Free pilot for selected partners before the 2027 season
Relyo vs StarRez

StarRez alternative for hotel and resort staff housing

Relyo is staff housing software for hotels and resorts: rooms, inspections, utility bills, leased buildings and costs. StarRez is built mainly for student housing, with staff housing as one segment.

Relyo

Relyo: staff housing software for hotels and resorts

Relyo runs staff accommodation for hotels, resorts and hotel groups, in owned and leased buildings. Grades set the room, utility allowance and rent cover each person gets, and Relyo applies them every time.

StarRez

StarRez: a housing platform built mainly for students

StarRez is an established platform for universities and student housing, with staff housing as one segment that includes hotels. It is strong on scale, self-service, resident billing, AI tools and, per StarRez, payroll and HR connections.

Relyo vs StarRez for staff housing

FeatureRelyoStarRez
Built for
Built for it: Hotels and resorts that house seasonal and permanent staff.
  • Organised by period, arrivals and departures
  • Owned buildings and the ones you lease
  • App in English, Greek and French
Built for it: Student housing first, with staff housing as one segment.
  • Universities, student housing, co-living and boarding schools [2]
  • Staff housing for ski resorts, theme parks, medical facilities and hotels [1]
  • Cedar Point named as a staff housing customer [3]
  • 1,300+ customers in 25+ countries, per StarRez [2]
Room planning by your rules
Built for it: Smart Match, the room planner, proposes a room for everyone who needs one.
  • Rules for grades, shifts, smoking and pets
  • Optional same-gender rooms and own-room entitlements
  • Each proposal explained, ruled-out rooms too
Partly, with workarounds: Strong room and roommate tools, built around resident choice.
  • Self-selection, roommate matching and agreements [5]
  • Booking Management in use at Cedar Point [3]
  • No employer rules like shifts or grades described
Grades and housing entitlements
Built for it: A grade sets the room, utility allowance and rent cover each person gets.
  • Organisation pays, split at the allowance, or occupant pays
  • Enforce with a warning or a block
  • Rule changes re-check existing stays
Partly, with workarounds: Flexible charges, with no grade-based entitlement model described.
  • Charge schedules and unlimited charge types [6]
  • Rez 360 profile centres on bookings and applications [14]
  • No room, allowance or rent rules by grade described
Seasons and periods
Built for it: Housing runs by period, and the next season starts from the last.
  • Stays measured in months, arrival to departure
  • 3-step wizard copies properties, people and amenity settings
  • End-of-period report compared with the previous period
Partly, with workarounds: Monthly or term charge schedules, rooted in the academic year.
  • Monthly or semester charging, early arrivals, late stays [6]
  • No season rollover described on its public pages
Move-in and move-out inspections
Built for it: Four checkpoints per stay, recorded on a phone.
  • Checks by your team and by the occupant, in and out
  • Room photos and meter readings with photos
  • Move-out inspection created 15 days before departure
Built for it: Paperless mobile inspections, a genuine strength.
  • Move-in and move-out inspections with damage photos [8]
  • Barcode scanning of inventory and shared spaces [8]
  • Residents prompted to complete a Room Condition Form [8]
Damage linked to the stay that caused it
Built for it: Your team marks new damage, linked to its stay.
  • Never charged for damage that was already there
  • Move-in and move-out photos side by side
  • Repair costs attributed to the stay, for reporting only
Partly, with workarounds: Damage photos and condition reporting at inspection time.
  • Condition tracked per inventory item [8]
  • Built-in condition and damage reporting [8]
  • Employer cost per occupant not described publicly
Utility bills and allowances
Built for it: Scan a bill, check the allowance, share the cost by days stayed.
  • Reads totals, dates and consumption for you to review
  • Reads bills from any provider, country or language
  • Flags missing bills and unusually high ones
Not described publicly: Not described in StarRez's public materials.
  • Billing centres on resident charges like room and meals [6]
  • No supplier bill reading or allowance checks described
Cost per occupant, department and grade
Built for it: What each person's housing costs, broken down the way HR asks.
  • Rent for leased buildings, utilities including overage, damage and repairs
  • By property, grade and department
  • Period cost CSV and per-occupant cost PDF
Partly, with workarounds: Strong configurable reporting across operations and finance.
  • Dashboards, Report Generator and scheduled report emails [12]
  • An Occupancy & Revenue report [6]
  • Cost by grade or department not described, possibly a custom report
Rent and leases for the buildings you lease
Built for it: Rent and leases tracked for the buildings you lease.
  • Rent you pay landlords, and rent your staff pay you
  • Contract scan (AI) reads rent, dates and clauses for you to check
  • Alerts when a lease ends before your staff leave
Partly, with workarounds: Strong at charging residents, with no landlord side described publicly.
  • Room charges to residents, with proration [6]
  • Contracts signed online through the portal [7]
  • No tracking of rent paid to landlords described
Repairs and maintenance
Built for it: Tickets from report to fix, with a day plan for maintainers.
  • Your staff report from their phone and add photos to the ticket
  • Routing rules by department or specialty
  • Maintainer day plan with time estimates
Built for it: Work orders, resident requests and maintenance on mobile.
  • Work Orders module in use at Cedar Point [3]
  • Residents log requests and see status updates [7]
  • Partners include Archibus, TMA Systems and EZ Turn [10]
Portals for occupants, maintainers and landlords
Built for it: One shared record, with a portal for each person involved.
  • Occupants see their room, entitlement, rent and bill share
  • Maintainers see only the jobs assigned to them
  • Landlords see who stays, tickets, inspections and rent status
Partly, with workarounds: PortalX covers the full resident journey, a clear strength.
  • Applications, contracts, appointments and online payments [7]
  • StarRez Go app for inspections, check-ins and maintenance [9]
  • No owner or landlord portal on its public pages
Operational Signals and a daily email
Built for it: One ranked list of what needs attention, from 31 checks.
  • Rule-based checks on people, housing, money, maintenance and compliance
  • One email each morning, only when something is new or critical
  • Up to 3 AI recommendations a night, in Relyo recommends
Partly, with workarounds: Configurable reports and AI tools, with no housing check catalogue described.
  • Scheduled report emails to your team [12]
  • StarRez Intelligence adds AI for writing and data questions [11]
  • Automatic prompts for Room Condition Forms [8]
  • No set of employer housing checks described
Built for it Partly, with workarounds Not designed for it Not described publicly
Competitor information checked against public sources on . Product names and trademarks belong to their owners. We compare publicly available information in good faith; if something about your product is out of date, email us and we will correct it.
  1. [1] StarRez: Staff housing solution
  2. [2] StarRez: About us
  3. [3] StarRez: Cedar Point staff housing story
  4. [4] StarRez: Mercy Ships story
  5. [5] StarRez: Room and roommate solution
  6. [6] StarRez: Billing and finance
  7. [7] StarRez: Resident self-service (PortalX)
  8. [8] StarRez: Inventory and inspections
  9. [9] StarRez: StarRez Go mobile app
  10. [10] StarRez: Partner network and integrations
  11. [11] StarRez: StarRez Intelligence (AI)
  12. [12] StarRez: Reporting and analytics
  13. [13] Capterra: StarRez listing (pricing on request)
  14. [14] StarRez: Rez 360
  15. [15] StarRez: Front desk

Choose StarRez if…

  • Your staff village or campuses hold thousands of beds and need published references at that scale
  • You need payroll deduction, an HR connection, online payments or integrations like Workday
  • Residents should apply, sign, book and pay online, with front desk, package and visitor tools
  • You already use StarRez for student housing, or need a staff app for iOS and Android

Choose Relyo if…

  • You are a hotel, resort or hotel group housing seasonal and permanent staff
  • Your staff housing runs on spreadsheets and chat groups today
  • You want grades applied the same way every time: rooms, allowances, rent cover
  • You want every bill, from any provider, checked against the allowance and shared by days stayed
  • You want new damage linked to its stay, and nobody charged for damage already there
  • You want each season to start from the last, with a rule-based rehire shortlist
  • You want HR, finance, operations and housing on one record, with portals for staff and maintainers

What Relyo does for staff housing

Plan rooms and roommates by your rules

Smart Match proposes a room for everyone who needs one, under your rules. Every proposal explains itself.

  • 6 hard rules it never breaks, including grade rules
  • 9 fit factors, such as shift clashes and commute
  • Accept in one click to create the stays

Catch utility overuse the month it happens

Each grade can carry a utility allowance. Relyo checks every bill against it, flags overuse and shares the cost by days stayed.

  • Scan up to 5 photos or PDFs, then review every field
  • Who pays: organisation, occupant or split at the allowance
  • Flags missing bills and bills at least twice the recent average

Inspections link new damage to its stay

Both record move-in and move-out with photos. Relyo also links new damage to its stay, and nobody is charged for damage that was already there.

  • Checks by your team and the occupant, with photos and meters
  • New damage kept apart from damage already there
  • Repair costs attributed to the stay, for reporting only

Frequently asked questions

Is StarRez a good fit for hotel staff housing?

It can be, at large scale. StarRez lists hotels among its staff housing segments, and its staff housing story is Cedar Point, a US amusement park with 3,300 beds. Relyo is built for hotels and resorts housing seasonal staff, with grades, utility allowances, leased buildings and cost per occupant.

What is the main difference between Relyo and StarRez for staff housing?

StarRez is a mature platform built around the resident journey: applications, room selection, billing residents, payroll deduction, front desk and self-service. Relyo is staff housing software for hotels and resorts and runs the employer's side: room planning, grades, utility allowances, bill shares and cost per occupant.

Is StarRez a hotel PMS?

No. StarRez is a housing platform built mainly for universities and student housing, with staff housing as one segment. Relyo is not a PMS either: it is a separate system built only for staff housing, and it does not connect to your guest PMS.

When is Relyo a better fit than StarRez?

Relyo fits hotels, resorts and hotel groups that want grade rules, allowance checks and cost per occupant, with HR, finance, operations and housing on one record. StarRez is stronger for thousands of beds and for payroll deduction, HR integration and online payments, which Relyo does not offer.

Can Relyo deduct rent from payroll or connect to an HR system like StarRez?

No. StarRez says it can send housing charges to payroll for auto-deduction and integrate with HR systems, while Relyo has no HR, payroll or PMS integrations and no API. Relyo tracks what each person owes and has paid, and money moves outside it (bank transfer, cash or a payroll deduction you run).

Does StarRez track utility bills against employee allowances?

StarRez's public materials do not describe it: its billing centres on resident charges such as room charges, meals and late stays. In Relyo, each grade can carry a utility allowance. Relyo checks every bill against it, flags overuse and shares the cost by days stayed.

Which is better for a ski resort or theme park with thousands of beds?

StarRez is the stronger choice at that scale: its Cedar Point story covers 3,300 beds in 13 buildings. It also has a staff app for iOS and Android and says it connects to payroll and HR. Relyo is newer and built for hotel and resort teams that want grade rules and planning season by season.

Can a student residence use Relyo instead of StarRez?

StarRez is the specialist for universities and student housing, and the stronger fit there. Relyo is built for hotel and resort staff housing, though student residences and other employers can use it too. It has no online applications, room self-selection or online payments.

We lease some staff buildings from landlords. Which tool handles that?

Relyo covers the buildings you lease: landlord rent, contract scan, alerts when a lease ends before your staff leave, and a landlord portal showing who stays, tickets, inspections and rent status. StarRez is strong at charging residents, but its public pages describe no landlord portal or tracking of rent paid to outside landlords.

How do Relyo and StarRez compare on pricing and setup?

Relyo has no public pricing. Selected partners get a free pilot that starts with one building, set up with the founders, and pricing is agreed after the pilot. For StarRez pricing, ask StarRez directly.

See Relyo with your own staff housing

Book a demo with your own buildings, grades and bills, and ask about the free pilot for selected partners.

Free pilot for selected partners: start with one building, set up with the founders.