Escapia Erfahrungen

Great software that provides efficient property management

Kommentare: they are well integrated within the hospitality industry and have multiple software options for smaller companies.

Vorteile:

I like the features that it provides and the customer support (rep) that we receive. I like the maintenance app, the housekeeping dashboard, new owner portal, online university and dynamic pricing model that is in process (beta currently).

Nachteile:

At our size, some of the more customizable items that we want are not able to be created. the housekeeping app (shared with maintenance), is not as user friendly as the dashboard, however, the dashboard can be accessed online via a website.

A Powerful PMS that more people should be aware of

Kommentare: We are extremely happy overall. We needed a solution, and we needed it fast as our business was growing beyond what spreadsheets and multiple third party apps could handle. Escapia's team recognized our need for a quick solution, and delivered on our aggressive timeline without cutting any corners. We have been able to double our business in less than a year, and we wouldn't have had the confidence to take on that kind of volume without Escapia.

Vorteile:

Their onboarding team and support teams are in a different league from their competitors. We spent a significant amount of time reading similar reviews and contacting other property managers while we researched a PMS. We saw consistent complaints of poor experiences and it made us concerned as we had launched software before in other industries and knew how painful that could be. Escapia's sales team went above and beyond to put our concerns at ease, and true to their word the onboarding experience was extremely well executed. They clearly invested time into this crucial part of their business. This gave us added confidence that we were partnering with a team that understood our industry. Our main onboarding contacts, [sensitive content hidden], were extremely patient with us and knowledgeable about the product. They knew when to step back and let us figure something out, and when to step in and drive us in a direction. The onboarding tool they used was perfect, and the fact that they even had one made us happy. Some of their competitors had nothing but broken spreadsheets and links to outdated information. When you're responsible for managing advanced deposits in high amounts, you cant afford to put yourself at risk by putting the flow of those funds in the hands of a team that can't organize their own onboarding materials. Escapia hitting the ground running with a great onboarding experience gave us the confidence we needed to invest the time and money into their product. That amazing experience continued into their post go-live support team. First, they have a wonderful knowledge base for self-help. Second, and most importantly, they have actual humans who you can call who know the product and are a joy to speak to. They have international hours of support so if you find yourself working late into the evening after a busy day and run into an issue, there is a good chance you can make a phone call and get help within minutes. They are continuing to develop their product, and every person you speak to on their team gives you renewed confidence that this is a long term investment that will work out.

Nachteile:

Escapia satisfied all of our critical requirements. There were no surprises during the onboarding or after go-live that we either personally experienced with other competitors, or read about online in reviews. No PMS is perfect though given how different this industry can be based on location, size, management styles, local regulations etc. Escapia has an older look to it, but after you get trained on it you understand the flow of everything. Functionality is of course way more important than looks. Within our first year, Escapia rolled our new development that addressed some of the things at the top of our wish list. The only thing remaining that we don't like about Escapia is the service/task management module for maintenance or general tasks. It's not critical, but we would love to manage this part of our business within the Escapia platform. In it's current form, it would create more work for us rather than make things easier. We imagine this is only true though for teams that have a high volume of small cost or no cost tasks. For longer term stays or maintenance items that are less frequent with more complex task and price tracking, it is actually quite good.

Works great for trust accounting and general operations

Kommentare: We have been with Escapia for since we started our company in 2015. When we initially looked for vacation rental rental software, we felt Escapia was our best choice. As we continue to evaluate other software companies, we still feel Escapia offers the best solution for our current needs.

Vorteile:

Easy to use for general day to day operation, especially regarding accounting and reporting.

Nachteile:

I do not like having to use a number of software partners to meet our business needs and would prefer to use a software that offered more of the basic operations offered by current third-party software companies.

A Big Complicated Software.

Kommentare: Escape has a lot of features, and potentially a lot of power, but it's so complicated that it's easy to miss a step and mess something up badly. Almost nothing about the software is user-friendly or intuitive, everything is convoluted and complicated, and requires many steps and a lot of double-checking. This also applies to EscapiaNET, which is also not as straightforward as one would hope since property information shows up differently on different platforms. I would count this one of the most useful features of Escapia. We have enjoyed being able to integrate with Glad To Have You and use that for guest communication and contracts, and we also push our properties out to other platforms. EscapiaNET is not without flaws and we have had issues even integrating with VRBO (which is also owned by HomeAway so you would think that would be easy), mostly because of the number of complicated, easy-to-forget steps to make sure everything is perfect in Escape. However, to be fair, I don't know if integration through any other property management software would provide better integration. As it does seem like a very challenging thing to do well.

Vorteile:

Escape customer support has done a good job troubleshooting and explaining how things work when I contact them. There are also lots of training resources, self-help articles, explanatory videos, etc, available. I have also heard that the Escape accounting features are useful and thorough. I have not had any experience with the accounting side of Escapia.

Nachteile:

One of the things that have been most frustrating about Escapia is the Owner web feature, which is supposed to provide an owner portal where our property owners can log in and see property details, upcoming reservations, owner documents, etc. Owner web itself is pretty limited, which is fine if that's what you want. One problem is that as of now owners cannot reset their password, and so they always have to contact us if they forget it so that we can change it for them. Another challenge has been that many of our owners own more than one property and that for accounting purposes each of these units has to be set up with different owners. That means that when one of those owners logs into the owner portal they can only see one of their properties unless they set up separate logins for each property, which includes separate email addresses. But then those email addresses will automatically be where their owner statements are sent, so if they want all the owner's statements to go to one email, they will have to forward them. We do not want to make our owners jump through hoops like this. We want their experience to be as simple and streamlined as possible. Escapia also lacks some features (such as automated emails, simpler reports, better filters for sending a guest communication, and the ability to add attachments to that communication) that would make the software more functional. I have also heard from our maintenance and housekeeping teams that Escapia is challenging for them to understand and use as they would like to. Basically, we've ended up using other software and strategies to fill in the gaps and give us the features we want, which is a little disappointing considering the seeming hugeness and complexity of Escapia.

We love Escapia!

Kommentare: It has been great and seems to be getting better and better!

Vorteile:

Escapia was a huge step up from our last PMS and constantly going the extra mile to perfect services available to customers. Definitely makes our business able to run seamlessly with their features. Kristen is an incredible help!

Nachteile:

Cusomized reporting needed but it seems to be going in that direction!

Great PMS for small businesses

Kommentare: Escapia has been a great tool for us, especially for the price we managed to get since we signed up when it was a newer company. It seems to be improving constantly which I really appreciate. While some things may be meticulous, it is at least fairly straightforward to use.

Vorteile:

Escapia is clearly working to improve the front and back end of their site. Lots of recent new features have made it an even more user-friendly and robust tool for managing our properties, owners, and guests for our STR business.

Nachteile:

Some of the features feel like they require an in-depth lesson on; but Escapia University classes don't seem to cover every topic. While support is helpful, they can take a little while to reply and it'd be nice to have a more built-out help center with DIY articles.

Would Shop Again! A+++++

Kommentare: I am overall very pleased with Escapia. Having used multiple platforms over my career in the vacation rental management industry, Escapia has been the easiest to navigate and the most user friendly. We always receive speedy follow up to any issues that might arise or for any questions we might have, and I have always felt supported. And, I greatly value and appreciate Escapia's desire to continually improve on and add to their offerings. 10 out of 10!

Vorteile:

Setup/Distribution was easier than anticipated. Our reps took great care in getting us up to speed on integrating and using the software. The software is easy to navigate and the Self-Help articles have been incredibly useful in re-learning or resolving any issues without having to reach out to Support.

Nachteile:

This isn't necessarily a "Con", but in Escapia's efforts to update/upgrade and offer new user functions, we were momentarily "down" often, which I attribute to upgrades being made to the system. Once these were completed however, we did not have any issues.

Medicore Software In A Sea Of Mediocrity

Vorteile:

Tries very hard to be an all in one solution, direct integration with HomeAway/VRBO, good customer support, the team is clearly working hard on improvements but it's a bit like trying to push a dinosaur up a hill.

Nachteile:

Very disjointed, I often refer to it as frankenstein because it feels like all the modules were poorly connected together. Does not have an open API so integration with other systems is limited. Overall the software is very old and outdated and while improvements are on the horizon, they are coming slowly and in the meanwhile my patience is running out.

Fantastic software that has helped us grow from 1 vacation rental to 80

Kommentare: Excellent product for the money! I've been a user since 2009 and Escapia has always been at the core of our business software. I wouldn't entertain moving to any other platform.

Vorteile:

Ease of use. Makes accounting for owner statements a breeze.

Nachteile:

Nothing, every feature we use seems to work well.

Highly Recommend Escapia

Vorteile:

Escapia is very user friendly Customer Support is nearly always available and with friendly customer service agents Account Manager Contact has always been excellent with communication and engagement

Nachteile:

Not being able to use it on mobile devices

Best Overall Management Software

Kommentare: It makes the ease of making reservation easy for our staff overall and the guests have less wait time on the phone while making a reservation. The ease of adjusting rents and creating rate rules allows for more revenue at the end of each year without any mistakes.

Vorteile:

So many great things to say it is hard to know where to start. It is so easy to keep track of what is being completed where and by who. Always time stamps with names on holds, reservations, payments, refunds as well as email correspondence. The visual calendar is another added bonus because it gives a great overall picture of each home and dates that are and are not available so filing spots is very easy. The quick quote feature is fabulous as you can pick a home in the drop down menu and apply any filter and discounts that you already have up to any home easily. Web based is a very huge bonus because you are able to view any information on any device no matter where you are. The software also links up to many other sites so linking and sharing homes and rates is as easy as clicking a button and everything feeds right over. The quick search button at the top makes it very easy to find reservations that are valid or cancelled without having to use many steps.

Nachteile:

When adding some new charges they can be hard to track if you are not 100% sure which report that you should be running to find them. Processing revenue can be difficult at some times when guests are in house and reservations crossover between months. This is mostly because if you need to adjust a reservation and revenue has already been processed it can cause some errors with commissions. Just have to be extra aware of what you are doing to not make any mistakes.

Escapia Software provides the up-to-date reservation options to consumers.

Kommentare: Overall the experience is good and the software updates are very beneficial.

Vorteile:

Easy to use, once you can navigate certain aspects of the software on your own with experience.

Nachteile:

Customer service in the accounting area can be challenging to achieve as Tier Two must receive a message to assist, yet rarely call back however email their response. Sometimes training the consumer in this area would be more beneficial and in the long run, would not only educate the user but decrease their volume of call if they would let the consumer ask questions and receive options for ways to operate in a financial situation in the software. Tier Two should provide more adequate service and training as it is or should be included with the software. Accounting questions can not be answered by the team that typically answers support calls.

Absolutely Over the Top Pleased with Escapia by HomeAway!

Kommentare: I made the decision that Escapia would suit our needs best (in Feb of 2014).The integration is very detailed, but I knew what the end goal was when I had researched Escapia. One determining factor in going with Escapia, was the fact that HomeAway was so active and aggressive in this industry. It only made sense to partner with the Giant and take advantage of all the opportunities it would offer my company. The things that I consider absolute PROS: They have automated all the tedious/time consuming processes such as rate building & yield management that I would spend days and hours on with our old software & now I do in about 30 minutes. I have the option of building my own rules & rate tiers, depending on our need to maximize occupancy & revenue. After my initial rules are built, I do not have to go in and spend 2 hours a day to make sure this is done..Escapia made it simple & it DOES the work for me. My saved time = revenue saved and made because I can now focus on new projects to produce new revenue streams. Escapia also has so many opportunities to partner with multiple booking sites, that I have "new eyes" looking and finding my company every hour of every day. For our marketing platform, I struggle with tracking and integrating between the time we developed a concept ->to putting it on our sites -> to launching the promotion(via any platform) ->to analytics->to eCommerce->to complete tracking. With our old software, it took sometimes a week to set all of that up from start to finish. With Escapia, I do it all at once, Again, so many saved hours and best of all ACCURATE Tracking and Conversion Reports & a websites that do what they are supposed to do: WORK. They have support that answer and listen to the issue and most of the time walk you thru it and find the problem immediately and "teach" you how to address and fix it. That is worth the integration itself. You have to do the work on the front end but after that it is pretty painless & we have more than made back the cost of the software in saved time, revenue, happy guests, our favorite: HAPPY OWNERS. The owner access is simple, easy & our owners are more than pleased with this aspect of Escapia & they have noticed the new and maximized exposure Escapia gives us. I can say without hesitation, I made THE BEST choice for our company and could not be more pleased and my expectations have been blown away by Escapia and what it gives me.

Excapia is hands down a great software and company to use.

Vorteile:

Ease of use. Technical support. Amazing staff.

Nachteile:

My biggest challenge would be the lack of history it reports.

12+ years Client

Kommentare: They support team is the best. Easy to connect with, on hold times are less than 30 seconds, account management team is great.

Vorteile:

I am very impressed with their new rate manager. It is amazing and is helping grow our bookings.

Nachteile:

It took them too long to connect with Airbnb. More business reports that can be intergrated into the business dashboard. Create owner projection reports to help us grow our inventory.

Great product, full of features

Kommentare: Great customer service. Very robust feature list. I couldn't possibly manage our rental list without a strong piece of software like Escapia.

Vorteile:

Escapia really is a full-service solution. Reservations, housekeeping, trust accounting...it's all in there and works together. I looked at several options before choosing Escapia and none of the others offered as complete a system. Also, they have amazing customer service. Tech support is great. They respond quickly and are very knowledgable.

Nachteile:

The biggest complaint I have isn't about Escapia, but about HomeAway. When HomeAway switched to secure messaging, it made it more difficult to deal with inquiries in Escapia. Also, there are of course some minor changes I'd like them to make to Escapia, but they are constantly improving it.

Perfect for vacation rental management companies small to large!

Kommentare: I have used Escapia or V12 at several companies for more than 8 years and I think once you learn the basics, it is very easy to become a master user, and I keep finding new features and reports that are really helpful!

Vorteile:

The 3 best features of Escapia are 1. they are always updating and adding new features to be current with trends and needs of property manager. 2. They have absolutely the best support team of any software I have used to date. 3. The seamless integration with VRBO/HomeAway is unmatched with any other program!

Nachteile:

The upfront cost is steep especially given how many other web based programs charge per unit and not a huge upfront commitment. And the aesthetic of the site to me, is not very appealing and seems out of date.

Easy, efficient, and well worth the investment. We have been on for over 4 years now!

Vorteile:

Easy to use, constant updates with details/advanced notice and how-tos, many....MANY reports from which to choose. Great marketing API feeds for listing sites/software to help you succeed in the vacation rental space, color-coded reservation grid for easy filtering and tracking.

Nachteile:

The ability for Homeaway/VRBO brand to match back reservations on source - I pay for a secure software. The last thing I want is my data being stored, shared, and who knows what else by marketing platforms. While the reports are fantastic, sometimes it'd be nice to have the ability to make your own report that didn't cost an arm and a leg for information that's already in the system.

Escapia is by far the best software I have ever used!!

Kommentare: I have nothing but positive things to say about Escapia software. It is the best!! They are constantly making it better by doing upgrades and adding features to an already great platform! This software has great functionality and is easy to use. It integrates with our website so our guests can see live availability calendars. The automatic payment processing along with some many other features are huge time savers. The customer support is phananominal! I always get a live person who is knowledgeable and can quickly help me solve what ever challenge I am having! They always follow-up to make sure everything is working correctly and to be sure the resolution is working. I highly recommend Escapia! You will be happy you converted to it! I know we are!!

Vorteile:

Easy of use and Customer Support

Nachteile:

I can'tell think of anything I don't like.

Best Part of Escapia is the Team

Vorteile:

The best part about Escapia is the team; all of the Client Solutions Team managers are great! Special shout out to [sensitive content hidden] who is always attentive to my business needs and in front of any potential problems. I cannot speak highly enough.

Nachteile:

No complaints. I do wish the connectivity to certain sites was a bit better but that is rapidly improving.

Rental Software that allows me to grow my business

Kommentare: I have been in the vacation rental industry for over 15 years and have been using Escapia for the last four years. A few of the reasons I am pleased with Escapia are: it is cloud based, extremely user friendly, integrates well with 3rd party channels, has built in auto responder to inquiries & auto sign contract capability, has great maintenance and housekeeping portals, and most importantly fantastic support. Another huge item to me is Escapia continually develops new ways to not only improve the product, but it truly focuses on ways their product can help my business grow. Hands down, best rental software I have ever used!

Vorteile:

Ease of use, housekeeping and maintenance portals

Nachteile:

A few minor glitches occasionally, but they are always on top of it!

We love Escapia!

Vorteile:

We went from a spreadsheet and google calendar system to Escapia 5 years ago, and we are so glad that we did. We have eliminated double bookings and so many other possible errors with this fully integrated system. And the powerful accounting module made it possible to grow our business dramatically over the last 5 years.

Nachteile:

The accounting component is complicated to use, but we have mastered it. I'm not sure any full function accounting software would be simpler to use, but I don't know.

Escapia is essential to the success and operations of our business.

Kommentare: Very positive, my Escapia representative, [sensitive content hidden], is very responsive and a tremendous asset.

Vorteile:

Always working to improve and add features.

Nachteile:

Some key features have better implementation from 3rd party providers than directly from Escapia

Room for improvement

Kommentare: Escapia is taking feedback and appear to be working to improve the software. Currently though it is a daily frustration. The system stops working daily, it's slow, doesn't communicate well with our other software systems. Hoping the new updates later this year will remedy many of the issues we've experienced.

Vorteile:

For the most part it is easy to use and mostly self-explanatory for creating and monitoring reservations.

Nachteile:

It experiences glitches or stops working almost daily. We continuously receive a screen for "server error" or just a grey spinning wheel, that prevents your from doing anything. Many days we have to log off or clear cookies just to get it to work again. This happens far too frequently to be beneficial for our company.

Happy Clients

Kommentare: All good. The improvements being made are wonderful and we hope will continue! Making our lives easier

Vorteile:

Customer service always answers! Never have an issue with mixed up dates!

Nachteile:

They are improving daily and have a suggestion box which I love - nothing to complain about right now!