Airbnb PMS Onboarding Fees: The Real First-Year Cost of Hostaway, Guesty, Lodgify and Hospitable
Two of these four tools publish a $0 onboarding fee on their pricing page. The other two won't show you a monthly price at all, and add a one-time setup charge on top. Here is what the numbers actually look like for year one.
Why onboarding fees are the wrong thing to fixate on
Onboarding fees get attention in host forums because they're the one number that shows up as a line item before you've earned a dollar. But a one-time setup charge is small next to a monthly fee you pay for twelve months. Onboarding fees also tend to travel with quote-only pricing: when a vendor charges you to get set up, the monthly rate underneath is often negotiated rather than published.
So the useful question isn't "does this tool charge an onboarding fee?" It's "can I compute my real first-year cost from a page on the vendor's own site?" By that test, the four tools split cleanly in two.
- Self-verifiable: Lodgify and Hospitable publish a monthly price and state $0 onboarding.
- Not self-verifiable: Hostaway is fully quote-only; Guesty publishes only its smallest Lite tier and gates everything above it.
Disclosure: some links below are affiliate links. We earn a commission if you sign up, at no cost to you. It does not change the pricing analysis, which comes from the sources cited.
The real first-year cost table
Figures below are pulled from the sources cited in each row. Where a number is sales-gated or third-party-reported rather than confirmed on the vendor's own pricing page, the table says so plainly. Year-1 figures are illustrative base costs and are only computed where the inputs are publicly verifiable.
| Tool | Published monthly | Onboarding fee | Year-1 base (illustrative) | Self-verifiable? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostaway | None published (operator-reported ~$125-$175/mo for 1-4 units, more at scale) | Not on vendor page; operator-reported $300-$1,000+ one-time | Cannot compute from a vendor page | No |
| Guesty | Lite from $9/listing/mo (1-3 listings only); Pro/Enterprise quote-only | Not on vendor page; third-party reports $300-$1,500 one-time | Cannot compute above Lite | Lite only |
| Lodgify | Professional $40/mo flat (Starter $16, Ultimate $59) | $0 (free onboarding sessions on Professional/Ultimate) | ~$480/yr base (Professional, flat, before annual discount) | Yes |
| Hospitable | Professional $59/mo (2 incl, +$2/extra); annual saves 12% | $0 | ~$708/yr base before annual discount; +per-extra add-ons | Yes |
Sources: Hostaway pricing, Guesty pricing, Lodgify via Capterra, Hospitable pricing (all retrieved 2026-05-30), plus third-party onboarding-fee analysis from rakidzich (Hostaway) and rakidzich (Guesty).
Hostaway: quote-only, with a setup fee the vendor doesn't print
Hostaway's pricing page (retrieved 2026-05-30) is a "Get a free quote" form. There is no published monthly price, no tier list, and no onboarding figure on the vendor's own site. One third-party analysis reports operator monthly costs of roughly $125-$175/mo for 1-4 units, rising at scale, but that's sales-gated, so treat it as a range, not a rate.
The onboarding fee is the figure hosts repeat most. Third-party analysis describes it as a one-time charge to migrate listings and set up channels, with operators reporting $300 for a small portfolio to over $1,000 for larger ones with messy historical data (rakidzich, 2026). We flag clearly: that range is operator/third-party reported, not confirmed on Hostaway's pricing page. Because both the monthly fee and the setup fee are off-page, Hostaway is the one tool here whose true first-year cost you genuinely cannot reconstruct without a sales call. Check Hostaway's current quote if you want the actual number for your portfolio. (Affiliate link.)
Guesty: a published $9 entry tier, then a wall
Guesty's pricing page (retrieved 2026-05-30) publishes essentially one number: Lite "starting from $9/month per listing," capped at 1-3 listings. The moment you cross into Pro (4-199 listings) or Enterprise (200+), pricing becomes "get a quote." So if you have more than three listings, Guesty's published price tells you nothing about what you'll pay.
The Guesty pricing page lists no onboarding fee. Third-party 2026 analysis puts the one-time onboarding charge at $300-$1,500 depending on unit count and migration complexity (rakidzich, 2026) — operator-reported, not on Guesty's page. For a host past the 3-listing Lite ceiling, Guesty sits in the same self-verifiability bucket as Hostaway. See Guesty's plans for current terms. (Affiliate link.)
Lodgify: $40/mo flat, $0 onboarding, and you can do the math
Lodgify is where the table becomes computable. Its Professional plan is $40/month flat (not per-property), and onboarding is included free — no separate setup fee. We note the mechanics honestly: Lodgify's own pricing page returned an HTTP 403 to our fetch, so these numbers are confirmed via Capterra rather than a direct vendor fetch (retrieved 2026-05-30).
Public tiers run Starter $16/mo, Professional $40/mo, and Ultimate $59/mo, with Professional and Ultimate including free onboarding sessions. An annual-billing discount exists, though the exact amount isn't detailed in our source. As a flat plan, Professional comes to about $480/yr base (before any annual discount) with $0 setup. Lodgify's pitch is the bundled direct-booking website builder included in its plans. Look at Lodgify's tiers. (Affiliate link.)
Hospitable: a legible, low year-one cost
Hospitable is fully self-serve with $0 onboarding on every tier, and its pricing page (retrieved 2026-05-30) publishes the structure: Host at $29/mo (1 property included, +$1/extra), Professional at $59/mo (2 included, +$2/extra), Mogul at $99/mo (3 included, +$3/extra). Annual billing saves 12%. Because the base price and the per-additional-property add-on are both published, you can compute your first-year cost quickly.
That legibility is why Hospitable lands low on first-year cost: a small-portfolio host on Professional pays roughly $708/yr base before the annual discount, plus per-extra-property add-ons. The trade-off is scope: Hospitable focuses on direct channel connections (Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com) and a direct-booking site rather than the broad integration surface Hostaway advertises. For a 1-10 listing host who values knowing the number, that's often the right trade. Review Hospitable's plans. (Affiliate link.)
Channels and what the monthly fee actually buys
All four connect the big three OTAs. The differences are in breadth and what's bundled. Channel lists below come from vendor/aggregator pages; the broad integration count is advertised by Hostaway on its own materials.
| Tool | Core channels | Notable inclusions |
|---|---|---|
| Hostaway | Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com + broad integration set (vendor-advertised) | Channel manager, messaging, support (per vendor) |
| Guesty | Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com (multi-channel via Lite/Pro) | Unified inbox, multi-calendar |
| Lodgify | Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com | Direct-booking website builder |
| Hospitable | Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com (direct connections) | Direct-booking site; self-serve, no channel setup fee |
The pattern: the two tools charging onboarding fees (Hostaway, Guesty) are also the two pitching the widest integration surface and the most hands-on setup. The two with $0 onboarding (Lodgify, Hospitable) are narrower and self-serve by design. You're often paying the setup fee for breadth and a guided ramp, not for the core OTA sync, which all four do.
FAQ
Does Airbnb property management software charge an onboarding fee?
It depends on the tool. Lodgify and Hospitable publish $0 onboarding on their pricing pages (free onboarding sessions included). Hostaway and Guesty are different: Hostaway's setup fee is third-party-reported at $300-$1,000+ one-time, and Guesty's onboarding is third-party-reported at $300-$1,500. Neither Hostaway nor Guesty publishes the onboarding figure on its own vendor site (retrieved 2026-05-30).
Is the Hostaway onboarding fee an official published price?
No. There is no onboarding figure on Hostaway's own pricing page, which is a quote-only form (retrieved 2026-05-30). The $300-$1,000+ range is operator and third-party reported (rakidzich, 2026), not a vendor-confirmed flat rate.
What does Guesty actually cost for more than 3 listings?
Guesty only publishes Lite at $9/listing/month for 1-3 listings. Pro (4-199 listings) and Enterprise (200+) are quote-only with no published monthly price. So if you have more than three listings, Guesty's real monthly cost is not available from its pricing page; third-party sources estimate onboarding at $300-$1,500 plus a sales-gated monthly fee.
Which PMS has the lowest real first-year cost?
Among the self-verifiable tools, Lodgify Professional is a flat $40/mo (about $480/yr base before any annual discount, $0 onboarding) and Hospitable Professional is $59/mo (about $708/yr base before its 12% annual discount, $0 onboarding), per their pricing pages retrieved 2026-05-30. Hostaway and Guesty cannot be ranked here because their working-host monthly prices are not published.