# Hostex review (2026): is it worth $4.9 a month? > Low-cost channel manager and PMS for short-term rentals Checked Nov 13, 2026 ยท graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA. Hostex is vacation rental software that syncs calendars and rates across Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, Expedia and other channels from one dashboard. It adds a unified guest inbox with an AI reply assistant, automated messages, cleaning tasks and a direct booking site builder. Plans are priced per property, with a 15-day free trial. - **Category:** Vacation Rental Software - **Made by:** Hostex (since 2018) - **Website:** https://hostex.io - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Tight if you have more than 2 properties, as Basic stops there. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 13, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 13, 2026, Hostex is a paid product with a free trial, starting at $4.9 per property / month, shown on the yearly view. - **Pricing model:** Free trial - **Free plan:** None. - **Free trial:** 15-day free trial, no card needed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Basic | $4.9 per property / month, yearly view (monthly figure not read) | For individual hosts, up to 2 properties. Unified inbox, HostGPT AI replies, automated messages and tasks, booking site builder, team accounts and reporting. | | Pro | $7 per property / month, yearly view (monthly figure not read) | For professional managers. Adds Vrbo integration, guest guide, multi-unit management, Google Vacation Rentals distribution, owner statements and open API access. | | Premium | $10.5 per property / month, yearly view (monthly figure not read) | For enterprises, sold through contact. Adds dedicated high-performance sync, priority support and onboarding, and custom integrations on request. | Read from https://hostex.io/pricing on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Hostex before buying. ## Ways to pay less - **Save 33% with yearly billing** (Annual discount): The pricing page offers a yearly billing option marked as saving 33% against monthly payments. Source: https://hostex.io/pricing ## Key features - **Channel sync and price calendar:** Updates bookings, rates and availability across connected channels from one calendar, with bulk edits by date, property or platform. - **Unified inbox and HostGPT:** Messages from every booking channel in one inbox, with an AI assistant that learns from a knowledge base and hands questions to staff when it cannot answer. - **Automated messages and reviews:** Triggered and canned messages, automated translation, and review sending and replying for guest reviews from booking channels. - **Direct booking site builder:** Builds a branded booking website with a custom domain and embeddable booking widgets. The pricing page says there is no booking fee. - **Tasks and team accounts:** Assigns cleaning tasks for each reservation, notifies cleaners of changes, and gives team members sub-accounts with set permissions. - **Owner reports and financial tracking:** Records income and expenses, and generates monthly reports to deliver to property owners. ## Good for - Individual hosts with one or two listings who want a low per-property price - Small managers who want a direct booking site included in the plan - Hosts who want an AI reply assistant that escalates to staff ## Worth knowing - The pricing page shows a Monthly and a Yearly (save 33%) toggle; only the yearly figures were readable, so monthly-billed prices are not listed here. - Basic is limited to up to 2 properties; Vrbo integration, owner statements and open API access start on Pro. - The Premium plan shows a Contact us button rather than a self-serve checkout. - The pricing page says each rental unit counts as a property, and reducing the property count has to wait until the contract term ends. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.6 out of 4**, graded Nov 13, 2026. Hostex is a channel manager and property system for short-term rentals, priced from $4.9 a property a month on the yearly view. Basic stops at 2 properties, and Vrbo, owner statements and the API wait on Pro. - **Value for money: A.** Basic is $4.9 a property a month on the yearly view, under 60% of the category's $10 cheaper-quarter line. Pro is $7 and Premium $10.5. - **Free plan and trial: C.** A 15-day free trial with no card needed. There is no free plan. - **Features: C.** Channel sync, a unified inbox, automated messages, a direct booking site, tasks and owner reports. Vrbo, owner statements and API access are on Pro, not Basic. - **Ease of use: C.** No store rating on record, and channels and properties have to be connected first. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web only, but it links to Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, Expedia, PriceLabs, Turno and Stripe. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Hostex's own pages on 13 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among vacation rental tools - Hostex's GPA of 2.6 is higher than 47 of the 53 other vacation rental tools we grade, and level with 5. - It stands best on value for money (A, above 53 of 53) and worst on ease of use (C, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $4.90 a month, against a middle price of $19.99 for the category: 4 of the 35 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 2 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/vacation-rentals ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace Hostex you would be making two-way connections to Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 2.6 is higher than 47 of the 53 other vacation rental tools we grade. It costs $58.80 a year. - You could make: Tasks: an app builder makes this well. - You could not: Two-way connections to Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo. - You could not: One mailbox that several people work at once. - You could not: It plugs into other products, Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo among them, and has an API. - You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself. - You could not: Hooks into the device itself: widgets. - You could not: What a company asks for before it lets staff use something: roles and permissions. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, Expedia, PriceLabs, Turno, Stripe, PayPal **Tags:** Channel manager, Shared inbox, AI features, Tasks, Public API ## Alternatives - [Hospitable](https://toolgpa.com/tools/hospitable): Guest messaging, channel sync and operations for short-term rentals. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/hospitable-vs-hostex) - [Hosthub](https://toolgpa.com/tools/hosthub): Channel manager and PMS for vacation rentals, priced per rental. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/hostex-vs-hosthub) - [Smoobu](https://toolgpa.com/tools/smoobu): Vacation rental channel manager and booking system, priced by unit. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/hostex-vs-smoobu) - [Hostaway](https://toolgpa.com/tools/hostaway): Vacation rental PMS and channel manager for property managers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/hostaway-vs-hostex) - [Hostfully](https://toolgpa.com/tools/hostfully): Vacation rental property management software and digital guidebooks. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/hostex-vs-hostfully) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026: - https://hostex.io - https://hostex.io/pricing - https://hostex.io/integrations - https://hostex.io/about-us Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/hostex Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).