Review

Escapia Review: Vacation Rental Management Software

Author John Maus
By John Maus, Head of Finance and Operations

Published: Jan 06, 2023

7 minute read

Escapia Review Image

Introduction

Are you thinking about easier ways to manage your vacation rental business? Check out Escapia. As a leading vacation rental software platform, Escapia helps property owners and managers control and manage their listings, reservations, and financials. 

Vacation rental property management isn’t easy, and as your business grows, it gets harder to keep track of all the details for every property. A tool like Escapia allows property managers to stay on top of every rental–whether there are 25 or 2,500. 

Keep reading for an in-depth review of the software and for helpful insights on its features and capabilities to help you better manage your rental business!

What is Escapia?

Escapia is a leading property management software platform that helps property owners and managers control and manage their listings, reservations, and financials. With one flat fee, you can access Escapia’s pre-built reports, actionable recommendations, data from popular listing websites such as Vrbo and Airbnb, and one place for all your rental management tasks.

Who owns Escapia?

Escapia’s parent organization is Expedia, whose mission is to “power global travel for everyone, everywhere.” This is a tremendous benefit to Escapia users, who have access to Expedia data across its 3 million properties worldwide.  

The insights from their global market help Escapia users manage their properties easily and efficiently. The software is available in over 70 countries, allowing you to take your rental business worldwide. Users also enjoy access to high-level products and support with their services.

Escapia software review

Escapia homepage

About

For over 20 years and running, property managers are enjoying using Escapia software to manage their vacation rentals. While the goal is to provide clear, intuitive software, Escapia’s offerings are extensive and sophisticated–including all things accounting and finances across all rentals, at your fingertips in minutes. Their slogan? Work smarter, not harder.

With the market constantly changing, Escapia stays on top of the shifting rates in your regions, wherever they are by partnering with the best dynamic pricing software tools like Wheelhouse. Escapia can also provide a rate manager who will inform you instantly of any changes to keep your rates accurate and fair.

Key Features

Escapia dashboard

Performance dashboard

What we find to be their principal feature is their performance dashboard. This gives you one central location for all the real-time insights on your properties. Escapia describes this as at-a-glance reporting, a feature that allows you to save time and energy while retaining information that’s most valuable to you as the owner or property manager.

Opportunities hub

Next, we have their opportunities hub. Setting realistic goals for your rental properties is a great way to continue to grow, and Escapia helps create that list for you. Once you get started, they instantly provide data to help you know how much more you can push when looking to expand. 

Their insights cover your specific market and competition, combining the data they have from Vrbo and other listing pages and the success of your listings to date. Once collected, the system analyzes the data, and users receive a list of actionable recommendations to help scale your business to the right size.

Accounting

Now let’s cover accounting. For every region in which you own property, there are different regulations by which to abide. This may include regulations on insurance, tax rates, housekeeping fees, etc. 

Escapia provides a central place to house all those details, this time for all your accounting information. Having all that information in one location allows for simpler processing during your month- and year-end phases, with built-in reporting to track your every penny.

Channel distribution

The distribution of your properties is key to visibility, and having your rentals on as many channels as possible means more bookings. Because Escapia works with companies such as Vrbo and Expedia, your listings can go far and wide with one click. 

They have 30+ direct connections with a variety of distribution channels so you can access more travelers. Their built-in channel managers help support you along the way.

Reservation and booking management

Once you are getting bookings across channels, Escapia helps organize your reservations and calendar in one place. There is no need to waste time going from site to site to see who is staying when Escapia does this for you. 

As your properties book, you will see that the software blocks the corresponding calendar dates to avoid double bookings and unhappy customers.

Housekeeping and maintenance

Housekeeping and maintenance fees can be expensive and draining, financially and emotionally. Staying on top of this can be exhausting but also incredibly beneficial to saving money while renting. 

Escapia offers a mobile-friendly way to manage all housekeeping schedules, maintenance repairs, advanced scheduling, linen deliveries, and more. They give you the tools to stay on top of keeping your units clean and maintained effectively.

Reporting

Escapia’s easy-to-use Owner Portal and Reporting allows you, as a property manager, to always be up to date on the business of your rentals. They categorize and specify where each dime is going, so you stay on top of revenue management

Guest communication

Escapia keeps you informed on all details of your properties and keeps your guests in the loop once they’ve rented from you. Your guests want to be able to double-check details or communicate any issues with ease. 

Escapia’s platform allows you to communicate fluidly and quickly with them to ensure a great customer experience.

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Escapia provides multiple tools to help you manage your rental properties with ease. They do this through their partnerships with over 75 channels and businesses managing operations to channel distribution. The access to this data and opportunity is unmatched in rental software and can help you grow your business in a matter of months.
  • 10+ features to help you with every step of your management from housekeeping schedules to list management to market shifts.
  • Live events including trade shows, conferences, and virtual webinars for excellent networking opportunities. 

Cons

  • The size of Escapia means their customer service can be slower at times. 
  • Customer service representatives also work in many fields, so their advice may be somewhat general. 

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Escapia pricing

Escapia’s pricing is a flat rate fee based on the number of properties you manage. There are no percentage fees out of your revenue and no additional costs for listings on multiple sites. You can also have unlimited users for your account, allowing you to co-manage properties with friends and family. 

To get a custom pricing quote, head to their pricing page to talk with their team about the accurate pricing information you need.

Reviews

Software Advice, Capterra, G2 and GetApp have multiple reviews on Escapia and other property management software tools. Escapia comes through on each of these sites with over a 4-star rating. 

Many reviews comment on Escapia being a great fit for vacation rental companies of all sizes, which is key to it being an asset across many groups of property managers. People also mention the ease of its use. Having one place to access all of your managing tools is essential to saving money wherever you can. 

Other reviews express gratitude for the access to multiple online tutorials that are helpful when getting started. With accounting functionality, reporting, widespread distribution, reservation management, and more, Escapia saves you time and energy and maximizes your profits.

Additional information

Escapia login

After receiving your demo of Escapia and its platform, you can set up an account. While setting up, provide an email address to use when logging in to your Escapia account. 

Once your account is active, use that email on their login page to access your account. You will be able to see your performance dashboard and everything you need to manage your properties.

Escapia app

The Escapia app gives you access to the same things, but on your mobile device. It also allows your guests to access the same information from the guest side. Guests will be able to book your properties in one place with 24/7 access, seamlessly and efficiently.

Escapia customer support

Escapia Customer Support is available by phone Monday-Thursday 7:00am to 2:00am CT, Friday from 7:00am to 7:00pm CT, Saturday from 8:00am to 6:00pm CT, and Sunday from 3:00pm to 2:00am CT. 

You can submit a ticket to them via email at any time and their support crew members will give you a quick response.

Bottom line

Escapia has all that you need to run your rental business efficiently. Access all of your important information, documentation, and booking calendars from one central location. Distribute your listings far and wide to ensure you are maximizing your visibility to potential guests. Learn from Escapia’s “how to” resources about best listing practices, maximizing revenue, and saving money in every area that you can. 

Does this sound like the perfect fit for your rental business, or what? But it gets better! As an Escapia partner, you will have access to Wheelhouse’s dynamic pricing tool. Fully integrated with Escapia, the software will help you stay on top of price shifts in the market, ensuring you remain competitive. 

Contributors

Author John Maus

John Maus

Head of Finance and Operations

John's responsible for overseeing and managing all aspects of the Wheelhouse's operations. This includes developing and implementing operational strategies and processes that will allow the company to achieve its goals and objectives.

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