Kigo vs OwnerRez
This article examines Kigo vs OwnerRez by concentrating on the main features that a hospitality management software should offer. The data has been collected from Kigo’s and OwnerRez’s websites and help articles. We also checked their reviews at Capterra to find the aspects that the actual users are emphasising.
Guest Review
In Capterra, Kigo has a rating of 3.7, with the highest score for Features.
Trustpilot introduces Kigo as a Poor tool with a 2.6 TrustScore.
In Capterra, OwnerRez has a rating of 5.0, with the highest score for Customer Service.
Trustpilot introduces OwnerRez as a Great tool with a 3.8 TrustScore.
Kigo enables the automation of responding to enquiries to convert them to bookings as quickly as possible. You can build a template and automated response emails that confirm the availability of the property of interest or show other available properties.
In the Kigo Reservation Module, you can check:
- Booking source
- Occupancy dashboard
- Full portfolio
- Revenue breakdown
Kigo has an integrated payment processor which has a Single Settlement reporting capability. It helps in fraud prevention and checking transaction history. Kigo charges 5% per booking for using KigoPay.
While working with OwnerRez, you do not need to worry about the bookings that come from OTAs to which you have an API connection, as everything will automatically be visible in your account.
However, you may face some difficulties if your booking is direct. Then, everything should be done manually. Here are the steps:
- Create the booking and enter guest details.
- Activate payment collection and enter their card information.
- Schedule the security deposit.
- Reach out to guests for further information, such as photo ID and signing of the terms and conditions (through the Renter Agreements feature).
After taking these steps, the booking will be created, and it will resemble one created automatically.
Two–way real-time connection with all of Kigo’s partner channels.
Kigo’s channel manager:
- Keeps rental rates competitive across portals.
- Fills the calendar gaps by automatically relaxing length-of-stay limits and adjusting pricing to optimise occupancy.
- Charges 3% per booking for all the payments outside Kigo, for example, for your Airbnb bookings.
OwnerRez has direct channel integration with Airbnb, Booking.com, Canada Stays, Florida Rentals, Houfy, TripAdvisor, Vrbo, FindRentals, and HomeToGo.
When you open the window for each channel synchronisation, you can see the list of your listings with Sync Status, Listing Status, the last time a booking was made for each property, and the last time the information changed or synced again.
With Kigo Operation Manager, you can:
- Schedule cleans and tasks in the centralised management area.
- Give your cleaners and maintenance staff easily accessible clear sets of daily and weekly tasks to complete.
- Set your expectations by attaching photos and have a place to receive photos in real-time from cleaners.
- Automate all communications through the system by email and SMS.
OwnerRez offers several ways to keep the cleaners posted about the latest housekeeping tasks:
- Custom Cleaner iCals
Using iCal integration, you can create a custom calendar for your property, export all your bookings there, and share the link with your cleaners.
- Portal Access
With login details, your cleaners can access your calendar, notes, and guest details based on the levels of access you define.
(This feature is available only if you use the Property Management Premium Feature.)
- Custom Trigger Emails
You can create a trigger email in OwnerRez to be sent out after each departure so that the cleaner knows about the latest check-outs.
- Third-Party Alerts
If you turn on Third-Party Alerts for each property and put in the cleaner’s name/email address, the system will email the assignee automatically each time a booking hits, gets cancelled, or changed.
- Stay Report
The stay report shows you who is arriving, departing, and staying. This report can be printed and sent to your cleaners as a schedule.
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OwnerRez is integrated with eRentalLock and a couple of other door lock companies for self check-ins. It can automatically generate codes for your many different door locks, including numeric sequence locks and Wi-Fi locks – each time a booking is created.
However, you still need to inform the guest about the code. For that, you can create an email template within the system with your preferred trigger rule. Based on that, OwnerRez will automatically send an email to your guests to enter the property without your presence.
Kigo’s Website Starter Package makes an image-driven, mobile-friendly, secure WordPress website for all of your properties.
The website Kigo makes for you:
- Allows map search.
- Manages multiple properties easily by organising units from countries to buildings based on a geographic hierarchy.
- Groups properties together to increase the occupancy rate like homes by the beach, pet-friendly, cabins, etc.
- Tracks your website performance through analytics.
Kigo charges for Premium Websites a set-up fee of £404 ($499) plus a monthly subscription of £50 ($59).
OwnerRez offers hosted websites for its customers for an extra charge.
If you have one property, the fee for having a hosted website would be $10.00 per month, which may differ based on the number of your listings.
The website includes:
- A page per property
- A booking engine
- An availability calendar
- Your different rate plans for the season
- Reviews
- Amenities
- Property location
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OwnerRez does not include an extended stay option. It means you cannot define different monthly and/or weekly rates.
Extending your guest stay for your direct bookings can be done manually by changing the dates, the charges, and payment collection.
If a booking is coming from an OTA and the guests stay longer in your properties, the change should be made on the OTA webpage directly, even if you use API integration.
- Kigo has made a mobile-friendly link to communicate in real-time with guests, chase down reviews, and target repeat referrals and direct bookings for the future. You can test it by typing rebrand.ly/guestxp on your phone.
- Kigo’s bank-safe eSignature helps in sending, signing and securely storing documents.
- Kigo provides a ready-to-use template for your automated guest messaging system.
OwnerRez has an option in their check-out process called renter agreement. A signing link can also follow this agreement, which is highly recommended for bookings that come from different OTAs.
There is a suggested renter agreement, but you can create as many agreements as you want and customise them as a host.
After the signature link is used, you can ask your guests or a particular group of them to verify their contact information for you. This way, you will restore your guests’ details even when the booking comes from a listing site.
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OwnerRez creates a profile for each of your guests regardless of the sources or channels they come from.
To have an organised CRM, you have the option to merge your contacts or team them up.
OwnerRez’s guest CRM shows you the guests’ history, including the number of their previous bookings with a summary, payments, contact information, and some tags.
By creating different tags, you can highlight some characteristics or ideas about the guests, such as great, never again, breakfast, extra bed, and rental boats. The reason for having tags on the CRM level and booking level is to help the owner. The owner will keep in mind the key points that may seem minor but have a considerable impact on their hosting quality to turn the guests into loyal ones or prevent an annoying person from returning to the property again.
With Kigo Operation Manager, you can:
- Schedule cleans and tasks in the centralised management area.
- Give your cleaners and maintenance staff easily accessible clear sets of daily and weekly tasks to complete.
- Set your expectations by attaching photos and have a place to receive photos in real-time from cleaners.
- Automate all communications through the system by email and SMS.
OwnerRez does not seem to have a particular feature dedicated to your maintenance issues. You can create manual tasks if needed, though.
With Kigo, you will not force your guests to download and install an app. Kigo provides a URL or a web-based link that you send to the guests, and they can open it and access the information.
This platform allows you to communicate with your guests pre-arrival, during the stay, and after check-out. You can automate sending the terms and conditions, and they can use the e-signature tool to sign.
You can also send local attractions, coupon codes, or FAQs to them.
OwnerRez supports mobile phones and tablets. Their web version is mobile responsive, meaning that you can work with the system the same way you do from your PC. It can also be installed as an app on your mobile devices.
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You can use OwnerRez internationally. They allow for multiple currencies, which can be set per property. You can have multiple different credit card processors to accept different currencies, as well.
With Kigo Operation Manager, you can:
- Schedule cleans and tasks on the centralised management area.
- Give your cleaners and maintenance staff easily accessible clear sets of daily and weekly tasks to complete.
- Set your expectations by attaching photos and have a place to receive photos in real-time from cleaners.
- Automate all communications through the system by email and SMS.
OwnerRez can help you manage your housekeeping to some extent, but it needs manual interference and supervision (it will not be done automatically).
However, it is clear that some more extensive operations with more complex scheduling involved, including housekeeping, maintenance, and other support staff, need an advanced solution. To meet this, OwnerRez has partnered with ResortCleaning and VRScheduler.
Kigo’s Owner Portal:
- Creates multiple owner statements in bulk.
- Provides automatic calculation of property management commissions and accounting adjustments like credit card fees, channels’ commissions and promotions.
- Customises the type of information to display.
Owners can:
- Check property availability calendars.
- Book an owner stay or guest-of-owner stay.
- Download their owner statement.
OwnerRez’s PM (Property Management) area gives you a wide variety of options, provided that you use the Premium plan. You can configure owners and assign the properties that you manage for those owners, including some settings like your commission.
You can grant portal access to owners to see your calendar.
You can also generate monthly owner statements so that owners can see their booking earnings and the expenses you have charged them. In addition, your grand total for the month will be calculated.
KigoPay is a payment solution designed by Kigo.
- KigoPay processes multi-currency transactions from one centralised location.
- KigoPay automatically generates event triggers and notifications for reconciliation, fraud, chargeback disputes, etc.
- Kigo payment processing services are PCI DSS compliant with bank-level encryption.
- You can directly collect payments. You can configure payment methods in the financial settings to accept credit cards, cheques, or PayPal.
- You have integration with Quickbooks for your accounting. All the invoices will get generated automatically using Quickbooks’s integration with all the data needed, such as taxes, add-ons, etc.
- You can generate partial payment links, meaning the system generates two invoices for you. It is also possible to set reminders for the guests, which will be sent to them via email.
- Regarding security deposits, OwnerRez offers its optional Damage Protection programme with an insurer called RentalGuardian. The other possible ways are either to hold a security deposit or to have a Refundable Damage Deposit or “RDD.” These can be created manually in the system.
- They offer API integrations with Payeezy, Authorize.net, Bambora, Lynnbrook, Stripe, and more payment processors for payment collection. You can check them out on their website.
KigoPay is in charge of reporting by integrating KigoPay with Kigo’s new channel management technology.
- The booking summary report helps you compare your booking percentage over different periods. You can also compare property by property.
- You can apply other filters like Airbnb or channel bookings only.
- You can also have a Line Item Pivot report where you have the list of all your bookings on a list with all the information you may want to check.
Kigo Revenue Management:
- Studies your occupancy rates and sets the prices.
- Updates the prices across your properties.
Using OwnerRez, you can define seasonal rates and spot rates. You can have the rates applied to only random days in a month, certain days repeatedly, or the entire month. The rate plans from one property can also be batch copied to a destination property.
Under rate rules, you can create last-minute discounts.
OwnerRez also offers integration with Beyond and PriceLabs for dynamic pricing.
- Kigo has a one-time set-up fee of £810 ($1000).
- Kigo Platinum Support provides direct access to an expert who speaks your language and offers product walkthroughs and tailored tutorials.
- Kigo Platinum Support costs a monthly subscription of £400 ($500).
OwnerRez has a ProConnect (Concierge) Setup apart from support documents and asking for help.
The OwnerRez team will go through your account’s onboarding process entirely by themselves based on the information you provide for them. At some points, like the part for website setup, your presence will be needed.
There would be a charge for this service based on the number of your properties. The service will only be available for your existing listings, not the ones you add later on. It is also good to know that Concierge Setup is not an express service, and it might take 3 to 6 weeks to complete.
KigoPay completely streamlines all reconciliation and financial data. Integrating KigoPay with Kigo’s new channel management technology simplifies complex calculations for tax and fee reporting from channel partner bookings.
OwnerRez offers a Line Item Pivot where you have the list of all your bookings on a list with all the information you may want to check. You can see your booking data, rent price, cleaning, surcharges and discounts, taxes, host fees, charge totals, transaction totals, and PM totals. You can export these to Excel, as well.
Remember that this information will be generated for each booking, not for your organisation, like the monthly profit report in total.
However, OwnerRez can generate monthly owner statements to see their booking earnings and the expenses you have charged them. In addition, the total of the month will be calculated.
OwnerRez integrates with Quickbooks for your bookkeeping tasks.
Having PM services (calculating commissions, generating owner statements and recording expenses) and integrating QuickBooks require an extra fee to be paid to OwnerRez on your base plan.
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OwnerRez does not have a Unified Inbox beyond Airbnb messaging. However, you can have your Airbnb messages sent to OwnerRez automatically, and you can answer them back from your OwnerRez account directly.
You can have your enquiries forwarded into OwnerRez from Vrbo or TripAdvisor, but your replies will be sent out as a traditional email to the guest.
Some pre-set email templates can be sent out to guests automatically using the triggers. They can be turned off for the bookings that you may choose from your list. You can also create your email templates based on your needs.
Pricing
Kigo charges around 3% for offline transactions and 5% for online transactions made through KigoPay. A 0.5% payment gateway fee is applied to all payments processed through non-KigoPay integrated payment gateways.
OwnerRez pricing starts from $35.00 (25.30 GBP) per month. The more properties you have, the less you will pay. However, the default plan only includes channel management and digital signature.
If you want to have the Property Management feature (to calculate commissions, generate owner statements, and record expenses), QuickBooks integration, hosted website, and SMS messaging, you need to include them in your base plan and pay extra for each. OwnerRez does not have a free version, but they offer a 14-day free trial.
Kigo vs OwnerRez: Which Property Management System to Choose?
Kigo has a good reputation in support services and functionalities. This software also offers direct integration with Airbnb, Booking.com, and HomeAway/Vrbo and pushes not only rates and availability, but also photos and descriptions in real-time. However, the commission-based pricing strategy of Kigo, sometimes, becomes too costly as apart from the subscription fees you pay to this PMS provider, they get a commission for each booking made on any channels the moment you start using Kigo.
OwnerRez will help you manage your properties as there are lots of features available for each aspect of managing a short-rental business. There are also so many integrations that can be used. However, you need to keep in mind that, to have some of the features, you need to pay an extra amount per property to have them activated. OwnerRez can be an excellent solution for small and large multi-location companies and those who work with Vrbo, Booking.com, and Airbnb.
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