Vortex PMS vs Smoobu

Looking for a Smoobu alternative?

Vortex PMS is the published-pricing PMS for any property type — vacation rentals, villas, hotels, B&Bs, condo-hotels, multi-property groups. Comparable cost to Smoobu at the entry tier, modern UI, owner-statement workflow built in.

If you're a Smoobu user happy with the price but wanting a more powerful platform with owner statements, multi-property reporting, and a modern interface, Vortex PMS is the upgrade path that stays affordable.

vortex pms · Villa Marbella · Calendar
Villa Marbella· 4 rooms · USD
Unit
2 May
Sat
3 May
Sun
4 May
Mon
5 May
Tue
6 May
Wed
7 May
Thu
8 May
Fri
Family Room
FAM
BTom Anderson · 3n
$75
$60
$60
AEmma Walker · 4n
Room 1
STD
$50
DMichael Smith · 5n
$40
Room 2
STD
Owner block
$50
ERachel Johnson · 6n
Room 3
STD
$50
$50
ADavid Brown · 7n
PaidDueOwner blockBBooking.comAAirbnbEExpediaDDirect
Cost comparison

How much you'd save

Adjust to your property size. Side-by-side monthly cost.

Where are you now?
MonthlyAnnualSave 20%
Properties
1
rooms
1 property× $12/mo =$12
4 rooms× $3/mo =$12
Your monthly bill
$24/ mo
$288 / year · or
On Smoobu you’d pay about $36/mo for software.
You save $12/mo (33% less)
$12/property/mo + $3/room/mo. OTA distribution, Booking.com + Stripe payments, booking engine, upsells, digital check-in — everything included, and 0% of your bookings. Billed monthly, or cheaper on an annual plan if you commit for 12 months. Your first month is free, starting the day you go live — no card to start, and it is the one starting path that runs on your real bookings. Migration is on us — we move you across first, no downtime.
Start your free month
Smoobu pricing:EstimateActual cost varies by plan, region, and negotiated discounts.
Balanced view

What Smoobu does well — and where Vortex PMS wins

Smoobu is genuinely good at
Genuinely low entry price
Smoobu's pricing for 1–2 listings is among the cheapest in the vacation-rental space.
Decent booking-engine widget
Embeddable widget works on most CMSes and looks clean.
German-language strength
Native German support and translated UI. Strong in DACH-region vacation rentals.
Where Vortex PMS is materially better
Owner statements included
Per-unit revenue attribution, OTA commission deduction, monthly owner statements with PDF + CSV. Native, every plan.
Channel manager bundled, not an upsell
$12 + $3/room includes the channel manager. No separate per-channel fee, no upgrade required to connect three OTAs.
Multi-property is native
Run multiple villas, cottages, or apartments from one account with cross-property reporting.
Where Smoobu commonly frustrates operators
Support goes quiet once you're paying
Reviewers on Trustpilot report that once you're a paying subscriber, support is hard to reach — no live phone line, and tickets that in "99% of cases are ignored," with some describing customer service as effectively non-existent. source
Price increases without matching improvements
Long-time users on Trustpilot describe a recent price increase hitting hardest for those on since 2018, and say the company raises prices while shipping only cosmetic changes — pushing some to cheaper alternatives. source
Slow, buggy app that logs you out
Reviewers report the app and web login are "very slow and temperamental," with calendar and price management lagging and the app logging users out too often. source
Updates that make things worse
Operators on Capterra and Trustpilot note that a January 2025 update made prices harder to see and reservation entry more complicated, citing a lack of attention to customer feedback alongside untested changes. source
Incomplete VRBO connection
Reviewers report a long-standing, unresolved VRBO pricing-sync issue; Smoobu's own help center confirms the Vrbo connection does not sync Vrbo messages or pricing, so those must be managed manually. source
No owner-statement workflow
Property managers running rentals for other owners get no per-unit revenue attribution or statement generation.
Built into every Vortex PMS plan

Owner statements, automated.

Per-unit revenue attribution. Monthly statement generation. OTA commission deducted automatically, management fee applied, PDF + CSV per owner — emailed in one click.

The most-asked-for capability Smoobu doesn't have, and the reason multi-property operators switch fastest.

vortex pms · Owner statement · April 2026
Management fee rule20% split

Drag to recalculate owner splits instantly

Owner
Sarah Johnson
Period
Apr 2026
UnitNightsGrossMgmt feeNet payout
Penthouse 4B18$3,420.00−$684.00$2,736.00
Suite 2A14$2,100.00−$420.00$1,680.00
Studio 1F22$1,540.00−$308.00$1,232.00
Total Net Payout$5,648.00
54 reservations · 3 OTAs · 1 currencySent · Apr 30
Side by side

Vortex PMS vs Smoobu

Feature-by-feature. We don't hide what the competition does well — balanced comparisons rank better on Google and earn more trust.

FeatureVortex PMSSmoobu
Pricing model$12/property + $3/room, 0% of bookingsVaries — see pricing source
% of revenue taken0%Varies
Channel manager (300+ OTAs)Included on paid plansTypically included
Booking engine + paymentsIncluded, no commissionIncluded or extra
Digital check-in + ID captureYesAdd-on or absent
Per-unit owner statementsYesNo
Multi-property, one accountYesOften paid upgrade
Full audit log + CSV exportYesPartial
AI-guided setupYesNo
Native owner statementsYesNo
Cross-listing reportingYesLimited
Channel manager bundledYesTier-dependent

Smoobu information is based on public pricing pages and operator reviews as of 2026. Plans, prices, and features change — verify the latest on the vendor's site before deciding.

vortex pms · Channel manager
Live OTA Connections · 4 properties
BBooking.com47 bookingsLive
AAirbnb12 bookingsLive
EExpedia8 bookingsLive
AAgoda3 bookingsLive
VVrbo6 bookingsLive
HHotels.comLive
+ 300 more channels available · one bill, no per-channel fees
One inventory, every channel

Channel manager included.

Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia, Agoda, Vrbo + 300 more. Real-time ARI sync (sub-30-second propagation). No separate channel-manager subscription, no per-channel surcharge.

Onboarding

Setup is free, migration is on us — and a human does it with you.

There is no setup fee, no implementation package and no paid training tier. More than that: we set the property up with you — email or WhatsApp coordination while we build out your rooms, rates, policies and channel connections, rather than handing you a help centre and wishing you luck. No call is required.

This isn’t a stripped-back version of onboarding — it’s the opposite. Our team checks your whole setup so your first booking goes out right: rooms mapped, rates correct, channels connected, nothing half-configured. You go live confident, not alone with a help centre. We give every host this personal setup today, and the AI-guided setup already in the app takes on more of it as we grow — so it stays this fast for everyone.

To be clear about what happens when: start your free month and the hands-on setup runs straight away — we move your real property across and connect Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia and Agoda to live inventory first, at no charge. Your 30 free days start the day that work is done and you are taking bookings, and we only ask for a card five days before they run out. If you take the explore trial instead, it runs on a pre-loaded sample property, so there is nothing to migrate and nothing to connect until you subscribe.

What Smoobu charges
No setup fee

Smoobu doesn't charge for onboarding either — worth knowing, and we'd rather tell you than let you find out.

Smoobu's pricing page answers this directly: "With Smoobu, there are no setup or onboarding fees." Onboarding is self-service.

Source: Smoobu pricing · retrieved 2026-07-21. Vendors change pricing — check the source before relying on it.

Common questions

Switching from Smoobu

About Smoobu

Smoobu (HQ Berlin) is a budget vacation-rental PMS, around 2,000 customers, strong in DACH region. Tight feature set, low entry price; total cost rises as you add channels and require add-ons.

Make the switch from Smoobu.

First month free. Migration is on us.

No card to start. We move you across ourselves at no charge, and your free month begins once your channels are connected and you are taking bookings — 30 days with the whole product, channel manager and booking engine included. We email you five days before it ends: add a card to carry on, or do nothing and you have paid nothing. 20-minute AI-guided setup. Monthly plans can be cancelled before any renewal. The annual plan is discounted because it is a 12-month commitment. Free month = your real bookings · explore trial and demo = sample data.

Migration is on us. We set up your property, reconnect your channels, and move your bookings and rates for you — no downtime.