Latest News from the Hospitable.com team
New

πŸ’³ Latest Direct updates

Andrew avatar
Shared by Andrew β€’ September 27, 2023

Ad hoc refunds

Both Premium and Basic hosts can now choose to return any portion of a booking to the guest, up to fourteen days after the reservation ends. Click the Send or request money button from the Inbox inner sidebar and enter an amount to refund. See details.

Ad hoc payment requests are coming next.

Legacy sites and widgets

We recently discontinued support for Hospitable sites that don't have an active Direct plan.

We also will be winding down support for our legacy widgets soon. We have updated the URLs on our new widgets so that we can customize widget color schemes and, in the future, track your conversion rates. Check out this article for instructions on how to update your widget.

Instant Book for Basic

We recently extended our Instant Book feature to Direct Basic reservations.

We also added an optional "last-minute" condition that all Direct customers can use to disable Instant Book if the booking is within X days of check-in.

Payout History page

We completely remade the Payout History page, which now displays your current balance, and for Premium users, your payouts in the last 30 days and upcoming 30 days. Each reservation can be expanded to reveal any alterations, refunds, and adjustments. We now display the property name and other reservation data, and you can click on the reservation ID to open the conversation in the Inbox.

Property < Direct tab

There's now a super helpful Direct section on each property page. After selecting a property, click on Direct in the inner sidebar to get quick access to the property's site and widget links, the cancellation policy, the payout method, active promo codes, and, for Premium customers, the current tax rates.

Fees pulled from Airbnb

We fixed an issue with how we were pulling percentage-based fees from Airbnb for management, community and resort fees. Specifically, if you had a percentage fee set, we were saving it in Hospitable as a fixed fee (eg. $3 instead of 3%). This would only have impacted your Direct price calculation.

Improvement

Decreased unexpected logouts πŸ”‘

Emily avatar
Shared by Emily β€’ September 27, 2023

Have you ever been on the go when you received a mobile notification from Hospitable, only to realize you're asked to log in... again?

Previously if any user on an account changed their password, everyone on that account would be forcefully logged out of Hospitable, even the users who didn't change their password. This was especially impactful for accounts with several secondary users. Now, these security logouts are user-based, not account-based, so if a user changes their password, only the user who changed their password will be logged out on other devices, but the rest of the users on that account will remain logged in.

We have our eyes on a few more improvements to prevent these forced logouts while still maintaining high security standards.

Improvement

πŸ”’ Backup code messages will only be displayed in scheduled messages if they are sent

Alyssa avatar
Shared by Alyssa β€’ September 22, 2023

We've addressed the confusion surrounding smart lock backup code messages. Previously, it appeared as if these messages were always scheduled to be sent.

We've now cleared this up, and you will only see backup code messages in your messaging logs if they are actually sent!

New feature

πŸ”’ Igloo + Nuki Smart Locks: Private Beta Launch

Alyssa avatar
Shared by Alyssa β€’ September 15, 2023

We're launching support for the Igloo and Nuki lock apps to select usersπŸŽ‰

If you want early access to these integrations as a beta tester, let us know by applying to part of the test group!

Product update

βœ‰οΈ Booking.com Messaging Improvement

Alyssa avatar
Shared by Alyssa β€’ September 15, 2023

We have updated our Booking.com integration, which gives us several new capabilities!

What's New :

  • We can now receive all messages sent by your the guest, even those sent via the Booking.com mobile app or SMS messaging.
  • You're now able to send / receive attachments in Booking.com messages.
  • We will import all messages for reservations that existed before connecting your Booking.com account to Hospitable.
  • Adding a special request contact during account connection is no longer required.

This also resolves some messaging issues experienced by users who already have a connected booking.com account.

New feature

πŸ—“οΈ Color-coded calendars

Andrew avatar
Shared by Andrew β€’ August 24, 2023

Based on popular demand, we now color reservations based on the booking channel. This feature was available briefly on an opt-in basis. We got such good feedback from hosts that we have now updated it for everyone.

If you're curious, we used Airbnb's secondary color teal, instead of pink, because the pink was not working. Trust us.

Feature update
Product update

Color-coded calendar, Direct subscription updates, Buffers and more...

Andrew avatar
Shared by Andrew β€’ August 16, 2023

πŸ“† Color-coded calendar

Have you updated your Hospitable calendar with the new channel color scheme? Based on popular demand, we now color reservations based on the booking channel.
Because change can be scary, we let you control the update by clicking the Try Now button at the bottom of your calendar. If you're curious, we used Airbnb's secondary color teal, instead of pink, because the pink was not working. Trust us.

πŸ’³ Direct sites and widgets will require a Direct subscription

From September 15th, we require an active Basic, Premium, or Lite subscription to have a published Direct site or booking widget. Direct Lite is a new option for customers in markets that are not supported by Stripe.

πŸ”“ Set buffers in minutes

Smart lock buffers can now be set in minutes, in addition to hours. Buffers are useful to add a little bit of cushion before and after a check-in or check-out time, so that if a guest arrives a few minutes early, or checks out a few minutes late they can still use their code. You can set a buffer you're comfortable with in Settings > Smart locks.

✈️ FlightAware cancelled

We had an integration with FlightAware that wasn't delivering a lot of value. In the interest of removing distractions and focusing on things that matter, we have removed the integration from our Apps page.

New
Improvement

Direct updates, a Wix Fix, and more...

Emily avatar
Shared by Emily β€’ August 03, 2023

↕️ Drag-and-drop properties to change their position on your Direct site

You told us you wanted to rearrange the order that your Properties display on your Direct sites, and we heard you πŸ™Œ You can now drag-and-drop properties on your site's Properties page, and that new order will be reflected on your Direct site.

Properties work just like images which you can drag-and-drop in your Property details to change the appearance of your Direct site.

πŸ“‹ House Rules on Direct sites

When prospective guests are making a Direct booking, they'll have the chance to review your House Rules during the booking flow. We've added them in the footer along with your Cancellation Policy and, for Direct Premium users, our Terms of Service. Soon we'll require guests to accept your house rules before completing their booking. House Rules are pulled from your Airbnb listing and can be edited from the Property Details page.

πŸŽ‰ A fix for Wix Direct sites!

The time has come! You can now embed a Direct Widget on your custom Wix site.

🏦 Where did that payout go?

If you added several Direct Premium payout methods, it was difficult to differentiate between them. While you can give each payout method a nickname, it was hard to confirm which bank account they payout to, so we've fixed that by displaying the last four digits of your bank account number on the Payout Methods page.


Improvements

πŸ“† 'Calendar restricted' tag when Vrbo is connected to another PMS

When your Vrbo channel or listing is connected to another PMS, Hospitable does not interact with the Vrbo calendar. We're now making that more clear by displaying a 'Calendar restricted' tag next to any Vrbo channel or listing connected to another PMS. If you see this tag, Hospitable does not manage the calendar on that channel or listing.


Fix

  • πŸ”’ The Property access panel wasn't properly showing for secondary users even when they had permissions to view the Inbox. We've fixed that, so those users with Inbox permission can now see smart lock codes and their statuses!
Update

Product updates now right here in News!

Emily avatar
Shared by Emily β€’ August 03, 2023

We're moving all product updates right here in News so you can quickly and easily view a log of new features and improvements without ever leaving Hospitable πŸŽ‰

To view changelog's published before this move, you can view them at changelog-archived.hospitable.com.

Happy hosting πŸ’œ