Property Management Software
Hostaway
All-in-one vacation rental software for professional hosts
Best for Scale
The automation layer for operators scaling past 10 listings
Contact sales • No free trial
Comparison
Hostaway vs Octorate
Pricing, pros and cons, and buyer-fit side-by-side. Pick the one that matches your operation — or see why neither should.
Property Management Software
Octorate
All-in-one hospitality platform with Premier OTA connectivity
Solid Option
A credible EU-first all-in-one for small hosts — if you can live with quote-based pricing
Contact sales • Free trial
✓Editorial verdict
Which Should You Pick: Hostaway or Octorate?
Pick Hostaway if you run 10–100 listings, need preferred-partner status on Airbnb, Vrbo, AND Booking.com, a native mobile app, an owner portal, and 300+ integrations with Zapier. Pick Octorate if you're an EU host with 1–10 short-term-rental units who wants an all-in-one bundle (PMS + channel manager + OctoSite booking engine + Payment Manager + EU self-check-in) with zero direct-booking commission and a 14-day free trial. Hostaway is the deeper platform for scaling multi-channel operators; Octorate is the EU-first all-in-one for small hosts.
Editorial perspective from the Hostaway side; factual claims about Octorate are drawn from its review.
Pricing Side-by-Side
Hostaway
Full pricing →Contact sales • No free trial
Standard (quote)
Quote only — ~$40/listing/mo reported
10+ listings typical
Booking fee: Percentage on direct bookings (rate depends on negotiated quote)
- Channel manager for 26+ OTAs
- Unified guest inbox
- Automation engine
- Direct booking site
- Owner portal
- Open API + marketplace access
Enterprise (quote)
Custom
50+ listings, management companies
Booking fee: Negotiated
- Everything in Standard
- Dedicated account manager
- Priority support
- Custom integrations
Octorate
Full pricing →Contact sales • Free trial
Octorate PRO
Contact sales
- Channel manager + booking engine
- 14-day free trial available
- Pricing scales with property count and feature set
- Vendor does not publish fixed tiers — quote required
What each tool does well — and where it falls short
What Hostaway does well
Best-in-class multi-channel reliability — eliminates double bookings
Real-time API sync across Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and dozens more. Operators consistently report it as the most reliable sync in the market, which directly prevents costly double-booking incidents.
Preferred-partner status with Airbnb, Vrbo, AND Booking.com — the 'triple crown'
Hostaway is the only property management platform with preferred/premier partner status across all three major OTAs. Priority API access and faster feature rollouts mean fewer sync errors and access to channel-exclusive tools before competitors.
Owner portal with professional reporting — real value for co-host and management companies
Owners get their own login to view revenue, occupancy, and payout statements in real time, with customizable visibility controls. For co-hosting businesses, this transparency tool is a genuine client-retention feature.
What Octorate does well
Premier/Preferred OTA connectivity across all major channels at once
Octorate's channel-manager page states it is one of the very few hospitality tech companies to simultaneously hold Premier/Preferred Connectivity Partner certifications from Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia, Google Hotel Ads, and Agoda — meaning update propagation runs at the highest tier those OTAs offer.
Public, well-documented REST API
The Integration Guide at api.octorate.com documents OAuth 2.0 + API-key auth, OpenAPI 3 spec, and a published rate limit of 100 calls per accommodation per 5 minutes — a level of transparency absent from many vacation-rental PMSs in this tier.
No long-term contract and no commission on direct bookings
The vendor pricing page states monthly renewals with no contract obligation and no hidden fees, and the Payment Manager page confirms zero commission on bookings the operator takes through OctoSite.
Where Hostaway falls short
1.8% booking engine fee on all direct bookings, introduced November 2024
Hostaway added a 1.8% guest service fee to every reservation through operators' own direct-booking websites. This undercuts one of the main advantages of direct bookings (avoiding OTA commissions) and was rolled out via a terms update that many users missed.
Steep learning curve and significant setup investment — not plug-and-play
Setup requires mapping channels, configuring automation rules, setting up owner statements, and training staff. Reviewers consistently note it takes weeks to become fully operational — a real barrier for small operators or teams without technical staff.
Opaque pricing and contract lock-in reported by users — cancellation is difficult
Hostaway requires a sales call to see numbers. Multiple HotelMinder reviews describe being signed into annual contracts they thought were monthly, and difficulty canceling mid-term. Read the contract carefully.
Where Octorate falls short
Vendor-published pricing is quote-only and aggregator figures disagree
Octorate's own pricing page says price 'depends on the features required and the size of your property' without listing tiers, while GetApp reports $30/mo and SoftwareSuggest reports $55/mo as of 2026-04-24 — operators have to register for a quote to get a real number.
Customer support is the weakest reviewed dimension
Capterra's aggregated user reviews (accessed 2026-04-24) show Customer Service at 3.7/5 — the lowest of four sub-scores — with recurring notes about inconsistent support by country or language and difficulty reaching phone support.
Smart-lock and check-in ecosystem is EU-only
The IoT Partner Hub lists Vikey, Keesy, Nuki, Chekin, and Ok Home — all EU-headquartered vendors. US-favored brands like August, Schlage Encode, and Yale Assure with US Wi-Fi modules are not named.
Which Should You Pick
Pick Hostaway if
Multi-property managers running 10-100+ listings across Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com who need reliable multi-channel sync, team task management, and owner reporting in one platform.
Skip Hostaway if
You have fewer than 5 listings, you're budget-sensitive, or you rely heavily on direct booking revenue and can't absorb a 1.8% booking engine fee on every guest transaction.
Pick Octorate if
European hosts (especially Italian) running 1–10 short-term-rental units who want one platform for channel manager, PMS, booking engine, payments, and EU check-in compliance.
Skip Octorate if
You run a US-only vacation-rental portfolio that depends on PriceLabs, Wheelhouse, or US smart-lock brands as primary partners.
Where Hostaway and Octorate actually differ
- OTA certifications: Hostaway holds preferred/premier partner status on Airbnb, Vrbo, AND Booking.com — the only PMS with all three. Octorate holds Premier/Preferred Connectivity Partner status across Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia, Google Hotel Ads, and Agoda — broader on hotel-OTA certifications but Vrbo is not named, a real gap for Vrbo-first operators.
- Direct-booking economics: Hostaway charges a 1.8% booking engine fee on all direct-website bookings (added November 2024); Octorate's OctoSite booking engine charges zero commission on direct bookings. On $20,000/mo in direct bookings, that's $360/mo Octorate doesn't charge.
- Channel breadth: Hostaway connects to 8 direct OTAs (Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, Expedia, Google Vacation Rentals, TripAdvisor, Agoda, HomeToGo) with 300+ operational integrations and Zapier. Octorate advertises 130+ channel connections plus a public REST API with OpenAPI 3 spec and OAuth 2.0 — but no Zapier and an EU-centric integration ecosystem (Vikey, Keesy, Chekin, Nuki) with thin US smart-lock coverage.
- Mobile and owner portal: Hostaway includes a native iOS and Android mobile app and an owner portal with revenue reporting and payout statements. Octorate does not document a native mobile app or an owner portal at comparable depth.
- Free trial and contract: Octorate offers a 14-day free trial of Octorate PRO with monthly renewal and no long-term contract. Hostaway has no free trial, charges $100–$500 in reported setup fees, and users report annual contract lock-in with difficult cancellation.
Common objections
- Octorate has zero direct-booking fees and a free trial — why would I pay Hostaway's premium and sign a contract?
- If you run 1–10 EU listings and direct bookings are central to your model, Octorate's economics are genuinely better — the OctoSite engine takes nothing while Hostaway takes 1.8%, and the 14-day trial lets you validate before committing. Hostaway's premium buys preferred-partner sync on all three major OTAs (including Vrbo, which Octorate doesn't certify), 8 direct channels, a native mobile app, an owner portal, and 300+ integrations with Zapier. Above 10 listings or anywhere Vrbo matters, Hostaway's depth pays back; below that in the EU, Octorate is the lower-risk, lower-cost buy.
- Octorate has Premier/Preferred status on five major OTAs — doesn't that beat Hostaway's three-channel partner status?
- On named hotel-OTA certifications, Octorate's set is broader (Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia, Google Hotel Ads, Agoda). But Octorate does not name Vrbo as a Premier/Preferred channel, while Hostaway holds Vrbo Preferred Partner status — a structural advantage for any US or whole-home vacation-rental operator where Vrbo drives meaningful revenue. Hostaway's three-channel triple-crown is concentrated on the OTAs that matter most for vacation rentals; Octorate's five-channel set leans into hotel/B&B/hostel distribution.
- I rely on PriceLabs, Breezeway, and US smart locks — can Octorate handle that stack?
- Less cleanly than Hostaway. Hostaway documents 300+ integrations including PriceLabs, Wheelhouse, Beyond Pricing, Breezeway, Turno, Properly, RemoteLock, August, NoiseAware, Minut, QuickBooks, Xero, and Zapier. Octorate's IoT Partner Hub is EU-centric (Vikey, Keesy, Nuki, Chekin) and US smart-lock brands like August, Schlage Encode, and Yale Assure aren't named partners. If your stack depends on US-market dynamic-pricing and smart-lock ecosystems, Hostaway's integration depth is the safer fit; Octorate's open REST API can bridge gaps but requires development work.
Keep Digging
Hostaway
The automation layer for operators scaling past 10 listings
Octorate
A credible EU-first all-in-one for small hosts — if you can live with quote-based pricing