Latest News from the Hospitable.com team
New feature
Product update

πŸ”“New Smart Lock + Device Dashboard Features

Alyssa avatar
Shared by Alyssa β€’ July 26, 2024

We Now Support Operations-only Locks

You can now connect and manage the codes on operations locks (ex. supply closet)! Previously there was no way to connect to these locks without enabling guest access. Now you can select to disable Guest Access when connecting the lock, or after connecting by selecting the lock in the device dashboard and editing the setting.


Bulk-Create Operations Codes

In case you missed it, as of last month you can bulk-create operations codes (ex. codes for your cleaners) across multiple properties! Previously you could only create a code at one property at a time. Now, as long as the selected properties are in the same timezone, you're good to go.

Check out our device dashboard walkthrough article on how to create manual operations codes.


Are You Using Smart Thermostats?
Let us know what you're using by voting on integrations for Honeywell, Ecobee, or others! This helps us better determine what to build next.

Improvement

Recent AI Improvements

Nik avatar
Shared by Nik β€’ July 26, 2024

We're constantly working on improving the accuracy and relevance of the suggestions that our AI provides in the Inbox.


Here are some AI parts of the app that have received some love from the product and engineering team over the last 30 days:

Inbox - Suggest with AI

  • The Inbox messages written using the Suggest with AI button now have a better awareness of the status of the booking (inquiry, pending, accepted), as well as check-in and check-out times.
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  • The AI behind those messages has been improved to fix the cases where it tried to either respond to an old guest message or even tried to respond *as* the guest. πŸ˜΅β€πŸ’«
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  • These AI messages now also use the AI-generated Guest Summaries for more context and personalization.
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  • And these message now use the same language that the host has been using in that conversation.

Inbox - Guest Summaries

  • AI Guest Summaries got a small upgrade recently and should now be better at providing actionable insights.

Reviews and Review Replies

  • The new Awaiting Review Reply segment in the Inbox and the Pending Review Replies tab in Guest Experience show you which guest reviews have yet to be replied to, with an AI-generated reply already waiting for you to use if you want.

Direct updates

Andrew avatar
Shared by Andrew β€’ July 24, 2024

Mid-term taxes for Basic

We've added an optional length of stay parameter to Direct Basic taxes. If sales or lodging taxes in your area no longer apply on bookings over a certain duration, you can now specify that threshold so Hospitable knows to remove the taxes. Direct Basic taxes are managed in Preferences < Taxes.

Payment Terms for Basic

We expanded our new Payment Terms feature to all Direct Basic beta hosts on Monday. We're monitoring the performance and will finish rolling out to all Direct Basic hosts soon. The feature is already available to all Premium hosts.
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We enable payment terms by default, but Hospitable can only offer guests multiple payments if you have a cancellation policy with sufficiently spaced refundable checkpoints. Read more or jump to your booking policy manager to manage your settings.

Direct site photos

We solved a weird issue with the photos we pull in from Airbnb listings. Some hosts were seeing their accessibility photos synced to the top of their images. If you deleted the photos or changed the sort order, it would get written over on the next. We finally got to the bottom of it and fixed the issue.

New feature

Payment terms for Direct bookings

Andrew avatar
Shared by Andrew β€’ July 15, 2024

Guests on qualifying Direct Premium reservations now have the option, at no additional cost, to pay in up to three installments. This should really help improve conversions on large bookings and long lead times.

We will be extending the feature to Direct Basic over the next two weeks.

How does it work?

Based on your booking policy, the booking amount, and the lead time of the reservation, Hospitable may offer the guest the option to pay in two or three payments, instead of one upfront payment.

Booking policies is the new home for cancellation policies and payment terms, as they are related. We've enabled payment terms by default, but Hospitable can only offer guests multiple payments if you have a cancellation policy with sufficiently spaced refundable checkpoints. Read more or jump to your booking policy manager to manage your settings.

Improvement

Sharing images in the inbox

Andrew avatar
Shared by Andrew β€’ July 11, 2024

All Hospitable hosts can now share images with guests from the inbox on all channels. Share multiple images in a single message, max 5MB per image.

We offer several methods to upload an image:

  • Copy and paste in the Inbox text field
  • Drag and drop from your desktop
  • Tap/click the πŸ“Ž icon to use the file picker
  • Use your phone's camera

Images can behave differently depending on the channel. If images are not supported at the current stage of a reservation, the πŸ“Ž attachment icon will be hidden.

  • Airbnb - images disabled until the booking is confirmed; send images with or without accompanying text
  • Booking.com - images disabled until the booking is confirmed
  • VRBO - images allowed at all stages
  • Direct/Manual - send images as email attachments at any stage of the booking; message text is required

While working on image sharing, we found a bug that was causing images shared by VRBO guests not to be displayed in the Inbox. This has been fixed.

New feature

AI review suggestions for Airbnb guests

Anmol avatar
Shared by Anmol β€’ June 06, 2024

This feature will suggest potential 1-5 star reviews and private feedback for your Airbnb guests when they check out, based on your conversation with them, in the Inbox.

This does not affect your Review rules configuration. If you active review rules, Hospitable will continue to use a random 5-star review template from your account.

New
Improvement

Direct updates

Andrew avatar
Shared by Andrew β€’ May 23, 2024

Guest Portal

Our new guest portal is live for all Direct reservations! The initial version is an online itinerary manager for guests, making sure they can find your property, see the house rules, contact you, and cancel, if needed. Video and details here. We're super excited about the guest portal and look forward to adding lots of new features in the future.

Guest vetting on custom quotes

Custom quotes for Direct Premium hosts will no longer require returning guests, who have already gone through Autohost once, to re-verify. You'll see a new Guest verification field on the custom quote screen that will let you know if we have a previous verification on file for the guest. More about custom quotes.

Property search improvements

Although the Direct property search widget supports a maximum length of stay of 90 days, it was possible to select more than 90 days. We now make that limitation clear to the guest when selecting dates.

For any host who has a property with a maximum guest count of one, we now set the default guest count in the property search widget to one instead of two.

Tax updates (Premium)

We implemented the New York "bungalow exemption" so that state and county sales tax are no longer collected on transactions.

Ohio state sales tax is no longer collected on transactions.

Other fixes and improvements

There was an issue with the request money feature for Direct Premium hosts in Australia. This has been fixed.

We added an email spellchecker and other checks to prevent a typo from blocking us from communicating with guests.

New feature

AI review suggestions for Beta users

Anmol avatar
Shared by Anmol β€’ May 17, 2024

If you have your Hospitable preferences enabled for beta features, you now have early access to our new feature, AI review suggestions for Airbnb.

This feature will suggest potential 1-5 star reviews and private feedback for your Airbnb guests when they check out, based on the conversation you've had with them, in the Inbox.

New feature

Reply to reviews from your Airbnb guests in the Inbox

Anmol avatar
Shared by Anmol β€’ April 10, 2024

You now have access to our newest feature, Guest reviews for Airbnb.

This feature will allow you to reply to reviews from your Airbnb guests in the Inbox. What's more is that Hospitable will craft a reply for you with the help of AI, so you can just click the 'Submit' button and you're good to go.

New feature
Update

πŸ”“Device Dashboard live for all users + Expanded lock support!

Alyssa avatar
Shared by Alyssa β€’ April 02, 2024

Our highly anticipated Device Dashboard is now available to all users!

With this feature-packed dashboard, managing your smart locks has never been easier. Here's what you can expect:

  • Comprehensive View: Keep track of reservation access codes, monitor first usage, and check battery status.
  • Access Management: Create manual 'operations' codes, edit/delete codes, and easily lock/unlock devices.
  • Custom Notifications: Stay informed when a guest arrives, a battery is low, or there's an issue that requires your attention with personalized notifications.
  • Seamless Setup: Streamlined setup process and settings management in the unified Setup page.

Check out our Device Dashboard Walkthrough article to get a full rundown of the new feature.


We are also delighted to announce an expansion in our supported locks!

Check out the full updated list here.

Remember, all locks must have a keypad or connected keypad accessory to be supported, and be connected to wifi. Here are some highlights:

  • Yale App: Yale Linus Smart Lock L2, Yale Assure Lock 2, and more.
  • SmartThings App: All connected SmartThings locks are supported via the integration.
  • Nuki: Nuki Smart Lock 4.0 Pro

Stay tuned for more updates and features!