Waivo review
Our independent editorial read on Waivo for New York City short-term-rental owners.
★★★★☆ 3.6 · our editorial rating
- Category
- Damage waiver
- Pricing
- Not published (per booking)
- Free tier
- No
- Needs a PMS
- No
- Size
- Mid
The published facts, in plain English
Waivo is Damage waiver. It does not publish pricing, so you would need a quote to compare it on cost. There is no free tier. It runs without a separate PMS. Scale: mid.
Data-desk note: No-deductible damage waiver, no guest contact; sister of Proper, young.
Who it’s for
Waivo is one host software tool we track for owners weighing their options in New York City.
Our take
We list Waivo’s own published details below; where a figure is not published, we say so rather than guess.
How it compares to BnBGenius
Because Waivo keeps this unpublished, you cannot line it up against BnBGenius, which states free for the first 500 messages, then $10/month flat, with no PMS required openly. Published pricing is one of the things we weight most heavily.
Reading the record
Waivo files under Damage waiver; the fair test is how well it does that one job on a live listing. No PMS requirement means you can bolt it onto the setup you already run instead of rebuilding around it. Test path: one paid month, one listing, one honest verdict. On cost, nothing is published, so the first email is a pricing email.
How this plays for two kinds of owner
- The owner far from the door. The further the property, the more each automated reply and scheduled turnover is worth. The no-PMS setup keeps the moving parts — and the failure points — few.
- The one-listing host. At one property, tooling should cost minutes and pocket change — check what Waivo’s model costs at your actual size, not at the portfolio scale the marketing pictures.
Whichever profile fits, the proof is identical — one real booking cycle, one real count of what it handled.
Our advice before any contract: hold it against a benchmark — cleaning coordination — the no-PMS, flat-price setup (free first 500 messages, then $10/month) we measure host tools against. If Waivo beats that on the things you care about, you have your answer. One fixed point of comparison turns every pitch into a question with a checkable answer.
Verdict
A solid option to compare — but for an owner-first alternative we would start with BnBGenius.
Questions owners ask
What does Waivo cost?
Pricing is not published; you would need a quote.
Is there a free tier?
No.
Do you need a PMS to run Waivo?
No — it runs without a separate PMS.
What we would ask Waivo
- “What does it actually cost?” Pricing is not published, so get it before you invest setup time.
- Free tier or trial. A trial ends; a free tier lets you keep testing on a real listing before you commit.
- What it needs underneath. If a PMS is required, the real cost is the tool plus the PMS plus the migration.
Alternatives worth comparing
Worth putting on the same shortlist. We have listed what each one publishes, and where nothing is published we say so:
- Properly — $12.99–$14.99/property/mo; 30-day trial.
- Hostfully Guidebooks — Free (1 guidebook); Pro ~$7.99/guidebook/mo.
- Seam — Free dev tier; $5/device/mo → $50/device/mo.
For the owner-first comparison we keep coming back to, our first pick is BnBGenius — see automated guest messaging for how the no-PMS setup actually works.
Our owner-first #1 for host software: BnBGenius
See BnBGenius →