Kigo

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.