Comparison · Verified 2026-09-21
Santara AI vs Hostaway
Hostaway sells more channels than we do and will not tell you the price. Every tier of ours has a number on the page, migration is free, and you can leave in any month.
Choose Santara AI if…
- You want to know what it costs before you speak to anyone.
- You do not want an onboarding fee or a twelve-month commitment to find out whether it suits you.
- The operations layer — the brief, the cleaning plans, the tickets — is what you are actually buying.
- You run 2–40 doors, which is below where their sales motion is aimed.
Choose Hostaway if…
- Channel breadth decides it: roughly 32 direct connections and 200+ through partners, against our 54.
- You need owner statements and trust-style reporting today.
- You are big enough that a dedicated onboarding programme is worth paying for.
- You want a large integrations marketplace around the PMS.
The money questions
| Capability | Santara AI | Hostaway |
|---|---|---|
0% commission on bookingsEvery channel you sell on, and direct — no revenue share at any tier Why?Both of us take 0% of your bookings, and this row is a draw. The money difference between us is onboarding and the annual commitment, not a revenue share. | Yes | Yes |
| No per-reservation or booking feeA flat fee taken out of every stay | Partial | Yes |
| No commission on guest upsellsLate checkout, transfers, breakfast | Yes | Yes |
No onboarding or setup feeNothing to pay, for anyone Why?Onboarding fees are reported from $300 to $1,000 and up. Ours is nothing, for anyone: migration, property setup and staff training are in the plan. That row read partial until 2026-08-23, when our own $299 fee was removed for everyone. | Yes | No |
No annual contract or lock-inLeave any month and take your data Why?Hostaway defaults to annual contracts. We are month to month, and your data exports in full on the way out — which is a weaker commercial position for us and a better one for you. | Yes | No |
Published price at every tierNo “contact sales” to find out what you pay Why?Hostaway publishes no price at any size. Independent reviews put it around $25–50 per listing per month, which is a range, not a quote. Every Santara AI tier is on the pricing page and the table above works out both at your door count — for them, honestly, it cannot. | Yes | Quote only |
| Dynamic pricing without a per-property surchargeSeasonal and day-of-week rate plans included; ours stands down if you run PriceLabs | Yes | Partial |
How it actually runs
| Capability | Santara AI | Hostaway |
|---|---|---|
Proactive daily operations briefEvery arrival, departure, clean, upsell and problem — emailed to you before you ask Why?Hostaway has task management and a good dashboard. What it does not do is arrive: the brief that lands before you open anything, with today's arrivals, departures, cleans, gaps and open tickets already ordered. | Yes | No |
One-tap WhatsApp and Zalo staff plansEach cleaner's day, pre-written and shared to the app they already use in one tap, no new login Why?Tasks live inside Hostaway, which works when your team logs into Hostaway. Ours is written for the housekeeper and shared to the WhatsApp or Zalo already open on their phone in one tap. | Yes | No |
| Built for on-site teams, not solo desk hostsDesigned around housekeepers, drivers and villa managers | Yes | Partial |
| Maintenance tickets with photo evidenceRaised, assigned, chased and closed per property | Yes | Yes |
| AI guest messaging with human approvalDrafted in your voice; nothing sends until you say so | Yes | Partial |
| Owner-ready statementsReports your villa owners can actually read | Yes | Yes |
| White-label for management companiesYour brand in front of your owners | No | Yes |
Multi-currency and SE Asia operating realityLocal staff workflows, and prices and statements in IDR and VND Why?Hostaway handles multiple currencies and has customers everywhere. It is not built around a South-East Asian operation — local staff workflows, VND and IDR pricing, a Vietnamese or Indonesian interface for the people doing the work. | Yes | Partial |
| Direct booking site, no cut of your payoutSeven templates built from listings you already imported, selling from the same synced calendar. No commission on what it sells. | Yes | Yes |
What it costs at your size
| Portfolio | Santara AI | Hostaway |
|---|---|---|
| 1 door | $29 /mo | Quote only |
| 6 doors | $154 /mo | Quote only |
| 15 doors | $344 /mo | Quote only |
| 40 doors | $794 /mo | Quote only |
| Commission on bookingsOn $20,000 of bookings a month | None | None |
Software subscription only. Channel commission, payment processing and any optional add-ons are excluded on both sides.
Competitor figures are the vendor's published rates at that portfolio size. Where a vendor does not publish one, the cell says Quote only rather than an estimate.
Our figures come from the published ladder on the pricing page. Prices shown in USD; readers in a local price book see their own currency there.
Quote-only is a price, just not one you can see
There is no published Hostaway price at any portfolio size. Independent write-ups converge on roughly $25 to $50 per listing per month, plus onboarding somewhere between $300 and $1,000, usually on an annual contract.
We are not going to pretend that range is a quote, and the cost table above says Quote only rather than inventing one. What we will say is that ours is knowable: the ladder is on the pricing page, from one door to forty and beyond, and nobody has to call you to tell you what you already wanted to know.
An onboarding fee, before you know whether it works
Paying $300 to $1,000 to be set up, on a twelve-month contract, is a reasonable ask for a fifty-door management company with a migration project on its hands. It is a strange ask for someone with eight villas who wants to try a better morning.
Migration here is free and we do it — properties, rooms, rates, availability, reservations, guest history — and most portfolios are live inside a day. If it does not suit you, you leave the month after and take your data.
Where they genuinely beat us: distribution
Hostaway connects roughly 32 channels directly and reaches 200+ through partners. We connect 54. On the count we are comparable; on the long tail they are ahead.
If your strategy is breadth — long-tail OTAs, regional players, anywhere a night might sell — they are the better buy and we would rather say so than lose your first month finding out.
Where Hostaway is stronger
Every comparison page on this site carries this section. If one of these decides it for you, buy theirs.
- Channel breadth at the long tail. Roughly 32 direct connections and 200+ through partners, against our 54.
- Trust-style accounting depth. Both of us produce owner statements; theirs goes further into fund handling than ours does.
- A large integrations marketplace and a mature API.
- Dedicated onboarding. It costs money, and for a large migration it is worth money.
Switching from Hostaway
- Free migration, run by us, including whatever rate plans and channel mappings came out of your Hostaway setup.
- Most portfolios are live inside 24 hours; a large one with unusual rate structures takes longer and we say so up front.
- Check your Hostaway contract before you move — annual terms are the default there, and we would rather you know the notice period than be surprised by it.
- No annual contract here, no exit fee, full export.
Questions people actually ask
How much does Hostaway cost?
They do not publish it. Independent reviews report roughly $25–50 per listing per month plus onboarding from $300 to $1,000+, usually annually. We would rather point you at that than guess, which is why the cost table above says Quote only in their column.
Is there an onboarding fee with Santara AI?
No, for anyone. Migration, property setup and staff training are included. Our own $299 fee was removed for everyone on 2026-08-23 — before that, our comparison table marked this row partial, because it was.
Do you connect as many channels as Hostaway?
We connect 54, they connect roughly 32 directly and reach 200+ through partners. On the channels most operators actually sell on — Airbnb, Booking.com, Agoda, Expedia, Traveloka, Trip.com — both of us are there. If you need the long tail beyond that, buy theirs.
Am I locked in?
Not here. Month to month, leave whenever, full data export. Hostaway defaults to annual contracts, so check the notice period on yours before you plan a move.
What moves over when I switch?
Properties, rooms, rates, availability, reservations and guest history, then your Airbnb and Booking.com connections are re-established. Nothing is switched off on the Hostaway side until you have confirmed the calendars match.
Sources
- https://www.santara.ai/pricing/
- https://www.hostaway.com/pricing/
- https://www.itqlick.com/hostaway/pricing
- https://comparatifchannelmanager.fr/en/hostaway-pricing/
Verified 2026-09-21
All product and company names are the property of their respective owners and are used here for identification only. Competitor information is summarised in good faith from the sources listed above; confirm current terms with each provider before relying on it.