Vacation rental software: what to compare before you sign up or switch

By Victor Ferreira · October 26, 2026 · 7 min read

Vacation rental software needs to bring together the channel calendar, cleaning, owner payouts and finance. Before signing, add the monthly fee to the percentage per booking and test the statement for a real property. When switching, take the future bookings and each owner's history with you.

What does vacation rental software need to do?

It needs to carry the booking all the way to the payout with no spreadsheet in between. If one step is left out, someone pieces it together by hand at the end of the month, and that is where the statement stops matching the Pix.

Use this list in the demo. Ask to see each item with one of your properties, not with the vendor's sample property.

The statement item deserves the most careful test. The channel calendar shows up in the demo of any system in the industry. A statement that matches the bank, with no manual adjustment, needs to be seen with your own data.

How does the software change the Airbnb fee?

Connecting your listings to management software moves the manager to Airbnb's host-only fee. According to article 384 of the help center, read on October 26, 2026, it is mandatory for those who use management software.

In Brazil, the host-only fee is 16%, deducted from the host's payout. After the switch, there is no going back to the split fee. The change applies to new bookings.

That is no reason to go without software. Anyone managing a portfolio cannot run the calendar for several channels by hand without double bookings. But each house's nightly rate needs to be reviewed at the switch. The math is in how much Airbnb and Booking.com charge in 2026.

How much does vacation rental software really cost?

The cost is the monthly fee plus the percentage per booking, plus implementation and the payment gateway. With the percentage, the bill grows along with the portfolio.

Stays is an example with public pricing. The pricing page, read on October 26, 2026, lists four plans:

The page states that there is an implementation fee, with the amount depending on the plan and model chosen. There is also a custom plan, priced on request.

An example calculation: a manager with 20 properties and R$ 80,000 in bookings per month, on the Administrador plan. That is R$ 199 plus R$ 1,440 (1.8%), or R$ 1,639 per month. With R$ 120,000 in bookings, the bill goes to R$ 2,359.

Ask for a proposal with each item listed separately:

• Percentage per booking: is it charged on the gross or the net amount? Does it apply to direct bookings too?
• Implementation: who sets up properties, photos, rules and owners? What is the timeline?
• Channels: which ones are included, and is there a cost per channel?
• Payment: does the gateway have its own fee on top of the system's?
• Invoicing and finance: are they in the plan or a separate contract?
• Exit: is there a lock-in period or a penalty? Does the data come out in an open file format?

What should I check in the owner payout?

Check whether the statement shows each booking, from the gross amount to the Pix, and whether the total matches the bank. That is the accounting the owner demands, and so does the law.

When the manager runs the property on the owner's behalf, the relationship is one of agency (Civil Code, art. 653). Under art. 668, the agent is required to account for its management and to transfer to the principal whatever it receives.

A statement that does this job has, per property and per month:

1. Each booking, with channel, dates and gross amount.
2. The channel fee on each booking, and the amount received.
3. The cleanings, one per checkout.
4. The manager's commission, with the basis written in the contract.
5. Expenses and repairs, with the receipt attached.
6. The payout total, equal to the Pix sent.

The hard part is the bank. The channel's money arrives after the stay, with deductions and sometimes on dates different from the bookings. Under article 425 of the help center, an Airbnb payout under review can take up to 45 days to be released after check-in.

That is why the demo test is concrete. Bring one month's bank statement and a real property. Ask the system to match each deposit to its booking and generate the owner's statement. If the answer is "it exports to a spreadsheet", the spreadsheet stays.

How do I switch systems without losing bookings?

Export everything before telling your current vendor, reconnect the channels one at a time and switch finance over on the first day of the month. Step by step:

1. Export future bookings with guest, channel, amount, deposit paid and status. These are the ones that cannot disappear.
2. Export properties with photos, house rules, seasonal prices and the furniture list.
3. Export owners with contract, commission basis, Pix account and the limit for approving repairs.
4. Keep 12 months of statements for each owner, to answer questions after the switch.
5. Bring guest contacts with an LGPD legal basis. Record who agreed to receive messages.
6. Reconnect one channel at a time. After each one, check every property's calendar against the exported booking list.
7. Close the month in the old system and open finance in the new one on day 1. A statement with half the month in each system does not close.
8. Run the calendar in parallel for a week and only then shut down the old one.

The switch is safer when the current system has an API. Stays documents an external API with bookings, calendar, prices, finance and webhooks; credentials are requested from support. Cloudbeds documents a REST API with webhooks and a key per property or per partner.

A webhook is the notice one system sends another when something changes, such as a new booking. With it, the integration does not depend on someone exporting a file.

How CERNE solves it

CERNE comes in two ways, depending on what the manager already has.

• No system yet: CERNE becomes the manager's system, with channel calendar, direct bookings, cleaning, payouts, finance and invoicing.
• With Stays or Cloudbeds: CERNE integrates bookings through the API and runs an assisted switch, with properties, owners and history.

Day to day:

• Channel calendar. Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo, through a market channel manager, and direct bookings on one grid per property.
• Cleaning and inspection. Each checkout opens the cleaning, with a checklist and photos, and the house only moves to Ready when the inspection closes. See how to run a same-day turnover.
• Payouts and statement by link. Nightly rates by channel, cleanings, commission and repairs add up per property. The owner opens the statement by link and approves repairs above the limit.
• Finance and invoicing. The bank statement is reconciled with each booking, and the commission's NFS-e is issued through Focus NFe.
• Role-based access. The cleaning team sees the house and the time; the owner sees their own property's statement and nothing else.

Implementation goes in stages: calendar and cleaning first, then payouts, direct bookings and maintenance, and finally finance and invoicing. The package is being built in the operation of casastemporada.com, a manager in Porto Seguro and Guarulhos that is switching systems. See the stages on the hospitality and vacation rentals page.

Start with an assessment

Before choosing, it pays to know where your month-end close gets stuck. Start with an assessment of your operation: our team rebuilds, against the bank, the statement for one of your properties. Schedule the assessment.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best vacation rental software?

The one that covers your channels and closes each owner's statement without a spreadsheet. Test it with a real property: the channel calendar, the checkout cleaning and last month's statement, which must match the Pix.

How much does vacation rental management software cost?

Many charge a monthly fee plus a percentage per booking. On the Stays pricing page, read on October 26, 2026, plans range from R$ 79 plus 2% to R$ 249 plus 1.7% per booking. Implementation is separate. Add both up for your volume.

Does using management software change the Airbnb fee?

Yes. According to Airbnb's help center (article 384), the host-only fee is mandatory for those who use property management software. In Brazil, it is 16%, deducted from the host's payout.

Is the manager required to account to the owner?

When it manages the property on the owner's behalf, yes. Under art. 668 of the Civil Code, the agent must account for its management and transfer to the principal whatever it receives. The monthly statement is that accounting.

How do I switch vacation rental software without losing bookings?

Export future bookings, properties, owners and statement history before telling the vendor. Reconnect the channels one at a time, checking each property's calendar, and switch finance over on the first day of the month.

Does vacation rental software need an API?

It does, if you are going to connect your website, finance or another system to it. Stays and Cloudbeds document APIs with webhooks, which notify another system when a booking comes in or changes.

Sources

1. Stays, pricing page, accessed October 26, 2026
2. Stays, external API documentation, accessed October 26, 2026
3. Cloudbeds, developer documentation, accessed October 26, 2026
4. Airbnb, Taxas de serviço do Airbnb (article 384), accessed October 26, 2026
5. Airbnb, host payout timing (article 425), accessed October 26, 2026
6. Código Civil, Lei 10.406/2002, arts. 653 and 668 (agency)