Against the category

How we compare on the money questions

Santara takes 0% commission on every booking, at every plan level, at any portfolio size. This page sets that against what the five biggest platforms in short-term rental actually charge, using their published pricing pages, help documentation and independent reviews as at August 2026.

It also carries the honest column: five things these platforms do better than us today. We publish it because you will find it out in week two anyway, and we would rather you found it out from us in week one.

Santara

0% commission on bookings: Yes
No per-reservation or booking fee: Yes
No commission on guest upsells: Partial
No onboarding or setup fee: Yes
No annual contract or lock-in: Yes
Published price at every tier: Yes
Dynamic pricing without a per-property surcharge: Yes

Hospitable

0% commission on bookings: No
No per-reservation or booking fee: Yes
No commission on guest upsells: No
No onboarding or setup fee: Yes
No annual contract or lock-in: Yes
Published price at every tier: Yes
Dynamic pricing without a per-property surcharge: No

Hostaway

0% commission on bookings: Yes
No per-reservation or booking fee: Yes
No commission on guest upsells: Yes
No onboarding or setup fee: No
No annual contract or lock-in: No
Published price at every tier: No
Dynamic pricing without a per-property surcharge: Partial

Guesty

0% commission on bookings: No
No per-reservation or booking fee: No
No commission on guest upsells: Yes
No onboarding or setup fee: Partial
No annual contract or lock-in: Partial
Published price at every tier: No
Dynamic pricing without a per-property surcharge: Partial

Lodgify

0% commission on bookings: No
No per-reservation or booking fee: No
No commission on guest upsells: Yes
No onboarding or setup fee: Yes
No annual contract or lock-in: Yes
Published price at every tier: Yes
Dynamic pricing without a per-property surcharge: Partial

OwnerRez

0% commission on bookings: Yes
No per-reservation or booking fee: Yes
No commission on guest upsells: Yes
No onboarding or setup fee: Yes
No annual contract or lock-in: Yes
Published price at every tier: Yes
Dynamic pricing without a per-property surcharge: Partial

The money questions first
Capability	Santara	Hospitable	Hostaway	Guesty	Lodgify	OwnerRez
0% commission on bookingsAirbnb, Booking.com, Agoda, direct — no revenue share at any tier	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
No per-reservation or booking feeA flat fee taken out of every stay	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
No commission on guest upsellsLate checkout, transfers, breakfast	Partial	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
No onboarding or setup feeWaived in full for founding operators	Yes	Yes	No	Partial	Yes	Yes
No annual contract or lock-inLeave any month and take your data	Yes	Yes	No	Partial	Yes	Yes
Published price at every tierNo “contact sales” to find out what you pay	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Dynamic pricing without a per-property surchargeSeasonal and day-of-week rate plans included; PriceLabs passed through at cost	Yes	No	Partial	Partial	Partial	Partial

Guesty: Lite carries a 1.9% booking fee and mid/upper tiers are quote-only. Lodgify: 1.9% on direct bookings. Hospitable: processes upsells at 10% and direct bookings at 1% or 4%, and charges roughly $15 per property per month for dynamic pricing. Hostaway: quote-only with onboarding fees reported from $300 to $1,000+ and annual contracts by default. Santara guest upsells are marked partial because the optional upsell module carries a 12% fee — it is switched off by default and only ever applies to revenue we create for you.

How it actually runs

Santara

Proactive daily operations brief: Yes
WhatsApp-native staff dispatch: Yes
Built for on-site teams, not solo desk hosts: Yes
Maintenance tickets with photo evidence: Yes
AI guest messaging with human approval: Yes
Owner-ready statements: Partial
White-label for management companies: Yes
Multi-currency and SE Asia operating reality: Yes
Direct booking site, commission-free: Yes

Hospitable

Proactive daily operations brief: No
WhatsApp-native staff dispatch: No
Built for on-site teams, not solo desk hosts: No
Maintenance tickets with photo evidence: Partial
AI guest messaging with human approval: Yes
Owner-ready statements: No
White-label for management companies: No
Multi-currency and SE Asia operating reality: No
Direct booking site, commission-free: Yes

Hostaway

Proactive daily operations brief: No
WhatsApp-native staff dispatch: No
Built for on-site teams, not solo desk hosts: Partial
Maintenance tickets with photo evidence: Yes
AI guest messaging with human approval: Partial
Owner-ready statements: Yes
White-label for management companies: Yes
Multi-currency and SE Asia operating reality: Partial
Direct booking site, commission-free: Yes

Guesty

Proactive daily operations brief: No
WhatsApp-native staff dispatch: No
Built for on-site teams, not solo desk hosts: Partial
Maintenance tickets with photo evidence: Yes
AI guest messaging with human approval: Yes
Owner-ready statements: Yes
White-label for management companies: Yes
Multi-currency and SE Asia operating reality: Partial
Direct booking site, commission-free: Yes

Lodgify

Proactive daily operations brief: No
WhatsApp-native staff dispatch: No
Built for on-site teams, not solo desk hosts: No
Maintenance tickets with photo evidence: No
AI guest messaging with human approval: Partial
Owner-ready statements: No
White-label for management companies: No
Multi-currency and SE Asia operating reality: No
Direct booking site, commission-free: Yes

OwnerRez

Proactive daily operations brief: No
WhatsApp-native staff dispatch: No
Built for on-site teams, not solo desk hosts: Partial
Maintenance tickets with photo evidence: Partial
AI guest messaging with human approval: Partial
Owner-ready statements: Yes
White-label for management companies: Partial
Multi-currency and SE Asia operating reality: No
Direct booking site, commission-free: Yes

Where the day goes
Capability	Santara	Hospitable	Hostaway	Guesty	Lodgify	OwnerRez
Proactive daily operations briefEvery arrival, departure, clean, gap and problem — pushed to you before you ask	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
WhatsApp-native staff dispatchJobs sent to cleaners and drivers in the app they already use, no new login	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Built for on-site teams, not solo desk hostsDesigned around housekeepers, drivers and villa managers	Yes	No	Partial	Partial	No	Partial
Maintenance tickets with photo evidenceRaised, assigned, chased and closed per property	Yes	Partial	Yes	Yes	No	Partial
AI guest messaging with human approvalDrafted in your voice; nothing sends until you say so	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes	Partial	Partial
Owner-ready statementsReports your villa owners can actually read	Partial	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
White-label for management companiesYour brand in front of your owners	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Partial
Multi-currency and SE Asia operating realityLocal staff workflows, local payment behaviour, IDR and VND	Yes	No	Partial	Partial	No	No
Direct booking site, commission-freeSeven templates built from listings you already imported, selling from the same synced calendar. Optional 3% guest-paid fee — zero commission.	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Comparison reflects each platform’s standard product as published in August 2026. Several competitors offer adjacent capability through third-party integrations rather than natively; a partial mark indicates native but limited, or available only on higher tiers. Santara owner statements are marked partial while the module is in rollout.

Published pricing, August 2026

Platform	How it’s charged	Takes a cut?
Santara	Base + per door. $99 for 3 properties, $25 each after.	No — 0% on all bookings
Hospitable	Free tier, then approx. $29 / $59 / $99 per month with per-property fees above the included count. Dynamic pricing add-on approx. $15 per property per month.	Yes — upsells processed at 10%; direct bookings 1% or 4% plus card processing
Hostaway	Quote-only. Independent reviews report roughly $25–$50 per listing per month, onboarding fees from $300 to $1,000+, annual contracts by default.	Onboarding fee and annual lock-in
Guesty	Lite from approx. $16 per month billed annually for 1–3 listings; mid and upper tiers quote-only.	Yes — 1.9% booking fee on Lite
Lodgify	From approx. $14 per month; automation gated to the approx. $42 Professional tier and above.	Yes — 1.9% on direct bookings
OwnerRez	Flat per-property pricing with no booking fee.	No — 0% on bookings

Competitor pricing and feature information is summarised in good faith from publicly published pricing pages, help documentation and independent reviews as at August 2026. Plans and features change frequently — confirm current terms directly with each provider before relying on this comparison. All product and company names are the property of their respective owners and are used here for identification only.

Four reasons to buy someone else.

We publish this because you’ll find it out in week two anyway, and we’d rather you found it out from us in week one.

Free forever tier: Hospitable offers a genuine $0 plan. We don’t, and we’re not going to.
Breadth of channel connections: Airbnb and Booking.com are live for us. Guesty connects 60+, Hostaway 32, Lodgify 12.
Trust accounting and owner payouts: If you need full trust accounting for third-party owners, Guesty or OwnerRez does this properly and we don’t.
Years in market: They have a decade of production history. We have months. That is a real risk and we’d rather you hear it from us.

FoundedSantara 2026Hospitable 2016Hostaway 2015Guesty 2013Lodgify 2012OwnerRez 2009

Founding dates are approximate and reflect each company’s publicly stated launch. We publish this section because you will find it out in week two anyway, and we would rather you found it out from us in week one.

PMS vs OMS — two different jobs, and only one of them is why we exist.

First 25 accounts · 17 remaining

Founding operators keep every one of these. Permanently.

$299 onboarding fee waived, in full
First 3 months free, then your plan rate
Price locked for 24 months — you keep founding pricing as list prices rise
Free white-glove migration from spreadsheets, WhatsApp groups or most platforms
Direct line to the founders and first access to everything we ship
No annual contract, no lock-in. Leave whenever you like and take your data with you.

Claim a Founding Place →

We’re taking 25. We’d rather have 25 operators we can obsess over than 250 we can’t.

FAQ

About this comparison

How was this comparison put together?

From publicly published pricing pages, help documentation and independent reviews as at August 2026, summarised in good faith. Plans change frequently — confirm current terms directly with each provider before relying on it.

What does a partial mark mean?

Natively supported but limited, or available only on higher tiers. It does not mean the capability is reachable through a third-party integration.

Why is Santara marked partial on guest upsells?

Because the optional upsell module takes 12% of upsell revenue. It is switched off by default and only ever applies to revenue we create for you — but it is a commission, so it is not a tick.

Why publish reasons to buy a competitor?

Because they are true. If 60+ channel connections or full trust accounting is your priority today, another platform is the better buy and we would rather say so.

Do you replace my channel manager?

No. We run your operations on top of it, and we never will replace it.

Get your next morning back.

Founding operator programme — 25 places. $299 onboarding waived, 3 months free, price locked for 24 months.

Claim a Founding Place →or see a sample Morning Brief first