Hostaway vs ThinkReservations Booking Engine

Hostaway is a vacation-rental property management system and channel manager for growing property managers. It distributes listings across Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and Google, while a multi-calendar, unified inbox, task management, payments, reporting, and accounting tools support daily operations. The inbox combines messages from those booking channels with email, SMS, and WhatsApp. Templates, automated messaging, and AI Replies can draft answers to common questions and send responses on a user’s behalf. Other listed features include dynamic pricing, a direct booking engine, guest and owner portals, automated reviews, and maintenance management. Hostaway says it offers more than 300 integrations and an Open API for custom connections. Its iOS and Android apps manage calendars, inboxes, reservations, and tasks; web and API access are also listed. Current iOS app updates require iOS 16.4 or later, and Huawei devices are not fully supported. Hostaway advertises 24/7 phone support and a Help Center. Public pricing directs visitors to request pricing.

ThinkReservations Booking Engine displays rates and availability to lodging guests, with the aim of supporting direct reservations. The booking experience can be customized to match a property's website and supports mobile bookings. Properties can set single-night, customer-group, seasonal, and member rates, run promotions, and apply automatic rule-based rate adjustments. The engine can collect deposits, create tasks from reservation add-ons, update third-party channels, and send guest emails and texts. Listed connections include Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia, Tripadvisor, PriceLabs, Google Hotel Ads, and Micros-interface POS systems. An August 2026 update added booking-flow translations and automated bot protection at registration, enabled by default. ThinkPayments uses Stripe infrastructure; card data is tokenized and stored in Stripe's PCI-DSS Level 1 environment. 3D Secure is supported for SCA-regulated transactions and high-risk bookings. The service includes account configuration and staff training, plus on-demand knowledge articles and webinars. Its External API lets partners access reservations, availability, rates, rooms, room types, and inventory, and create reservations. Pricing is available on request.