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

Weekly product updates

Alan avatar
Shared by Alan β€’ January 31, 2025

Exciting releases for anyone using smart devices and our Knowledge Hub! Also, great updates for Direct users to make your tax season a little easier!

Smart Devices

Smart Thermostats public launched 🌑

  • Any user can now connect their smart thermostats to Hospitable
  • Stay eco-friendly and maximize guest comfort with automatic temperature presets
  • Take this interactive tour or watch this video for more information

Add more smart devices for FREE πŸ†“

  • Pro now includes 2 devices (up from 1)
  • Mogul now includes 4 devices (up from 2)
  • Devices include smart locks and thermostats

AI

Added resources making Knowledge Hub smarter 🧠

  • Generated from Property Details and Message History
  • You no longer need to upload a PDF or connect to Touch Stay to enrich your Knowledge Hub
  • It's recommended to still add a PDF or connect to Touch Stay to provide as much data as possible for the best results

Direct

You can now download your 1099-K forms πŸ“‘

  • The forms include your annual and monthly earnings for the 2024 tax year
  • If we've generated a 1099-K form for you, you'll see a button in the earning reports section under Direct > Taxes
  • Download the form straight from our vendor, Track1099, for your safekeeping
  • You have until February 28 to report any corrections to Hospitable
  • We will finalize and file the forms on March 31
  • You can read more information in our help article here

Apple Pay and Google Pay πŸ’³

  • Both payment options are now available for Direct Basic users

Owner Statements

Changed wording from "Property Manager" to "Manager" ☝️

  • Some states do not allow the use of the term "Property Manager" without certain credentials
  • This will allow everyone to be able to share invoices and statements with their owners

Rental Agreements

Send a message when requesting an agreement πŸ’¬

  • You'll be prompted to write a message to your guest when manually requesting a signature
  • The message will include the Guest Portal link directing them to sign the agreement

Availability and Calendar

iCal bookings can now be edited πŸ“†

  • You can now edit reservation financials and guest details like any other booking
  • Property and dates can not be edited
  • You can learn more bout iCal feed bookings in this help article

API

Property webhooks update πŸ”—

  • You'll now be sent webhooks when properties are created, updated, deleted, and merged
  • This ensures you always have the latest property and reservation information
  • The webhooks can be configured from within the partner portal
  • You can read more about it in our help article

Integrations

ChargeAutomation πŸ€–

  • We now have a detailed page dedicated to our ChargeAutomation integration
New feature
Feature update

Weekly product updates

Alan avatar
Shared by Alan β€’ January 24, 2025

We have a lot of updates for Direct this week, including supporting hosts with their 2024 taxes. We're excited about updates to Owner Statements, iCal imports, and much more!

Direct

2024 US Annual Earnings Reports are live πŸ“‘

  • Direct Premium hosts can access a PDF summary and CSV Annual Earnings Reports
  • These reports include all transactions paid out to the host by Hospitable in 2024
  • These will assist hosts with US tax filings and reconciling totals reported on the 1099-K forms
  • Check out these articles for details about the earnings reports and tax reporting for Direct
  • Watch the replay of our Direct Booking US Tax Q&A Webinar

Guest reviews for Direct ⭐

  • After check-out, you can review your guests
  • You'll see a button in the thread to trigger an email where you can leave your review
  • If you don't recommend a guest, they won't be able to instant book anymore
  • In your message thread, you'll see how many Hospitable hosts have recommended a guest

Manage your Direct booking sites more easily 🌐

  • Quickly delete a custom or self-hosted site you no longer need in the site's view and edit page

Better guest booking experience 🧾

  • Guests will now see their reservation code included on their bank statement

AI

Sentiment analysis and detection are more intuitive πŸ’‘

  • When a label is generated on a thread, you'll see a card asking to cancel the scheduled review requests or not
  • The card will appear if you haven’t dismissed it and if you have scheduled review requests
  • You'll see the label under the reservation tab

Owner Statements

New recurrence type for transactions πŸ—“

  • You can now add a 'per reservation' recurring transactions
  • When a new reservation comes in for the scoped property, a transaction will be automatically added
  • A great example would be if you want to include a gift basket for all your guests

Statements are displayed and calculated better πŸ“†

  • Adjustments are added to the month the booking happened, not when the adjustment occurred
  • The statement's wording is more concise and easier to digest

Availability and Calendar

iCal now supports more booking channels 🏷

  • You can now import iCals from Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, and Agoda
  • This allows you to sync some bookings you may not have full access to, like if you're taking over management of someone's listings
  • You can read a more detailed explanation of iCal imports in our help article

Mobile App

New location for chat support πŸ“²

  • You now reach chat support by going to Help > Contact

Android app update release (v 1.0.10) πŸ”ƒ

  • You can now pull down on any screen to do a basic refresh of the page

Inbox

Better visibility to new messages in the thread πŸ”

  • Keep the most recent messages visible as the new message container grows

HVAC icons for thermostats have been added 🌑

  • The thermostat schedule details are shown directly in the conversation view

Integrations

Clearing πŸ“’

  • We now have a detailed page dedicated to our Clearing integration
New

2024 Annual Earnings Reports Now Available for Direct Premium

Abby avatar
Shared by Abby β€’ January 20, 2025

Tax season is here! To help you prepare, we have generated Annual Earnings Reports for 2024 for all Direct Premium users.

The Annual Earnings Report includes all transactions paid out to you by Hospitable in a given calendar year. For each year, you will have a summary PDF report and detailed CSV report for your account, and for each of your payout methods. You can access the Annual Earnings Report here.

If you are based in the US and eligible to receive a form 1099-K from Hospitable, you will receive it by January 31st.

Have questions about the report or US income tax reporting? Join our US Tax Q&A webinar tomorrow, January 21 at 9 AM PT/ 12 PM ET. Register here.

More details can be found here:

Annual Earnings Report (Direct Premium)

Income Tax Reporting for Direct


​

New feature
Feature update

Weekly product updates

Alan avatar
Shared by Alan β€’ January 18, 2025

We are tackling the new year with some great improvements! Everything from Mogul features to the mobile app, we are excited to keep developing the product for you!

Owner Statements

Recurring transactions are live for Mogul users πŸ”

  • Create recurring transactions that show on your Owner Statements
  • These transactions can be weekly, like a pool cleaning service, monthly, like a trash fee, or for every booked night, like a resort fee charged to the owner
  • Read this help article for a more detailed explanation of recurring transactions

Rental Agreements

Searching and sorting agreements πŸ”Ž

  • Search for an agreement by guest and agreement names or reservation codes
  • Agreements are sorted by the check-in date

AI

More intuitive review suggestions ⭐️

  • It will appear as a recent message in the conversation thread, the same as reviews scheduled by "Review rules" in GX

Internal testing has begun for sentiment analysis πŸ’‘

  • Conversations will be labeled in the inbox when a concern is detected from the guest
  • If an issue is detected in a conversation, any scheduled review requests for that thread will be canceled

Guest Verification

Resolve address and postcode issues 🏠

  • We have improved the way we accept addresses and postal codes for guests
  • This will make sure guests can finish the verification and check-in without any issues

Mobile App

iOS pull to refresh the page πŸ“²

  • Refresh the page by pulling down on any screen on the iOS app
  • The Android app will soon follow in the next week

Mobile inbox layout improvements πŸ“¨

  • Improvements with the spacing in the headers to make the mobile inbox easier to navigate

Upsells

Users can now delete offerings πŸ—‘

  • After creating new upsell products, like early check-outs, you're now able to delete them if you don't want to include them

Integrations

VRPlatform πŸ“’

  • We now have a detailed page dedicated to our VRPlatform integration

Rankbreeze 🏘

  • We now have a detailed page dedicated to our Rankbreeze integration

TIDY 🧹

StayFi πŸ›œ

  • We now have a detailed page dedicated to our StayFi integration

New feature
Feature update

Weekly product updates

Alan avatar
Shared by Alan β€’ January 10, 2025

We're hitting the ground running in 2025 with some great updates that'll save you time and help you manage your guest experience!

Calendar

iCal imports available to all users πŸ—“

  • You can now import any booking channel's iCal feed to Hospitable and we'll block those reservation dates on your calendar
  • This is exciting news for anyone who uses other booking channels to collect reservations, like Expedia, Tripadvisor, HipCamp, Houfy, and many more
  • You can read a detailed explanation of this in our help center article

Rental Agreements

Improved navigation for managing agreements 🧭

  • There are now tabs organizing Templates, Pending Agreements, and Signed Agreements to help you quickly take action
  • When you click on an agreement, it will direct you to the booking conversation
  • Take an interactive tour of Rental Agreements

Agreements in a 'Pending' status can be removed ✏️

  • After clicking on your pending agreement, you'll see a 'Remove Agreement' button that will revoke it from the booking
  • This can be accessed from within the Inbox or the Rental Agreements page under Guest Experience

Direct

Easier booking on Google Vacation Rentals πŸ“–

  • Guests visiting your site from Google Vacation Rentals will be scrolled straight to your booking widget to help them purchase quicker

Smart Devices

New connection flow for smart thermostats 🌑

  • While connecting your thermostats to Hospitable, you can now easily set the temperature ranges for your presets
  • Take an interactive tour of smart thermostats

Integrations

Remove vendor access to integrations βœ‚οΈ

  • You can now revoke a third-party vendor's access to your integrations under the Connected Apps page

API and Connect

Parent and child data points available in API 🏘

  • Vendors using our API can now easily see which properties are linked together in a parent and child configuration
New feature
Feature update

Weekly product updates

Alan avatar
Shared by Alan β€’ January 03, 2025

Welcome to the new year! We are excited for 2025 and to bring you some awesome features in the coming months, including the ones below!

Direct

Guests booking Direct can choose distance units πŸ“

  • Before, hosts would choose whether to display kilometers or miles on their Direct site
  • We realized this should be on the guest's side to help them book accordingly
  • Now, guests can toggle between kilometers and miles when searching for a property to stay

Pricing and Availability

Specific alterations weren't reflected on calendar πŸ—“οΈ

  • This applies when a guest's stay shortens from a check-out in the future to a check-out during the current day
  • The reservation sync was not getting triggered because the booking was being considered in the past
  • This is now fixed so that going forward, in similar scenarios, all future dates will be re-opened as expected on the calendar

Day-of-week rules overrode date-specific ones πŸ“†

  • Previously, when hosts set the check-in or check-out restrictions using day-of-week, we relied on Airbnb to resolve the calendar state
  • It turns out that Airbnb was overriding them with the day-of-week restrictions availability rule if such was set
  • We want manual check-in or check-out restrictions to take priority over the day-of-week restrictions
  • Now we are projecting the calendar state on our end instead of relying on Airbnb
  • For those involved, we've run a calendar re-sync to reflect the changes
  • Moving forward, no one should treat Airbnb availability settings as the source of truth as we are no longer keeping them fully in sync

Calendar

Calendar-restricted properties updated rules sync πŸ›‘

  • In some instances, we were keeping the availability settings synced among the listings of the same property
  • A host on the old connection could change an availability setting on Airbnb and it would be copied to other listings under the same property
  • They'd have to change it back, then proceed to "fix" the rules for other listings
  • We're no longer syncing availability settings for calendar-restricted properties

Owner Statements

Edit unpublished transactions ✍️

  • Hosts can now edit unpublished transactions on the owner's statement
  • Now, anything that is possible during creation is also available on edit, such as adding new lines, updating existing lines, removing lines, changing attachments, etc...

Secondary users unable to publish statements πŸ’³

  • Secondary users with full access kept seeing an error when trying to publish an owner statement
  • Now, as long as the secondary user has access, they will be able to publish owner statements

Integrations

Updated Minut integration page πŸ”ˆ

Updated Chekin integration page 🏫

API and Connect

Added β€œnights” attribute to reservation response 🌚

  • This attribute didn't seem to make it during the transition from API V1 to V2
  • It has now been added back in to make the migration easier for users

Our API upgrade guide has been updated πŸ—ΊοΈ

  • We've collected feedback that it was confusing to follow, especially for less technical users
  • The API upgrade guide has now been re-written to be more of a step-by-step guide and includes more detail

General

Victoria, Australia Short Stay Levy Update πŸ‡¦πŸ‡Ί

  • We've updated how the levy is calculated to be compliant with the latest guidelines and examples from the Victoria State Revenue Office
  • The guest service fee will now be included in the taxable amount
  • Accordingly, the levy itself should also be included in the taxable amount
  • To account for this and ensure the correct 7.5% levy is collected, we'll calculate it as 8.11% of the pre-levy total
  • We'll start collecting the tax for new bookings starting January 1st
  • You can read more in this detailed help article
New feature
Feature update

Weekly product updates

Alan avatar
Shared by Alan β€’ December 28, 2024

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 πŸ’³

  • 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 πŸ”

  • 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 πŸ”­

  • 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 πŸ“

  • 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:

Inbox

Better messaging when a guest sends an image πŸ–Ό

  • 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 πŸ“†

  • Hosts could only enable the β€œAllow 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
New feature
Feature update

Weekly product updates

Alan avatar
Shared by Alan β€’ December 20, 2024

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 πŸ”•

  • 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 πŸ“£

  • 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 πŸ–‹

  • 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 πŸ“†

  • 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 πŸ—“

  • 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 πŸ“Š

  • 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 πŸ“

  • 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 πŸ“‡

  • 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 πŸ–₯

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

Inbox

New Inbox thread user interface for all users πŸ“¨

  • 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 πŸ“€

  • 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
Improvement

Improved Inbox Experience

Andrew avatar
Shared by Andrew β€’ December 17, 2024

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.

New feature
Feature update

Weekly product updates

Alan avatar
Shared by Alan β€’ December 14, 2024

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.
​

Calendar

Edit check-in and check-out for reserved days πŸ“†

  • 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 πŸ’³

  • 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% πŸ–‹

  • 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 πŸ’Έ

  • 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 βš’

  • 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