Ownia vs Smoobu: Pricing and Features Compared (2026)
Ownia vs Smoobu for vacation rental hosts: what each tool does, what it really costs per year, and which one fits a single property or a growing portfolio.
By Anthony, Founder of Ownia · · 5 min read
Smoobu is one of the most popular tools for independent vacation rental hosts in Europe, and it is the name that comes up most often when hosts ask me how Ownia compares. This article answers that question as fairly as I can.
A disclosure first: I am the founder of Ownia, so I am not neutral. I have tried to make this comparison useful anyway, including the cases where Smoobu is the better choice. All Smoobu prices below come from its public pricing page as of October 2026.
The Short Answer
- Smoobu is an all-in-one property management system. Its core is a channel manager that connects directly to Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia, with a website builder, guest messaging and statistics around it. You pay a monthly subscription per property, from €29.
- Ownia is a direct booking website builder. It focuses on getting guests to book with you directly, and it syncs your Airbnb and Booking.com calendars through iCal. There is no monthly fee for your first property: you pay 3.7% per booking, card fees included.
If you mostly need to run many listings across many platforms, Smoobu is built for that. If you want your own booking website and to pay only when you actually get a booking, Ownia is built for that.
Pricing Side by Side
| Smoobu | Ownia | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | No, 14-day free trial | Yes, 1 property, no time limit |
| Monthly fee, 1 property | €29 (Flex) or €35 (Prepaid, €31.50 billed yearly) | €0 |
| Additional properties | From €9.60 per unit per month | Advanced: €19/month for up to 5 properties. Business: €49/month, unlimited |
| Booking fee | 0.9% (Flex plan only), on bookings from connected channels and the booking engine | 3.7%, only on bookings made on your Ownia website |
| Card processing fees (Stripe) | Paid by you, on top: about 1.5% + €0.25 per booking for a standard European card, more for others | Included in the 3.7% |
| Cost with no bookings | Your monthly subscription | €0 |
The key difference is the model. Smoobu charges a fixed subscription, so you pay the same in a quiet month as in a busy one, plus Stripe's fees on every payment. Ownia charges nothing until a guest books, and the 3.7% already covers card processing, whatever card your guest uses.
What It Really Costs Per Year
Here is the yearly cost of taking direct bookings on a single property, assuming €1,000 bookings paid with standard European cards:
| Direct bookings per year | Smoobu Flex | Smoobu Prepaid (yearly) | Ownia (Free plan) |
|---|---|---|---|
| €10,000 | ~€590 | ~€530 | €370 |
| €15,000 | ~€710 | ~€610 | €555 |
| €25,000 | ~€950 | ~€760 | €925 |
| €40,000 | ~€1,320 | ~€990 | €1,480 |
Smoobu figures include the subscription, the 0.9% booking fee on the Flex plan (counted here on direct bookings only), and Stripe's processing fees, which you pay directly on Smoobu.
What the numbers say:
- Below about €17,000 of direct bookings per year, Ownia is cheaper than both Smoobu plans. That covers most hosts who are just starting to take direct bookings next to Airbnb.
- Above that, Smoobu's flat subscription wins on pure cost, especially on the Prepaid plan. A fixed fee gets cheaper per booking the more you book.
- International guests change the math. On Smoobu, a guest paying with a non-European card costs you about 3.15% + €0.25 in Stripe fees. On Ownia, you still pay 3.7%, and Ownia absorbs the difference.
- Smoobu's 0.9% also applies to your platform bookings. On the Flex plan, the fee covers bookings from your connected channels as well as your booking engine. If you take €30,000 a year on Airbnb and Booking.com through Smoobu, that adds about €270 to the Flex figures above. Ownia only charges on bookings made on your Ownia website.
Features: Where Each Tool Is Stronger
Where Smoobu is stronger
- A real channel manager. Smoobu connects to Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia through their APIs. Availability, prices and bookings sync almost instantly. Ownia uses iCal, which is free and reliable but can take a few hours to update, so it is less suited to last-minute bookings across several platforms.
- Mature operations tools. Smoobu has years of development behind its guest CRM, statistics, mobile apps, and team accounts, plus e-invoicing on its top plan.
- Many listings across many platforms. If you manage ten units on four platforms, a channel manager like Smoobu is the right category of tool.
Where Ownia is stronger
- No subscription to start. Your first property is free with no time limit. You pay only when you receive a booking.
- Card fees included and predictable. 3.7% per booking, whatever card your guest uses. No Stripe invoice to reconcile on the side.
- Built around direct bookings. Your booking website is automatically translated into more than 80 languages for your guests, with AI-assisted property descriptions, automatic review collection, and SEO settings to help you appear on Google.
- Security deposits under your control. You choose the deposit amount and decide whether to hold or release it.
- You can keep everything else. Ownia works next to your Airbnb and Booking.com listings. You do not need to move your whole operation to try it.
Which One Should You Choose?
Choose Smoobu if:
- you manage several properties across three or more platforms and need instant sync
- you already take more than about €17,000 a year in direct bookings per property
- you want a full property management system with team accounts and invoicing
Choose Ownia if:
- you have one to a few properties and want your own direct booking website
- you are starting to move guests off Airbnb and do not want a monthly fee before the bookings come in
- many of your guests come from outside Europe, where fixed, all-in card fees protect your margin
- you want to try direct bookings without changing the rest of your setup
They are not mutually exclusive either. Some hosts use a channel manager for their platform listings and a separate site for direct bookings.
Key Takeaways
- Smoobu is a channel manager and property management system with a monthly subscription per property, from €29, plus Stripe fees paid by the host.
- Ownia is a direct booking website builder with no monthly fee for your first property and 3.7% per booking, card fees included.
- For a single property, Ownia costs less up to about €17,000 of direct bookings a year. Above that, Smoobu's flat subscription is cheaper.
- Smoobu's API channel manager syncs faster than Ownia's iCal sync, which matters most for multi-platform portfolios.
- If you are starting with direct bookings, Ownia lets you test the channel at no fixed cost, alongside your existing listings.
Want to try direct bookings without a subscription? Create your free site with Ownia and go live today.