Managing availability and rates across Airbnb, Booking.com, and your own website manually -- with double bookings happening because the OTAs don't sync fast enough?
Producing owner statements by pulling data from the OTA dashboards and a spreadsheet every month, a process that takes half a day per owner?
Short-Term Rental Software Development
Short-term rental operations break down at scale -- manually updating rates on three OTAs, texting check-in instructions to every guest, chasing housekeeping teams without a schedule, and producing owner statements from spreadsheets.
We build custom short-term rental platforms for holiday rental operators, serviced apartment companies, and vacation rental businesses who need booking, channel management, operations, and reporting in one system rather than patched together from four different tools.
Direct booking engine with real-time availability calendar and online payment processing
Channel manager integrating Airbnb, Booking.com, VRBO, and Expedia into one availability and rate feed
Dynamic pricing engine with demand-based rate recommendations and seasonal rules
Owner portal with automated statements, occupancy reporting, and booking source breakdown
RaftLabs builds custom short-term rental and vacation rental software for property operators, holiday rental businesses, and serviced apartment companies. We develop direct booking engines, channel managers with Airbnb and Booking.com integration, dynamic pricing engines, guest communication automation, housekeeping and operations management, and owner reporting portals. Short-term rental platform builds typically deliver in 12--16 weeks at a fixed cost.
Multi-OTAChannel sync
·DynamicPricing engine
·FixedCost delivery
·12-16Week delivery
Short-term rental operations that work at 5 properties stop working at 25
At 5 properties, you can manage availability on each OTA manually, text check-in instructions personally, and produce owner statements from memory. At 25, you need a booking system that syncs across every channel instantly, guest communications that fire automatically on the right trigger, housekeeping schedules generated from the booking calendar, and owner statements that produce themselves. The operational cost of not having those systems in place is double bookings, guest complaints, and a housekeeping team that doesn't know when to show up.
A purpose-built short-term rental platform replaces the three separate OTA dashboards updated manually, the messaging app thread for housekeeping, the spreadsheet for owner statements, and the generic property management system designed for long-term lettings that doesn't understand check-in automation, dynamic pricing, or OTA commission reconciliation. One system built around the specific operational model of short-stay property.
We build for serviced apartment operators scaling beyond 10 properties, holiday rental companies managing multiple owner portfolios, boutique hotel groups who want a direct booking channel, and proptech companies building a vacation rental platform as a product.
What we build
Direct booking engine
Branded direct booking flow with real-time availability calendar, property search by dates and guest count, online payment and deposit collection, and automated booking confirmation and pre-arrival communication sequence. Booking rules configurable by property: minimum stay, changeover days, advance booking window, and blackout dates. Promo codes and direct booking incentives to shift guests away from OTA dependency. Inquiry management for properties using request-to-book rather than instant booking. The direct booking engine that earns you the OTA commission on every booking it captures -- typically 15 to 20 percent of the booking value retained rather than paid to the platform.
Channel manager and OTA integration
Availability and rate synchronisation across Airbnb, Booking.com, VRBO, Expedia, and your direct booking engine via a single calendar. Rate update pushed to all channels simultaneously when a price change is made -- no manual update per platform. Booking import from each OTA into the central reservations system, with guest details, payment status, and check-in information consolidated in one place. iCal export for channels not supporting API integration. Sync frequency configurable by channel -- real-time for Airbnb and Booking.com APIs, scheduled for iCal-only channels. The channel manager that eliminates the risk of double booking as you grow across more platforms.
Dynamic pricing engine
Demand-based rate recommendations that adjust nightly rates based on occupancy level, days to arrival, local event calendars, and competitor rate monitoring. Seasonal base rate rules with configurable multipliers for peak periods, school holidays, and local events. Last-minute discount rules that reduce rates automatically when a booking gap is approaching. Length-of-stay pricing that incentivises longer stays during low-demand periods. Rate change preview showing projected occupancy and revenue at different rate levels before applying changes. The alternative to a revenue manager or manual rate review -- systematic pricing that responds to demand signals rather than gut feel.
Guest communication automation
Automated messaging sequences triggered by booking event: booking confirmation with property details, pre-arrival email at configurable days before check-in, check-in instructions sent at check-in time with access codes, parking, and entry instructions, mid-stay check-in message, and post-checkout review request. SMS and email delivery. Personalisation from the booking record -- guest name, property address, check-in date, access code. Template management so the property manager can update message content without a code change. Upsell messages at configurable points in the stay for early check-in, late checkout, and add-on services. The communication sequence that runs itself and eliminates the 10 to 15 minutes of manual messaging per booking.
Housekeeping and operations management
Housekeeping schedule generated automatically from the booking calendar -- checkout and check-in times determine the clean window for each unit on each day. Cleaner assignment by property and task type. Mobile app for cleaners showing the property address, access instructions, task checklist, and photo capture for completed work. Inventory tracking for consumables and linen counts. Maintenance request escalation from the housekeeping checklist when a cleaner identifies a defect. Operations dashboard showing every property's cleaning status on the day: pending, in progress, completed, and any issues flagged. The system that replaces a messaging app group with a real workflow.
Owner portal and financial reporting
Owner-facing portal giving landlord clients visibility of their property's bookings, occupancy rate, and revenue without requiring a call to the property manager. Monthly owner statements generated automatically: total revenue, OTA commissions deducted, management fee deducted, maintenance costs charged, and net payment to owner. Booking source breakdown showing what percentage came from each OTA versus direct. Year-to-date performance summary against the same period last year. Document download for owner statements and invoices in PDF format. The owner portal that turns a monthly manual reporting task into an automated output that produces itself on the first of each month.
Frequently asked questions
The channel manager connects to Airbnb via the Airbnb API partner programme, Booking.com via the Connectivity Partner API, VRBO and HomeAway via their API, and Expedia via the Expedia Partner Central API. For any OTA or platform without a direct API, we support iCal feed import and export as a fallback. API connection quality varies significantly between platforms -- Airbnb and Booking.com have real-time sync APIs while some smaller OTAs update on a scheduled interval rather than instantly. The sync speed for each channel is confirmed during scoping. We map the channels you actively use rather than connecting to every OTA available.
The pricing engine uses demand signals to recommend nightly rate adjustments: current occupancy rate across your calendar, days to arrival for each open date, local event calendars that flag high-demand periods, and competitor rate monitoring for comparable properties in your market. When occupancy is high and a date is approaching, rates go up. When a booking gap is opening and departure is close, rates come down. The rules are configured by you -- you set the base rate, the seasonal multipliers, and the discount thresholds. The system generates recommendations; a human can override any rate before it is pushed to the channels. It is not a black-box algorithm -- it is a systematic process that replaces manual rate review and responds to demand signals faster than a person checking each date manually.
Yes. The channel manager connects to your existing Airbnb and Booking.com listings -- you don't need to create new listings or start your review history from zero. The integration works by linking the channel manager to your existing listing IDs and taking over availability and rate management from there. Your existing reviews, ranking signals, and listing content stay in place. The connection process requires authorising the channel manager as a connected software provider in each OTA's partner settings. We walk through this during the go-live phase. Any listings you have already built up on the OTAs continue operating normally -- the channel manager simply adds a central control layer.
A direct booking engine on its own -- property calendar, online payment, and automated guest messaging -- typically runs $15,000 to $30,000. A full platform with channel manager, dynamic pricing, housekeeping operations, and owner portal typically runs $40,000 to $100,000 depending on scope, the number of OTA integrations, and the complexity of the owner reporting structure. Proptech products built to sell as a service to other operators are a larger scope and are priced on discovery. All builds are priced as a fixed cost agreed before development starts -- no hourly billing. We scope the build in a discovery session, agree the feature set, and give you a fixed number before any code is written.
Talk to us about your short-term rental software project.
Tell us how many properties you manage, which OTAs you use, and where the operational process breaks down. We'll scope a platform and give you a fixed cost.
