. But you're trading a platform with zero reported bugs for one with documented stability issues and an unverified track record. If your Barefoot workflows are running smoothly today, the risk-reward calculus of switching to Boom is hard to justify.
- Boom claims 40+ channels while Barefoot only connects to Airbnb, VRBO, and TripAdvisor — isn't Boom's channel breadth a clear advantage?
- On paper, yes — Boom's claimed 40+ channels far exceed Barefoot's three direct connections. But Boom publishes no documentation on which channels have full two-way API sync versus iCal-only, holds no public OTA partner designations, and has no verified channel reliability at scale. Barefoot's channel list is narrow but its VRBO and TripAdvisor connections are proven over years of operation. If multi-channel distribution is your top priority, neither tool is the category leader — Hostaway's triple preferred-partner status on Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com is the safer bet over both. Barefoot's value is what happens after bookings arrive: configurable workflows, trust accounting, and operational depth.
Keep digging
Barefoot
Enterprise PMS that rewards operators who outgrow simpler tools
Boom
Ambitious AI-first PMS with real automation chops — but young, unpriced, and unproven at scale