Hosting tips

Hey Fellow Hosts and Property Managers If you are in a World Cup city, it appears that Airbnb will pay you a referral bonus (and/or a corresponding host account bonus in some cases if you are a property manager) for all new properties brought on board in specific Zips (and postal codes here in Canada) between now and the end of February.  You might be wondering “how is this different than the normal referral program from Airbnb?”. In this case, API-connected hosts (a la you on Hospitable) are ALSO eligible. Under the regular referral program, API hosts are specifically EXCLUDED (BTW - you can ask me how we generally get around that requirement and get rewarded EVERY time we bring on a new account - but that’s a separate tale). Anyway, if you are in Toronto, Vancouver, Boston, Atlanta, LA, Mexico City, etc (World Cup host cities) check out this referral program from Airbnb.https://www.airbnb.ca/e/fifa-host-referrals

In my market of Ocean City, MD, where condominiums are the norm, most smaller condo units have heat and A/C that’s controlled on a room-by room basis.The typical 1 BR condo has two through-the-wall air conditioners (functionally identical to window ACs, except that there’s a dedicated sleeve for them on the outer walls). And for heat, there’s typically 4 electric baseboard radiators, each with its own thermostat.Mysa is the main player in this space for “smart thermostats” that can control electric radiators.Mysa also makes thermostats for controlling “dumb” A/C units (it’s a glorified IR emitter that simulates the handheld remote). Those don’t work tremendously well for A/C units, so whenever I need to replace an A/C unit, I make sure to get an EQK or TCL brand, because those have apps that let you control the A/C remotely. There’s also a third-party app called SmartLife that can generically control wi-fi enabled air conditioners. I bring this up because there are two feature requests

Has anyone else noticed pricing differences between the 3? What i have set on pricelabs isn't what is showing on hospitable & then not correct on abb. Some days are correct then others are off $5-$10. ???

If you put in an amendment does the software automatically factor in the weekly discount on airbnb? I think we set it at 10% but I forget. The guest wants to know the extra cost for the extra few nights including the weekly discount.

Hi. I was wondering if you guys had a system to automate garbage day pickup. For example, every Tuesday morning, the garbage trucks come and empty out the cans. For example, I could send an automated message every Monday evening and recommend the guests to pull the cans to the front, but the garbage pickup schedule is dynamic depending if there's a holiday in the week. Maybe I don't ask the guests to pull the garbage can? Thoughts?

Hi community,I have been working with upsells and I would love to offer some really amazing wines from a local property.  I am hesitant to do it though because in my state, Pennsylvania, my understanding is that you need a license to sell alcohol. Would upselling a bottle of wine that I leave for guests upon arrival be considered ¨selling alcohol¨?Thanks for any help!Jennifer

I would like to harvest all of the names, phone numbers and email addresses from all prior reservations to send special offers and marketing by text and email. Does anyone have any ideas to do that? Thank you very much. 

Seriously . . . I'm 0/2 personally and can’t get their company to respond to my voicemails and I’m wondering if I’m a unicorn riding a rainbow or if this is the normal experience? Whaddya know?

I recently became aware as a Legacy billing customer that Hospitable seems to be overriding my pricing set in PriceLabs. My intention is only to use Hospitable for messaging and PriceLabs for pricing. At no point do I recall giving Hospitable permission to change my pricing. The impact of this change was that our entire college football season (we are in a big college football market in the US) got booked fast for 2026 for a total impact of ~7k under true market rate. Has anyone dealt with this issue? I’m shocked that Hospitable would opt me in to pricing management without my explicit authorization. Support has not responded to my message all day and I’m just realizing there is no phone support… Any guidance is appreciated.

I have to replace my shower head (the actual handheld device wore out).  I’m considering going with the large rain-head style and if i do, I lean against the handheld shower.  I have decent water pressure, fyi. Any thoughts or tips / brands?  My place is a tiny home - not high price luxury,  but great ratings & good occupancy. I get zero children - the avatar is couples - some seniors - not a lot. 

Hi everyone,I’m curious how other property managers here handle owner communication and reporting. We already provide owners with access to KPIs via the owner portal and monthly reports, but I’m currently thinking about adding proactive quarterly performance summaries to better explain why a property is performing well (or what actions we take if it’s not). A few questions I’d love to hear your thoughts on:• Do you actively send quarterly or strategic performance updates to owners, or do you mainly rely on dashboards and monthly reports?• How do you usually benchmark performance for owners (market comparison, ADR, occupancy, RevPAR, etc.)?• Do you use external tools for market benchmarks, or do you keep it more high-level? From a product perspective, it would also be interesting if Hospitable could support basic market benchmarking directly inside owner KPIs (e.g. property vs. market averages). That could be a big value-add for owner retention. Looking forward to learning how others ap

My guest has asked me to send a confirmation of his reservation. I have looked everywhere and couldn't find anything. I took a screenshot of the reservation and sent that to him but surely there is something more professional.

VRBO just listed their partners and I don’t see Hospitable on the listhttps://www.vrbo.com/connectivity?status=Elite%2CPreferred?utm_source=marketo&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mid_15976&utm_content=na&utm_term=advanced_email&mkt_tok=NDQzLVlZUS00MTAAAAGfwtd4NZNWX8DQPs29NrnBNx-7xk0cdm9iANe3PTNgc_k1CRUa7C6Df0KFGpF8wxmkeqTreaZl0xuwTWOzktps0fFY04PvTzXz9V0YUx2JyhuxqVY

Hey there,Would you be interested in joining a video call to chat about best practices for optimizing listings and revenue?I recently joined this community and thought it would be valuable to trade notes with others on the strategies you use to maximize revenue. I’m an owner (not a property manager, and not selling anything). My STRs are in the Outer Banks, NC, with one in Denver. I tend to outperform my competitors and use some creative approaches to boost revenue and ranking, but I always pick up new ideas from others.If you also feel like you’ve found effective strategies—and are open to learning and sharing “secrets”—I’d love to connect.Reply if you’re interested! I’m hoping to keep it to a small group (5–6 people max).All the best,Scott

Is it possible to generate a 1099 for my owners in hospitable?  If not what is the best way to gather this information for my CPA? I am a co-host for 3 different owners.  I have a separate checking accounts for each owner where the revenue is direct deposited from AIRBNB and VRBO.  I do a monthly ACH to each owner for their monthly revenue minus expenses (owner report here on hospitable.) Do i send the 1099 for the Net Deposited amount (after OTA fees and taxes withheld by VRBO and AIRBNB?)

Hello, I am reaching out to you to ask if a French speaker could explain the website to me, as I am having trouble understanding it and I know there is a lot of help available on it.Please contact me here: contact@sensitivehost.com

I had a VRBO rep reach out to me last week and tell me that because I use a property management system, I wasn’t able to access many of the features that would make me “more attractive” to their users.  Is anyone familiar with this issue? 

I just got asked if a couple could have a small (60) person wedding with 20 spending the night. I usually cap max at 17. Should I go ahead with this booking and up the cleaning fee as 60 may create a large mess? or should I say no thankyou?

When a guest enters one of my listings, the property literally springs to life. They are welcomed by name by an AI Avatar on the TV, rolling out a digital 'red carpet' immediately. Within seconds, guests can tell the smart home their ideal temperature, or even mention they're hungry—prompting the microwave to fire up and start popping popcorn.But my favorite automation solves the classic 'Group Amnesia' problem. We've all had bookings where the lead guest knows the rules, but the rest of the group is totally clueless, right? To fix this, I have a motion-triggered announcement that plays the night before departure. It ensures the whole group hears the checkout time and procedures, so no one is left guessing. Or if I need a vehicle moved or the trash to be taken out, I use my mobile smart remote to both program the message and set the motion trigger.When it's time to leave, guests simply load the dishwasher and hit a physical 'Checkout' button on their way out. That single press adjusts

If I’m using hospitables dynamic pricing do I need price labs? Are they similar or is there a benefit I’m missing out on by not layer with pricelabs?

We currently charge guests for our Waivo damage waivers a “management fee” of $25/booking. We are moving toward the “self insuring” route but curious what people are charging each reservation to make this happen? I don’t want to deter bookings by charging too much but I’d like to charge enough to create a fund that would actually cover damage.

Hi I am having issues logging in due to being hacked at my account for hospitable.com like airbnb

 A few years ago I used Guesty as my PMS, and one feature I really liked was their built-in listing optimization tool. It would automatically go into each Airbnb listing daily, slightly rearrange a photo, then move it back a few minutes later to keep the listing “active.” I genuinely believe this helped with Airbnb’s algorithm and visibility. I’ve since switched to Hospitable and now do this manually, but with 50+ listings it’s extremely time-consuming. Does anyone know of software that can automate this (or something similar), or have tips on optimizing listings at scale without so much manual effort?

Hi everyone — I’m curious what solutions people have found for collecting guest email addresses post-booking given Airbnb’s limitations.I’ve tested StayFi Wi-Fi hardware in the past, but it proved unreliable and caused connectivity issues for guests, so I moved away from that approach. One idea I’ve heard is sending a post-stay or follow-up message with a link to a page where guests can opt in to future promotions or property updates.For those who’ve tackled this successfully:• What methods are actually working for you?• At what point in the guest journey do you request the email?• Any lessons learned or tools you’d recommend?Appreciate any real-world insights.

We’re getting 85-90% occupancy on AirBnB. But VRBO has absolutely ZERO bookings. Listings are as identical as can be, dnyamic pricing is synced. Is anyone else facing the same issue?