Industry Conversations

Hey all,I’m still very new to booking.com and it’s a bit of a struggle.We have a guest that booked a non-refundable stay but now chose to cancel for personal reasons. I’ve agreed to give her a refund if we can get the dates rebooked.In the booking.com platform I only have an option to cancel and agree to waive the cancellation fee. I can’t find out what the cancellation fee really is but all google searches and their support Chatbot make me believe it is the full reservation fee. Has anybody gone through this before? Is there something wrong in my settings?Thanks,Thomas

This issue has been occurring for the past few months.Upon new guest arrival, a message is automatically sent to guests stating : “We encountered an issue while setting your code on the lock. No need to worry! Please use this code instead xxxx”The problem is that the “backup” code is always the exact code it was meant to be in the first place!Eg: if the code was always meant to be 5566 (the last 4 digits of a phone number), then this error message is sent out to the guests just before checkin saying “We encountered an issue while setting your code on the lock. No need to worry! Please use this code instead 5566”It’s confusing for guests and also unnecessary. This is happening on both ABB and BDCThanks in advance to anyone who can explain and solve this. 

I have received 4 bookings recently via either Airbnb or VRBO that have went straight to Pending and awaitng my approval.  I believe I have all the settings correct for Instant Book and have never had any issues in the past. Some of these bookings were over a week in advance so they wouldn’t be considered last minute bookings. Anyone have any suggestions? 

Has anyone signed up for the top rated guest discount? Did you raise the markup for Airbnb to account for this? Does the discount stack?  

Hi everyone,I’m putting together a monthly virtual networking meetup for Airbnb hosts, lodging owners, hotel managers, food & beverage and hospitality professionals.The goal is to create an open, communicative space where people can share resources, learn from industry experts, exchange ideas, and maybe even organize some fun onsite visits, in person events and inspiring property walk-through in the future.What we do can be a pretty niche and isolating line of work sometimes, and I’d love to connect with more like-minded people who care about hospitality, creativity, guest experience, and building meaningful spaces.No fees, commitments, sales pitches, or catches — just an old-school community vibe where people can support and learn from each other.If that sounds interesting to you, feel free to send me a direct message or reply to this post. First meet up will be mid August.Thanks so much,Chris : ) 

Hey everyone!We’ve been working hard to make getting started with JottoGo as fast and frictionless as possible, and I wanted to share two quick updates with the Hospitable community:See a personalized welcome letter for your property (no sign-up required)One piece of feedback we’ve heard repeatedly is that hosts want to see the finished welcome letter before creating an account.So we’ve just launched jottogo.com/try.In about two minutes, you can generate a personalized example for your own property—no sign-up required. It’s the quickest way to see exactly what your guests would receive and how JottoGo looks in practice.I’d really love your feedback if you give it a try!Also… Last chance for the 90-day Pro trialA quick heads-up: our early-adopter 90-day free Pro trial officially ends at the end of this month.If you’ve been thinking about trying JottoGo, this is your chance to use the full Pro plan across your properties for an entire season without paying anything.You can create your pe

Hi All - would anyone be willing to share their pet agreement language that they use with guests who are bringing their pets with them? This is new for us so am looking for example language that ensures the renter respects the property and cleans up after their pet before leaving etc. Appreciate anyone willing to share. Thank you! 

Who is listing on agoda?? Any good traction? Worth it? Currently on airbnb/VRBO (not booking.com as I’ve heard it’s a headache)

Hi everyone! Does anyone know an easy way to send one-way SMS messages to guests using Zapier, Make, or another tool that integrates with Hospitable?I understand Hospitable has been working on a two-way SMS feature, but I'm done waiting for it. I really need this now.I'd like to automatically send messages such as booking confirmations, check-in instructions, access codes, or location details. Sometimes guests can't access their Booking.com or Airbnb messages, so SMS would be a useful backup.Any recommendations?Thanks!Luis

I still rather routinely have alteration request errors. For example, a recent guest is trying to alter the reservation from one guest to three guests, and the Airbnb platform is saying this will result in $111 decrease in the price of the reservation. There is nothing in our policies about this at all, and it makes no sense. I have two different reservations that are having issues like this. Anyone else?

Hello! I need to talk with somebody at Hospitable today. There is a hold on a weekend and the guest is not varifiying their ID and it's causing me to lose revenue. How can I get ahold of someone?

Hi everyone,I’m posting here because my support ticket is currently stuck in the queue, and my Booking.com listing is completely dead in the water (showing as Closed/Unbookable on the Extranet), I really need a Hospitable staff member or engineer to take a look at our connection mapping.Here is exactly what happened: The Background: We had multiple mapping issues with this specific Booking.com listing previously. To fix it, we created a duplicate listing, muted it, disconnected it from Booking.com, and then reconnected the muted one. It initially looked perfectly fine. The PriceLabs Trigger: The next day, we integrated PriceLabs. As required, we unpublished the listing temporarily to finalize the pricing settings. The Glitch: After doing this, the Booking.com listing completely vanished from our Hospitable properties dashboard. Simultaneously, on the Booking.com Extranet side, the listing’s status flipped to "Closed / Unbookable." Where it stands now: We called Booking.com suppor

Curious to see what other operators out there are using for damage waiver protection for their homes. We have used Truvi the past two years and we have seen their process change alot lately. They used to be known for replacing damaged linens and towels, etc...but any damaged linen, towel, bedding, etc that we have reported lately they have declined it saying its normal use. Even after being washed, time stamped, and before and afters. We have been declined every time lately.Are there any operators that are satisfied with alternative companies?

Apart from JottoGo… what are your top 3 Hospitable integrations? 👀Obviously I’m going to say JottoGo for mine, so let’s put that one aside. 😄If you were setting up a brand new hosting business tomorrow, what are the first three integrations you’d connect to Hospitable?I’m interested in hearing about the tools you genuinely couldn’t live without.Bonus points if you tell us why each one made your top three.I’m secretly collecting ideas for a Top 10 Integrations Every Short-Term Rental Host Should Know About article, so your recommendations might end up helping a lot of other hosts too.

Hi Hospitable hosts,I’m starting a separate thread based on Petra’s recommendation so this does not get buried in my longer Hospitable/Smarty/Vrbo messaging incident thread.Bottom line up front: I’m looking for practical Vrbo host experience with review moderation, Owner Grace Period timing, technical escalation, and whether Vrbo can reopen a host-review window after inaccurate support guidance.Questions for Vrbo hosts Has anyone had Vrbo’s technical team roll back or reopen the host-review timeline so the host could still submit a review? If Vrbo support gave you inaccurate deadline guidance, were you able to get the host-review option restored? Were you able to escalate a review/moderation decision before or after the Owner Grace Period ended? Did Vrbo ask for your side of the story or any host evidence before approving the guest review? Did you submit your host review while review moderation was still unresolved, or did you wait? Did a Vrbo supervisor, review specialist, o

Is there a way to set the minimum age of 21 for guest to rent a room ? 

Does anyone know how we can add monthly upsells for a property to that property’s end of month statement? For example, I have a co-host client and we offer upsells for pool heating. However, these purchases do not show on the end of the month statement and therefore have to be manually calculated creating some confusion. 

Hi hosts! INNdirectly.com is a centralized, searchable listing hub where you can list your properties with all their booking options including your direct sites and social media so guests can book with you however they want or reach out directly.It's free to sign up and actually $50 per property per year, but Hospitable hosts get the first year for only $5! 💕Use coupon: HOSPINN45 at check out. 

Hey everyone!Over the past few months, I’ve been trying to put into words something I’ve gradually learned after more than ten years of hosting.It eventually turned into an article.It’s not about JottoGo, and it’s not about selling anything.It’s simply my attempt to explain a way of thinking about the relationship between hosts and guests that has genuinely changed the way I run my own properties.I’d love to know whether it resonates with other hosts, or whether you think I’ve got it completely wrong.https://jottogo.com/resources/why-goodwill-is-the-secret-to-better-airbnb-reviewsI’d really be interested in hearing your thoughts.

Because of a threat of fire, I am asking my guest to cancel in the next few weeks. Is it better that they initiate the cancellation or is there a better way to do it?

We presently have upsell link being sent in guest messages based on calendar availability which provides a link to guest portal link. Are other hosts doing this? Will this trigger any violation of off platform policy from Airbnb?

Hi fellow hosts! I got tired of tracking supplies on spreadsheets and guessing what my cleaners had in stock, so I built STRcomms. It's a simple short-term rental inventory management system to help other hosts eliminate these supply headaches.To make it easy to try out, I set up two discount codes for the launch: STRSTART25M: Gets you up to 3 properties completely free for your first 2 months ($25 off each month). STRSTART50Y: Takes $50 off an annual plan if you want to lock it in. Take a look, save yourself some supply stress, and let me know what you think. I am always looking for feedback from other hosts to make it better.You can check it out at https://strcomms.com.

I would like to receive text messages from Hospitable when someone books or requests to book my property on VRBO and AirBnB.  I have searched and searched for how to do this and have found nothing helpful.   I checked all my settings on Hospitable and on my Samsung S26 phone.   I chatted with the AI BOT earlier this week, but that was just frustrating and worthless.   Hospitable really needs to have some LIVE personal chat options when the AI Bot cant assist.   

hi. Im wondering if people do review swaps?Once your listing gets under 4.8 rating, it can have quite a devastating effect on your visibility. Whos interested in review swaps? If we keep the price the same, then theres no difference except airbnb fee for each host. 

I am sometimes really frustrated that great new features Hospitable invents prevent old features from working properly: a lot of things are only flawless in theory, but often not well thought through, and therefore not easy to use – that is my criticism. The examples below make this completely clear.Regarding all of these following everyday problems and missing, obvious mini-features, I have opened tickets over the last 12 months, and virtually nothing has happened. I don’t need new features if the old ones aren’t at least thought through the end.Examples:To this day, I cannot decline or delete Airbnb inquiries. I have to go to the Airbnb app to decline them, but the inquiry still doesn't disappear in Hospitable. Discussions with ai hlep chatbot follows to delete this. Changing a booking (alter reservation) via the internal Hospitable tool does work, but to this day, the amounts are incorrectly labeled. I mean… without words. There is an app, but it is still just a web app loading all