Ben runs short lets in Manchester, and they run on Zugrow. This is a plan built from experience: what went wrong for him as he grew from one property to a business, before he moved to Zugrow, and what he would set up before the first booking of 2027 so it does not happen to you. Zugrow is one of the tools in it, so read it knowing that.
If you want every tool side by side with its price, that is our guide to the best Airbnb tools for 2026. This post is the plan.
1. Put next year’s big nights in the diary first
The most expensive mistake Ben made was not a tool. It was a price.
When Oasis came back to play in Manchester, his flats booked up within minutes of the tickets going on sale, because they were so cheap. He was charging £120 a night when he could have charged £500, and he could not cancel those bookings without losing his Superhost status.
The Manchester shows were at Heaton Park in July 2025, and general sale opened at 9am on Saturday 31 August 2024, according to Official Charts. So the nights were sold almost a year before the guests arrived. Airbnb’s Superhost criteria include keeping your cancellation rate under 1%, so cancelling a run of cheap bookings was not an option.
What Ben would do for 2027:
- Price the nights you already know about. Before the year starts, look up the concerts, matches and festivals near your property, and raise the price on those nights yourself. A cheap night should never be the first thing a fan finds.
- Use pricing that watches for events. Pick a tool that raises the price for events and busy dates near your property, inside a minimum and maximum you set. PriceLabs is a pricing tool you add on its own; its pricing page lists US$19.99 per listing per month for the UK, plus taxes, with a 30 day free trial.
2. Choose your channels, then connect them properly
Ben added Booking.com to Airbnb because he wanted more guests to see his listings. Different sites reach different kinds of guests. But once he combined the two, it got out of hand: bookings crossed over and led to cancellations.
If you plan to sell on more than one site in 2027, connect them directly rather than with calendar links. Read what iCal double bookings cost one Manchester host, Ben’s own case study. If you run one property, Zugrow Solo is a free channel manager for Airbnb and Booking.com. If you run more, our channel manager for Airbnb and Booking.com works the same way on Pro and Max.
3. Plan for the help you will need
By his second property Ben had a cohost helping. They needed to see the same inbox across both properties, and he could not give them that. On Booking.com they had to share one login, which meant the cohost could also see his other property. That did not work either.
If you will bring in a cohost, a cleaner or a team member in 2027, decide now what each person should see, and look for:
- one inbox across every channel and every property;
- access set per person and per property, so people see only what they help with;
- separate switches for messages, prices, revenue and bookings.
On Zugrow Pro you choose which properties each person sees and what they can do there.
4. Cover the nights you are not there
The messages were overwhelming. Late at night, when Ben was not around, nobody could answer. Guests were unhappy, or locked out, and at weekends he could not sleep for worrying about guests coming back late.
Before 2027, make sure something answers guests at night. Look for an agent that answers from what you have told it about each property, that you can keep on Suggest (it drafts, you approve) until you trust it, and that hands urgent messages to you straight away.
Zugrow’s Inbox agent works that way. On Solo it suggests replies. On Pro it can reply on its own. Ben uses it on Auto and finds it spot on with property knowledge. It answers the questions and flags something to him at once when he needs to step in, like the time a guest locked themselves out.
5. Screen guests before they arrive
Ben kept getting bad guests who broke things, because he did not have time to screen them.
Guest screening is the tool Ben would not go without next year. Look for something that reads each booking request, tells you what it recommends, and learns from the decisions you make. Zugrow’s Guest Vetting does this on Pro and Max. It knows the kind of guests Ben accepts or rejects, and it knows his absolute no goes.
“We have reduced our damage claims to almost zero.” Ben McCarthy
6. Keep cleaning next to your bookings
When Ben used Hospitable, Turno came with his plan. He downgraded to save money, lost his Turno access, and the team missed all the cleans that day.
The lesson for 2027: know which of your tools depend on another tool’s plan. If your cleaning lives in a separate app, check what happens to it when you change plan anywhere else. Turno’s own pricing page says it is free for one property. For two or more, it lists US$10 per property per month, or US$96 per property billed annually, if you use your own cleaners, and no subscription if you use only Turno’s Marketplace cleaners (fees for their services still apply).
7. Add up the extras before you commit
When Ben used Hospitable, he paid for extras on top of the monthly price, such as an inbox agent and dynamic demand pricing, because he kept underpricing big events. He looked at other software too, and Guesty wanted him to pay extra each month for the online features.
Plans change, so do not take this as what anyone charges today. Before you sign up for anything in 2027, write down every job you need covered (messages, pricing, screening, cleaning and team access) and check each company’s own pricing page to see which are included and which cost extra. Our 2026 tools guide has a table of what each one published when we checked.
Zugrow Pro has one price per property with every agent included: £19.95 per property per month, or £16.60 billed annually (2 months free), with 0% booking commission.
Ben’s checklist for 2027
- Look up the big events near your property and price those nights now.
- Connect your channels directly, not by iCal.
- Decide who will help you, and what each person should see.
- Make sure guests get an answer at night, and that urgent messages reach you.
- Screen every booking before you accept it.
- Know where your cleaning lives and what it depends on.
- Add up every extra before you sign up for anything.
Where Zugrow fits
Zugrow connects Airbnb and Booking.com directly, and it is invite only: join the waitlist. If you have one property, start with our free channel manager. If you have a cohost or a team, Pro gives you the professional hosting tools Ben wishes he had when he added his second property.
Ben McCarthy is a co-founder of Zugrow.