Duplicate Costs Rising as Property Managers Overlap Tech Tools, Survey Shows

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Date:

01 Oct 2025

A new industry survey has uncovered an unexpected inefficiency in vacation rental technology: property managers are routinely paying for standalone software solutions despite having similar features included in their property management systems (PMS).

“People are actually willing to pay extra for something that’s already included for free in their PMS because it’s not doing it well enough,” says Brooke Pfautz, CEO of Comparent, whose company recently completed the largest technology survey in the vacation rental industry, analyzing data from over 600 professional management companies.

The Specialization Premium

According to Pfautz, this double-payment phenomenon stems from the inherent limitations of all-in-one solutions trying to serve too many needs. He points to specialized operations management platforms as an example:

“A product like Breezeway might have 50 engineers working full time on just solving that one specific niche. That’s why they’re the best on the planet at that, whereas a PMS with 25 engineers is solving 100 different problems.”

This resource allocation challenge means PMS providers can only dedicate “one half of one half of one person per month” to each specific feature, Pfautz explains.

The Technology Stack Reality

The survey revealed that the average vacation rental company uses between 10-12 different software platforms to run their operations. While 99% use a PMS, many are supplementing with specialized solutions:

94% use separate website and booking engines
96% employ dedicated payment processing
80% utilize specialized revenue management tools
70% have standalone insurance solutions

Market Implications

This fragmentation in the property management technology stack points to several key trends shaping the industry. PMS providers may increasingly need to concentrate on their core competencies instead of attempting to cover every function in an all-in-one model. At the same time, specialized software providers have room to thrive, even in categories that appear oversaturated, by delivering depth and precision where broader systems fall short. As these dynamics unfold, integration emerges as a critical factor, both for PMS platforms seeking to remain relevant and for point solutions aiming to add value without creating friction. For property managers, the challenge lies in carefully evaluating the trade-offs between specialized tools and bundled systems, ensuring that any added costs are justified by clear operational and financial benefits.

While Pfautz’s company offers a marketplace to help property managers navigate these technology choices, he acknowledges that the industry is still evolving in how it approaches these challenges.