Cloudbeds vs Hostaway

Where Cloudbeds and Hostaway actually differ

• •Cloudbeds is a hotel/hostel/vacation rental hybrid with front-desk, housekeeping, and revenue management modules. Hostaway is vacation-rental-specific with no hotel features — 300+ integrations and 8 direct OTA channels optimized for STR.
• •Both are quote-only. Cloudbeds: third-party sources cite $99–$180/mo starting. Hostaway: ~$40/listing/mo reported by industry sources (HotelMinder 2025) with $100–$500 setup fees. For a 20-listing STR operator Hostaway likely runs ~$800/mo; Cloudbeds could be comparable or lower depending on plan.
• •Hostaway holds preferred-partner status with Airbnb, Vrbo, AND Booking.com — the only PMS with all three. Cloudbeds is a standard channel partner with these OTAs with no Preferred+ designations; its advantage is breadth (300+ channels) not partnership depth.
• •Cloudbeds has commission-free direct bookings via its built-in booking engine. Hostaway charges a 1.8% fee on all direct-website bookings — a real gap for direct-heavy operators.
• •Hostaway has 300+ integrations across 8 direct STR-focused OTA channels. Cloudbeds has 400+ marketplace integrations across 300+ OTAs — broader but heavily hotel-weighted; many of Cloudbeds' OTAs and integrations aren't relevant to vacation rentals.

Common objections

Cloudbeds has 300+ OTAs to Hostaway's 8 — how is Hostaway even competitive on distribution?

Because the 300+ number counts channels most STR operators don't use — hotel metasearch, regional hotel OTAs, GDS systems. Hostaway's 8 direct channels cover Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, Expedia, Google Vacation Rentals, TripAdvisor, Agoda, and HomeToGo — which is where 95%+ of vacation rental bookings actually come from. And Hostaway's triple preferred-partner status means priority API access and faster feature rollouts on the three that drive your revenue. Channel count without relevance is a misleading metric.

Hostaway's 1.8% direct booking fee is painful — Cloudbeds has no commission. Doesn't that tilt everything?

For high-direct-booking operators, the 1.8% adds up — at $1M annual direct revenue that's $18k/year. But Cloudbeds' 'commission-free' advantage is offset by documented reporting flaws, upselling pressure, and a hotel-first architecture that may require workarounds for STR-specific workflows. Total cost of ownership isn't just the commission line. For operators primarily chasing direct bookings at scale, OwnerRez (zero fees, transparent pricing) is actually the cleanest answer.

Cloudbeds has upselling and reporting complaints — Hostaway has a steep learning curve. Which pain is worse?

Different pains, different timing. Hostaway's learning curve is a front-loaded cost — weeks of onboarding, then productive for years. Cloudbeds' upselling and reporting flaws are ongoing — budget surprises and accountant frustrations that don't resolve. If you can absorb a steep onboarding, Hostaway's long-term predictability is the better bet for vacation rental operators. If you need to be productive in days rather than weeks, both are wrong answers — look at OwnerRez or Hospitable instead.