Industry Conversations

VRBO. offered improved calendar and pricing but when I follow the link, it says it must be done in Hospitable. How do we do that?

Chicago Hosts: How are you handling taxes across Airbnb, Booking.com, VRBO, and direct bookings?I manage short-term rental listings in Chicago and am trying to make sure I'm handling taxes correctly across all channels.Airbnb currently collects and remits the following taxes on my behalf: Hotel Accommodations Tax (Chicago) Hotel Accommodations Tax (Cook County) Illinois Hotel Operators' Occupation Tax MPEA Hotel Tax Shared Housing/Vacation Rental Surcharge Illinois Sports Facilities Tax Chicago Municipal Hotel Tax However, for Booking.com reservations, I receive the tax amounts and am responsible for remitting them myself. Guests are currently charged: TAX: 14.5% City tax: 4.5% I'm also researching the exact tax setup needed for direct bookings and want to make sure I'm not missing anything.For those with Chicago STRs: Which taxes are you remitting yourself for Booking.com reservations? How are you handling taxes for direct bookings? Which taxes, surcharges, registrat

I have a 1000sf cabin in Mammoth Spring, Ark. near the Spring River. It’s a tourist destination because of floating and trout fishing, but the economy is depressed. I had difficulties keeping good cleaners until Chloe started 2 years ago. She’s so good I pay her $75 each cleaning. Being afraid of running some renters off, I subsidize the cleaning by only charging $50.  Am I crazy?  What is “Average” for cleaning?

Got an inquiry today (not booked yet). The guest's first message was literally: "Has this unit been used for escort and prostitution services?"I answered honestly tht nothing like tht has ever happened at my place. She pushed back with "so you're not even sure, even as the host?"It's a tricky one. My place is full self check-in, so I never meet guests in person, and realistically no host (or even a hotel) can promise what someone does behind a locked door.How would you guys handle this? Do you give a firm flat "no," or stay honest tht you can't control wht happens in private? Have any of you had a guest ask something like this before?

I have been self-managing my property since April, 2026.  I cannot believe how often guests do not disclose that they are bringing pets.  Can anybody provide some insight on how to handle this?  Should I request my $125 pet fee?  It is really tough and unfair on the cleaners to have to handle the pet hair and accidents.  BUT, I am getting resistance from the guests.  I don’t want to jeopardize my reviews.  My sites say that we are “pet friendly” but it doesn’t actually say that the guest needs to disclose pets during the booking process and that there is a $125 charge to bring their pet.  Maybe the guest doesn’t understand that they need to include the pet number in the booking?  Any insight would be appreciated!  

What cancellation policy does everyone use on Airbnb? Just curious since they have recently made some changes to their policies 

How does someone go about investing in Hospitable in the US?  I heard you can purchase tokens and in US need to go through a process to confirm eligibility? 

Can someone reach out to me to do a Mogul trial?

We recently discovered that Air Bnb was collecting and paying a  local hospitality tax on our behalf that they didn’t previously collect. We were also paying it.  Not surprisingly, our local tax authority did not report the over payment.  They claimed that Air bnb does not report to them who they are submitting for-providing no trail and thus cannot refund us. Anyway, does anyone have any experience similar and  were you able to get any refunds from Air bnb? Any suggestions on that process would be appreciated.

What are some of your best messages that you send to guests that have booked in order to get more dollars in?

I am thinking of getting a non-disc based PS 5 or Xbox that has a gaming service subscription for one of my units with a sweet gaming TV in it.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.  Great idea?  See holes?   See something, say something.  

I’ve made an app for my own business specifically to handle inventory and automate supply runs and restocking for short-term rentals. I decided to open it up to everyone and need some real-world feedback from hosts who deal with tracking supplies and handling turnovers day in and day out.Check it out here: https://strcomms.comIf you have a few minutes to spare, I would love for you to play around with it for free and let me know what you think.Important note on billing: The app is currently hooked up to Stripe’s Test Mode sandbox. You can use everything without using real money or a real card.When you get to the checkout page, simply use the standard Stripe test card: Card Number: 4242 4242 4242 4242 Expiry / CVC / Details: Enter any random future date and numbers you want Whether you love it, find a bug, or think a feature is missing, your brutal honesty will help me make this a lifesaver for supply workflows. Drop your thoughts in the comments below or DM me directly.Thank you so mu

Curious what others do to create goodwill right at the start of a guest’s stay?Just to be upfront, my business is around creating thoughtful welcome notes automatically, so I obviously think the arrival moment matters. But I’m genuinely interested in what else hosts do, beyond the note itself, to make guests feel looked after when they first arrive.I’ve been reading through some of the older threads here and loved a few of the ideas people shared — fridge magnets with a property photo or logo and a QR code back to the direct booking site, bookmarks, and even Christmas decorations with photos of the property inside them. I thought the fridge magnet idea was especially clever, because it feels like a small guest takeaway but can also gently keep the direct booking site visible after checkout.For our own guests, we usually leave locally made cookies that are genuinely delicious. If they’ve mentioned they’re celebrating something, we leave a bottle of bubbly. If they’re bringing a dog, we

I currently have a guest who has used Airbnb twice in 2024 and then booked by home this year. The concern is they left reviews for their host giving them 4 stars and saying everything was great. I believe they are not aware how Airbnb ratings work. How a 4 can be really damaging to hosts. I am thinking of writing something like this on the day of check-out. Open to your views. I typically write my review for good guests and they review back. So far it has worked well. Of course I have also had problem guests (unfortunately cannot avoid them) PS: I am a new host and go up and beyond to get 5 stars. So far I have 16 reviews and 5 star overall, also a guest favorite. I’d love to hear from hosts what you think of the below to send to this guest. Is it too much? When should I send it?  “Thank you again for staying with me. I truly appreciate it.One thing I've learned as a host is that many guests don't realize Airbnb's rating system is a bit different from hotel ratings. In general, a 5-sta

Would love to see any ideas that people are already using!

I’m curious to hear how other hosts are offering Netflix, Hulu, etc. in their units. I am starting to hit the “scalability wall” with the way I’ve been doing it so far.The way I’ve been doing it so far has been to simply have an extra profile under each of my personal streaming accounts. The “guest profile” is named in a way that’s obvious to guests and it sits alongside the profiles for my other family members. My personal profiles are PIN-locked as needed so that people don’t rent movies, change my subscription plan, etc. Netflix is the most forgiving as far as enabling me to use a single account across 5 STRs (plus my personal home). On the other end, Hulu is the most restrictive, as far as constantly booting TVs off and having to go through the “update household” method to get them back on.Once in a while a guest says something like “Netflix/Hulu isn’t working, what do I do?” and I have to tell them to click “update household” and/or to have it send me a code so that I can relay th

Hi everyone — I’d love to get your take on something. One of our cleaners, Krista, recently brought me a small envelope and asked if it would be okay to leave these in our Airbnb after she finishes cleaning. The envelope is labeled “For You” and contains a thank-you card with a small, inexpensive, decorative keychain. The card reads: “I hope you enjoy your stay. A little gift from the clean team. — Krista” Would you allow something like this in your listing?Does it add a personal touch, or could it confuse guests or create unintended expectations? Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

New STR host in the Outer Banks, specifically on the 4x4 in Corolla, would love some insight on what to leave as a little something for each turnover. I was thinking a bag of coffee from a local coffee shop or something along those lines? Wild horses roam the beach so maybe something to do with that? Would love any help!

Hi! We are currently using Hospitable rental agreements and occassionally will get pushback from a guest who doesn’t want to sign something off airbnb’s platform. However this guest seemed to suggest we need to disclose all the terms of a rental agreement prior to a guest booking. This seems impossible with the limited characters airbnb gives in disclosing house rules. We currently have listed in our house rules “must sign rental agreement after booking, failure to sign will result in cancellation.” What is everyone else doing to stay compliant with this? 

Hi Hospitable Team,We are an India-based short-term rental operator currently managing around 30 properties on Hospitable and scaling toward 100 properties within the next 6 months.We are building our own direct booking website and wanted to use Hospitable Direct widgets / website integration for property availability, booking requests, calendar blocking, and guest automation.However, we are currently blocked because properties cannot be selected for the Direct site/widget unless a connected payout method is added. Hospitable support has confirmed that Direct Lite does not include payment processing and that India-compatible payout/payment setup is not available in this workflow.This means India-based hosts cannot practically use Direct widgets, even if we are willing to collect payment externally through Razorpay, UPI, bank transfer, or payment link.Our requirement is very clear:Display Hospitable properties on our website through widget/link/API or another supported method Allow gues

During the off-season, my cleaners have trouble getting staff who are happy to work on Sundays. If I wanted to configure my calendar between now and March, such that if there is a booking that ends on a Sunday, then block off Sunday night (so it can be cleaned on Monday)… and if there is a booking that starts on a Sunday, block off Saturday night (so it can be cleaned on Saturday)… How would I go about that? In other words, “No same-day turnovers on Sundays”, but only for a certain range of dates. I’ve been blocking nights manually for now but I’m curious if it can be done systematically.

I’m looking at switching over from Remotelock to Jarvis. Does any one use Jarvis for lock management? Do all of the locks that Jarvis supports also work with Hosptiable? Are there group door or common door features available on Jarvis?

I cannot figure out how to get the payout or revenue number with all the other variables.  I’ve tried it so many different ways and even asked Claude a few times.  Claude can’t figure it out.  Also is there anyway to make the cleaning fee and the administration fee be pass through to the owner.  For some reason its getting put into the total and Its adding it and I only get 20% of it because thats my comission.  I need to get the whole cleaning and administration fee.  Thank you

I'm trying to think through how to block off one of our units for a half-day of maintenance, that needs to be done on a specific day.The work is being done on May 12 and will be done inside of our normal turnover hours (10 am to 4 pm).So it's fine for a guest to check OUT on May 12 (10 am)...And it's even fine for another guest to check IN on May 12 (4 pm).I just can't have a guest who would be in the MIDDLE of a stay on May 12, because they would be there during the day, and the maintenance cannot be done with a guest inside the property.Any solutions to this, other than blocking the night of the 12th from being booked AT ALL? Seems like a shame to lose a night for work that’s being done during the day. 

Hi everyone,I wanted to see if anyone else has run into this or has found a workaround.I recently had a direct booking guest who, on day 2 of a 4-night stay, orchestrated a full-on brawl outside the property and streamed it live on social media. Police were called, and this was a clear violation of our rental agreement (no parties, disturbances, etc.).Because of that, I made the decision to terminate the stay. My cancellation policy is no refunds, especially in cases where house rules are violated.However, when I went to process the cancellation in Hospitable, I only saw two options:1. Host cancels → guest receives a refund2. Guest cancels → no refundThis created a problem because there was no option for a host-initiated cancellation without issuing a refund due to a policy violation.In situations like this, I would expect there to be a flow where:-The host can cancel for cause (rule violations, safety issues, etc.)-The payout follows the host’s cancellation policy-The guest can disput