My full tech stack for managing 6 STR properties (with costs)

Category: Tech & Automation

By: Emily Chen

Posted: 2026-02-22T17:34:53.843Z

I manage 6 STR properties across 2 cities. Everything is automated to the point where I spend ~5 hours per week on active management. Here's my complete tech stack with monthly costs. Sharing because I spent years figuring this out through trial and error.

Reply by Chris Nakamura:

Great question thread. Here's my full stack for 6 properties: **Channel Management & PMS:** - Hostaway (https://hostaway.com) — $30/listing/month = $180/month - Manages Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, and my direct booking site - Handles calendar sync, messaging, financials, owner reporting **Dynamic Pricing:** - PriceLabs (https://pricelabs.co) — $20/listing/month = $120/month - Auto-adjusts prices based on demand, events, competition, day of week - ROI: increased revenue ~20% across my portfolio **Guest Communication:** - Hospitable (https://hospitable.com) — $25/month for first 2 + $15/ea additional = $85/month - Automated check-in messages, review requests, FAQ responses - Saves ~8 hours/week of messaging time **Turnover Management:** - Turno (https://turno.com) — $8/listing/month = $48/month - Auto-schedules cleaning based on bookings - Cleaner checklist with photo verification **Noise & Security Monitoring:** - Minut (https://minut.com) — devices $99 each (one-time) + $6/device/month = $36/month - Monitors noise, occupancy estimation, temperature, humidity - Auto-alerts guests when noise exceeds threshold **Guest Screening:** - Alertify (https://alertify.io) — $3-5/booking, avg ~$75/month - Background checks and party risk scoring - Catches problematic bookings before they happen **Smart Locks:** - Schlage Encode Plus — $300/lock (one-time) - Integrated with Hostaway for auto-generated unique codes per booking **Guest WiFi & Email Capture:** - StayFi (https://stayfi.com) — $10/property/month = $60/month - Captures guest email via WiFi splash page - Built email list of 800+ past guests for direct marketing **Insurance:** - Safely (https://safely.com) — ~$5-8/booking, avg ~$120/month - Guest damage coverage, liability, income loss **Monthly Recurring Total: ~$724/month** **Annual: ~$8,688** On $180K gross annual revenue across 6 properties, that's 4.8% spent on tech. The time savings and revenue optimization make it a no-brainer ROI.

Reply by Jake Anderson:

Nice breakdown. I run a slightly leaner stack for my 3 properties: - **Guesty (https://guesty.com)** — all-in-one PMS + channel manager + messaging. More expensive but less tool-juggling. - **PriceLabs (https://pricelabs.co)** — same, can't beat it for pricing - **Turno (https://turno.com)** — same, essential for cleaners - **Minut (https://minut.com)** — noise monitoring is non-negotiable after a party incident - **Steadily (https://steadily.com)** for insurance — annual policy vs per-booking pricing My total is around $350/month for 3 properties. The "right" stack depends on your property count, platforms, and how much you want to automate vs handle manually. For managing all of this, the arrival guide I built using the tool at https://strspecialist.com/tools/arrival-map gives guests everything they need in one place.