Property Management
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 Safely
Pricing, pros and cons, and buyer-fit side-by-side. Pick the one that matches your operation — or see why neither should.
Insurance & Protection
Safely
Pay-per-booking vacation rental insurance with built-in guest screening
Best for Small Hosts
Best pay-per-booking insurance for low-to-mid occupancy hosts
From $8/listing • No free trial
✓Editorial verdict
Which should you pick: Hostaway or Safely?
Pick Hostaway if you need a full property management platform — channel management across 8 OTAs, automation engine, guest inbox, owner portal, and 300+ integrations. Pick Safely if your primary operational pain is guest damage risk and you want pay-per-booking insurance with guest screening that activates only when someone is checked in. These are complementary tools, not competitors: Hostaway manages your business, Safely insures your properties — and they can run together through Hostaway's integration ecosystem.
Editorial perspective from the Hostaway side; factual claims about Safely 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
Safely
Full pricing →From $8/listing • No free trial
Detailed pricing tiers available on the Safely pricing page.
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 Safely does well
Proprietary SafelyScore database screens guests against actual vacation rental damage history
No other platform has a comparable industry-specific damage database. Screening also covers criminal databases, sex offender registries, and Interpol/Europol watchlists.
98% of claims paid in 4.5 days with sub-$1K claims within 24 hours
Operators document damage with photos and receipts — no guest confrontation required. Homeowners have up to 60 days to file.
Zero cost during vacancy with insurance fees passable to guests
Coverage activates at check-in and deactivates at check-out, eliminating traditional damage deposit friction. Operators build the fee into the nightly rate so guests effectively cover the insurance.
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 Safely falls short
Per-night pricing compounds quickly at high occupancy
At 200+ nights/year the per-night model can exceed annual policy costs from competitors like Proper Insurance ($1,500–$2,500/year). Operators must calculate their breakeven.
Does not replace homeowners insurance and has meaningful coverage exclusions
Excludes weather damage, non-guest-caused damage, fine art and collectibles. Contents theft/damage caps at $10,000 and there is a 90-day maximum consecutive rental period.
Limited public reviews and relatively new market presence
Compared to established insurers like Proper Insurance or CBIZ, Safely has fewer independent user reviews, making real-world claims experience harder to assess at scale.
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 Safely if
Seasonal or part-time hosts renting fewer than ~100 nights/year who want insurance and guest screening bundled without an annual commitment — the pay-per-booking model keeps costs proportional to actual occupancy.
Skip Safely if
You run high-occupancy properties at 250+ nights/year — per-night pricing will exceed annual policy alternatives, and coverage caps ($10K contents, no weather damage) may be insufficient for premium properties.
Where Hostaway and Safely actually differ
- Hostaway is an all-in-one PMS at ~$40/listing/mo (quote-only) covering 8 OTA channels, automation, guest comms, owner portal, and 300+ integrations. Safely is a pay-per-booking insurance and guest screening provider starting at $8/night — no channel management, no messaging, no booking features.
- Safely's SafelyScore screens guests against a proprietary damage-history database plus criminal, sex offender, and international watchlists — a capability Hostaway has no native equivalent for. Hostaway's automation engine can enforce house rules and send check-in instructions, but cannot vet guests for prior damage incidents.
- Safely costs nothing during vacancy — coverage activates at check-in and deactivates at checkout with no monthly subscription. Hostaway charges per-listing monthly fees regardless of occupancy plus a 1.8% fee on direct-website bookings.
- Safely provides up to $1M primary commercial coverage and $10K contents protection with 98% of claims paid in 4.5 days. Hostaway has no insurance, no damage coverage, and no claims processing — property protection relies entirely on third-party integrations or external policies.
- Hostaway connects to 8 direct OTA channels with preferred-partner status on Airbnb, Vrbo, AND Booking.com and includes a white-label direct booking website. Safely is channel-agnostic — it protects properties regardless of where the guest booked but cannot list, distribute, or manage bookings on any platform.
Common objections
- I'm already paying ~$40/listing/mo for Hostaway — is adding Safely at $8+/night on top justified?
- It depends on your occupancy and damage exposure. At a property running 100 nights/year, Safely adds roughly $800–$1,200/year for up to $1M coverage and guest screening — a layer Hostaway cannot provide natively. You can pass Safely's cost through to guests in the nightly rate, making it effectively cost-neutral. At 250+ nights/year per property, the per-night model exceeds annual policy alternatives like Proper Insurance ($1,500–$2,500/year), so run the breakeven math against your actual occupancy before committing.
- Hostaway's automation engine already sends house rules and check-in instructions — doesn't that reduce damage risk enough without Safely?
- Automation reduces risk through guest education, but it cannot eliminate it. A guest who ignores house rules and causes $5,000 in damage still costs you money — Hostaway has no mechanism to reimburse that loss. Safely covers what prevention misses: up to $1M in commercial coverage with claims paid in 4.5 days, no guest confrontation required. The two tools work different layers — Hostaway reduces incident frequency through messaging, Safely covers incident cost when prevention fails.
- Safely's per-night pricing compounds fast at high occupancy — is there a smarter way to get guest screening without the insurance?
- Yes. Safely offers standalone guest screening at $5/check or $0.50/night when bundled with insurance. If your properties run at high occupancy and you already carry an annual commercial policy, the screening-only option gives you access to SafelyScore's proprietary damage-history database — which no other platform offers — without paying for redundant insurance coverage. At $0.50/night bundled across a high-occupancy portfolio, screening alone is a fraction of the full insurance cost.
Keep digging
Hostaway
The automation layer for operators scaling past 10 listings
Safely
Best pay-per-booking insurance for low-to-mid occupancy hosts