Besides the well-known website builders such as Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, WordPress, etc., there are now more and more vacation rental website builders to meet the needs of this growing industry.
They are made for renting out property and come with other features that will help you run your short-term rental business.
Direct booking features are already built into an online website builder (along with other vacation rental management features).
Here are a few things to think about when choosing a website builder for your Airbnb, vacation rental, or another short-term rental.
- The additional vacation rental features: All of these website builders are, in fact, just one part of a larger system for managing properties. You should check out their other features, such as channel management, automation, and anything else that might be of interest to you.
- Value for the price: There is a wide range of prices for the platforms here. Since these vacation rental management software platforms have more than just a website builder, it’s important to think about what else you’re getting for the price.
- Ability to customize your website: How many templates do they have, and how easy are they to change? Can the fonts and colors be changed? You can make more pages, right?
- Design aesthetic: How do their web pages look? Depending on how important this is to you, it may be more or less important. It’s important to us as web designers.
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Top 5 Best Vacation Rental Website Builder 2024
Here’s a quick look at how the best website builders for vacation rentals compare in terms of price and features.
Some of the other features are channel management and calendar sync, automated guest messages, integration with Quickbooks accounting, and a lot more.
The following are my favorite website builders for vacation rentals:
Lodgify – Best site builder for vacation rentals. Offers the best mix of tools for managing vacation rentals and building websites.
OwnerRez – Wonderful for people who manage a lot of properties. A lot of automation and integration features are built in. Pay for only the things you want. Few features in the website builder.
Tokeet – Another option to Lodgify that lets you customize your website well and costs less.
Uplisting – Great software for vacation rentals, but you can’t change your website much at all. Great choice if you want to add a booking site to a website that is not your own (e.g. Squarespace).
iGMS – Another great piece of software for managing vacation rentals, but the website builder is very limited. Great if you want to add booking pages to a website that isn’t yours.
Wix, Squarespace, and WordPress are also capable of creating direct booking vacation rental websites.
Let’s examine each of these best vacation rental website builders in more detail.
1. Lodgify
An example of a well-known vacation rental site is Lodgify. They want to become known as the “Shopify of vacation rentals.”
Rather than designing websites or blogging, the company’s back-end tools are more important. Still, the web is full of examples of well-designed Lodgify websites. This is just one example.
Lodgify is one of the best choices if you want a simple website builder with a lot of automation features and integrations that will make your life easier.
Lodgify Pros
- Channel manager and booking engine built-in
- Integrations and automation features galore
Cons
- Website templates are limited (Update: Lodgify’s templates have recently been updated and they have some great choices)
- Although somewhat expensive, it’s still a good value for what’s included
Lodgify Recommendation
I think you should check out Lodgify if:
- You run a property management company or own more than one home.
- You want a central hub (called a “channel manager”) where you can easily manage pricing and property details across all your listing sites.
- You like how their website templates are made.
Start your 7-day free trial of Lodgify if this sounds like you.
2. OwnerRez
OwnerReservations, also known as OwnerRez, is quietly getting more and more loyal users because it has a lot of useful features, is cheap, and has good customer service.
Even more than Lodgify, their strength is in the features on the back end, not in the design of their website.
The website builder is pretty simple and gives you a very simple, but clean and nice-looking, website. Here’s an example of a website that OwnerRez hosts.
OwnerRez Pros
- Automated features galore
- Customer service that is excellent
- Pay only for the features you want, at an affordable price
- Integration with Quickbooks
Cons
- Features of the website builder are limited
- It takes a bit of time to get set up
My OwnerRez Recommendation:
You might be a good fit for OwnerRez if:
- In the Property Management feature, you can pay commissions to property owners.
- Many of your booking processes need to be automated
- Simple website templates are fine with you
As we already said, OwnerRez customers tend to be very happy and loyal. Start your 14-day trial at OwnerRez if you like the sound of some of their features.
3. Tokeet
Tokeet is another site that is similar to Lodgify. It comes with a few templates, and you can add pages and change the way your design looks (you can even add custom CSS and JS).
Here is an example of a website where you can book a Tokeet directly.
4. Uplisting
Uplisting is a premium, all-in-one piece of software for managing vacation rentals. It’s the best vacation rental channel manager on the list we made. Their product is strong and reliable, and they have great customer service.
The website builder on Uplisting is very simple. There is only one template, and you can’t change it or add more pages. In spite of this, we love the look of their website template for bookings.
It’s new, clean, and made to make people want to stay there.
If you want to use Uplisting but also want to make changes to your website, one option is to link to your booking website from a website that is not part of Uplisting (like Squarespace). Here’s a great example of a business that does just that.
5. iGMS
iGMS, which used to be called AirGMS, is a popular software for managing short-term rentals that has a lot of features. They now have direct booking sites in 2022.
You can preview your website by going to their “Preview Your Website” page and entering your Airbnb URL.
The iGMS vacation rental website builder doesn’t let you make many changes, and you can’t add more pages.
But iGMS can be a great choice if you want to add booking pages to a website that isn’t your own. Here’s an example of a website made with iGMS for direct bookings.
iGMS also has flexible pricing ($1 per booked night), which is a great and cheap way to start using software to manage vacation rentals.
Other Popular Website Builders
Here are a few more well-known site builders. These are the best website builders for vacation rentals, but if you want to take direct bookings, you’ll need to set up a bit more.
If you want to take direct bookings, we suggest putting together one of these sites with a website builder from the list above. Use Squarespace and Lodgify as an example.
1. Squarespace
If you haven’t really liked any of the templates you’ve seen so far, Squarespace might be for you.
Squarespace is known for its beautiful design, and it’s Real Estate & Properties template category has several good options for vacation rental websites.
If you like the look of Squarespace but want more booking features, you can do this in more than one way.
You can use Lodgify’s Squarespace integration or add a “Book Now” button that links to any other direct booking software. This could be done with Lodgify, Uplisting, or any other booking software you choose.
Pros
- Designs for beautiful website templates
- User-friendly
Cons
- To take direct bookings, third-party software is required
- Channel manager not included
Squarespace is probably the best fit for you if:
- If you’re not going to take direct bookings (or if you’ll use a separate vacation rental software), then you should not be taking direct bookings.
- Squarespace website templates look good to you
Select a template and begin your free Squarespace trial.
2. Wix
Wix has become very popular in the past few years. They have a lot of templates and add-ons that can be used to make almost any kind of website.
They have a variety of “travel & tourism” website templates that are great for vacation rental owners and managers who want to show off their properties and add a booking calendar.
Check out our list of the top Wix templates for vacation rentals. This template, for example, has everything you need to show off your properties.
Wix Pros
- The price that is affordable
- There are many vacation rental templates available on Wix
- Your site can be customized and enhanced in a number of ways
Cons
- Direct bookings require some setup
- There is no built-in channel manager
You should check out Wix if:
- Your vacation rental fleet is small, you plan to integrate with another software to accept direct bookings, or you don’t plan to accept direct bookings. Based on the reviews I’ve read, Wix Hotels is also a channel manager for hotels.
- Do you like a website template you found?
You can try Wix for 14 days for free if it looks good to you.
3. WordPress
WordPress is the last but by no means the least important. Some estimates say that WordPress runs more than 30% of the internet.
It’s free to use, it’s open source software, and a huge number of people use it and work on it to make it better all the time.
The following steps will help you set up a WordPress site for your vacation rental business:
- Your website will “live” on a hosting subscription (like SiteGround).
- WordPress theme for vacation rentals
- WordPress plugin for direct bookings
Take a look at this post for a list of the best WordPress vacation rental themes and plugins.
WordPress Pros
- You can change almost everything about your website.
- There are many plugins and themes from which to choose.
- Depending on your host, theme, and plugins, it can be very cheap.
Cons
- Technical knowledge and setup required
My WordPress Recommendation
WordPress is recommended if:
- The ability to do some research and learn how to set up your site (or the ability to hire a web designer to do it for you)
- Your website should be truly yours, and you should be able to customize it however you like
Quick Links:
- 8 Best Free Website Builders
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Conclusion: Vacation Rental Website Builder 2024
I think these are the best website builders for making a website for short-term rentals. There are more, but one of these (or a mix of two of them) should work for you.
If you have any questions regarding the best vacation rental website builder or want to learn more about our custom vacation rental websites, please do not hesitate to contact me. I’d be happy to answer any questions you have.
