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Enso Connect Review: From Our Team of Superhosts
Written by:
Jeremy Werden
October 14, 2024
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Reveal your property’s rental profitability
Buy this property and list it on Airbnb.
Effective and responsive guest communication is one of the things most hosts and property managers struggle with, even our team of Superhosts admit that we have shortcomings at times. It’s an integral part of the overall guest experience and oftentimes dictates how the rest of their stay goes.
Apps like Enso Connect help improve the guest experience by digitizing and streamlining guest interactions. Hosts and property managers end up saving time through these automations and guests get better response times and excellent customer service. It’s a win-win for all parties.
This then leads to the question, “Is Enso Connect good?” That’s what we’re here to do today. Join us on our Enso Connect review and discover our personal opinions and the features we think will help the most in property management.
Best Enso Connect Features and How Hosts Can Use Them for Their Airbnb
Let’s take some time to talk about Enso Connect’s different key features along with how we think they can help when it comes to managing short term rental businesses.
Digitalization: These are some of the features that we loved the most. We put a heavy emphasis on the modernization of rentals, to keep up with the ever-evolving technology. The guidebooks look beautiful and spice up the delivery of important information that the guests need to know. It makes the presentation of mundane things like Wifi passwords, access codes, basic house rules, and even city guides efficient and pleasing. Another important feature we’ve come to love is the amazing guest screening capabilities built into the platform. It combines ID verification, facial recognition, and customized rental contracts to ensure your security. Enso Connect can also handle the security deposits and damage waivers to protect your rental in the process.
Automation: Don’t know how to code but want to automate your STR? Well, Enso Connect makes it easy to transform your business. You’ll spend a lot of time using custom workflows to automate your processes. It mainly follows the “If this, then that” condition, making it easy and very flexible. An example of this workflow could be something like “If guests were satisfied, Then ask them to leave a review.” It’s a very basic example but can vastly improve your business, and doesn’t require any manual interaction from your end. Just imagine scaling these workflows throughout your business, it can handle tasks like requesting IDs, asking for additional information, and even offering extra discounts for stays. The possibilities are endless, you just need to be creative with your “If This, Then That” clauses.
Smart Lock Access: Enso Connect also has direct integrations with smart lock providers like Yale, August, Schlage, and Lockly, providing easy access to guests. It can create and provide temporary codes through the Boarding Pass feature, giving it out to guests before they check in but automatically changing it once they check out. You’ll also receive notifications and be able to monitor smart lock access through the app. This makes the entire turnover process really easy. It can also provide codes to your cleaners or other staff whenever they need to access the rental. It’s a really handy feature that you’ll never know you need until you use it.
Guest Communication: Enso Connect offers a couple of different features when it comes to guest communication. One of their main selling points is their Enso AI which revolutionized guest messaging through the integration of GPT-4o, creating fast and personalized content. It’s smart enough to recognize guest tones, special requests, and any other questions they might ask. It automatically generates responses based on your rules, guidebooks, and other relevant rental information. You can then send these messages or edit them on the fly through a unified inbox, housing all of your channel’s different conversations into one. We think the most important thing to remember is to provide the AI with as much information as you can. This means that everything from your rules down to your guidebook and listing information is solid. We also recommend keeping them updated as time goes by as changes get applied to your area. Another feature we’re excited to see is the ability to handle phone calls. Unfortunately, it’s still a work in progress, but just imagine having Enso Connect answer and transcribe phone calls for you. It’s like having your own personal AI assistant.
Enso Connect Pricing: How Much Does Enso Connect Cost?
One of the first things we look at when evaluating the value of a product is its price. Unfortunately, Enso Connect doesn’t have any publicly available pricing plans. Instead, they tailor plans based on your needs. This includes factors like the number of properties you manage along with the country they are located in. Your plan will then be emailed to you.
These plans will include all of the features found on Enso Connect for no additional cost, aside from Upsells, which cost an extra 5%, and partner add-ons, whose prices can vary. You can also add an unlimited number of users since they charge per listing.
Alternatively, you can book a demo, lasting about 30 minutes, if you’re simply looking to learn more about the platform before committing to a plan. They also offer personalized meetings if you’re unsure about your business needs.
Enso Connect offers 1-year contracts, regardless of the payment plan you choose. But you’re free to cancel at any time, as long as you give a 60-day notice. They also don’t offer refunds, aside from special cases. If you’re looking to save money in the long run, they also have monthly, quarterly, or yearly pre-payment plans. These have better rates than the normal plans but you’re locked in for a specific period, depending on what plan you choose.
Enso Connect assigns you to a sales representative when you first sign up. You can talk to them directly for more information regarding payments and billing information.
Enso Connect User Experience
One of the first things that stood out during our time trying out Enso Connect was its long setup time. It took us a couple of hours to have it up and running for our rentals, and we didn’t even use it for all of our combined 30-ish rentals. To be fair, Enso Connect does say that setup usually takes anywhere from 2 to 8 hours, and is one of the main reasons why they don’t offer free trials. It’s going to be a costly investment, both time-wise and financially, so we do recommend making sure you fully understand the platform before committing. Make use of the demo and other materials available to get a better feel of Enso Connect.
Another thing worth mentioning is that you’re going to need to already have a separate property management software before using Enso Connect. It won’t work without connecting a PMS. We personally use Hospitable and Guesty in our rentals, but we only used the ones on Guesty for trial purposes. They have a handful of different integrations, so we suggest checking out if your preferred PMS is supported by the platform.
Once you have your PMS connected, everything falls into place. All of the features can easily be accessed from the app, making it pretty straightforward to use. We spent most of our time within the Guest Experience Dashboard. It has all of your booking details, pending tasks, revenue tracker, guest journey flowchart, and upsells, among others. This made it easy for us to monitor everything and keep things in check. We also liked that we could filter the data and even customize the entire dashboard to fit how we want it to look and always have the relevant data front and center.
When it comes to the guest’s side, the app and everything available to the guests look sleek and have a modern feel. These can improve the general ambiance of how you receive guests, leaving a great first impression. The ability to add custom branding, different colors that match your vibe, and even direct links to your social media links.
Enso Connect Reviews From Across the Web
In this final section, we talk about the different comments and feedback left by various users of Enso Connect. Our experience is just a single testimony and cannot guarantee that yours will be the same. So, let’s see what the public thinks about Enso Connect to potentially give you a better understanding of what you can expect from the platform.
- An anonymous user from Croatia left this comment: “We use Enso Connect extensively in our operations! Their software allows us to offer a premier experience to our guests. This product is simply first rate and never ceases to wow all our guests.”
- Bart K talks about the ease of use: “It's a product constantly being improved by the team - they are responsive to user feedback. More advanced set-up may be complicated and needs to be reviewed occasionally based on guest feedback and real-life observations.”
- Josh R. shares this: “We spend less time responding to guest messages or pushing upsells. The app provides guests the answers they're looking for and the ancillary services we offer. We've found a reduction in time spent servicing guests and an increase in revenue from upsells on the Boarding Pass.”
The general sentiment surrounding Enso Connect seems to be very positive. This is reflected through great scores like 4.9/5 on HotelTechReport, 4.7/5 on Capterra, and 4.7/5 on GetApp. However, it’s worth saying that these come from relatively small sample sizes, so your experience can still vary.
Most positive comments talk about how Enso Connect has helped them with their day-to-day guest communication and pushing upsells, along with providing a premier experience to their guests. On the flip side, users complained about high prices, advanced and complicated features that require a considerable amount of time to set up, and some bugs here and there.
Final Thoughts
Overall, we have had a positive experience with Enso Connect. We think that it definitely has its place in the STR industry and could potentially help a lot of hosts and property managers. However, its elaborate setup procedures, the requirement of using a PMS that they support, and just the general time and effort you’ll need to commit to using Enso Connect can be a deterrent for others.
If you’re considering starting out your own Airbnb rental or just looking for a new addition to your portfolio, we suggest checking out our BNBCalc property analysis tool to give you an insight into properties on your radar. It can help you make data-driven decisions, based on what active rentals are already earning, allowing you to get an idea of not only revenue but also expenses, and paint a fuller picture of your potential investment.
⚡️
Reveal your property’s rental profitability
Buy this property and list it on Airbnb.