Kigo Reviews

Great company, real people

Pros:

Been with them for going on 4 years now and although like all companies they had some growing pains but their ultra positive attitude and work ethic have really made a great product

Cons:

Nothing really, they are adding news api’s and services all the time

An essential tool for short term rental management. Top class Customer Service

Comments: I have managed +40 properties in Rome with the benefit of a bespoke SaaS, top class customer service, basic functions easy to manage.

Pros:

Kigo allows API connections with the majority of the main stream channels for short term rentals. It is pretty easy to use, constantly developed with new upgrades, 24/7 customer service available for your needs. So many features available, you can customize its usage to make it a bespoke SaaS for your business.

Cons:

As it is on-cloud, the common objections are about its responsiveness (very good itself but in some cases, the staff had to fix some delays with connections to portals, probably caused by portals too. These type of issues can prevent rates&avaiability updates depending on the portal you are going to deal with: for e.g., Booking.com does not allow a manual un-lock if the connetcion with Kigo is down for a while (I have experienced this a couple of times in the year). This means that you have to put yourself in touch with the customer service immediately in order to avoid overbookings or reservations with wrong fares. However, this is a common issue you will find working with channel managers and the strength of Kigo is its prompt help provided by his team that you could not find joining others.

Terrible experience

Comments: We were convinced to sign up on misleading pretexts. The salesperson, perfectly aware of our needs, avoided informing us that the software might not be a good fit for us.
After a 6-month long process of valuable time wasted on implementation/ training, we realized that most features were not user-friendly, some did not even apply to us. We were even trained on features that would soon be deactivated. To perform each simple task, an unnecessary complicated process was needed, increasing our workload. It was more time consuming for us to use it, than not to. All remarks below (Cons) were sent to Kigo on many occasions during the year, without receiving any reply whatsoever.
We also eventually found out that we were repeatedly being overcharged for months, as Kigo was charging us on refundable Security Deposits as well. This amount was never refunded. We were bluntly told “We do not do refunds”. Finally, we filed a claim for damages that was rejected, after having to wait for a month without any response. Of all issues we endured, only the overcharging issue was accepted, however not refunded. As informed in writing, a 30 day notice was needed to terminate our account, so we sent it on March 9, 2020. On termination date, April 9, we were told that the previous information was wrong and that we were being charged up to April 30.
I was glad not to pay April’s Invoice. Only then, there was an immediate and overwhelming response of daily "payment overdue" notifications.

Pros:

Good Integration with AirBnb, Booking.com etc. & very efficient Implementation Specialist.

Cons:

• Kigo Legacy was shutting down, before the new Kigo software was completed and properly tested. When we signed up in March 2019, we were instructed to work in 2 separate -not yet compatible- platforms, Kigo & KigoPro. • All 3 below Kigo features were paid for, but never used. The process was so unnecessary complicated that we had to use our own custom-made applications instead. - To use Operations, we needed to switch between 6-7 different tabs both on KIGOPRO and KIGO. - No All-in-one Calendar. There was one Reservations’ calendar on KIGO, another on KIGOPRO, an Overview under Operations, another Overview under Schedule and so on… No availability search option on the main RESERVATIONS’ Calendar. - Owners XP had no option to send monthly owner statements & payouts, so didn't apply to us. • No customizable templates with variables, only notification emails with a general content that must apply to all properties and all guests. • A Current & a New Statement popped up when a reservation was edited, that needed to be compared thoroughly every time, because in several cases the Statements were inconsistent with the changes made. • Constant issues/ bugs & annoying details: Photos not syncing, Deposit refunds not updating, properties disappearing from the website, reviews displayed twice, dates in both US & European formats, time in both am/pm & 24-hour formats, etc.

Great project and really helpful for big vendors;needs a few improvements

Comments: As a 2,5 years user, I have to admit that Kigo has helped a lot in our business.
Especially after the launch of Kigo 2.0, UI has improved significantly, which I think is a key factor for our long partnership.
A few things regarding ease of use that need improvement are certainly the extra charge rules, initial set-up and date-blocking. Apart from that, I think that Kigo offers plenty of features that can be useful for the user such as templates, attachments, property set-up ad payment gateways.
One thing that has really troubled us from day 1, is the channel connectivity, both in terms of channel variety and channel set-up process. I personally think this is a feature that could certainly use some improvement.
Support in general is very helpful, except a few cases, in which however our account manager was always available to help and resolve asap. His help and support since he started as our account manager has been very much appreciated and is one of the reasons we rely on Kigo.
To sum up, we are certainly satisfied in General, but there are surely things that can be very much improved.
Thank you for your services so far,
Best,
George

Pros:

Versatility, adaptability, progress, UI, general suport

Cons:

minor dis-functionalities, channel lists and set-up process, part of the set-up.

Without customer service I would left Kigo a long time ago. Kigo is growing but has a lot to learn

Pros:

Easy of use. The system has a lot of potential to be the biggest and the best. Learning the needs of the clients and adding that to the system would make it almost perfect. Kigo is growing and learning and getting better in being there for the client.

Cons:

The system isn't open for changes. It takes to much time to adjust or ad something new to the product. Isn't ready for social media or MailChimp. Removing the benefits from the software: Ical, API with software of Kigo, not having a website development department anymore and not learning from the clients. Adjusting to the changes of the rental market.

Total lack of flexibility

Comments: I have been in the property management business for over 15 years. I started long ago with my own web page and developed an operation from there that managed 60 apartments in Madrid Spain. I have recently started a new operation in Mexico City and I needed a channel manager, so I hired Kigo for that. Ive been working with them for the last 6 months and have decided to discontinue my association for the following reasons: 1. They charged me a special membership to develop a custom web-page..... Fair enough. They forgot to mention that the webpage they developed can not be touched or promoted as they do not allow the installation of SEO plug ins etc etc. Result? I was unable to promote the WEB other than word of mouth (a bit outdated ..... don't you think?) so in the time I was with them there was not A SINGLE DIRECT BOOKING through the wonderful webpage they charged me to develop. 2.AirBnb (Channel that amounts to 60 or 70% of my bookings) decided temporarily not to give service to channel managers in Mexico City and other Latam big cities. So I had to start to update manually the reservations coming from that channel.... I had contracted with kigo their channel manager, their revenue management app and the guest app... Obviously there was none of these services rendered on the reservations that came from AirBnb for the time being. Kigo tried nonetheless to charge me for those services arguing that it was not their fault that AirBnb had disconnected them!!! After several inquiries from my side they just decided to disconnect my account for lack of payment. Their argument was that I had already spent a lot of money on the set up (I paid one year in advance) and that they were not going to return a penny from the already paid annual subscription, so that I might just as well pay and shut up...... Reach your own conclusions...

Pros:

Intuitive and OK when it works.... If you do not have your back office it may be helpful.

Cons:

Expensive Lack of flexibility Can not do SEO in the web page they sell Awful client management.

Very expensive - old software

Comments: One more thing - to get support you need to speak to people in Barcelona so be prepared to pay the additional international call costs - no live chat exists

Pros:

This is stable software - it works well and this is because it is an old legacy product. As such dont expect developements or progress, it is how it is and they are unwilling to risk breaking anything by changing anything. Take this as either a positive or a negative up to you. Personally it is the opposite of agile which is really where you need to be aiming for in the future.

Cons:

One issue is they appear to have had to shoehorn in certain aspects maybe where channels etc have changed API - as such the interface is unintuitive and rather dated feeling. The main reason I do not recommend this software is their charging model. They charge a percentage of all bookings (okay I guess) - even direct booking not via channels (still maybe ok I guess) - HOWEVER! They still charge their commission even on cancelled bookings!!!! Even direct cancelled bookings!! Eg if you have a large corporate multi month guest who decides to cancel well in advance you can end up paying hundreds/ thousands in fees. This is wholly unacceptable - AVOID

Amazing time & error savior. Super easy to use, no bugs!!

Comments: i would definitely recommend Kigo to any agency / manager of properties / appartments. no questions about it.
I can't wait to have more traffic, knowing that kigo will help me grow!!
THANKS A LOT!!!

Pros:

backoffice: Global view of all properties and availability dates Easy to keep track of all imported data Super email inquiry import system (it litteraly takes me less than 30sec to reply to a flipkey / tripadvisor booking request) and as being fast is the key to get more booking, i really get more every months! Pre setting of all mails, so quick to send info to potential clients Have not used the channel manager but looks like a great tool to connect with other user and get more bookings. will do next month!! Possibility to individualise each property settings, again super time saver I manage 20+ properties by myself, without Kigo, i would not have been able to do it (especially without mistakes!)

Cons:

After 8 months, so far i do not see many... It just take quite some time to set up the back office for each property as well as for the email templates but once this is created 80% of the job is done and i can use more time to develop the business At this point, only one user to log in (basically the agency). would like to have 2 or 3 users to be able to track things done if pbs occurs would love the email import tool to recognize airbnb confirmations so not have to enter the , but it is a small thing Maybe Kigo CSS stylesheet template makes it difficult to create your website easily. I have used 3 webmasters and it has not been easy. We are almost there so if i can update the webiste directly from my back office, i will be very happy, and it looks like it now.

Great software with extensive capabilities

Comments: Kigo is enabling us to grow our business further, and we wanted to partner with a channel manager that would restrict our growth in the future.

Pros:

It is truly amazing how much you can do with the system from managing all the channels, to your guests, cleaners, maintenance and so much more. The best part of KIGO is the support, you will be assigned an implementation manager to help you get started and they will guide you through all the aspects of the system. We have been assigned a customer agent to help us with our launch with KIGO and who has been an absolute star! Very knowledgable and was always there if we had any questions. Would highly recommend them!

Cons:

The system can be a bit confusing at times as there is so many functions, and there are multiple ways of doing some of the things which can be a bit frustrating at times, but as far as I am aware they are working on resolving these issues and are always improving the system which is great!

Great online solution specialised in vacation homes

Comments: We are using Kigo now since about 8 months and are really, really happy with this online solution. The system itself has some bugs but the support team is acting on those matters really, really quickly. When I read some of the bad reviews I can't really believe. The support is always answering any questions - and I asked and keep asking a lot - quickly and with all necessary details.
The majour selling point of the system is the channel manager which sync to the typical vacation home portals like homeaway, tripadvisor and many, many others. Renting out an apartment means you don't need to standard hotel sites to be listed on. You need vacation home sites like airbnb, homeaway, flipkey ...
Adding a booking is very simple, adding a new property needs some time but once added most of the portals sync descriptions, prices, availability and booking rules. So you add it once to Kigo and then lean back, wait for maximum 24 hours and your are online on your channels. The website solution is pretty nice, especially the new template is beautiful. Just a tip from my side: wordpress isn't really difficult but it takes a lot of time to set up everything. Go and get the help from Kigo for the DIY page and focus yourself on getting bookings and earning money instead of playing with wordpress. So, thanks Kigo and thanks to the german speaking support team! I love the solution and you are all doing a great job!

Pros:

Smart software with lots of possibilities to adjust to your business. Simple channel manager syncs to the most important portals

Cons:

Sometimes a time consuming job to adjust everything to your CI.

a very rocky road with many highs and lows

Comments: more bookings and piece of mind that no double bookings can occur. reduces my workload and stream lines the entire booking process

Pros:

good support even though support are at the mercy of the developers when it comes to more serious issues. Calendars update nicely across the channel manager

Cons:

Kigo seems more intent on rolling out new more expensive software rather than addressing issues that I, and no doubt many other current customers have. Many of my issues, although relatively minor have not been resolved in the last 12months. The Kigo websites look decent enough but their functionality for would be online bookers is very poor. To add, I am now told that my ongoing issues won't be resolved as Kigo will roll out an updated version of the software as well as new look/functionality websites. Rather than do the right thing and give old customers access to these new features Kigo want me to signa new contract and pay more per month + tack on a monthly hosting website fee (a hosting fee that was already included in my current contract).

It's a pure waste of money: It simply does not function!

Comments: It was a nightmare. All of the above said was very time consuming and stressful measured against efficiency. The purpose of using KIGO n was to advance with many properties we have and save time, de -facto we were behind the point at which we started The only thing they will do regularly is to charge you the minimum monthly inaction fee of €191. And they don't care that you are not getting any bookings because their system fails to retrieve them and is generally a level of a start up at early stage, Not worth a penny spent.

Pros:

Support manager is very warm and helpful, but technical support is mostly useless, one iteration per week is not enough.

Cons:

1) Endless and innumerous bugs in the system,: buttons are not clickable, does not work correctly with Safari, they ask you to download other browsers (why? ) Very hard to use and we are quite advanced as a company in the IT technologies. 2) Unstable and unreliable connection between KIGO and Bookimg.com, failed bookings, discrepancies in calendars which we update in KIGO (correctly) and those which KIGO sends to the channels (incorrectly), practically manual uploading of each property and the necessity to supervise it. 3) Promises unkept, late response or no response: Expedia with content api was promised last year, latest end of Jan, still not there, no clear understanding of when it is launched at full scale, credit/refunds issue has been raised, promises given and never kept, bookings in Bookimg. com failed and need to be cancelled, penalisations waived: promises to speak to Booking.com given, no further action of at least we are aware of.

The tale of 2 platforms

Comments: My rep was great - very nice lady. The software is old and incredibly complicated.

Pros:

The reason we chose Kigo was because it promised to be able to do all the things that were important to us. They said it could handle channel management, an owner portal, housecleaning management, website integration, guest app and guest communication. The truth is it does all of that - just in the worst way possible.

Cons:

First off understand that Kigo is 2 platforms. A legacy platform that all your properties need to be set up on and then a newer platform for the overall management. This is ridiculous and I should have run away the instant I saw that. The communication between the two platforms is poor. You constantly find yourself trying to figure out which platform to go to to fix an issue - and trust me there will be issues. In every single training session (which took a month) my trainer had to apologize for something not working. Now all that being said all the functionality is there - It is just confusing, buried and difficult to find. Kigo states that the management website is responsive - until you try to see the calendar (the most important part) . Then you have to turn your phone sideways and adjust the view dates so that you can see farther than 10 days ahead. Change anything over 10 days ahead and when you hit save it defaults back to the 10 day window - making anything you do slow and painful. Then there is the website - "the extrodinary experience" for your guests. Actually it is a stripped down wordpress website that limits you, the user, from adjusting the look, adding plugins, adding booking widgets outside of the presets and adding any sort of style to the platform. Instead of offering a simple plugin solution they have given you a website that is bland, useless and does nothing to represent your business or brand. That and they slap powered by kigo all over it.

Okay for less than 20 units

Comments: I have used:
Lodgix: Great for 50 or less properties
LiveRez: Solid, but they dont like to integrate, so lots of manual work arounds
Streamline: Using them currently, really like them, but may not be great for smaller outfits, unless they plan to grow. Kigo: We were on Kigo for roughly 3 years, and switched in OCT of 2016. Good:
- Clean UI, is nice layout
- Website is free, looks good
- Can operate single unit inventory
- Price is mid-range Bad:
-Customer Service is probably the worst we have seen.
- System wide outages happen frequently
- Multi Unit Inventory System isn't very functional
- No real accounting, may not be a big deal if you have less than 20 units
- No ACH, NOTCHA, or automatic payment collections, they do have a batch, but is manual.
- Tape Chart is very very slow if you use that to make reservations.
- When you load up the system with data, it starts to act up, some reports would take several minutes to run...then time out. Advice. Before you move to a system, call references. Find out what they average manager has for inventory. As you can see, there are a lot of angry people using Kigo. They might be able to turn some things around but seemed like it was on fire most of the time. They have some budgets to rebuild, but my guess is they will have to do that to get customers back. LiveRez and Streamline hold summits, which is proof they care about customer input.

I wish I could give them less than 0 stars. Kigo deserves a Black Hole.

Comments: Below are examples of dozens of real conversations with Kigo Support Staff illustrating that they truly do not understand how their software works. Me: Hi Kigo, something seems to be wrong with our Kigo Wordpress website, there's no property image included when sharing the page link on social media. Attached are screen shots, links and reports from Facebook that show exactly what the problem is (https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/og/object/ hint: 'og:image is missing') Kigo: Our test post shows no errors. (attached image) CASE CLOSED, thank you! Me: Please re-read my first message re: property images not showing in social media posts and notice that your screenshot is exactly like the one I sent to you when I said this wasn't working: no property image! Kigo: The social sharing plugin included in our uneditable template doesn't work well and you can't turn it off or install your own. Try an outside service like Addthis! Me: An outside sharing service doesn't change the fact that the info needed for sharing isn't included because the template functions aren't putting it there Kigo: We don't support sharing property images on social media. We removed that function on purpose. Me: You removed the ability for property managers and owners to effectively use the #1 marketing venue in the world? You purposefully want to hinder their ability to advertise properties and increase bookings by way of Social Media? Please confirm this. Kigo: You are correct, we removed your ability to share a property link from your Kigo website on social media with an image of the property included. Case Closed. --- Me. Hi Kigo. Our calendars aren't synching correctly with HomeAway and we're getting double bookings. Here are a bunch of screen shots, supporting links to our site, FlipKey, TripAdvisor and HomeAway. Kigo: That's a problem with HomeAway. Me: HomeAway only displays what you feed them. Hey HomeAway, what's going on? HomeAway: We only display what Kigo feeds us. Here are screenshots and links to support that Kigo is sending us the wrong data. Kigo: Why don't you turn off the online-booking feature so guests can't double book? Me: What's the point of having Kigo if we can't have online booking and correct info sent to distribution channels? ---
I have 15+ years of programming experience, worked w/ 5 property management systems and I have never, ever seen this level of incompetence from any software company.

Kigo or how to loose 1000 usd without get any benefit!

Comments: Dear Friends,
I would like to tell my experience with Kigo Software as it seems to be important to explain to the world my experience.
After make a subscription with kigo all went wrong and I wasn't able to connect and synchronize my calendar kigo with the different platform like Flipkey, Airbnb, homeaway'
All my parameters were fine, but nobody answer me from the different platform to be able to finalize the synchronization.
I ask around 20 times the assistance of Kigo to help me and after 6 months without be able to synchronize my calendar I decide to stop this service because during that 6 months I paid each month around 60 Euros (54 Usd) for nothing. I didn't get any service for the monthly fees I paid during 6 months.
When I finally ask to stop my subscription because I wasn't able to use this service ( and no one from Kigo were able to help me to synchronize my calendar with the different platform), I get a penalty of 500 USD.
At the end I paid 500 usd of penalty + 6 months of subscription' and all for nothing.
I know that few people around me have good experience with Kigo, but I had the experience that if it start wrong' all become worst and I spend a bit less than 900 euros (around 1000 usd) WITHOUT GET ANY BENEFIT. After all, I asked the management to at least don't ask me to pay any penalties as they didn't provide me the service I was paying for and the answer : Sorry this is not possible!
I really recommend everybody to be careful with this company and better choose another channel manager with better ethical.
For more detail, don't hesitate to contact me directly.
Thanks again

Good product, even better people!

Comments: We have been using Kigo since the beginning of the year to manage our Bali villas and we cannot imagine going back. The customer support has been second to none in our case and we always have access to a Kigo team member if needed. We had a slight issue with a sync between Kigo and Airbnb, some amenities were not showing up. Kigo visited us in Bali, in person and resolved the issue within a matter of minutes with the help of Tania who works on the customer support team in Barcelona. James Glover was our first point of contact as the person for developing new partnerships in Asia for Kigo. He was extremely helpful and realistic in the way that Kigo would be able to help us, and has continued to consult with us on an ongoing basis to ensure we are getting the most from the system. Kigo have recently visited Bali to learn more about this unique market, I have never heard of any other software provider doing this, which in my opinion makes them more than just a software. Lastly, Regina is our point of contact and yet again, we are working with someone who cares and understands our business. We have been explained from day one that Kigo is not as strong in Southeast Asia as in Europe and the USA, which is why they come here to learn. We look forward to continuing this partnership for the long term and helping you develop some features that will ensure you have total success in our region. Thanks, Kigo!

Pros:

- The Kigo team - Easy to use & learn - Kigo gives me a USP above others in Bali, they work offline.

Cons:

- Needing to get some more Asia focused channel connections

Great product, awesome support!

Comments: A good number; Centralised information, Multi-level management, Synchronisation between multiple platforms, Payments management, Website Distribution, Revenue management, etc, etc.

Pros:

Its capability to contain a vast number of configuration possibilities and the great support team, always available and communicative until resolution.

Cons:

It is not oriented to a biggest and more exhaustive hotelier management, we need more control over internal users. However they listen to our needs and we expect to have a solution implement soon.

Good solution, better support

Comments: Good

Pros:

I have been using Kigo Legacy for 2 years and 9 months. My experience with the software is very positive: it is very stable system, the support team is very responsive (Speacially Russian speaking agent Magda), Channel manager is very good. Thanks to Kigo Legacy my apartments are listed in many vacation rentals portals. Now I have more bookings and the communication with the guests is easier. Thank you for everything Kigo Legacy team.

Cons:

No updates done for Kigo Legacy. I would like you update the channel manager more and add the new functionalities.

you have to invest time with Kigo, to save it afterwards from your daily time.

Pros:

what i like most about this program is that it safes my time and it manages a lot. i have my calendar and all the dates saved about my guest. it also reminds me if a payment is due now.

Cons:

what i would say that i like least is that you have to take the time at the beginning to understand all the things and it really takes time to set up all the properties. but i think that this is normal with every new program.

Not happy

Comments: Kigos Free templates are really bad full of mistakes.
If you want to improve them they charge 125 euros an hour.
I think they made bad templates just so you would use their design team 900euros for some changes 3000 for a full custom.
I was told by their sales people the system would send photos and information to all portals using a sync .
which I thought was great......
I would just have to input into kigo one time and then sync .
Rubbish we have to upload descriptions and photos each time we want to join a new Portal.
which takes a lot of time .
I Just want to run away from this company very Bad experience very misleading.
we are now with them 3 months and still very little help apart from the 2-hour training in the beginning.
we wasted so much time with the template which we were told we could edit .but really they have just put restrictions everywhere.
Whoever designed the free templates knew everyone would have to call the design team in kigo.
where the can charge 125 euros a hour .

Customer Service/ Technical Support Can't Fix a Problem

Pros:

When it works, it is easy to see where my bookings are. The website is fairly user friendly and as good as others that I have seen.

Cons:

As a property owner, my rental manager uses Kigo to manage the properties under her care. Over a week ago, it was noticed that my property could not be accessed on the rental managers website (scroll down to my property, click, and it takes you back to the previous page rather than the details of our condo). Reported over a week ago to Kigo - still no fix. Latest from Kigo is that "they don't know what the problem is" I'm told, this is happening on about 4 properties out of about 60 managed by our rental manager manages. Really? Can't figure out the problem

Decent Software for small business

Comments: Kigo is a decent software as long as you dont have many properties. All the elements are there and it has sure helped us to grow our business up to a certain point. It doesnt solve all of your problems since the only imported inquiries comes from its own website or HomeAway.com. I am really grateful and wish I could continue with this software, but we are having needs in our growing business that makes Kigo service just not enough. The support team is not easy at all to help us solve our problems. As it was said in another review, some of the staff are really friendly and helpful, and those are most times the ones that makes the first contact. When you reach the moment that they have to forward your contact to someone from an specific area (which would probably be the person that would solve your actual problem), it gets really hard to actually get any kind of help or even an answer from them. We had our monthly fee increased due to the new version in September and are still waiting for the migration, which after reading some of the most recently reviews, makes me wonder if the delay is a good thing or not. We are currently looking for a new software that helps us to have a better relationship with our property owners and recurring guests, which is something that Kigo doesnt help at all. Its is for sure a great software to start and will help your work development from messy to good, but not great. The reservation management, property database, HomeAway and Booking.com sync are really nice.
The housekeeping management and contact management and most of the other season rental portals (like TripAdvisor, Wimdu, AirBnb) are really poor or just not good enough to count as a positive point for the software. I feel really bad for the support team that actually try to provide a good service because their co-workers are the ones that makes their life difficult.

Good and Not So Good

Comments: We loved Kigo until recent changes were made and have made the ease of use much more difficult.

Pros:

Keeping our calendar updated and making reservations is easy

Cons:

Since the change to Kigo Pro, there have been many unsolved issues. But I think what I like the least is not having better accounting reports.

Accurate, resolutive and top quality customer service!

Pros:

Kigo allows you to manage a vast range of characteristics of all of your properties. Its Support Team, is kind, with a high level of knowledge and with an excellent time management. They will NEVER leave you hanging and always go an extra mile in order to resolve any issues and/or doubts that the user may have.

Cons:

Not for begginers, however with the assistance of Kigo Support Team, it is really easy to fully understand the system.