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December 22, 2023

The year in review – Rentals United’s roundup of 2023

by Beth | December 22, 2023

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It’s the end of another successful year at Rentals United. 

We’re proud of everything we’ve done over the past 12 months to help our property managers and hosts grow their vacation rental businesses and earn more money from their vacation rental properties.

Throughout the course of 2023, we’ve:

  • Released a range of new features to help you boost income, improve guest satisfaction, and reduce your workload.
  • Added a diverse range of channels to our long list of OTA partners. 
  • Teamed up with service providers and tools to help you work efficiently.
  • Welcomed new members in different locations to the Rentals United team.

Now, here’s a full breakdown of all the major developments from this year, plus a glance ahead at what you can expect from us in 2024. 

Features

We’ve released several new features this year to streamline different aspects of your business, as well as upgrading our existing features.

Elevate

Launched in July 2023, Elevate is an advanced data tool providing a wealth of property performance metrics and market data. By distilling complex data into easily digestible reports, the tool makes it easy to take data-driven action to boost your earnings.

AI-powered insights make it easy to take impactful action. Using machine learning, Elevate gives you personalised recommendations for proven ways to improve your listing performance and boost your review scores. Recommendations are ranked by priority to help you get results fast.

My Website

Direct bookings are a great way to get more commission-free income. 

 In June 2023, we launched My Website to help you create a professional website for your vacation rental business without the hassle of hiring developers. 

Using the tool, you can publish your website in just a few clicks using all your listing information, customise it with your branding, and start attracting lucrative direct bookings. 

Smart Guest Communication

Guest communication is one of the most time-consuming and demanding tasks for property managers, but also crucial for getting bookings and great reviews.

Smart Guest Communication is our built-in, all-in-one messaging tool that helps you manage all guest messages to maximise conversions and get more 5-star reviews. The tool gives you a unified inbox where you can read and respond to messages across all your channels, plus email and WhatsApp.

Automated Messaging

In December, we added the Automated Messaging feature to our Smart Guest Communication tool. This allows you to create personalised message templates which will automatically be sent out at specific intervals.

Send welcome messages, check-in information, or post-stay thank you messages automatically at set times. The tool saves you time and helps you maintain regular communication with guests before, during, and after their stay, which is vital for guest satisfaction. 

AI Chatbot

Our new AI Chatbot can assist you with all kinds of technical problems and answer support queries efficiently.

The chatbot can help you solve problems fast, and you’ll still have access to our attentive customer support team when you need it.

Partners

We strive to offer as much choice as possible when it comes to listing your properties, so in 2023, we partnered with several new booking channels to give you more opportunities to get bookings. 

We also announced integrations with service providers and tools that make running your business easier.

New channels:

Zumper

Zumper is a leader in the long-term rental market and have recently introduced Vacations by Zumper, a separate platform for vacation rentals. 

The channel has established an audience of 178 million annual visitors in the US and Canada, so listing on the vacation rental site will bring plenty of exposure to your properties. 

StayOne

Luxury platform StayOne connects high-end travellers with “the finest one percent” of holiday homes in the world.

Listing on the site allows you to market your properties to an exclusive network of 100,000 discerning luxury travellers. 

MakeMyTrip

MakeMyTrip is India’s biggest travel site, catering to the unique needs of Indian travellers.

The site provides everything from transport to hotels, holiday homes, packages, and more. 

Oliver’s Travels

Quirky, characterful homes with a twist can list on Oliver’s Travels, a luxury travel site specialising in unique properties.

The site offers a selection of extraordinary homes handpicked by destination experts.

Villaway

Villaway offers a selection of luxury villas and vacation homes around the world chosen by property management experts.

HousingAnywhere

HousingAnywhere is a technologically advanced platform helping students, expats and young professionals to securely rent rooms or apartments across Europe.

This channel is ideal for property managers offering mid-term rentals.

StayHVN

StayHVN is the leading B2B marketplace for premium home and villa rentals. Partnering with professional trip planners and corporate travel managers, they help travellers experience the joy of living anywhere in the world.

Vacation rental service partners:

Boostly

Launch your website with Boostly, the leading expert in WordPress websites for the short-term rental industry. 

Boostly has the tools and expertise to help you increase direct bookings with a professionally-designed website. 

ICare

Orion is an AI-driven software designed by ICare as a housekeeping tool for short-term rentals

The app can automate everything from organising the preparation of your accommodation to scheduling cleaning, maintenance, and more. 

Lula Cleaning

The Lula Cleaning app simplifies communication between property managers and cleaning teams, allowing for smoother coordination and more accountability. 

Monitor your cleaning schedule, keep track of settlements, and receive real-time status updates. 

Property management system partners:

RentalWise

RentalWise assists hosts and property managers with a multi-calendar PMS, channel management, payment processing, CRM, email templates, and more. 

URBooked

URBooked helps streamline your operations and boost your bookings, making it easier and more profitable to manage your properties. 

The PMS tool’s standout feature is a cutting-edge accounting system that makes handling your finances a breeze.

EasyRentals

An all-in-one solution for short-term rentals, EasyRentals is an intuitive and customisable PMS system with an AI-powered virtual assistant to provide support to your guests. 

Partner updates:

Request to Book with Booking.com

Our customers can now list on Booking.com on a request-to-book basis, rather than offering instant bookings, as part of a pilot scheme. 

This option is ideal for luxury property managers to benefit from the high exposure of Booking.com without giving up control.

Additional updates

As well as new features and partners, there are several other accomplishments we’re proud to have achieved this year:

  • Once again, Rentals United has been named a preferred partner for three major booking sites: Booking.com, Airbnb, and Vrbo. This is a testament to the quality of our connections, and means our customers get exclusive access to new features and priority support.
  • We improved platform navigation and updated the platform dashboard to create a smoother, more efficient experience for customers.
  • We opened a brand new office in the beautiful city of Bangalore, India, and also welcomed 27 new employees into the Rentals United fold!
  • Over the course of the year, we attended 15 fantastic vacation rental events. Also, we hosted 5 webinars to help property managers keep up to date with the latest trends and developments in the industry. 

What’s next in 2024?

Watch this space – in 2024 we’re looking forward to launching our brand new mobile app.

The Powerhost app, by Rentals United, will enable you to seamlessly manage your business on the go, wherever you are. 

As 2023 comes to a close, we want to take this opportunity to wish you a merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year. 

See you in 2024!

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About the Author

Beth

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Preferred+ Software Partner 2026

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Frequently asked questions

Rentals United is a vacation rental channel manager built for short-term rental hosts and property managers. Rather than replacing your property management system, it plugs directly into it, syncing your listings in real time across 90+ booking channels, including Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and Expedia, Homes & Villas By Marriott Bonvoy, all from one dashboard. With AI-powered analytics, and guest communication tools built in, it automates distribution and helps you grow bookings without adding complexity to your existing workflow.

 

A vacation rental channel manager — sometimes called a short term rental channel manager — is software that connects your listings to multiple booking platforms like Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com, keeping rates, availability, and reservations in sync so you never risk a double booking. If you’re updating calendars manually, missing promotion opportunities, or leaving bookings on the table because a listing isn’t optimized, this is exactly the problem it solves. A revenue-first channel manager like Rentals United goes further, using AI-driven insights and multi-rate pricing to help you win more bookings on the channels you already use — properties using multi-rate pricing have earned up to 3x more revenue

No minimum size required. As a channel manager for vacation rentals of every size, Rentals United works for hosts managing a single property up to enterprise portfolios — it’s part of a network of 403,000+ properties connected worldwide. Whether you connect directly through Rentals United, through your existing PMS, or via our channel manager API, the platform scales with you, so you can add channels, features, and properties as you grow without switching systems.

Getting started is straightforward, whether you connect directly, through your existing PMS, or via API. After signing up, Rentals United’s onboarding specialists personally import your listings, connect your booking channels, and recommend the right channel mix for your portfolio. You’ll get strategic setup guidance on pricing and promotion features from day one, plus ongoing support from a dedicated account manager to keep your distribution and revenue performing as you scale.

Every Rentals United account comes with a dedicated Account Manager and access to channel experts who know both the platform and the short-term rental industry — not just generic technical support. Beyond one-to-one guidance on optimizing your channel mix, pricing, and promotions, you’ll have access to Rentals United’s knowledge base, API documentation, and ongoing performance reviews, so you’re never troubleshooting alone. Enterprise clients are also backed by SOC II-compliant security and operational reliability.

Rentals United takes data security seriously, protecting both your business data and your guests’ personal information with encryption, strict access controls, and regular security audits. Enterprise accounts are backed by SOC II-compliant infrastructure, the same standard referenced for our operational reliability, and our systems are built to align with GDPR requirements for handling guest and property manager data across Europe and beyond. Every integration, whether direct, through your PMS, or via our channel manager API, follows the same security protocols, so your listings, rates, and reservations stay protected no matter how you connect. If you have specific compliance requirements, such as industry certifications or data residency needs, our account managers can walk you through Rentals United’s security documentation before you get started.