Frequently Asked Questions

Yes! Click the "Try Demo" button in the navigation bar on any page to instantly explore a fully interactive demo — no account or credit card required. The demo includes a pre-populated property with bookings, guests, invoices, and more. It resets every hour, and your demo session expires when you close your browser so you'll always see the sign-up page when you return.

HostMoat is an all-in-one vacation rental management platform built specifically for independent property owners with 1-5 properties. It brings together calendar sync, booking management, financial tracking, invoicing, contracts, cleaner coordination, and tax tools in one dashboard.

The Starter plan gives you a full dashboard, calendar, manual booking entry, guest CRM with auto-tags, unified inbox, booking log, yearly summary, gap detector, seasonal heatmap, lead source analytics, base rate & cleaning fee setup, seasonal pricing rules, weekend premium surcharges, an embeddable availability calendar, 1 iCal import feed, cancellation tracking, CSV exports, booking widget, commission tracking, and platform credentials vault — all for one property, forever free.

Click "Get Started Free" and enter your email. We'll send you a magic link to sign in — no password needed. You can start using HostMoat immediately after creating your account.

No. The free Starter plan requires no credit card. You only need a card if you choose to upgrade to a paid plan.

Yes. Every new account starts with a 30-day Pro trial — full access to all features, no credit card required. You can explore all Pro features and cancel before the trial ends if it's not for you.

HostMoat connects to your Airbnb, VRBO, and Booking.com calendar feeds via iCal URLs. It automatically imports bookings and keeps your availability up to date across platforms, checking for changes every 2 hours. During sync, HostMoat also extracts guest details (name, phone, email, guest count, and confirmation codes) from the iCal DESCRIPTION field and automatically creates guest profiles in the Guest CRM. Learn more about Calendar Sync.

Absolutely. HostMoat is designed to work alongside your existing platform listings. It syncs your bookings from those platforms so you have a unified view, while you continue to receive bookings through Airbnb, VRBO, and direct.

HostMoat syncs calendars every 2 hours and exports your availability back to platforms. This significantly reduces double-booking risk. For best results, also set up direct iCal connections between Airbnb and VRBO as a backup.

Email import lets you forward Airbnb booking confirmation, update, and cancellation emails to a unique per-property address (e.g., [email protected]). HostMoat extracts guest name, revenue/payout, nightly rate, host service fee, cleaning fee, guest count, confirmation code, and reservation URL. It matches to existing bookings by confirmation code, then guest name + dates, then date overlap — or creates a new booking. For "Reservation updated" emails, financial data is overwritten with the new values. For cancellation emails, the matching booking is automatically cancelled and the revenue is updated to the cancellation payout amount. Currently supports Airbnb only; VRBO and Booking.com coming soon.

Step 1: In Gmail, go to Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP. Click "Add a forwarding address" and enter your HostMoat property email (e.g., [email protected]). Gmail sends a verification email — HostMoat automatically forwards it to your inbox so you can click the confirmation link. Important: after confirming, hard refresh Gmail (Ctrl+Shift+R or Cmd+Shift+R) — the new address won't appear in filter options until you do. Step 2: Create three separate filters (Gmail does not support OR in the Subject field within a single filter): Filter 1 — New bookings: From "[email protected]", Subject "Reservation confirmed". Set action to forward to your HostMoat address. Filter 2 — Booking updates: From "[email protected]", Subject "Reservation updated". Set action to forward to your HostMoat address. Filter 3 — Cancellations: From "[email protected]", Subject "Canceled". Set action to forward to your HostMoat address. Tip: find an existing Airbnb email of each type, click the three-dot menu > "Filter messages like these" to create each filter more easily.

Yes. Both free and paid plans support manual booking entry. You can add direct bookings, phone reservations, or any booking from a platform not connected via iCal.

Go to Settings and click "+ Add Property" at the top of the Property card. You can add properties up to your plan's limit (1 for Starter/Pro, 5 for Pro 5, 10 for Pro 10). Switch between properties using the dropdown in the sidebar.

HostMoat provides an embeddable calendar widget you can add to your own website. It shows real-time availability pulled from your HostMoat calendar, and guests can submit booking inquiries directly through it. You can also toggle "Show nightly prices" to display per-night rates on each available day. If you have a Booking Site set up, enable the "Show 'Book Direct' link" option to add a styled button at the bottom of the calendar that links guests directly to your booking page (slug.hostmoat.com).

HostMoat offers five plans: Starter (free, 1 property — dashboard, calendar, guest CRM, 1 iCal import feed, seasonal pricing rules, weekend premium), Essential ($9/mo, 1 property — adds unlimited iCal sync, auto emails, inquiry auto-responder, email import, expense tracking with booking sync), Pro ($19/mo, 2 properties — adds contracts, invoicing, staff, tax tools, and more), Pro 5 ($39/mo, up to 5 properties), and Pro 10 ($59/mo, up to 10 properties). All paid plans include a 30-day free trial.

Every new account starts with a 30-day Pro trial — full access to all features, no credit card required. After 30 days, you'll be moved to the free Starter plan. Your data stays safe and you can upgrade anytime to unlock Pro features again.

Essential is for hosts who want to automate their rental with iCal sync, automatic emails, and expense tracking. Pro adds the full business toolkit: contracts with e-signatures, invoicing with Stripe payments, pre-arrival guest forms, staff and cleaner management, Schedule E tax export, compliance tracking, and more. Pro also supports 2 properties instead of 1.

No contracts. All paid plans are month-to-month and you can cancel anytime. Your data stays yours.

You'll be moved to the free Starter plan. You keep your data and dashboard access, but advanced features like iCal sync, CRM, and tax tools require a Pro subscription.

Yes. You can upgrade or downgrade at any time through your account settings. Changes take effect at the start of your next billing period.

Paid plans are billed monthly via Stripe. You can manage your subscription, update payment methods, and view invoices through the Stripe billing portal accessible from your account settings.

Create professional invoices and send them directly to guests via email. Guests pay through a secure portal using credit card or ACH bank transfer via Stripe. You can set up automatic reminders for unpaid invoices so you never have to chase payments manually. When creating an invoice, you can also enable "Track my cost" to log what you paid a vendor for the service as a separate expense. If the cost differs from the invoice amount, HostMoat shows your markup so you can see your profit at a glance.\n\nVoiding invoices: Sent, viewed, or overdue invoices can be voided (cancelled) using the Void button in the action column. Voided invoices are preserved for your records and can be filtered using the dedicated Voided status tab.\n\nPayment tracking: Stripe payments are tracked automatically when guests pay online. For payments received offline (cash, check, wire transfer), use the "Mark Paid" button to record the payment. Paid invoices display either a "Stripe" or "Offline" badge so you can see at a glance how each invoice was settled.

Yes — when you create an invoice, it's automatically emailed to the guest. There's no draft stage. Staff members can opt in to receive email notifications when invoices are created, paid, or voided. Configure this in Staff settings under Notification Preferences.

Create reusable contract templates with merge fields that auto-fill guest details. Send contracts via email — guests view and e-sign through a secure portal. You can optionally require a payment method on file for incidentals — toggle "Require payment method on file" when sending the contract. When enabled, guests must save a card via Stripe during signing; when disabled, they sign without entering payment details.

Yes! When sending a contract, check the "Auto-create invoices on signing" box, then enter the deposit amount and balance due date. When the guest signs, a deposit invoice is sent immediately and the balance invoice is scheduled to send automatically before its due date. You can configure how many days before the due date the balance invoice sends in the Invoice Reminder Settings.

When you send a contract with 'Require payment method on file' toggled on, the guest must save a credit card or bank account during signing. When this is toggled off, the guest signs without entering any payment details. The card is stored securely via Stripe and is never visible to you. After the guest checks out, you can charge the saved card directly from the Contracts page for any damages or incidentals. The guest receives an email receipt for each charge.

Yes. When adding or editing a transaction in the Expenses page, select the associated booking from the dropdown. Linked expenses appear on the booking detail view alongside revenue, giving you a clear picture of per-booking net profit. This is useful for tracking cleaning costs, supply purchases, or any other booking-specific expense.

When creating a new invoice, you can enable "Track my cost for this service" to automatically log an expense for what you paid the vendor. For example, if you invoice a guest $200 for a chef service but your cost was $150, HostMoat records the $150 expense and shows your $50 markup. This keeps your expense tracking in sync with your invoicing without manual double entry.

Go to Finance > Commissions to set up commission rules with agent names and percentage rates. When you create or edit a booking, the Agent field becomes a dropdown with your configured agents. Selecting an agent automatically calculates the commission amount as the rule's rate times the rental amount. You can manually override the calculated amount if needed. If you change the rental amount with an agent selected, the commission recalculates automatically.

Open Finance > Commissions and go to the Payouts tab. Bookings with a commission are grouped by agent and split into Owed and Paid. Click "Mark paid" on a single booking when you settle it, or use "Mark all paid" to bulk-clear an agent's entire outstanding balance after you cut them a check. The top stat cards show total outstanding, total paid, and total accrued. Toggle "Show paid bookings" to see history. Marking a booking unpaid restores it to the owed list.

The Commission column now only shows referral commissions you've assigned via an agent. It used to fall back to the Airbnb/VRBO platform fee when no commission was set, which was misleading. Platform fees are still deducted from your net profit — they just live on their own line now (visible in the Profitability P&L and the booking detail popover). A green checkmark next to a commission means it's been marked paid; a yellow dot means it's still owed.

Go to the Pricing tab in the sidebar. The Base Rate card at the top shows your current nightly rate, cleaning fee, and weekend premium. Click the Edit button on that card to update any of these values. The nightly rate is your default per-night price for all dates not covered by a seasonal rule. The cleaning fee is added once per booking. The weekend premium is a percentage surcharge (e.g., 20%) that automatically applies on top of your rate for Friday and Saturday nights.

When you open the Base Rate editor (Pricing tab → Edit on the Base Rate card), HostMoat automatically analyzes your last 12 months of bookings and shows a suggestion banner with three recommended values: a nightly rate with a 5% inflation uplift over your historical average, a cleaning fee based on your historical average cleaning fee, and a weekend premium of at least 10%. Click "Apply Suggested Rates" to fill in all three fields at once — you can still adjust any value before saving. The banner only appears when there is sufficient booking history; it won't show for new properties with no past bookings.

Go to the Pricing tab and scroll to the Pricing Rules section. Click "+ Add Rule" (or "Add First Rule" if you have none yet). Give the rule a name (e.g., "Summer Peak"), set a start and end date, enter the nightly rate for that period, and optionally set a minimum stay. Click Save. The rule immediately applies to bookings and inquiries that fall within those dates.

The system prevents overlapping date ranges. If you try to save a rule whose dates conflict with an existing rule, you'll see an error and the save will be blocked. You must adjust the dates so no two rules cover the same night. This ensures every night has an unambiguous price.

HostMoat analyzes your booking history, holiday calendars (US and Mexico), and seasonal patterns to suggest optimal rates. Each suggestion shows estimated revenue impact and confidence level. Click "Apply" on any recommendation to instantly create a pricing rule with those dates and rate. Once a rule is active, the recommendation card updates to show an ACTIVE badge with Edit and Remove buttons so you can adjust or delete the rule without leaving the recommendations view.

The Price Calendar is a tab on the Pricing page that shows a scrollable date grid with all your properties as rows and dates as columns. Each cell displays the effective nightly rate for that property on that date, color-coded by status: green for available, red for booked, blue for pricing rule overrides, and yellow for weekend premium rates. A vacancy row at the top shows how many properties are available each day. Use the navigation buttons to scroll by week or month. It's the fastest way to see your entire pricing picture across all properties at a glance.

The Demand Calendar is a 12-month color-coded heat map on the Market Intelligence tab (Pricing page) showing demand scores from 1 to 10 for every date. Green indicates low demand, yellow is moderate, and red is high. Click any date to see the breakdown of factors driving its score and create a pricing rule directly from there.

The Pricing Health score is a 0-100 rating that measures how well your pricing rules cover high-demand dates and whether your occupancy is trending upward. A score above 70 is solid. The score includes a specific recommended action to improve it, such as adding a rule for an uncovered holiday weekend or adjusting a rate for an underperforming period.

We combine multiple sources: your own booking history (primary), aggregated market performance data covering 190+ countries, quarterly short-term rental datasets, lodging CPI data for seasonal trends and inflation tracking, and local event detection (sports, concerts, festivals, graduations). Data refreshes monthly.

If you have an Airbnb iCal feed connected, HostMoat automatically pulls your listing's performance data — including your trailing-twelve-month ADR, occupancy rate, annual revenue, RevPAR, and guest rating. This gives you a quick snapshot of how your listing is performing on Airbnb without leaving HostMoat. The data refreshes monthly alongside other market intelligence data.

Yes! We track major sports games, university graduations, and other demand-driving events near your property. Events with significant attendance are flagged as pricing opportunities with one-click rule creation.

Seasonal pricing lets you set date-range rules that automatically override your base nightly rate for specific periods — holidays, peak season, school breaks, or any custom window. Each rule has a start date, end date, and nightly rate. When a booking or inquiry falls within a rule's date range, that rule's rate is used for those nights instead of your base rate. Rules are configured in the Pricing tab. You can also set a minimum stay requirement per rule, which is enforced on your Direct Booking Site.

The weekend premium is a percentage surcharge that automatically applies to Friday and Saturday nights. Set it in the Base Rate card on the Pricing tab (for example, 20%) and every Friday and Saturday night in any booking calculation will be priced at that premium above whatever the applicable nightly rate is — base or seasonal. It's applied on top of seasonal pricing rules, so a Friday night in peak season gets both the seasonal rate and the weekend uplift.

When guests submit an inquiry or book through your Direct Booking Site, they see a detailed per-night breakdown showing exactly how their total is calculated. Each night lists the applicable rate — whether it's your base rate, a seasonal rule, or a weekend premium — so there are no surprises. For manual bookings, HostMoat auto-suggests a total based on the same pricing rules, which you can accept or override. The pricing calculation is: base rate → seasonal rule override (if applicable) → weekend premium on top → cleaning fee added once.

The Tax Center auto-maps your income and expenses to IRS Schedule E line items. It tracks depreciation, personal-use days, and calculates prorated deductions. It turns tax preparation from a week-long headache into a 10-minute export.

The Gap Detector scans your calendar for orphan nights (single unbooked nights between bookings), unbooked weekends, and seasonal dead zones. It calculates the estimated revenue you're leaving on the table and suggests actions.

Yes. Pro plans include team sharing — invite co-hosts, property managers, or partners with role-based access (viewer or manager). Managers can create, edit, and delete property data, including setting up the Direct Booking Site. Viewers have read-only access. You can configure seat limits per property.

The Staff page is the unified place for managing everyone on your team — cleaners, co-hosts, property managers, and any other staff. Add members with name, role, email, phone, notes, and cleaning rate. The Cleanings tab manages all cleaning tasks — turnover cleans, daily cleans, and deep cleans. The Templates tab lets you create per-property checklists. The Ratings & Bonuses tab shows per-staff-member guest ratings and bonuses in one table — when guests submit review forms with staff ratings, those scores automatically appear here. You can filter by staff member to see individual performance, and manually add bonuses via the "Add Bonus" button. Stat cards show average guest rating, total bonuses paid, and unpaid bonuses. Staff members can be given a portal link to view and complete their assigned cleanings, or invited to HostMoat for full app access.

You can configure 11 notification types per staff member: digest emails, pre-arrival form submitted, review form submitted, guest inquiry received, new booking created, booking cancellation, turnover assigned to them, turnover reminder (day before), low inventory alert, upsell request, and portal message. Notifications are managed per-staff from the Staff page — no longer from form settings.

When any booking is cancelled — whether manually, via iCal sync detecting a removal on Airbnb/VRBO, or any other way — HostMoat automatically sends a cancellation confirmation email to the guest (if a guest email is on file) and notifies staff members who have the "Booking Cancellations" notification preference enabled. Staff can toggle this preference on or off per person from the Staff page. The cancelled booking also appears on the Cancellations page for tracking.

Staff members with a portal link can access a no-login page showing their upcoming cleanings, including the cleaning type (turnover, daily, or deep clean). Turnover cleans include guest checkout/checkin details and guest counts. Staff can complete checklist items and upload photos from their phone. Assign the portal link from the Staff page. The Cleanings tab on the Staff page is where you create and manage all cleaning assignments.

Digest emails are customizable summary emails you can receive on any combination of days — daily, specific weekdays, or just once a week. Each digest includes upcoming check-ins and departures, calendar gaps in the next 30 days, turnovers this week, a 7-day occupancy rate with a visual progress bar, and week-over-week revenue trends with percentage change. You choose your schedule using day-of-week checkboxes (M T W T F S S) in Settings. Digests arrive at 9 AM in your timezone — pick your timezone from the dropdown in Alerts & Health → Email Preferences (auto-detected on first visit). Property members also receive digests, not just the property owner.

Yes. You can configure automatic emails for booking confirmations, pre-arrival details, checkout reminders, and post-stay review requests. Each template supports merge fields and can be triggered at specific times relative to check-in or checkout. You can toggle individual templates on or off with a quick switch in the Guest Emails sidebar — no need to delete templates you want to pause temporarily.

Yes. When HostMoat syncs bookings from Airbnb, VRBO, or Booking.com, it parses the iCal DESCRIPTION field to extract guest phone numbers, email addresses, guest counts, and confirmation codes. It then automatically creates or updates guest profiles in your Guest CRM and links them to the corresponding bookings. Guests are deduplicated by email first, then by name, so existing records are updated rather than duplicated. Manual edits you make to guest profiles are preserved on re-sync.

The Guest CRM automatically assigns tags to guests based on their booking behavior: Champion (top-tier repeat guests), High Value (high total spend), Repeat (multiple stays), Long Stay (extended bookings), Direct Booker (booked outside platforms), Big Group (large party bookings), Recent (stayed recently), and Lapsed (haven't returned in a while). Tags help you identify your best guests and re-engage past ones.

Yes. Go to Settings and scroll to Guest Tag Thresholds. You can adjust the criteria for each tag per property — for example, how many stays count as "Repeat," how much spend qualifies as "High Value," or how many months define "Lapsed." This lets you tune the CRM to match your property's booking patterns.

In the Guest CRM, select two or more guest entries you want to combine, then click "Merge." HostMoat consolidates their stay history, revenue, tags, and contact information into a single profile. This is useful when the same guest has booked through different platforms or with slightly different names.

Yes. The Guest CRM includes a search bar to find guests by name or email, and a CSV export button to download your full guest list with tags, stay counts, total revenue, and contact details.

The Inventory & Supplies page lets you track cleaning supplies, toiletries, kitchen items, linens, and outdoor supplies with quantities, reorder levels, unit costs, and preferred brands. Items are flagged for reorder only when a reorder level is set and the quantity drops to or below it — items without a reorder level are never falsely flagged. The Furnishings tab tracks larger assets with purchase cost, depreciation, condition, and lifespan tracking. The Damage Log tab lets you file damage reports with cost estimates, insurance claim tracking, and resolution notes. All three tabs support full add, edit, and delete operations with CSV export.

Yes. The Expenses & Income page shows both manual transactions and an invoice summary section with total invoiced, collected, outstanding amounts, and a link to the full Invoices page. All four finance pages — Expenses & Income, Invoices, Profitability, and Tax Center — are grouped under the Finance section in the sidebar for easy access.

Yes. The Expenses & Income page includes a period selector that lets you filter by month, quarter, or full year. The stat cards update to show income, expenses, and net profit for the selected period. You can also export the filtered results as a CSV file for your accountant or tax prep.

Yes. The Expenses & Income page shows a "Sync Bookings" button when you have bookings with revenue that aren't yet linked to income transactions. Click it to auto-create income entries for each unsynced booking, linked to the booking record with the check-in date and Schedule E line 3 (Rents received). This eliminates manual double-entry of booking revenue.

Yes. When adding or editing a transaction, check the "Recurring" box and select a frequency (monthly, quarterly, every 6 months, or yearly). HostMoat tracks the next due date and shows a notification banner when recurring expenses are due. Click "Generate Now" to create the next occurrence and advance the due date automatically. This is useful for mortgage payments, utilities, insurance premiums, and other regular costs.

Yes. Staff bonuses display with their actual currency (e.g., MXN for Mexican Pesos). The Ratings & Bonuses tab on the Staff page shows the currency code alongside amounts so you always know the denomination. Totals are grouped by currency in the stat cards. You can filter by staff member to see individual bonus totals.

The Compliance page tracks your STR permits, business licenses, insurance policies, fire inspections, and occupancy tax registrations with expiry dates and renewal costs. Upload document files (PDFs, images, Word, Excel) directly to each item for safekeeping. Set a custom reminder window per document — HostMoat sends automatic email alerts when documents are approaching expiry. Use bulk actions to renew multiple items at once, delete in batch, or export your compliance records as CSV. The Deadlines tab shows a unified timeline of all upcoming expirations alongside common US tax filing dates.

Yes — whenever a booking is created (manually or via iCal sync), a turnover event is recorded for the checkout date and a cleaning task is automatically created from the property's default turnover template. If two bookings are back-to-back, they merge into a single turnover. You can set a default cleaner and customize cleaning templates in the Templates tab.

The linked turnover is automatically marked as 'skipped' and the linked cleaning task is also marked as skipped, so neither appears in your upcoming lists. This works for both manual cancellations and when iCal sync detects a booking was removed on Airbnb or VRBO.

Same-day turnovers — where one guest checks out and another checks in on the same day — are highlighted in red on the calendar with warning icons. The date number shows a caution symbol, and the checkout/checkin booking bars turn coral to make tight turnovers easy to spot at a glance.

The Lead Sources page shows where your bookings come from across platforms like Airbnb, VRBO, and direct bookings. The current year's source breakdown is displayed at the top with progress bars. The year-over-year trends table shows all years sorted newest-first so the most relevant data is always visible. Recent years are computed automatically from your booking data, while historical years can be manually added with year, source name, and booking count.

A direct booking website is a property page you control where guests can book directly with you — without going through Airbnb, VRBO, or any other platform. You keep 100% of the booking revenue with no platform commission. HostMoat's Booking Site feature (Pro) gives you a branded page at yourslug.hostmoat.com with photos, amenities, real-time availability, and a booking form.

Go to Guests > Booking Site in HostMoat. On the Setup tab, enable the site and choose your subdomain slug (e.g., villakaraway.hostmoat.com). On the Content tab, add a hero tagline, description, amenities, and property details. Upload photos on the Photos tab. Use the Preview tab to see your live site before sharing the link.

Yes. Pro subscribers can connect a custom domain (e.g., book.yourproperty.com) to their HostMoat booking page. Configure it in the Setup tab of the Booking Site. Add a CNAME record in your domain registrar pointing to sites.hostmoat.com, then click "Provision Domain" to automatically set up SSL. Use "Check Status" to verify DNS propagation. Once verified, your booking page is accessible from your own domain with full HTTPS.

In Booking Site settings, you can switch between "Inquiry Only" and "Instant Book" mode. In Inquiry Only mode, guest requests come to you for approval before a booking is confirmed. In Instant Book mode, bookings are confirmed automatically as soon as a guest completes the booking form and pays any required deposit. You can also attach a contract template that is auto-sent to the guest on every instant booking.

The Booking Site feature (Pro) lets you create a branded, commission-free booking website for your property at yourslug.hostmoat.com. Guests can browse photos, amenities, and availability, then book directly or submit an inquiry. You can configure inquiry-only or instant book mode, set up deposits, auto-send contracts on booking, and connect a custom domain.

Pre-Arrival Forms are customizable questionnaires you can send to guests before their check-in. Guests receive a link via email, fill out the form on any device, and their responses are automatically sent to your staff as a formatted report. You can collect guest information, food preferences, flight details, special requests, and even have guests agree to property rules.

From the Staff page, add the person as a staff member and click "Invite to HostMoat." They'll receive an invitation email with a link to accept. They don't need an existing account — they can create one when they accept. You can choose their role (Admin, Manager, or Viewer) and manage pending invitations from the same page. Invitations expire after 30 days but can be resent. Note: the Team Members card in Settings now redirects to the Staff page.

Yes! The form builder lets you create sections with different field types (text, dropdowns, checkboxes, guest lists, and more). You can add conditional logic to show or hide questions based on previous answers. Reorder questions within a section using the up/down arrow buttons. The form auto-saves 1.5 seconds after any change, so you never lose work — a "Save Now" button is also available as a backup. When adding sections, the picker shows descriptions for each type: Questions (gather info from guests), Information (display-only content), and Agreement (rules guests must accept). We also provide starter templates for common vacation rental scenarios.

You can configure forms to auto-send a set number of days before check-in (default is 14 days). You can also manually send or resend at any time. Guests can save their progress and return to edit their answers before or after submitting.

Yes. Guests edit the tokenized `/pre-arrival/{response_token}` link for that response, not the generic property link. Booking-specific send emails already use that real form link, and general-link submissions switch the guest onto it after submit. The guest confirmation email also includes that edit link. If the booking already has a guest email on file, that email stays canonical and the main guest email field on the booking-linked form is locked.

Yes. When a guest submits their pre-arrival form, they automatically receive a confirmation email with a summary of all their answers and a link to edit their responses anytime before their stay.

When a guest submits a form via the general property link (not tied to a specific booking), it appears as "Unassigned" in the Responses tab. If the guest entered check-in and checkout dates that exactly match one booking on your property, HostMoat automatically links the response to that booking. Otherwise, click the Assign button next to the response and select the booking from the dropdown to link them manually. Either way, when a response is linked to a booking, guest email, name, and phone from the form are backfilled to the booking only if those booking fields are empty — HostMoat does not overwrite an existing booking email automatically.

Airbnb intentionally hides guest email addresses — they are not included in iCal feeds or booking confirmation emails. The best way to collect them is through Pre-Arrival Forms. When a guest fills out a pre-arrival form (via a booking-specific link or the general property link), their email address from the form response is automatically backfilled to the booking record if the booking does not already have an email. If the guest uses the general link and enters their check-in/checkout dates, HostMoat auto-matches the response to the correct booking and reuses the existing form response if that booking already had one. If the booking already has an email on file, HostMoat keeps that booking email as the canonical address instead of replacing it automatically.

Yes. The Booking Log shows a Form column with the current status of each booking's arrival form (Sent, Viewed, In Progress, or Completed). You can also see the form status and submission date inside each booking's detail modal when you click on it from the register or calendar.

The Digital Guidebook is a mobile-friendly property guide you create for your guests. Include WiFi passwords, door codes, house rules, local recommendations, check-in instructions, and more. Guests access it via a shareable link or QR code — no app download needed. The guidebook builder lets you add sections from a picker that shows descriptions for each type (pre-built structured sections vs. custom freeform content). Reorder sections using up/down arrow buttons or drag-and-drop. Freeform sections support text, headings, and other content blocks with labeled icons for each block type.

The Booking Detail Register (called "Booking Log" in the sidebar) is a comprehensive table view of all your bookings with every detail in one place — guest name, dates, nights, revenue, nightly rate, source platform, confirmation code, guest count, form status, and more. You can search by guest name, filter by source or status, sort by any column, and export the full register as a CSV. Click any row to open the booking detail modal where you can edit details, view the guest's pre-arrival form status, and access linked invoices and contracts.

These are pricing strategy modes you can set in the Rates & Rules tab. Conservative prioritizes filling your calendar with slightly lower rates and more bookings. Balanced maximizes total revenue by finding the sweet spot between rate and occupancy. Aggressive maximizes your per-night rate, accepting some vacancy in exchange for higher nightly income. You can switch between strategies anytime — recommendations and suggested rates update instantly to reflect your choice.

Revenue projections use your actual year-to-date bookings combined with historical seasonal patterns from the prior year. With 6 or more months of data, projections are typically within 15% of actual results. The range shown (low to high) reflects the inherent uncertainty — the wider the range, the less data is available. Projections improve as the year progresses and more actual booking data is collected.

In the Market Comparables table on the Competitors tab, listings with Airbnb's "Guest Favorite" badge are highlighted with a gold tag next to their name. This badge is awarded by Airbnb to top-rated, highly-booked properties — it's a strong competitive signal. The Check-in/out column shows each competitor's check-in and checkout times (e.g., "4:00 PM / 11:00 AM"), so you can see how your flexibility compares to the local market. Both fields come from AirROI and refresh quarterly alongside other market data.

Booking curves show how far in advance your property typically gets booked, based on your historical booking patterns. If you are booking ahead of your historical pace, it means demand is strong and you may want to raise rates. If you are behind pace, consider offering discounts or promotions to fill gaps. Booking curve analysis requires at least 12 months of booking data to generate reliable alerts. You will see pace alerts in the Market Intelligence tab when your current booking rate deviates significantly from historical norms.

Email Blasts let you send targeted marketing emails to your past guests and imported subscribers. You can segment your audience by guest type (champions, repeat guests, lapsed guests, high-value guests, imported leads, etc.) and use pre-built or custom email templates. You can send immediately or schedule campaigns for later.

HostMoat provides 13 pre-built segments including Champions (top guests), Lapsed Champions (top guests who haven't booked in 2+ years), High Value, Repeat Guests, Direct Bookers, Recent Guests, Imported Leads (subscribers from contact imports who have no booking history yet), and All Contacts (past guests + imported subscribers). You can also create custom segments with your own criteria for minimum stays, revenue, and recency.

Yes! When composing an email blast, you can choose to send immediately or schedule it for a specific date and time. Scheduled campaigns are automatically dispatched by our system.

Yes. On the Email Blasts page, click the Templates tab next to All / Drafts / Scheduled / Sent / Failed. From there you can create new templates, edit your custom templates, duplicate any template (including built-ins), or delete templates you've created. Built-in templates are read-only — to customize one, click Duplicate and then Edit the copy. Each template stores a name, subject line, body HTML, and an optional suggested segment that's surfaced when you reach for it from the campaign composer.

The Seasonal Performance Heatmap is a visual tool that shows your booking patterns across the year. Each cell represents one week, colored by occupancy percentage. Hover to see revenue, average nightly rate, and booked nights. Use it to identify seasonal trends, spot dead periods, and optimize your pricing strategy.

Review forms are post-stay surveys you can send to guests after checkout. Create a form with the built-in form builder, configure it to auto-send a set number of days after checkout, and collect guest feedback with ratings, comments, and staff performance scores. When guests rate individual staff members, those ratings automatically feed into the Ratings & Bonuses tab on the Staff page for performance tracking. Responses are tracked with analytics so you can monitor satisfaction trends over time.

Yes. The form builder lets you create sections with multiple field types including star ratings, text areas, dropdowns, and checkboxes. You can add staff auto-populate fields so guests can rate individual team members, use conditional logic to show follow-up questions based on answers, and customize the thank-you message guests see after submitting.

Smart routing automatically directs satisfied guests to leave public reviews on platforms like Google, Airbnb, or VRBO. You configure rating thresholds and external review links per property. Guests who rate their stay above the threshold see a prompt with links to your review profiles. Guests below the threshold see a thank-you message and their feedback stays private, giving you a chance to address concerns before they become public reviews.

You can configure review form notifications per staff member on the Staff page. Staff members with the appropriate notification preference enabled will receive an email when a guest submits a review form response. The property owner is always notified. You can also view all responses and analytics directly in the Reviews section.

Yes. On the Reviews page, turn on "Send reminders" and enter a comma-separated cadence like 3, 7, 14 — the system will automatically send up to three reminders at those day offsets after the initial review email. You can also manually send a reminder to any individual response from the Responses tab, even if the automatic cadence is exhausted. Expired or already-submitted responses cannot be reminded.

Every booking gets a unique Guest Portal link where your guest can view their trip details, sign contracts, complete pre-arrival forms, pay invoices, browse add-on options, and message you directly — all in one place. The portal now also shows your property address with a clickable Google Maps link, checkout instructions, bedroom details (room names, bed types, floor info), contact information with clickable phone and email links, house rules, and all freeform guidebook sections as expandable cards. A "View Full Property Guidebook" button links to the complete guidebook. The portal link is automatically included in booking emails and is also available as a {{portal_link}} template variable in Guest Email Templates.

The guest portal can display content pulled from your Digital Guidebook: bedroom details, check-in/checkout instructions, contact information, house rules, and any freeform guidebook sections (transport, dining, pool rules, etc.) as collapsible cards. Each of these sections can be toggled on or off per property in Guest Portal → Settings → Portal Sections — useful if you prefer guests view them in the full guidebook via the "View Full Property Guidebook" link instead. The property address (header with Google Maps link) and the guidebook link itself always appear regardless of these toggles.

Yes. If a review form has been sent for the booking, a "Leave Review" button (or "View" if already submitted) appears in the portal. Pre-arrival forms are always accessible from the portal even after the guest has submitted — they can revisit and update their answers at any time.

Yes. The guest portal includes a messaging feature where guests can send messages directly to you. Messages appear in the Guest Portal page under the Requests tab, and you also receive an email notification. Staff members with the "Portal message" notification preference enabled on the Staff page are also notified.

Create add-on options like early check-in, late checkout, welcome packages, or local experiences. When guests visit their portal, they can browse and request add-ons. You and your staff members with the upsell notification preference enabled will receive email notifications. Approve or reject from the Guest Portal page → Requests tab — when you approve, an invoice is automatically created and sent to the guest. Pending upsell requests are also included in your weekly digest emails.

You can set each upsell to charge a flat fee, per person, or per night. For per-person upsells (like massages), guests choose how many people. For per-night upsells (like pool heating), guests choose how many nights. The total is calculated automatically.

Every property automatically comes with two built-in upsells: Early Check-in and Late Checkout. These appear at the top of your upsell catalog with a "Built-in" badge. You can set custom times and prices for each, or leave them inactive. When a guest requests one and you approve it, the adjusted check-in or checkout time automatically appears in the guest portal and booking emails. Built-in upsells can be toggled active or inactive and priced however you like, but they cannot be deleted from your catalog.

Yes. You can set an accent color, upload your property logo, and write a custom welcome message. You can also control when check-in details are revealed (e.g., 3 days before arrival), require that guests sign their contract or complete the pre-arrival form before seeing check-in info, toggle the upsells section on or off, and individually hide guidebook-derived sections (bedrooms, check-in/checkout, contact info, house rules, custom sections) from the portal in favor of the full guidebook link. Configure portal options from the Guest Portal page under the Settings tab.

Yes. In Guest Portal → Settings, the Portal Sections group has five toggles: bedrooms, check-in & checkout instructions, contact information, house rules, and custom guidebook sections. Each defaults to on. Turning a toggle off hides that section from the portal — guests can still access it through the "View Full Property Guidebook" link at the bottom of the portal. The toggles affect display only; the underlying guidebook content is unchanged.

Watchtower drafts AI replies to guest messages using your property\'s actual guidebook and booking-site content as the knowledge base. Every draft appears in a review panel above your reply composer with Send, Edit & Send, or Discard buttons — nothing is auto-sent to a guest. See the full Watchtower feature page.

No. Every draft is reviewed by you before sending. There is no auto-send mode. You click "Draft with AI" on a conversation, the AI generates a draft using your guidebook content, you read or edit it, then you click Send. The host's judgment is the feature.

Four options: HostMoat's built-in AI (included with Pro+, no setup), OpenAI / ChatGPT (you supply an API key, you pay OpenAI directly), Claude / Anthropic (you supply an API key, you pay Anthropic directly), or your own self-hosted Ollama server via a Cloudflare Tunnel (free, advanced). API keys are stored encrypted in Supabase Vault server-side; the browser never sees the key value after you save it.

Yes if you bring your own API key. The free tier supports OpenAI, Claude, and self-hosted Ollama — you connect your key and pay the provider directly (typically $1-5/month for normal guest message volume). Pro+ subscribers get HostMoat's built-in AI included with their subscription, no API keys required and no per-message cost.

It reads three sources automatically: your property basics (name, address, rates, timezone), your booking-site content (amenities, about text, bedroom and bathroom counts), and every visible guidebook section (wifi, check-in/out, house rules, contacts, freeform sections). The Settings page has a "What Watchtower knows" panel that shows you the exact knowledge base the AI sees, with click-through links to the source pages so you know where to add or fix information.

Yes. The Settings page includes a "Try a sample question" panel — type any hypothetical guest message and see the AI's response without sending anything. Useful for checking tone, comparing providers, or testing a custom prompt before turning the feature on for real guest messages.

Lodgify focuses on website building and channel management for vacation rental businesses of all sizes. HostMoat is built for independent owners with 1-5 properties and includes expense tracking, Schedule E tax reporting, and guest portal features that Lodgify does not offer. HostMoat also uses flat pricing with every feature included, while Lodgify gates features behind higher tiers and charges per property. Read the full HostMoat vs Lodgify comparison.

Hospitable (formerly Smartbnb) specializes in automated guest messaging. HostMoat covers messaging plus expense tracking, tax reporting, invoicing, contracts, and a guest portal. For a 3-property owner, Hospitable costs $87-120/month while HostMoat costs $49/month with the same or more features. Read the full HostMoat vs Hospitable comparison.

OwnerRez is a feature-rich platform with a steep learning curve and per-property pricing. HostMoat prioritizes speed-to-value with flat pricing and built-in expense tracking and tax tools that OwnerRez lacks. Both are good choices for independent owners — OwnerRez suits those who want deep configurability, while HostMoat suits those who want simplicity. Read the full HostMoat vs OwnerRez comparison.

Enterprise tools like Guesty, Hostaway, and Streamline are built for property management companies with 50+ units. They include features like trust accounting, owner reporting portals, and multi-tier team permissions that independent owners do not need. HostMoat is built specifically for owners with 1-5 properties, with flat pricing and features designed for how owners actually work — not how management companies operate.

Yes. HostMoat uses encrypted connections (HTTPS/TLS), row-level security in the database ensuring each user can only access their own data, and secure token-based authentication. Payment processing is handled by Stripe (PCI-DSS compliant).

Yes. You can export bookings, expenses, guest data, and financial reports as CSV files at any time. We believe your data should always be accessible to you.

HostMoat integrates with Airbnb, VRBO, and Booking.com via iCal. It uses Stripe for payments and subscriptions, Resend for email delivery, and optionally Seam for smart device monitoring (Minut, NoiseAware).

HostMoat is a responsive web application that works on any device with a modern browser. There is no native app yet, but the interface is optimized for phone and tablet screens.

You can request account deletion by contacting support. We will delete your data within 30 days, except where we are legally required to retain records (e.g., financial data for tax purposes).