We hope you're enjoying a nice holiday season and are ready for 2025! We're all excited at Hospitable and are eager to launch some great new features for you. Here are the last product updates for 2024!

Direct

Cancel related payments for voided alterations 💳

• When canceling an alteration, we would not cancel any related payments
• Guests were still able to use the guest portal link to fulfill payments for voided alterations
• These payments were also showing up in the reservation financials, causing confusion
• Now, when voiding an alteration, we'll automatically mark the related payments as canceled, removing the confusion for everyone

Prevent zooming too far for multi-property search 🔍

• When properties were very nearby, the map would zoom in completely to the street level
• This made the map useless as you could not see any surrounding area
• We've now added a safeguard to prevent the map from zooming in too far so the map always shows the local area

Properties

Resetting property search showing no results 🔭

• Before, if the filter search in Active Properties resulted in no properties, we would remove the search bar, causing confusion
• Now, if the search results show no properties we will still have the search bar visible so you can easily edit your filter

Rental Agreements

Rental agreements for all platforms in beta 📝

• Beta users can now use rental agreements with all of their platforms
• This will automatically add the rental agreement to all newly created bookings
• Agreements will not be added to existing reservations
• Hosts can manually add one to existing reservations using the "Request new signature" button in the Guest Portal section of the inbox
• We'll automatically send a reminder email one and two days after the reservation is accepted if the guest does not sign the agreement
• The status of the rental agreement can be seen in the inbox thread and any scheduled reminders can be viewed in the activity section

More detailed documentation can be found below:

• Overview of Rental Agreements
• Create a Rental Agreement
• Guest Portal Task Reminders

Inbox

Better messaging when a guest sends an image 🖼

• We've resolved an issue where we were not properly reading messages from guests that only contained attachments

Airbnb

Hosts can allow bookings beyond max stay 📆

• Hosts could only enable the “Allow requests to book beyond max stay” within Airbnb
• With our updated integration, this feature is now hidden within Airbnb
• We've added the ability to toggle this within the Availability page of the property

Start processing edited Airbnb messages ✏️

• Airbnb introduced the ability to edit sent messages from guests
• We are now accounting for these messages and updating them as needed in the inbox

We've made a lot of improvements over the week, especially around improving the user interface for smart devices and the Inbox message threads.

Properties

Display when your property's listing is unlisted 🏠

• Before we'd show when a whole property was marked unlisted but we have not been showing when one of the listings is unlisted
• This caused the availability sync to be skipped because we couldn't push it to VRBO
• Now we are showing any listing as unlisted on the property page

Prevent hosts from unmuting properties on updated Aribnb connection 🔕

• We're no longer allowing users to unmute properties that contain a mix of OPS and PMS-scoped listings
• These conditions for restriction are 100% aligned with the recent property merging and linking updates

Better navigation to parent and child properties 🏘

• Before you had to search for parent-child properties by copying and pasting
• Now you can click the parent and child properties to navigate to their property page within the Related Properties section

Guest Portal

Updated text to create task completion urgency 📣

• The copy used to make it seem like tasks should be done before check-in, rather than leading them to get them done as soon as possible
• The copy has now been updated to encourage guests to complete their tasks as soon as possible (guest vetting and rental agreements)

Allow %guest_portal% in New Reservation messages 🖋

• The guest portal short code can now be added allowing guests to access the portal in earlier messages
• You will see it visible in the New Reservation messaging rules

Calendar

Calendar sync to external pushes less frequently 📆

• Before we were doing full calendar updates to Airbnb, Booking.com, and Agoda every 4.5-hour calendar sync
• At Airbnb's request, we've now started doing less frequent full syncs for all properties containing at least one PMS-connected listing
• We will also be doing a full calendar re-sync every 24 hours
• No major changes have been made to the existing calendar sync logic⁠

Airbnb

Restricted calendar on non Airbnb updated connection listings 🗓

• Properties that contain Airbnb OPS listings and no OPS ones will have their calendar restricted
• The only way to not restrict the calendar will be to upgrade the listings to PMS or unlink them

Smart Devices

Thermostat integration available to all beta users 🌡

• We are currently supporting Ecobee & Honeywell thermostats
• Currently it is free to connect thermostats
• We’ll introduce pricing on February 1st with the full roll-out
• All of the support documentation can be found here as well as a list of supported devices here

Displaying preset types and icons 📊

• We’re now showing the correct type and icon for every created thermostat preset
• We've added a type column on the preset page since there could be multiple presets with the same type

Validation for editing default thermostat presets 📍

• We’re now disabling certain fields based on the selected modes
• We're also setting point limits added to each of the presets
• Users cannot edit the scope or type on the default presets
• They can only manage the modes and temperature points

Integrations

Added Linkbase apps page 📇

• We've added a detailed page explaining the Linkbase integration

Added Strly apps page 🏚

• We've added a detailed page explaining the Strly integration

Added Webready apps page 🖥

• We've added a detailed page explaining the Webready integration

Inbox

New Inbox thread user interface for all users 📨

• We've removed the ability to switch from the new to the old version of the thread interface
• The star, translate, and resolve action buttons are bigger and moved to the top of the guest details tab
• The friendly new thread interface has also been released on the mobile app
• Here is the changelog update that explains the release in detail

General

Use of `host.hospitable.com` for email forwarding 📤

• New email aliases created will use host.hospitable.com for email routing
• Previous aliases using host.smartbnb.io will continue to work and be editable
• This email routing update is further explained in our help documentation

We've changed the Inbox interface on desktop and mobile devices.

On desktop, you'll notice that the message box now appears at the bottom of the conversation. We've also changed the sorting, displaying the newest messages at the bottom of the thread. These changes align our desktop app with our mobile app.

On mobile, the message box is now in a fixed position so you never have to scroll to find it. It's now much easier to see what you're typing and it's easier to select and copy/paste text. We've also reduced the height of the header so you can see more of the conversation. The reservation and guest details sidebars are a quick tap from the header and now display full screen. You'll find the star, translation, and resolve actions in the guest details sidebars.

It's almost the end of the year, and we want to be well-prepared for 2025! We've made a lot of new improvements and also focused on fixing features that users would like to see improved.
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Calendar

Edit check-in and check-out for reserved days 📆

• We used to not show check-in or check-out fields if the booking dates were not available
• Now, the check-in and check-out input fields will always show in the "Availability" section of the Calendar right sidebar
• One or both of the fields may be disabled and not editable because the dates are reserved
• If the user selects a date range and the field is disabled, it'll be disabled for the whole range
• To fix this, the user simply needs to select a narrower date range

VRBO

More detailed payment data is available 💳

• We are now showing all the payment details for VRBO reservations
• We're also showing the correct status for the payments when split over time

Update to the VRBO shortcode %listing_name% 🖋

• We were pulling the wrong data, causing users to use %listing_city% instead of %listing_name%
• Now, VRBO bookings using shortcodes will pull the correct data from %listing_name%
• If you were using %listing_city% instead of %listing_name%, you can revert it to how the expected behavior would be

Smart Devices

Add custom presets to your thermostats 🌡

• Before we only had default presets to set your thermostats to, such as occupied or unoccupied
• Now, we've added the ability to add your own thermostat presets in the device section
• This allows you to better handle temperatures at specific properties or in certain circumstances
• We also added a new dashboard to view and manage your presets
• You can read a more thorough explanation of thermostat presets here in this help article⁠

Owner Statements

More intuitive transactions in Owner Statements 💸

• There's now pagination so if you have a large number of transactions, they'll sort by pages
• Transactions are now sorted by transaction date
• We now show which transactions are locked with a description explaining how to edit them
• Users will no longer see that they can delete locked transactions

Inbox and Messaging

Booking alterations design improvements ⚒

• Before, it was hard to interact with the alteration that the guest requested in the message thread
• Now, the alteration card has been updated to be more user-friendly
• It no longer overlaps with the sidebar and the details are displayed easier to read

Our development team has been hard at work releasing a ton of updates, especially around guest verification, owner statements, and newly designed Inbox features!

Direct

Increased word count for reviews on Direct sites 🖊

• Now the minimum word count is 30, regardless of the amount of reviews the host has received
• This will lead to better more descriptive reviews being shown on your Direct site

Mogul Plan

Upgrade to Mogul without talking to sales ⬆️

• Now you can upgrade to the Mogul plan within the product on the Your Plan page
• If you would like guidance, there is still an option to contact sales or customer success from the Your Plan page

Guest Verification

Requesting guest verification is more intuitive 🪪

• We've listed the benefits of why it is worth verifying the guests you host
• A progress bar has been added to the top to ensure hosts know what they need to complete to send out the request

• You can now preview the guest's experience through the verification process
• Test drive the guest experience when verifying themselves in this interactive demo

Calendar

Validating reservations on parent and child properties 🏘

• When adding a manual booking, we'll validate the availability of any Parent/Child properties
• This will prevent manual reservations from being created if they overlap with conflicting bookings on one of the Parent/Child properties⁠

Owner Statements

Receipts can now be attached to transactions 🧾

• Hosts can now attach a receipt to their transactions (10MB max file size)
• HEIC and HEIF images will be converted to JPEG for easy uploading
• The transaction listing page will indicate which Transactions have receipts attached

• Receipts tied to transactions can now be viewed as attachments on the owner statements
• Previewing or downloading an owner statement with media will zip the file with the attachments

Agoda bookings included on statements 🏫

• For those on the Agoda beta release, you will now see your bookings added to your monthly owner statements

Inbox and Messaging

More intuitive messaging thread design 💌

• We've rolled out a beta release for messaging threads in the inbox
• We will continue rolling it out to more users in the coming weeks
• The changes on the desktop are more noticeable than on mobile devices
• Messages are now sorted from oldest on top and newest on bottom
• The typing message box is now placed at the bottom of the thread instead of the top
• You can revert to the old messaging thread layout by clicking the pink bookmark in the top right of the page

Message translation is now a user-level setting 🈳

• Before, when the translation toggle was used, it was saved on the thread level
• This meant that if a secondary user changed the toggle on the thread, the primary user would also see those changes
• Now, the translation toggle setting will be tied to the user and not the thread
• Example: if a primary host doesn't want to see Chinese translations, but a secondary user, like an assistant, does want it translated
• You can read a more thorough explanation of the change in this help article

Operations and Metrics

Secondary users only see tasks assigned to them 🚮

• Under the Metrics page, secondary users were able to see tasks assigned to others rather than the ones only assigned to them
• Now, they will only see the tasks for properties they're assigned

API and Connect

Make public reviews available in our open API 📒

• We now support reviews in our Public API, including two new endpoints:

1. Get property reviews - retrieves all reviews for a given property
2. Respond to review - allows you to post a public response to a review

• A new review included in the Reservation API is also included in webhooks
• This currently only supports Airbnb reviews, but we plan to add more channels soon

We've released a lot of great improvements around Direct, rental agreements, AI messaging, our mobile app, and more!

Direct

Guest portal section in the conversation sidebar 🪪

• All check-in and guest portal-related items are now grouped under a new "Guest portal" section in the sidebar⁠⁠​
• This includes guest verification, rental agreements, and upsells
• The Guest portal section is visible across all channels and platforms, with quick access to the Guest portal URL⁠⁠​
• You can learn more about the Guest Portal in this thorough help article

Improved custom site large property lists 📋

• Hosts with many properties (hundreds) could not view the Direct Custom Sites screen because the request would time out
• Now we've pushed a fix and hosts can view the page without it timing out

'Extend grace period' banner removed for partially refunded payments 🪧

• We were showing the 'Extend grace period' banner for payments that were captured and then partially refunded
• We stored the payment status as Refunded, causing the 'Extend grace period' banner to show for payments that were already captured
• Now we capture partial refunds as a status that stops the banner from showing after a payment has been captured

Request rental agreements and view statuses 📝

• Direct hosts can now see rental agreement status directly in the Inbox conversation view⁠⁠​
• Hosts can also request rental agreements on-demand for Direct booking reservations⁠⁠​
• A "Rental agreements" section has been added to the sidebar, showing agreement status, previews, and signed PDF downloads⁠⁠​

AI and Messaging

Historical messages included for new accounts 📨

• Previously, newly connected accounts would not have historical messaging context for AI to use
• Now, this context is automatically added so that the Suggest with AI results are more accurate
• We're only generating messages for new bookings and messages for existing bookings

We're translating guest messages from all OTAs 🈳

• Previously, we were only translating messages that came through Airbnb
• Now, all messages can be translated regardless of the channel they come through
• You can read a more thorough explanation of how we translate messages in this help article

Mobile App

Notification counts on the Hospitable Apple app 📱

• We've added badge counts to the iOS app
• Like the Android app, the number reflects the amount of push notifications you’ve been sent
• This will get cleared automatically the next time you open the app
• You do not need to update the app to start getting these badge counts⁠

Integrations

More detailed VRBO financials 📊

• Previously, VRBO refunds were marked as “adjustments” as it wasn't specified when the refund happened
• We are now more detailed in differentiating payments, payment status, and refunds
• We're also parsing the payments, including their status, just like we do for Direct bookings
• These changes give a better overview of the payment status for VRBO reservations

We've released some great features for Direct, Upsells, and our Touch Stay integration!

Direct

Simplifying the guest booking experience 📆

• Guests will have an easier time booking their stay on Direct sites
• A "Done" button was added to the guest picker, making it clearer how to confirm their selection
• We've also made it easier for guests to scroll and select which properties they want to book on their mobile devices

Smoother guest check-in flow 🔑

• We disrupted the booking flow by asking guests to enter a one-time code sent to their email
• Guests will now skip the one-time code process if they proceed straight to check-in tasks right after booking
• If they do not proceed to complete tasks right away, they will be asked to complete the one-time code when accessing the guest portal later
• This will reduce friction and help guests quickly complete their check-in tasks, like guest verification and rental agreements

Upsells

Upsell smart codes can now be previewed 📝

• Now, calendar restrictions on upsells don't apply when viewing the message in preview mode
• Before it was likely that the upsell wouldn't show in the preview given all the timing interactions

Pricing and Calendar

Airbnb Nightly and Weekend Rate Sync 🗓

• Nightly and Weekend Rates are now default pricing fields in Hospitable that sync with Airbnb
• Once manually edited in Hospitable, updates are pushed to Airbnb, and syncing stops⁠⁠​
• Prices are affected by markups: they're marked down when syncing from Airbnb to Hospitable and marked up when syncing from Hospitable to Airbnb⁠⁠​
• Nightly Rate is a required field, while Weekend Rate is optional⁠

Smart Devices

Temperature setting on individual thermostats 🌡

• For thermostats that support two set points, we now have two temperature fields for heating and cooling
• Added help text to understand the options better and made the buttons more intuitive

Integrations

Touch Stay and Hospitable integration is live 📒

• Import your Touch Stay guidebooks into our knowledge hub and better train the messenger to answer property-specific questions
• Learn more about the integration in the post below and in this thorough help article

Touch Stay and Hospitable Integration

Connect Touch Stay with Knowledge Hub 💡

• Every 5 minutes we'll check Touch Stay for guidebooks connected to Hospitable
• If we find any, we'll match them to the properties, and pull in the guidebooks
• Just like with uploading PDFs, our Suggest with AI will learn from the Knowledge Hub content imported from Touch Stay
• Guests will receive more specific answers based on the guidebook's text

• Knowledge Hub will now show Touch Stay as the source of the content
• We've also updated the Touch Stay Apps integration page to reflect the new functionality and added a supporting help article

Users on all plans will love these feature updates!
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Owner Statements 📊

• Owner Statements are available for all plans!
• Whether you're on a host, professional, or legacy plan, you can create an owner statement for a property
• Create your first owner statement here or test it out in an interactive demo

Upsells 🔑

• Upsells are available for all Direct Premium users
• A full description of the feature and how guests can purchase your offerings through the guest portal can be seen here

Metrics

Metrics are faster 🚀

• There's a speed boost that has shown speed increases of 80x, allowing users with up to 100+ properties to export reservations within seconds
• As a bonus, the dashboard for heavy users now loads within seconds for the past 30 days
• Soon, we'll improve the user experience for our enterprise Mogul customers

Upcoming filter in Metrics 🔮

• See the future with the data, without needing to select ‘Custom’ or pick dates manually

Smart Devices

Smart Thermostats private pilot now live 🌡

• Hosts can connect their Ecobee & Honeywell thermostats directly to Hospitable
• You can view temperatures, configure, and manually edit these settings
• Learn why to use smart thermotstists
• Learn which thermostats we support

General

Users can now resync unlinked properties 🏠

• Hosts have an option to checkbox the property details that will allow them to resync

Updates to the office hours page ⏳

• We’ve added some glorious new faces to the office hours page
• You can now find time with the product manager responsible for the feedback you're providing

Upsells

Available to all Direct Premium hosts!

• Upsells allow hosts to make each listing as profitable as possible
• Offer products and services that the guest can self-serve and purchase in the Guest Portal
• Hosts configure their upsell products within Hospitable's Guest Experience section

Who has access?

• Users on Direct Premium
• Direct Basic and other channels coming soon

How do guests see and purchase upsells?

• Upsells are available in the Guest Portal
• Hosts can add the Smart Upsell short code to their messaging rules, which will automatically offer upsells to the guest when available
• Every conversation has a link to the Guest Portal to view and purchase offerings

What happens after upsells are purchased?

• Early check-in and late check-out upsells automatically adjust the time of the booking in our system
• All automated messaging and logic will automatically pick this up and reschedule messages, smart locks, etc.
• Purchased upsells are displayed in the inbox conversation
• The host also gets a push notification about the purchase

How do payments work?

• The payment used for the booking will be the default for upsells for express checkout
• More payment options are coming soon

Resources

• 📺 Interactive Tour
• Upsells support article
• Smart Code support article