A cleaner texts at 9:40 on a Saturday morning: the guests in unit 4 have not left, and the next check-in is at 3. The host who receives that message is in a supermarket queue, forty minutes from a laptop. What happens next depends almost entirely on what the property management software's mobile app allows. Can the host see whether the guest requested a late checkout? Send a polite nudge through the right channel? Push the cleaning task back an hour and tell the cleaner, all before reaching the checkout line?
That scenario is the fairest test of any PMS app, and it is the lens we used for the Guesty mobile app, spending several weeks running a small portfolio through the phone first and the desktop only when the phone refused. Guesty positions itself as the platform for professional operators, with Lite from $9 per listing per month for one to three listings and Pro on quote for four to 199 listings, as of writing. Its web dashboard is one of the deepest in the category. The question this review answers is how much of that depth survives the trip to a five-inch screen.
A note on scope before the detail. Guesty runs two separate mobile products: the main Guesty app, tied to Lite and Pro accounts, and Guesty For Hosts, the simplified product that came out of the Your Porter acquisition and has its own app. This review covers the main app. If you are weighing the lighter product, our Guesty For Hosts review covers it on its own terms.
Is the Guesty mobile app good?
The Guesty mobile app is good at the three things a host actually needs on the move, which are reading and answering guest messages, checking and adjusting the calendar, and handling tasks, and it is deliberately incomplete at everything else, including listing edits, automation rules and financial reporting, which remain desktop jobs. On a scale where Hospitable's app is the most complete for a solo host and Hostaway's the most operations-oriented, Guesty sits close to Hostaway: a field tool built for teams, not a pocket-sized copy of the dashboard. Whether that makes it "good" depends on whether you expect an app to replace the desktop or to extend it. Guesty clearly intends the second.
That design choice shows up everywhere. The app opens to a today view rather than a dashboard of charts: arrivals, departures, unread messages, tasks due. Tap a reservation and you get the guest, the dates, the channel, the payout and the notes. Tap a message and you can answer it. Tap a task and you can reassign or close it. Nothing on the home screen asks you to think about settings. For a host in a supermarket queue, that is exactly right. For an owner who wants to review month-end numbers from the sofa, it is a disappointment, and the app makes no attempt to hide that.
What can you do in the Guesty mobile app?
In the Guesty mobile app you can view and manage reservations, respond to guest messages from every connected channel in one inbox, check and block dates on the multi-calendar, create, assign and complete tasks, receive push notifications for new bookings, messages and task changes, and see a summary of upcoming arrivals and departures. As of writing, the app does not let you edit listing content, build or change automated message rules, adjust pricing rules in PriceOptimizer, run reports or configure integrations. Here is how each of the working areas holds up in daily use.
Unified inbox
The inbox is the strongest part of the app and the reason most Guesty users open it. Conversations from Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo and direct channels sit in one list, marked by channel icon, with the reservation status visible next to the guest name. That last detail matters more than it sounds. Knowing at a glance that the person asking about parking is an inquiry rather than a confirmed guest changes how you answer.
Replies go out through the channel the guest wrote on, so an Airbnb guest gets an Airbnb message and a direct guest gets an email or SMS depending on how the account is set up. Saved replies, the canned responses configured on desktop, are available in the composer, which is where the "extend, not replace" philosophy pays off: you build the templates once at a desk and fire them from the phone. Guesty's AI-assisted reply suggestions, marketed under the ReplyAI name, surface in the mobile composer as well, though in our use they were more useful as a first draft to edit than as a send-as-is answer.
What the inbox cannot do from the phone is anything structural. You cannot change which channels feed it, set up new automated message triggers or adjust the timing of the pre-arrival sequence. You can, however, see which automated messages have already gone out on a reservation, which saves a lot of "did the check-in instructions actually send" anxiety.
Calendar and reservations
The multi-calendar renders well on a phone, better than most competitors that try to squeeze a month of ten properties onto the screen. Guesty defaults to a scrolling horizontal strip per listing, pinch to zoom, with reservation bars colored by channel. Tapping a bar opens the reservation; long-pressing an empty date range lets you block it or create a manual reservation.
Reservation detail is close to complete. Guest contact details, payment status, the channel's confirmation code, any notes staff have added and the linked tasks are all there. You can alter check-in and check-out dates, add a note, mark a payment as collected on a direct booking and, on Pro accounts, trigger a pre-authorized charge or refund through the connected payment processor. Cancelling a channel booking still routes you to the channel's own flow, which is a channel rule rather than a Guesty limitation, and the app tells you so instead of pretending the button will work.
Manual price changes on individual nights are possible from the calendar. Rule-based pricing, whether Guesty's own PriceOptimizer add-on or a third-party tool, is not exposed in the app at all, as of writing. For a host who tunes prices weekly this is the biggest single gap.
Tasks
Tasks are where Guesty's team orientation is most obvious. Every task, whether cleaning, maintenance or an inspection, has an assignee, a due time, a linked listing and optionally a linked reservation. From the app you can create a task in about four taps, reassign it, change the due time, add a photo and mark it complete. Cleaners and maintenance staff with their own Guesty user accounts see only the tasks assigned to them, which keeps the app usable for someone who does not need to see revenue or guest payment details.
Checklists attached to tasks appear in the app and can be ticked item by item, and photo uploads land in the task record for the manager to review. This is close to what Hostaway offers and well ahead of Lodgify's basic task list. The limitation is the same as in the inbox: automated task creation, the rule that says "create a cleaning task two hours after every checkout on listing X", lives on desktop. You use the results from your phone; you design the system at a desk.
Notifications
Push notifications cover new reservations, new messages, cancellations, task assignments and task completions. They can be filtered by type in the app's settings, which matters because a manager with thirty listings will otherwise drown. In our use the message notifications arrived within seconds of the guest sending; booking notifications sometimes trailed the channel's own email by a minute or two, which is normal for a platform that receives bookings via channel APIs.
Uplisting4.5/5
Short-term rental management software and channel manager
From $100/moBest for: Professional hosts who need a powerful channel manager
Can I manage properties entirely from the Guesty app?
No, and Guesty does not claim you can. You can run day-to-day operations, meaning messaging, calendar checks, reservation edits and task management, entirely from the phone, but setup and configuration work, including listing content, automation rules, pricing strategy, integrations, user permissions and reporting, requires the web dashboard. In practice most hosts spend a few hours a month on the desktop side and the rest of their Guesty time in the app.
This split has a real consequence for a specific type of owner: the person with two or three units who wants to manage everything from a phone and never touch a laptop. For that owner Guesty is the wrong choice, not because the app is bad but because the product assumes a configuration phase that the app was never meant to carry. Hospitable's app, by contrast, exposes enough of the rule builder that a small host genuinely can set up and run the business from mobile. If that describes you, the Hospitable free Essentials tier, which includes the inbox, automated messaging and cleaning workflows across unlimited properties as of writing, will fit better than Guesty Lite at $9 per listing.
For a team, the split is a feature. The people who configure the system and the people who run it are often different people, and an app that cannot accidentally change an automation rule is an app you can hand to a new hire on day one.
How does the app behave offline?
The Guesty app is online-first: with no connection it shows the most recently loaded screens but cannot fetch new messages, sync calendar changes or send replies, and any action attempted offline fails with an error rather than queuing for later, as of writing. This is the honest answer and it is not unusual; none of the major PMS apps offer a true offline mode with queued writes.
What the app does reasonably well is degrade. Reservation details you opened while connected remain readable, so a host who checked the day's arrivals over breakfast can still see door codes and guest names in a basement with no signal. Task checklists behave similarly: what was loaded is visible, but ticks made without a connection do not persist once you reconnect, which caught one of our cleaners out in a building with poor reception. The workaround, opening the task list in the car before going in and completing it afterward, is a habit worth teaching staff.
Battery and data use were unremarkable. The app does not run background location tracking, and notification delivery relies on the platform push services rather than a persistent connection.
Is the Guesty app available for Android?
Yes. The Guesty mobile app is available for both iOS and Android, and the two versions have reached feature parity for the core inbox, calendar, reservation and task functions as of writing. Historically the iOS version received new features first, and Android users in host forums have reported lagging releases in the past, so if you run a mixed-device team it is worth checking release notes before assuming a new feature exists on both platforms.
Tablet support is where the two platforms diverge more. On an iPad the app runs but is scaled rather than redesigned; there is no split-view calendar-plus-inbox layout of the kind the web dashboard offers. On Android tablets the experience is similar. Managers who want a large-screen operations view are better off opening the web dashboard in a tablet browser, which works well enough for reading though poorly for typing.
Minimum OS requirements track the usual two-to-three-year support window for both platforms. If you have a cleaner still on an older Android phone, install the app and check before assuming it will run.
Lodgify4.5/5
Build your own vacation rental website and manage bookings from one place
From $17/moBest for: Hosts who want a direct booking website
How does Guesty's app compare with Hospitable, Hostaway and Lodgify?
The four apps make different bets, and the differences follow the products' target customers more than any gap in engineering effort.
Guesty
Hospitable
Hostaway
Lodgify
Unified inbox with saved replies
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Edit automation rules from the app
No
Partial
No
No
Multi-calendar with manual price edits
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Rule-based pricing controls in app
No
Limited
No
No
Tasks with assignees, checklists, photos
Yes
Yes (cleaning-focused)
Yes
Basic
Role-restricted staff view
Yes
Yes
Yes
Limited
Reporting in app
Summary only
Summary only
Summary only
Summary only
Offline mode with queued actions
No
No
No
No
Hospitable's app is the closest thing to a full mobile PMS for a small operator. Its rule builder is partly exposed in the app, its cleaning workflow is included even on the free plan, and the whole thing is designed around a host who may never open a laptop. It does not have Guesty's depth for multi-user permissions or for accounting, but a host with one to five units rarely needs either.
Hostaway's app is Guesty's nearest philosophical relative: an operations tool for teams, strongest on tasks, with configuration left to the desktop. Hostaway has no public pricing and a two-listing minimum, so a direct cost comparison is only possible after both vendors have quoted. In our use the two apps are close enough that the decision should be made on the desktop platform, not the app. If you are at that stage, Hostaway is worth requesting a demo from alongside Guesty.
Lodgify's app covers the same core areas with a lighter touch and less task depth, and it suits owners whose main concern is direct bookings rather than team coordination. We reviewed it separately in our Lodgify mobile app review; the short version is that it is easier to live with for a solo host and thinner for a team.
The inbox's reservation context is the best in the category. Seeing channel, status, dates and payout next to every conversation without tapping through means fewer wrong answers to guests, and wrong answers are what generate bad reviews.
Task management is built for delegation. A manager can hand a phone to a new cleaner, create a restricted user and know that the cleaner sees exactly the tasks assigned to them and nothing else. The photo upload on task completion turns "I cleaned it" into evidence, which resolves disputes with both guests and staff.
The app knows what it is not for. Rather than half-implementing settings screens that would frustrate on a phone, Guesty leaves them out and points you to the desktop. That is a legitimate product decision, and it keeps the app fast and hard to break.
Where the app still falls short
The pricing gap is the loudest complaint from hosts we spoke with. Being able to change a single night's rate but not pause or adjust a pricing rule means a host who notices a local event from their phone still has to get to a laptop to react properly. PriceOptimizer is a paid add-on, and paying for a pricing tool you cannot touch from the app feels wrong.
Reporting is summary-level only. An owner who wants to check occupancy or revenue for the month gets headline numbers and nothing more. For a management company this is fine, since owners get statements. For an owner-operator it means the desktop is a monthly obligation.
Android parity, while good today, has a history of lag, and there is no way to know from the vendor's marketing which features shipped on which platform first. A mixed-device team should treat new features as iOS-first until confirmed.
Finally, the app cannot be evaluated without a Guesty account, and Guesty does not offer a self-serve free trial of the main product the way Hospitable or Lodgify do. You commit, at least to Lite, before you know whether the app suits your team. Our analysis of Guesty pricing looks at whether that commitment is justified at each portfolio size.
Guesty4.3/5
The property management platform for short-term and vacation rentals
From Custom pricingBest for: Professional property managers with 20+ listings
Monday morning, three check-ins and two check-outs across six units. The today view lists them in order; a swipe on each departure confirms the cleaning task is assigned. One guest has written overnight asking for early check-in. The reservation shows the previous night is vacant, so the host answers yes from the inbox and moves the cleaning task earlier with two taps. The cleaner gets a push notification.
Wednesday, a maintenance issue: a guest photographs a leaking tap. The host creates a task from the conversation, attaches the photo, assigns the handyman, sets a due time. Thursday the handyman closes it with a photo of the fixed tap. The host never opens a laptop.
Friday, an event is announced in town for the following month. The host wants to raise rates across all units for that weekend. From the app it is possible night by night, listing by listing, which for six units and three nights is eighteen edits. The host gives up and waits until the evening to do it in PriceOptimizer on desktop. That Friday is the whole review in miniature: operations from the phone, strategy from the desk.
Who should choose Guesty for mobile
If you manage for owners, run staff with different roles, or operate more than ten units, the Guesty app's team-first design is a strength and its configuration gaps are irrelevant because someone on your team is at a desk anyway. Start with Guesty and plan the desktop setup phase before expecting the phone to carry the load.
If you have one to four units and want to run everything from a phone, choose Hospitable; the free Essentials tier covers what you need and the app exposes more configuration than Guesty's does. If you have five to fifteen units, are growing and expect to add staff, Guesty Lite at $9 per listing for up to three listings and then Pro on quote is a sensible path, with Hostaway as the alternative to get a competing quote from. Past fifteen units, Guesty or Hostaway are the realistic options, and the mobile apps are close enough that the decision belongs to the desktop platform, the accounting and the price you are quoted.
Francesco has spent over 10 years in digital, e-commerce and project management, working with brands across Europe. He founded RentalDuel to bring that same analytical rigor to the messy world of vacation-rental software: setting up trial accounts, mapping pricing tier by tier, and comparing what each platform actually delivers versus what it promises. He handles the data, pricing breakdowns and head-to-head comparisons on the site.
