RentalHive Review PROS/ CONS (2023) – Create Site Like Airbnb With WordPress

Building a house rental listing site similar to Airbnb and others can take time. One resource that can make things easier is the RentalHive theme. This theme was designed for creating rental booking platform sites similar to Airbnb. In this RentalHive review, I will go through the key features of the theme, its monetization models, customization options, and pros and cons.

 

RentalHive Review

You can create your own rental service, much like Booking.com or Airbnb, with the RentalHive theme. The theme has all the necessary functions for creating and starting your unique site, including a flexible booking system.

The theme is powered by HivePress multipurpose directory, listing, and classifieds WordPress plugin.

 

 

You can create the booking site that you want without any coding or using any third-party plugins. RentalHive comes with several convenient extensions that can be utilized for crafting a specialized website in no time.

 

 

The same team has also created several other themes specially designed for certain aspects. ListingHive theme for creating directory site. ExpertHive theme for creating an on-demand marketplace. For creating a freelance marketplace site like Fiverr, there is a TaskHive theme and a JobHive theme for a job board site.

If you want to know more about those themes, you can check my ListingHive review, ExpertHive review, and TaskHive review.

 

RentalHive Customization

You can create just about any kind of directory and listing sites when using RentalHive and HivePress.

There aren’t many customization options in the RentalHive settings. You’ll be able to alter primary colors, background images, and fonts to adjust the look and feel of your website.

RentalHive is compatible with the Gutenberg block editor. You can create all kinds of layouts with blocks. You won’t need to use any custom HTML or shortcodes. RentalHive also works well with Elementor and other popular page building plugins.

There are no hard coded fields, search filters, or categories with RentalHive. You can remove, edit or add listing fields whenever you want.

It only takes a few clicks of the mouse to import RentalHive demo content with pre-designed layouts. With Gutenberg, you can create great layouts using drag and drop content blocks.

 

 

RentalHive is compatible with WordPress Customizer, which allows you to change the look and feel of your website in real-time.

 

RentalHive Extensibility

Since this theme is based on the HivePress plugin, you can use any of the extensions available for HivePress to enhance your rental marketplace functionality. The following premium add-ons are included with the RentalHive:

• Marketplace – Marketplace features are activated.
• Bookings – The site can have proper booking functions.
• Tags – Allows hosts to set listing tags.

The Statistics extension may be beneficial for some users. It will provide insights into data for listings’ daily, weekly, monthly views and unique visitors.

The Search Alerts add-on can help to enhance the user experience. This addon will send alerts to users whenever a new listing that meets their desired search criteria is posted.

There are more than fifteen different HivePress add-ons that can be used to extend features. You won’t have to worry about any compatibility problems because they all effectively integrate with RentalHive.

If you want more flexibility, you can integrate any of the free or paid HivePress add-ons:

• Memberships – Charge users for the ability to access your site and browse listings. You could restrict access for all of your listing pages or just for individual listing pages or particular listing attributes. Access can even be limited to messages and leaving reviews.
• Marketplace – Create unique fixed price digital download or service online marketplace.
• Requests – Allows users to receive offers and make requests.
• Search alerts – If a certain listing meets a user’s search criteria, they can be informed by email.
• Social links – Listing and vendor pages can have social links.
• Opening hours – Listings can have opening hours added to them.
• Statistics – Information about the listing views for the particular time period.
• Tags – Search listings based on tags.
• Paid listings – Users can add, renew or feature listings for a fee.
• Claim listings – Charge fees for claiming listings.
• Authentification – Sign in using third-party services.
• Favorites – Allow users to mark listings as favorite.
• Reviews – Add an option to review listings.
• Messages – Users can send and receive private messages.
• Geolocation – Listings can be searched by location.

Combining various extensions can help you create a one-of-a-kind marketplace.

 

How HivePress Works?

HivePress has pre-assigned post types and taxonomies. HivePress controls all of its own categories, post types, and fields.

 

 

Listings are the preset post type, and categories are the predetermined custom taxonomy for listings. Traditional post categories and listing categories operate very similarly to each other.

Listing categories can have images added to represent categories and display them on the frontend.

 

 

Certain listing data is managed in the attributes section. There you’ll find custom and primary settings, placeholders, the field type for each attribute. Attributes can be altered as you see fit.

The HivePress attributes settings section lets you manage the attributes that will be used as search selections. There are no limits for the number of sorting choices. You can manage how each search option will be shown to people who visit the site.

 

 

For more info, you can check HivePress review.

 

How To Create A Site Like Airbnb With WordPress?

The theme comes with its own convenient booking system. You can use these features right away:

• Booking Offset – Hosts can choose the number of days that are required before the booking date.
• Booking Window – Hosts can determine how far in advance people can book reservations.
• Booking Duration – Set minimum and maximum stay lengths.
• Booking Requests – Hosts can accept each booking request manually instead of instant bookings.
• Calendar – A handy tool that puts all important data in easy to use way. Hosts can look to see what dates are unavailable or available and see all bookings that have been made. Hosts can also block out dates where no reservations will be allowed.

The Time Slots function can be activated if you want bookings based on time intervals instead of specific days. Hosts can configure the earliest and latest availability times as well as the time slot interval and duration in minutes.

 

 

RentalHive has many essential marketplace features, so it shouldn’t take too long to create an online booking platform for multiple vendors similar to Airbnb and other similar businesses.

 

How RentalHive Works?

Users can search for and browse various listings on the main page of the site. All open bookings will be shown on the listing page, and they can be filtered and sorted using the categories.

 

 

You can enable the Listing Submission option and allow any registered user to add new listings. Once the submitted listing is approved, anyone will be able to book it directly via your platform.

 

 

Every host will have their own dashboard with a payout feature, a property listings list, and other functions along with their own booking calendar.

You can easily customize listing submission forms by making them sortable, searchable, or mandatory. Custom fields can be deleted or added at any time. You can also review each listing manually before they are displayed on the frontend.

 

User Dashboards

Users can register directly on your website. Any site visitor can complete registration. The user’s name, photo, favorite listings, email address, and other primary information will be included on their dashboard page.

 

 

Frontend dashboards allow hosts to see past orders and stats, review current listings and requests, and perform other activities. Submissions are made using the forms that website owners create, and site users can create new listings.

 

Commissions & Payouts

Custom commission rates can be configured for each host. Or you can set a percentage commission rate for all hosts and earn from each successful transaction between guests and hosts.

Hosts can ask for payouts, but site owners can require a certain minimum to be obtained before payouts can be made. Or they can let hosts receive payouts no matter the amount.

 

Location Search

If you want an impressive rental listing site like Airbnb, you can use RentalHive’s location search feature. Users can search for properties in specific locations using Geolocation addon and Google Maps API.

 

 

The Properties page will display the filter and search functions. The keyword and location search form will appear at the top of the page. If the Geolocation option has been activated, people can use the location search field.

After the API key has been entered, you can perform the following tasks:

• Listings can be searched by location with the frontend search form.
• A location attribute (or field) will be placed in all listings on the backend.
• A location field will be added to the frontend “Add Listing” form.
• Google Map view for searched locations will appear on location listings from the frontend.
• Location fields will be integrated into listing searches.
• A Google Map box will be displayed in search results for listings.

 

Ratings & Reviews

Installing and activating the free HivePress Reviews extension will allow users to rate and review properties that they’ve stayed at. Reviews and ratings will be shown as comments. Listings can be sorted by ratings on the Properties/search page.

 

 

Messages & Favorites

Users can also send and receive private messages after the free Messages extension has been installed and activated. Hosts can receive private messages from users asking questions before making reservations. If you install the Favorites extension, then users can make their own lists of favorite places.

 

Integration With WooCommerce

You can start earning from your RentalHive listing website in different ways. RentalHive integrates with WooCommerce, which already supports plenty of trusted payment gateways. This makes payments effortless and easy.

You can earn a commission for every booking that’s made on your site. Another way to make money is by getting payments one time from all hosts that use your site to place listings.

 

Pricing

You can purchase an annual RentalHive license for $79. One year of premium support is included. RentalHive doesn’t have multiple site license plans, so using licenses on more than one site can become expensive.

There’s no charge for the HivePress plugin. It comes with 7 free extensions and 8 premium HivePress extensions. Premium extensions range in price from $29 to $39. Each premium extension can be used on one website. They offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.

 

RentalHive Review Conclusion

Traveling is important for people when they work, study, take a vacation or visit friends and relatives. Most travelers usually need a place to stay during their trips. One way to profit from this is by creating your own rental listings site that connects travelers and hosts.

WordPress users who want to build a site like Airbnb should consider using the RentalHive theme. This clean, modern WordPress theme has all the features you’ll need to get your site up and running in no time. No coding skills or knowledge are necessary.