Lodgify vs iGMS
This article examines Lodgify vs iGMS by concentrating on the main features that a hospitality management software should offer. The data has been collected from Lodgify’s and iGMS’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, Lodgify has a rating of 4.5, with the highest score for Value for Money.
Trustpilot introduces Lodgify as an Excellent tool with a 4.4 TrustScore.
In Capterra, iGMS has a rating of 4.6, with the highest score for Value for Money and Customer Service.
Trustpilot introduces iGMS as an Excellent tool with a 4.3 TrsutScore.
In Lodgify:
- You can send a quote for guests’ reservations through the website showing the price, payment schedule, and cancellation and deposit policies.
- You can send a confirmation link via email to the guests, including reservation and payment information.
- You can set a quote expiry policy.
- You can choose how you would like to accept bookings (enquiry only, booking request, instant booking). For enquiry bookings, the system blocks the availability on other channels, and you may lose the chance of selling your nights.
- You can automate guest vetting using CheKin, a software solution for guests’ registration.
iGMS’s booking processing is effortless and straightforward. Every booking that hits your properties from OTAs has a reservation card in which the guest’s contact information is listed.
iGMS automates your payment processing, and you can also make refunds quickly. You can use the pre-set email templates for each property or create new ones manually and easily use them for communication. Your check-in instructions will also be sent out in one of the emails.
You can also alter the bookings and change the number of guests, dates, or extended stays.
Lodgify’s channel manager allows bookings, calendars, and rates to be synchronised via API across top listing channels, such as Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia, and Vrbo.
It supports iCal integration for other channels, including TripAdvisor, Hotels.com, Lastminute.com, Trivago, Hotelbeds, eDreams, etc.
- Lodgify synchronises images, descriptions, and listings with some of the top channels.
- On the Professional and Ultimate plans, you need to pay a commission for the bookings through the channels.
- There is a 1.9% fee for all bookings on the Starter plan, whether from the website or the channels.
iGMS offers native integrations with Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com, and it offers iCal support for various OTAs.
Getting connected to Airbnb, HomeAway, and Vrbo, you can sync your availability, occupancy, pricing, and messaging with your iGMS account and manage them from your multi-calendar within the system. Regarding the rest of the channels, you can only import/export your tasks and availability using the iCal connection, which requires your supervision as it takes some time for it to get updated each time a change is made.
Lodgify’s task management software allows you to:
- create and assign tasks to different members.
- give users access and distribute responsibilities.
- invite your team members to the platform and link them to the rentals; then, you need to create job templates and specific tasks that the team members should fulfil to complete the job. According to their role and relations to the job and rentals, team members will be notified on their mobile app when the job is created.
- manually assign jobs to specific people.
With Lodgify task management,
- staff can claim a job.
- you can set an inspector for the jobs (they can reject and approve the job).
- you can activate/deactivate a job according to your needs.
- tasks are shown on the calendar.
- the task management feature is offered under the Ultimate subscription.
- there is a mobile application for the managers.
iGMS generates mid-stay housekeeping and check-out housekeeping tasks automatically from the system upon every entry/check-out. Your iGMS multi-calendar will provide you with three types of functions differentiated with three different colours:
- Red tasks — assigned cleaning visits are indicated by a © in the multi-calendar, and unassigned ones have a silhouette of a person. Cleaning visits are automatically created upon check-out of each reservation. It is not possible to have more than one cleaning visit per day.
- Purple tasks — short visits, inspections or handyman appointments. The number of tasks per day is not limited.
- Green tasks with a check mark — completed cleaning visits and tasks.
An iGMS account holder can set up Access and Permissions in each team member’s account in the Team & Members section.
Lodgify uses triggers to automate guest communication.
- A “pre-check-in form” will be sent asking the guests’ arrival information, details, and IDs.
- The guest app provides them with information about the rental, access, address, Wi-Fi details, and recommendations about what to do in the area. (You can withhold sensitive info like access code until the payment has been completed.)
- Once the guests check out, they will no longer be able to access the app.
- Automatic and manual SMS reminders can be sent.
- If you want to link into software for automatic self check-in, you should use Zapier.
iGMS sends check-in instructions to guests via a set of ready-made email templates for each property. You can also create new templates for each booking, message them from the unified inbox, welcome them, and provide them with the necessary information for each check-in.
- Lodgify offers a website with an integrated booking engine.
- It is mobile-friendly, and users can create their domain.
- On the Starter plan, there is a 1.9% fee for direct bookings.
The SEO-friendly website created by Lodgify:
- is customisable, allowing you to create custom pages.
- allows you to add Google Analytics.
- can be integrated with WordPress, Wix, Drupal, Joomla, Weebly, and Squarespace.
- iGMS does not have a booking engine yet, but it is on their roadmap.
- There is no way to connect your website to your iGMS account. However, you can create each direct booking manually in iGMS and automate your communications and housekeeping afterwards.
Instant Website Builder
With the iGMS Website Builder, you can set up your website with no coding knowledge. All it takes is a simple click on the “Create a website” button to transform your Airbnb listing into a fully functional website. All your information, including property descriptions, photos, amenities, and pricing will be automatically pulled from Airbnb.
Lodgify allows you to set prices per night, week, month, weekdays, and season.
iGMS offers a tool for times when a guest wants to stay longer in your properties, which is editing the booking without going to your Airbnb account to make changes to the booking details.
The property, the price, the number of guests, the dates, and the number of nights can be altered from inside the reservation card.
Lodgify allows you to:
- set up a list of existing automated emails to communicate with your guests. You can check up on them during their stay.
- prepare a digital form of house rules, instructions, and access codes.
- send review-request email templates.
- iGMS’s hosts and their teams can view structured information about the booking in reservation cards, such as the property, dates, guests, and the reservation cost.
- You can set up how the check-in will take place. A concierge can be assigned or you can also select self check-in for the task.
- Hosts can also add instructions and assign tasks to the team member related to cleaning or check-out.
- There are specific pre-set email templates for check-in instructions for each property, which are sent out automatically to your guests from Airbnb, HomeAway, and Vrbo.
In Lodgify, you can communicate with your guests using the built-in guest CRM.
- The system does not collect the email addresses, and if you want to have a guest list, you should manually create it. You should create a booking and then fill in customer data.
- Using the list, through the free integration with MailChimp, you can send out marketing emails.
iGMS allows you to view the guest profile on the platform. The guest profile contains information about the guest, such as reservation code, contact details, their profile on Airbnb, government ID, work email, social accounts, selfies and more.
You can easily navigate to the reviews and recommendations that the guest has received. If you click on the guest’s photo, you will have the guest’s Airbnb verification information displayed. This allows Airbnb hosts to screen guests instantly via the software.
From the reservation card, hosts can message the guests or open the itinerary.
Lodgify allows managing the team on one single platform.
- You can specify what your team member can see and do.
- You can set a “picture request” and ask the housekeepers to upload photos.
iGMS:
- Allows recording maintenance issues.
- Enables you to create a task for your fixer from the platform with the address, date, description of the issue, and approximate duration. You can also add notes for your staff about each task.
- Allows the fixers and the cleaners to turn the task’s status to complete when done and track them in real time.
- Sends the fixers notifications on their mobile phones via text messaging when the task is created automatically from the system or manually by another user of iGMS. They will also receive another message as a reminder the evening before.
- Creates a daily schedule for each staff of yours for the following day in order to avoid missing things.
Lodgify’s mobile app has been developed for tracking operations.
- The mobile app has the functionality of the desktop version of the software.
- The guests can communicate with the host through Lodgify’s guest app.
iGMS has a mobile app and an iPod/iPad app that allows you to manage your properties fully from the app, just like when you are using the web version.
- You can create properties in different locations.
- Rentals are also imported from Airbnb.
- You cannot move the reservations from one apartment to another one.
iGMS enables you to manage different Airbnb accounts from one central system.
- You can have an outlined list of all the things that need to be done and check when the property has been cleaned.
- With the mobile app, you can oversee all the tasks and manage the team.
- You can assign specific people to supervise and review tasks once they have been completed.
iGMS can automate your communications with the guests, your housekeepers, and maintenance staff fully.
- Communication: Pre-set email templates to be sent out to your Airbnb, Vrbo, HomeAway and Expedia guests automatically.
- Housekeeping: iGMS automatically generates check-out housekeeping tasks after each check-out. The software provides your housekeepers with a daily schedule to be followed using the staff portal.
- Maintenance: iGMS allows you to create profiles and tasks for the maintenance staff.
Lodgify provides homeowners access to keep them updated by creating different roles within the platform and assigning specific permissions to each owner.
The owners can add properties to the website and edit the details and availability themselves.
There is a mobile app for owners.
iGMS allows you to define different roles in your management system.
Each property can have only one property owner.
Lodgify has integration with Stripe, Braintree, Authorize.net, and Payyo as payment gateways.
You can accept a set of credit cards for your website: Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.
- The payment is not through 3-D Secure Payment, and you can only charge card details.
- It accepts bank transfers, cheques, and cash.
- You can add payments manually and send payment requests and payment reminders.
- Pre-authorisation can only be granted for seven days.
- Lodgify charges you a 1% transaction fee.
- You can set 2-3 payments: a percentage at the time of the booking and the remainder some days before arrival, for example.
iGMS allows you to collect payments from your direct bookings, website, and hotel collections using the Stripe payment gateway.
- After connecting your Stripe account with iGMS, following every direct booking, the system will generate an invoice with the necessary information in the reservation card, which is editable.
- iGMS generates invoices, and the guests can complete their payments using Stripe 3D Secure Link.
- You can easily log payment and deposit if it is for a hotel.
- You can also refund the guest from the system.
You can filter specific months and days of the year, as well as a specific property on your report.
iGMS’s reports include total revenue, cleaning and management fees, the number of cleaning tasks performed per month, taxes and service fees, payouts, and itinerary information.
The user could adjust iGMS reports, including payouts, reservations, monthly revenue, and tasks to give to other team members.
Lodgify integrates with PriceLabs and Outswitch.
You can integrate iGMS with PriceLabs, DPGO, Wheelhouse, and Beyond to get dynamic pricing services.
You can also enable the Channel Markup feature to change pricing, availability, and rates.
Lodgify provides onboarding for you under the Professional and Ultimate plans if you manage three listings and more.
If you are an Ultimate subscriber, you will be trained on PM Modules, including accounting and task management.
The software shows the users the account progress and tells you what steps are left to thoroughly set up your system.
There are articles and instructions both on the website and in the software itself.
iGMS offers a Help Desk, Email Support, and Website Chat Support for Pro, Flexible, and trial accounts. However, iGMS customer support working hours differ for each plan.
The Pro users can receive support Monday to Friday 24 hours and 9:00 to 17:00 on the weekends.
In Lodgify:
- You can keep track of your income and payments, pending and transferred payments of both employees and guests.
- You can generate invoices for employees.
- You can keep track of the expenses.
- The system allows you to create accounting statements. The statements will be updated automatically based on received and sent payments.
- The amounts on the payments are not automatically updated.
- There is no bank account for the owner; the split proportions of income on each booking are for reporting purposes.
N/A
Lodgify does not offer a unified inbox, but to communicate with the guests, you have two ways:
- You can enter the reservation system and send a message directly from there (this feature synchronises with Airbnb and Vrbo chats). There are some “canned emails” that you can choose.
- You can reply to the guest via email. Each booking has a unique Email String. When you respond to this string, the conversation will be saved in the reservation.
Which automated emails are sent to your guest depends on the channel. For example, if the reservation is from Airbnb, “2 days before rental arrival” and “2 days after rental departure” emails will be sent automatically.
iGMS unified inbox only works for Airbnb, Booking.com, and HomeAway at the moment.
iGMS allows you to respond to all guest enquiries from Airbnb and HomeAway with ready-made email templates within the system. Messages received from Booking.com requires you to search the name of the guest in iGMS messenger.
iGMS unified inbox lets you see the booking and guest details, pin, mark, answer the messages, write notes on a To-Do list, and alter reservations if necessary.
Pricing
Lodgify’s pricing starts at £146.65 ($199) per month and varies depending on the total number of rentals and features:
- Starter: £8.84 ($12)
- Professional: £23.58 ($32)
- Ultimate: £35.37 ($48)
Lodgify offers a 20% discount on annual subscriptions and a 25% discount on two-year plans when the users pay upfront. The users receive a free custom domain under annual subscriptions and two-year plans.
iGMS offers two different plans, Flexible and PRO. The Flexible plan has limited features activated but allows you to use full functionality for Airbnb listings, using which you need to pay 0.74 GBP ($1) per night if you have reservations.
If you decide to use a PRO plan, you can choose between a monthly or annual commitment. At the beginning of each month, you will receive an invoice from the company that counts the number of your active properties – properties that have received at least one booking. Each property’s price under the annual plan is 14.76 GBP ($20), and it is 19.93 GBP ($27) on a monthly plan.
As for the cancellation of your subscription, they have specific policies that are good to know upfront. iGMS also offers a 14-day trial in the beginning, which is an excellent opportunity for you to decide whether it is the right solution for you or not.
Lodgify vs iGMS: Which Property Management System to Choose?
To find the best PMS, you need to focus on your needs and expectations. Suppose you need a system that links you to some OTAs like Airbnb, Booking.com, and Expedia. In that case, iGMS helps you keep your calendar updated, manage your operations, and automate your communications.
Lodgify would be the right choice if you run a small rental business, and you wish to have a user-friendly website. If your properties are listed only on Airbnb, Lodgify would be a good option because they have been chosen as a Preferred Software Partner by Airbnb. It means that Lodgify provides the requisite functionality and software connections that meet Airbnb’s technical benchmarks. However, because of the limited integration with the channels, you may not have the chance to widen your reach the way you might wish to.
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