Help Center

HostMoat is an operating system for an independent short-term rental. It combines calendar sync, direct bookings, guest messaging, contracts, invoices, property operations, pricing, reporting, and staff coordination around one active property at a time.

Most work starts from the left sidebar. The Main section is for bookings and guest communication. Finance is for money, invoices, taxes, and commissions. Guests is for guest-facing tools like the booking site, guidebook, pre-arrival forms, review forms, email blasts, and Watchtower AI. Insights is for revenue gaps, seasons, and lead sources. Property is for staff, maintenance, inventory, compliance, platform credentials, alerts, and health. Reports is for cancellation and annual performance reporting. Account is where property setup, sync, Stripe, team members, and preferences live.

Every page is scoped to the active property shown near the bottom of the sidebar. If you manage more than one property, switch the active property before editing bookings, prices, emails, forms, guidebooks, or staff. A common mistake is changing settings while the wrong property is selected.

HostMoat also has public guest-facing links. A guest may use a direct booking site, a guest portal, a contract-signing page, an invoice payment page, a pre-arrival form, a review form, or a guidebook link. Staff may use a cleaner portal link. These public pages do not require a HostMoat login.

Plan gates matter. Starter covers the core calendar, dashboard, guest CRM, basic pricing, booking widget, and reports. Pro-level pages add contracts, invoices, staff, maintenance, inventory, compliance, alerts, booking site, guidebook, guest portal, pre-arrival forms, reviews, email blasts, and advanced revenue tools. When a page shows an upgrade prompt, the account does not currently have access to that feature except during an active trial.

Use this order when setting up a new account or training someone from scratch.

1. Create or verify the property in Settings. Confirm property name, address, timezone, check-in time, checkout time, Wi-Fi, door code, parking instructions, and basic capacity. These fields feed guest emails, Watchtower AI, the guidebook, the booking site, and reports.

2. Connect iCal feeds in Settings. Add Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, or other platform iCal import URLs. Then copy HostMoat's export URL back into each platform so direct bookings and manual blocks flow outward. Use Sync iCal on the Calendar page after adding feeds.

3. Set base pricing in Pricing & Intelligence. Add the nightly rate, cleaning fee, weekend premium, minimum stay, and any seasonal rules. The booking widget and direct booking site use this pricing.

4. Set up automatic email templates in Auto-Email. Review the booking confirmation, pre-arrival, check-in, checkout, review request, cancellation, and digest-related templates. Keep merge fields intact unless you intentionally remove them.

5. Connect Stripe in Settings if you will collect invoice payments, deposits, direct booking payments, or guest portal upsell payments. Without Stripe, you can still track invoices manually, but online payment links will not work.

6. Build the guest-facing basics: Guidebook, Pre-Arrival Forms, Booking Site, Guest Portal, and Reviews. These tools reduce repetitive questions and collect guest details before arrival.

7. Add staff in Staff. Create cleaners, co-hosts, managers, and notification preferences. Send invitation links only after roles and notification settings are correct.

8. Add operating data as you go: expenses, maintenance tasks, inventory items, compliance documents, platform credentials, and commission rules. These pages become more useful as they collect real records.

9. Train the daily routine: Dashboard first, then Calendar, Inbox, Action Items, Staff cleanings, and Finance. Most users do not need every page every day.

The sidebar is the source of truth for where you are. Click a sidebar item to open that page. The top bar shows the active page title and includes a New Booking button when your role can edit.

If the account has multiple properties, use the property dropdown near the bottom of the sidebar before doing any work. Bookings, forms, templates, guidebooks, pricing rules, staff, and reports are property-specific. Switching the active property changes the data on most pages.

Roles control editing. Owners can manage property setup, billing-related settings, team members, and all property data. Managers can usually edit operational data but may not control account ownership or billing. Viewers can see property data but cannot save changes. When a viewer signs in, the app shows a view-only banner.

Staff and cleaners may not need a full login. The Staff page can generate portal links for cleaner schedules and invitation links for team access. Cleaner portal links are intentionally narrow: they show assigned cleanings, task lists, status updates, notes, and photos without exposing financial details.

Admin pages are only visible to platform admins. Regular hosts will not see the Admin section. If someone says they cannot find Admin Home, first confirm that their account is actually marked as an admin.

Settings controls the active property's foundation. Start here when something guest-facing looks wrong, because many pages pull from Settings.

Property details include name, address, location, timezone, check-in time, checkout time, Wi-Fi, door code, parking instructions, bedrooms, bathrooms, guest capacity, property type, notes, and host display name. These details can appear in emails, guidebooks, booking sites, guest portals, Watchtower AI, reports, and public pages.

Pricing-adjacent and finance fields include base fixed costs, mortgage assumptions, insurance, utilities, taxes, HOA, purchase price, land value, improvements, and depreciation-related details. These feed Profitability and Tax Center calculations.

iCal Feeds are managed here. Add platform import URLs, remove broken feeds, and copy the HostMoat export URL back to external platforms. After changing feeds, use Calendar -> Sync iCal to verify results.

Stripe and payment settings live here when payments are enabled. Connect or update Stripe before sending invoices, collecting booking-site deposits, approving paid upsells, or collecting card/bank details on contracts.

Email Import settings provide the per-property forwarding address for platform confirmation emails. Enable it, copy the address, then create filters in Gmail or your mail provider.

Team settings and invitations control who can access the property. Add members carefully, choose role before sending the invite, and remove members who no longer need access.

Other settings may include digest preferences, guest tag thresholds, export links, embed configuration, and property-specific options. When troubleshooting, confirm the active property first so you do not edit the wrong property's settings.

Start every day on the Dashboard. Check the Today strip for check-ins, check-outs, in-house guests, cleanings, unread inbox messages, and pending AI drafts. Then review Action Items for new inquiries, open alerts, unsigned contracts, unpaid invoices, pending forms, and revenue gaps.

Open Calendar next. Confirm today's arrivals and departures, same-day turnovers, and any manual blocks. If platforms were recently updated, click Sync iCal to pull changes immediately instead of waiting for the scheduled sync.

Open Inbox. Reply to new guest messages and booking inquiries. If Watchtower AI is enabled, use Draft with AI only as a starting point. Review every draft before sending. Do not send AI text that references a rule, fee, address, or access detail unless it matches the property guidebook and booking record.

Open Staff if there are cleanings or maintenance work. Verify assignments, task templates, status, notes, and any cleaner portal activity. For same-day turnovers, make sure the cleaner has a complete task list and any special notes from the booking.

Open Invoices and Contracts when Dashboard shows unpaid invoices or unsigned contracts. Send reminders, void incorrect invoices, mark offline payments, or resend contract links as needed.

Use the end of the day for data cleanup: add expenses, log maintenance, update inventory, dismiss resolved alerts, and write notes on unusual bookings. Clean records make the reports, tax center, and profitability pages accurate.

At month end, use this order.

1. Expenses & Income: confirm every booking with revenue has a linked income transaction. Use Sync Bookings if needed. Add missing expenses, recurring costs, vendor payments, refunds, and owner-paid items.

2. Invoices: review sent, viewed, overdue, paid, and voided invoices. Mark offline payments if the guest paid outside Stripe. Void invoices that should not remain collectible.

3. Profitability: review P&L, mortgage, assets, fixed costs, owner cash flow, and tax tips. Update mortgage and fixed-cost settings if numbers look wrong.

4. Commissions: mark paid commissions for agents or partners. Use Mark all paid when settling an entire partner payout.

5. Staff: review cleaning payments, performance bonuses, staff ratings, and completed cleanings. Add any missing cleaner payments before reporting net profit.

6. Cancellations and Gap Detector: explain revenue misses. Mark cancellations rescheduled when appropriate and use gap data to adjust minimum stays or promotions.

7. Yearly Summary and Tax Center: export CSVs when you need accountant-friendly data. The Tax Center is a starting point, not a substitute for professional tax review.

The Dashboard is the operating snapshot for the active property. If no property exists, it shows the setup wizard or a prompt to add the first property.

The Today strip appears only when there is activity. It can show check-ins today, check-outs today, guests currently in-house, cleanings today, unread inbox items, and pending Watchtower AI drafts. Click a Today card to jump to the relevant page.

The four main stat cards show YTD revenue, current-month occupancy, ADR and RevPAR, and total nights YTD. YTD revenue is based on active bookings whose check-in dates fall between January 1 and today. Occupancy and ADR are prorated for stays that cross month boundaries.

Booking Source Mix shows the share of YTD bookings from Airbnb, VRBO, Direct, and Other. Use this to understand platform concentration. If nearly all bookings come from one platform, direct booking and email blast tools are worth prioritizing.

This Month's Finances rolls up income, expenses, and net profit from the transaction log. If it looks wrong, fix the source records in Expenses & Income rather than trying to change the dashboard.

Action Items is the most important section for daily work. It links to new inquiries, open alerts, contracts awaiting signature, unpaid invoices, pending pre-arrival forms, and revenue gaps. Quick Actions jumps to common pages like Add Manual Block, Tax Report, Revenue Gaps, Guest CRM, Booking Widget, and Cancellations.

Upcoming Stays lists the next five active stays. Click a row to open the booking on the calendar.

The Calendar shows the active property's bookings month by month. Platform bookings, direct bookings, manual bookings, holds, and blocked dates appear together so you can see true availability.

Use Today to return to the current month. Use the left and right arrows to move between months. Same-day turnovers are highlighted so you can see when one guest checks out and another checks in on the same date.

Click + Add Booking to create a booking, hold, or blocked date. You can also double-click an empty day when you have edit access. Enter guest name, check-in date, checkout date, revenue, source, guest details, notes, and any related fields. For owner blocks or unavailable dates, use a hold/block source and clear guest-facing details.

Click an existing booking to open its booking modal. From there you can edit dates, guest details, source, guest count, revenue, notes, linked forms, invoices, contracts, and portal information depending on the available data.

If iCal feeds are connected, Sync iCal pulls updates immediately. Scheduled sync also runs automatically. Use manual sync after adding a new platform booking, changing a platform reservation, or troubleshooting missing dates.

The safest calendar setup is two-way sync: import each platform calendar into HostMoat, then paste HostMoat's export URL back into each platform. Also keep platform-to-platform sync enabled when possible. Calendar sync is not instant on external platforms, so leave buffer time before accepting overlapping last-minute reservations manually.

Open Settings and find the iCal Feeds area. Add each platform's iCal URL as a separate feed. Name the feed clearly, for example Airbnb - Main Listing or VRBO - Lake House. Clear names make sync errors easier to diagnose later.

After saving a feed, use Calendar -> Sync iCal to test it. A successful sync should create or update bookings on the Calendar and Booking Log. If a feed fails, check that the platform URL is an iCal URL, not a normal listing URL.

HostMoat also provides an export URL. Copy that URL into Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, or other platforms that accept external calendars. This lets direct bookings, manual bookings, and blocks from HostMoat appear on those calendars.

Imported iCal data is limited by what platforms provide. Some feeds include only dates and a summary. For richer details like payout, fees, confirmation code, and guest name, enable Email Import and forward confirmation emails when supported.

If a platform booking disappears from a feed, HostMoat may treat that as a cancellation depending on sync behavior. Review Cancellations if a booking no longer appears where expected.

Booking Log is the table version of the calendar. Use it when you need to search, filter, sort, export, or review many bookings at once.

Each row includes guest name, check-in and checkout dates, nights, revenue, nightly rate, source platform, confirmation code, guest count, and pre-arrival form status. The form status column shows whether a form is unsent, sent, viewed, in progress, or completed.

Use search to find a guest. Use source and status filters to narrow the register to Airbnb, VRBO, Direct, cancelled, tentative, confirmed, or other categories. Click column headers when sorting is available.

Click a booking row to open the booking detail modal. This is usually the fastest way to edit guest details, update revenue, inspect linked invoices and contracts, check pre-arrival response status, or find the guest portal link.

Use Export CSV for accounting, owner reporting, data backup, or spreadsheet analysis. Export before making major cleanup changes if you need a snapshot of the old state.

Guest CRM collects guest records from bookings, direct inquiries, pre-arrival forms, review forms, and manual records. It helps you see who has stayed before, how much revenue they generated, and whether they are a candidate for repeat direct bookings.

Open a guest to review contact information, stay history, revenue, tags, notes, and linked bookings. When a booking has missing guest details, enrich the booking first from the booking modal or pre-arrival response so CRM data stays consistent.

Use Guest CRM before sending Email Blasts. A clean CRM improves segmentation. Duplicate guests, missing emails, and stale records reduce campaign quality.

If two records represent the same person, standardize the guest name and email on their bookings. Future imports match better when confirmation codes, guest email, and guest name are consistent.

Use Add Booking from Guest CRM when a repeat guest contacts you directly. This keeps the stay attached to the guest record and helps direct-booking revenue show correctly.

Email Import gives each property a unique forwarding address. When supported platform emails are forwarded to that address, HostMoat parses booking details and merges them into the matching booking.

Enable Email Import in Settings. Copy the per-property forwarding address. In Gmail or your email provider, create filters that forward reservation confirmations, reservation updates, and cancellation emails from the platform to HostMoat. For Airbnb, use separate filters for Reservation confirmed, Reservation updated, and Canceled because Gmail subject filters are limited.

Email Import can extract data that iCal often lacks: guest name, revenue or payout, nightly rate, host service fee, cleaning fee, guest count, confirmation code, and reservation URL. Guest email and phone depend on what the platform includes.

Matching is usually by confirmation code first, then guest name plus overlapping dates, then date overlap. If no matching booking exists, the import can create one. For update emails, new financial data may overwrite older values.

Cancellation emails can mark matching bookings cancelled and update cancellation payout when the platform includes it. Review the Cancellations page after forwarding cancellation emails so the reason, refund, and rescheduled status are correct.

Cancellations tracks bookings that were cancelled manually, detected by sync, or logged directly. Use it to understand lost revenue, refunds, and whether the dates were rebooked.

Click + Log Cancellation when you need to record a cancellation that did not come from a synced booking. Enter cancelled date, original booking dates, guest, platform, reason, estimated revenue loss, refund paid, rescheduled status, and notes.

Mark Rescheduled when the guest moved to new dates instead of fully cancelling. This keeps reports from overstating lost demand.

Use estimated loss and refund paid separately. A cancellation with no refund hurts differently from one where the full payout was returned. Accurate fields help owners and accountants understand what happened.

Export CSV for bookkeepers, owner updates, and year-end review. Pair this report with Gap Detector to see whether cancelled dates were later filled.

Gap Detector finds open nights between confirmed bookings. These are often one-to-five-night holes that are too short for your normal minimum stay but still valuable if sold directly or discounted.

Open Gap Detector from Insights or from the Dashboard Action Items. Review each gap's dates, length, surrounding bookings, and estimated opportunity.

For one-night or two-night gaps, consider lowering minimum stay rules, creating a last-minute direct offer, or messaging previous guests. For longer gaps, update pricing rules or promote the dates in Email Blasts.

A gap is not always bad. Some gaps are needed for maintenance, owner use, deep cleaning, or staging. Add a manual block if you intentionally do not want the dates sold.

Review gaps weekly during high season and monthly during slower periods. It is easier to fill gaps 14 to 45 days out than one day before arrival.

Inbox is the central place for guest conversations and booking inquiries. It can include messages from public widgets, guest portals, direct booking pages, and imported inquiry sources depending on setup.

Use filters to separate new inquiries, active conversations, pending drafts, and archived or handled messages. Open a conversation to see the message history, guest details, related booking, and reply composer.

Reply directly from the conversation. Keep replies concise and factual. If a message concerns dates, money, access, house rules, or refunds, verify the booking record before sending.

When Watchtower AI is enabled, Draft with AI appears on eligible conversations. The AI uses the property guidebook, booking site content, property basics, and owner notes. It does not send automatically. Review, edit, then send.

Use internal cleanup habits: archive handled inquiries, assign or link bookings where possible, and keep guest email addresses current. Inbox quality affects CRM, email blasts, and follow-up workflows.

Auto-Email manages templates that HostMoat can send based on booking events and timing. Common templates include booking confirmation, pre-arrival, check-in day, checkout reminder, review request, cancellation notice, and owner or staff digests.

Open Auto-Email and review every template before enabling automation. Confirm the tone, check-in instructions, parking, Wi-Fi, house rules, fees, and links. A template is only as accurate as the property fields and merge fields it uses.

Merge fields pull live data into the email. Examples include guest name, check-in date, checkout date, property name, property address, Wi-Fi, door code, guidebook link, portal link, pre-arrival form link, invoice link, and review form link. Do not remove merge field braces unless you intend to turn a dynamic value into plain text.

Use timing carefully. Pre-arrival details are usually best a few days before check-in. Checkout reminders are best the evening before checkout or morning of departure. Review requests usually work one or two days after checkout.

When a booking has missing guest email, automated emails cannot reach the guest. Use Booking Log, Guest CRM, or pre-arrival responses to fill missing contact details.

The Booking Widget is an embeddable calendar for an existing website. It shows live availability from HostMoat and can optionally show nightly prices and an inquiry form.

Open Guests -> Booking Widget. Configure whether the widget shows booked dates, available dates, nightly prices, and a Book Direct link. Copy the generated embed code and paste it into an HTML block on Squarespace, Wix, WordPress, or another site that accepts iframes or custom HTML.

The widget uses HostMoat calendar data, including synced platform bookings, manual bookings, direct bookings, and blocks. If availability looks wrong, fix the Calendar or iCal feeds first.

Nightly prices come from Pricing & Intelligence: base rate, seasonal rules, weekend premium, cleaning fee, and minimum stay logic. Update those settings before relying on widget pricing.

When the inquiry form is enabled, submissions land in HostMoat and can be handled from Inbox. If your Booking Site is active, enable the Book Direct link so visitors can move from availability browsing to the full direct booking flow.

Booking Site creates a public booking page for the active property. It has four main tabs: Setup, Content, Photos, and Preview.

Setup controls whether the site is enabled, the public slug, booking mode, payment settings, contract automation, custom domain, and domain verification. Choose Inquiry Only if you want to approve requests manually. Choose Instant Book only when calendar sync, pricing, house rules, payment settings, and contract settings are ready.

For payments, decide whether guests pay full amount, a deposit, or no online payment at booking. Stripe must be connected for card or bank payments. If you attach a contract template, bookings can trigger contract signing automatically.

Content controls the hero tagline, description, amenities, guest capacity, bedrooms, bathrooms, coordinates, rules, and calendar price display. Keep this content consistent with Airbnb and VRBO to avoid guest confusion.

Photos lets you upload, caption, reorder, delete, and choose the hero photo. Use the best exterior or experience photo first. Avoid dark, blurry, duplicate, or misleading photos. Preview shows the live guest experience on desktop or mobile.

For a custom domain, enter the domain, add the required CNAME at your registrar, then use Provision Domain and Check Status. DNS can take time. Do not advertise the custom domain until SSL and verification show as ready.

Guidebook is the guest-facing knowledge base for the property. It is also one of Watchtower AI's main information sources, so complete guidebooks improve AI replies.

The editor is split into Essentials and Extra Info. Essentials cover Contact Info, Wi-Fi & Access, Check-in/Checkout, Bedrooms, and House Rules. Extra Info is for custom topics like parking, trash, pool rules, hot tub, transit, local restaurants, appliance quirks, emergency contacts, and neighborhood tips.

Each section can be edited, reordered, and hidden or shown. Hidden sections are not shown to guests and should not be treated as public instructions.

Custom topics support rich text, images, galleries, YouTube embeds, and Google Maps embeds. Drag and drop images where supported, paste images from the clipboard, or use the add-block menu. Use clear section names because guests scan quickly on mobile.

Toggle Published when the guide is ready. Copy the public guide link or download the QR code. Place the QR code in the property near the entry, kitchen, or welcome binder. Update the guidebook whenever door codes, Wi-Fi, trash schedules, parking rules, local contacts, or amenities change.

Guest Portal gives each booking a private public link. Guests can see stay details, guidebook content, messages, and upsells depending on settings.

Open Guest Portal to configure the portal. The Settings tab controls whether the portal is enabled, whether upsells are enabled, whether the message channel is visible, what sections guests can see, and whether access requires contract signature or pre-arrival submission.

The Upsells tab lets you create add-ons such as early check-in, late checkout, grocery pre-stock, mid-stay cleaning, pet fees, crib rental, parking, or custom services. Set name, description, price, pricing type, category, availability, and active status.

The Requests tab shows guest requests. Pending requests require action. Approve creates and emails an invoice when pricing requires payment. Reject lets you add a host note so the guest knows why the request was declined.

For early check-in and late checkout, keep times realistic and coordinate with Staff cleanings. Do not approve an upsell that conflicts with a same-day turnover or checkout deadline.

Pre-Arrival Forms collect information before check-in: arrival time, guest count, pet details, vehicle information, ID uploads, special requests, acknowledgement checkboxes, and anything else you need.

The Form Builder tab is a WYSIWYG editor — you build the form on the form itself, so the canvas always shows exactly what guests will see. Click any question or section on the canvas to edit it in the side panel: label, field type, required toggle, help text, and options. Add conditional rules to show or hide questions based on earlier answers; those rules appear inline as badges, and the read-only Logic overview summarizes them all. Drag to reorder, and changes save automatically. Keep the form short enough that guests will complete it, and use required fields only for truly required information.

Responses shows submitted and pending forms. Linked responses attach to bookings. Unassigned responses should be assigned manually when HostMoat cannot confidently match dates or guest information.

Forms can be booking-specific or general. Booking-specific links are best for automated emails. General links are useful on websites or manual messages. If auto-matching is enabled, a general response can attach to a booking when dates match exactly one booking.

Guest confirmation emails include a summary and an edit link. The guest should use that edit link or the portal link for changes. If a booking already has an email on file, the booking email remains the canonical address unless you edit it directly.

Reviews has four major areas: All Reviews, Analytics, Form Builder, and Responses.

All Reviews is the manual and imported review log. Add reviews from Airbnb, VRBO, Google, or direct feedback. Include source, rating, guest, date, public text, and notes. Export CSV when you need review records outside HostMoat.

Analytics summarizes rating trends, review volume, average rating, source mix, and performance over time. Use it to spot recurring cleanliness, communication, value, or check-in problems.

Form Builder creates the private post-stay form. Add rating fields, text questions, dropdowns, checkboxes, and staff rating fields. Staff auto-populate fields let guests rate cleaners or team members; those ratings feed the Staff Ratings & Bonuses tab.

Responses shows sent forms and submissions. You can send a review form manually, send reminders, filter responses, export CSV, and inspect individual answers. Automatic sending and reminder cadence are configured in review form settings.

Smart routing sends satisfied guests to public review links and keeps lower-rated feedback private so you can follow up. Set the threshold and external review links carefully. Do not route unhappy guests to public review platforms before resolving their issue.

Email Blasts sends targeted marketing emails to past guests and imported contacts. Use it for repeat-booking offers, seasonal promotions, direct booking reminders, holiday availability, thank-you notes, and lapsed guest reactivation.

Create a new campaign, choose an audience segment, pick or create a template, preview recipients, and send now or schedule for later. Built-in segments may include repeat guests, lapsed champions, recent guests, high-value guests, imported leads, and all contacts depending on available data.

Templates can use personalization variables like guest first name, guest name, property name, host name, and property address. Keep subject lines honest and useful. Avoid over-sending; past guests should feel invited, not spammed.

Scheduled campaigns are dispatched automatically. Review the scheduled time, timezone, recipient count, subject, and sender details before saving.

Campaign quality depends on CRM quality. Remove bad addresses, avoid guests who opted out, and do not email people who should not receive marketing messages.

Watchtower AI drafts replies to guest messages using property-specific information. It never sends automatically. A human must review and send every draft.

Open Watchtower AI and enable it for the active property. Choose a provider: built-in AI when available on your plan, OpenAI with your own key, Anthropic Claude with your own key, or an Ollama server through a tunnel. API keys are saved securely server-side; the browser should only show configured status after saving.

Set a tone, for example warm and concise, polished and professional, or casual and friendly. Add owner notes for policies that are not in the guidebook. Use the advanced custom prompt only if you understand how it changes AI behavior.

Use What Watchtower Knows to inspect the knowledge base. It should include property basics, booking-site content, and visible guidebook sections. If the AI is missing an answer, edit the guidebook or booking-site content rather than repeatedly correcting drafts.

Use Try a sample question before relying on real conversations. Test check-in, Wi-Fi, parking, pet, refund, late checkout, and amenity questions.

In Inbox, click Draft with AI on a conversation. Read the draft, verify facts, edit if needed, then send. If the guest asks about something not documented, the AI should avoid guessing. Add the missing detail to the guidebook after answering manually.

Pricing & Intelligence has four main tabs: Rates & Rules, Price Calendar, Market Intelligence, and Competitors.

Rates & Rules is where you set the base nightly rate, cleaning fee, weekend premium, minimum stay, and seasonal pricing rules. Seasonal rules override the base rate for specific date ranges. Use rules for high season, low season, holidays, events, school breaks, and special promotions.

Avoid overlapping seasonal rules. If two rules cover the same date, it becomes unclear which price should apply. Keep names obvious, for example Summer Peak 2026 or Thanksgiving Week.

Price Calendar shows pricing by date. Use it to verify what guests will see before they book. If the price looks wrong, check base rate, weekend premium, seasonal rules, and date range boundaries.

Market Intelligence uses booking performance, demand signals, holiday calendars, booking curve data, and comparable listings where available. Review ADR, occupancy, RevPAR, pricing health, demand calendar, and recommendations. Apply recommendations only after checking your local reality, nearby events, and owner strategy.

Competitors lets you track comparable listings. Add competitor URLs or scan the area when available. Use competitor data as context, not as automatic instructions. Your property may justify higher or lower pricing based on amenities, reviews, location, and direct-booking strategy.

Seasonal Heatmap shows booking performance across the selected year in a weekly grid. Darker or stronger cells indicate higher occupancy or activity depending on the view.

Hover or inspect cells to see date range, nights booked, occupancy percentage, revenue, and average nightly rate. Use the monthly summary below the heatmap to compare months.

Use Heatmap before building next year's pricing rules. Identify peak weeks, shoulder seasons, off-season valleys, and periods where the property sold out too cheaply.

Compare multiple years when data exists. A week that was strong once may have been event-driven. A pattern that repeats across years is a stronger pricing signal.

Use Heatmap with Gap Detector. Heatmap tells you broad seasonal shape; Gap Detector tells you short-term holes that may be fillable.

Lead Sources shows booking volume, revenue, and performance by source. Use it to understand whether the business depends too heavily on one platform or whether direct booking efforts are growing.

Review source mix by booking count and revenue. A channel that sends fewer bookings may still be valuable if bookings are longer or higher-value.

Use lead-source data when deciding where to invest time. If Airbnb dominates, focus on collecting guest emails and building direct rebooking habits. If direct bookings are increasing, improve the Booking Site, Email Blasts, and guest portal.

Make sure booking sources are accurate. Manual bookings should be tagged as direct, Airbnb, VRBO, hold, or other as appropriate. Bad source data makes lead-source reports misleading.

Use this page during owner reviews to explain which channels are producing results and which need attention.

Commissions tracks referral or partner commission owed on bookings. It has Payouts and Rate Rules tabs.

Rate Rules define partner names, descriptions, and percentages. Create a separate rule for each agent, referral partner, co-host arrangement, or channel split that should be tracked. Changes affect future calculations based on the saved records and tags.

Payouts groups unpaid and paid commission by partner. Expand a partner to see the bookings, rental revenue, commission amount, and status.

Use Mark paid on a single booking when you pay that commission. Use Mark all paid on a partner header when you settle the whole outstanding amount. Use Mark unpaid to undo a mistake.

Commissions are tracking records only. HostMoat does not send the payout money to the partner. Pay the partner through your normal method, then mark the records paid for reporting.

Expenses & Income is the transaction ledger for the active property. Add income, expenses, refunds, owner contributions, vendor costs, utilities, insurance, mortgage-related costs, supplies, cleaning, repairs, platform fees, and other items.

Use the period selector to view a month, quarter, or year. Summary cards update based on the selected period. Use tabs or filters to separate all transactions, income, expenses, recurring items, and imported items when available.

When adding a transaction, choose date, amount, category, Schedule E line if applicable, booking link when relevant, vendor, notes, and recurrence settings. Negative amounts represent expenses. Positive amounts represent income.

Use Sync Bookings to create income transactions for bookings that have revenue but no linked income entry. This prevents double entry and makes profit reports more complete.

Recurring expenses are useful for mortgage, insurance, utilities, software, HOA, pest control, landscaping, and other regular costs. When a recurrence is due, generate the next occurrence and confirm the date and amount.

Export CSV for accountants or backup. Before exporting, review uncategorized transactions and make sure booking-linked expenses are attached to the correct stay.

Invoices lets you create guest-facing invoices with line items, taxes, due dates, and payment links. Stripe is required for online card or bank payments.

Create an invoice from Invoices or from a booking detail modal. Add guest email, line items, amounts, tax, due date, notes, and booking link. Send the invoice so the guest receives a secure public payment page.

Use Track my cost when invoicing for a service that also costs you money, such as extra cleaning or supplies. Enter your internal cost separately from the guest-facing price so HostMoat can log the expense and show markup.

Invoice statuses include draft, sent, viewed, overdue, paid, voided, and related states. Stripe payments update automatically. If a guest pays by cash, check, wire, Zelle, Venmo, or another offline method, use Mark Paid and choose the payment method.

Use reminders for unpaid invoices. Configure automatic reminder timing by property, including before due date, on due date, and after due date. Manual reminder buttons are useful for urgent follow-up.

Void invoices that should no longer be collectible. Voided invoices remain in records for audit history but should not be treated as open receivables.

Contracts has Contracts and Templates tabs. Templates are reusable agreement forms. Contracts are the sent or signed instances tied to guests and bookings.

Create templates first. Use merge fields for guest name, property name, address, check-in, checkout, amount, house rules, and other booking details. Use the Preview tab to verify formatting before sending.

When sending a contract, choose the guest, booking, template, recipient email, and any custom values. You can require signature only or also collect a card or bank payment method for future charges depending on Stripe setup and template configuration.

Auto-invoicing can create deposit and balance invoices when the guest signs. The deposit invoice can be sent immediately; the balance invoice can be scheduled based on due-date settings. Test this workflow before relying on it for live bookings.

Signed contracts store an audit trail and signed document. Use the download option when you need a copy for records or disputes.

If a guest says the link does not work, verify the contract status, recipient email, token link, and whether the contract was already signed or expired.

Profitability uses bookings, transactions, fixed costs, mortgage settings, assets, and other property data to show financial performance beyond gross revenue.

The P&L tab summarizes income, operating expenses, net operating income, owner cash flow, and margin. If numbers look wrong, correct the source records in Expenses & Income, bookings, or property fixed-cost settings.

The Mortgage tab models loan balance, payment assumptions, principal and interest split, insurance, property tax, utilities, HOA, and other fixed monthly costs. Keep these settings current after refinancing or escrow changes.

The Assets tab tracks furniture, appliances, improvements, purchase price, land value, depreciation-related fields, and capital items. These records support planning and tax conversations.

Tax Tips highlights items that may need tax attention. Treat them as operational prompts, not legal or tax advice. Have a qualified tax professional review before filing.

Use Profitability for owner meetings, pricing decisions, and whether to accept lower-rate bookings. A booking that looks good by revenue may be weak after cleaning, supplies, fees, and commissions.

Tax Center summarizes the selected tax year for Schedule E-style review. It uses booking revenue, transaction categories, Schedule E mappings, rental days, personal-use days, and property data.

Review rental income, expense categories, rental days, personal days, occupancy, and deductible categories. Fix source records when something is missing or miscategorized.

Personal-use days matter. Add owner stays or personal days accurately because they can affect tax treatment and deduction allocation.

Export the tax summary and transaction detail for your accountant. The export is meant to reduce cleanup work, not replace professional tax preparation.

Before sending data to an accountant, reconcile Invoices, Expenses & Income, booking revenue, refunds, platform payouts, cleaning costs, and mortgage or fixed-cost entries.

Yearly Summary rolls up annual performance for the active property. It includes stays, nights rented, no-charge days, personal days, total occupancy, revenue, revenue per night, percent rented, and occupancy percentage.

Use it to compare year-over-year performance, explain seasonality, and prepare owner or accountant summaries.

If a year looks wrong, inspect bookings first. Missing check-in dates, wrong revenue, cancelled bookings treated as active, or personal days entered incorrectly can distort the annual rollup.

Use Export CSV when sharing annual data outside HostMoat. Keep a copy with month-end reports and tax records.

Staff has five major tabs: Staff, Cleanings, Templates, Ratings & Bonuses, and Payments.

Staff stores people who work on the property: cleaners, managers, co-hosts, maintenance vendors, and other helpers. Add contact information, role, pay rates, notification preferences, vacation periods, and portal access. Send invitations only after the role is correct.

Cleanings is the turnover schedule. Create cleanings manually or from bookings. Assign staff, choose type, set date, status, notes, template, and tasks. Track pending, in progress, completed, skipped, and other statuses.

Templates define reusable task lists. Create templates for turnover, deep clean, inspection, linen reset, pool check, hot tub check, or maintenance visit. Applying templates keeps cleaner instructions consistent.

Ratings & Bonuses shows guest or owner ratings tied to staff and lets you track performance bonuses. Review form staff fields can feed this area automatically.

Payments records cleaner or staff payments. Log date, amount, method, staff member, and notes. This does not move money; it records the fact that you paid.

Cleaner Portal is a public token link for staff who do not need a full HostMoat login. Generate or copy the link from Staff.

Cleaners see assigned upcoming cleanings, booking-related timing, task lists, special notes, and status controls. They can mark a job in progress, complete tasks, upload photos where supported, leave notes, and mark the job complete.

Use cleaner links carefully. If a cleaner leaves the team, revoke or regenerate their portal token.

For same-day turnovers, confirm that the cleaning date, checkout time, check-in time, task template, and special notes are accurate before the cleaner starts.

If a cleaner says they cannot see a job, check the active property, staff assignment, cleaning date, cleaner portal token, and whether the cleaning was assigned to a different staff member.

Maintenance tracks repair and upkeep items. Use it for HVAC, plumbing, appliances, furniture, locks, Wi-Fi, pest control, landscaping, pool or hot tub issues, safety repairs, and guest-reported problems.

Create a maintenance item with title, description, priority, status, due date, assigned person or vendor, related booking if relevant, estimated cost, actual cost, and notes.

Use status consistently. New or open items should remain visible until a responsible person confirms completion. Do not mark a task complete just because it was assigned to a vendor.

Attach notes from guest complaints or cleaner reports so future staff understand context. If a maintenance issue caused a refund or bad review, link the expense or note the impact.

Review Maintenance before high season, after storms, and before owner stays. Preventive work is cheaper than emergency work during a guest stay.

Inventory has Supplies, Furnishings & Assets, and Damage Reports tabs.

Supplies tracks consumables like toilet paper, paper towels, soap, shampoo, coffee, filters, batteries, linens, towels, and cleaning products. Record current quantity, reorder point, location, vendor, cost, and notes. Use low-stock indicators to avoid emergency shopping.

Furnishings & Assets tracks durable items like beds, couches, TVs, appliances, cookware, patio furniture, grills, smart locks, routers, and decor. Record purchase date, cost, room, condition, warranty, serial number, and replacement notes.

Damage Reports records broken, missing, stained, or guest-damaged items. Include booking, guest, item, description, photos, estimated cost, resolution, charge status, and notes.

Use Inventory with Invoices and Expenses. If you charge a guest for damage, create an invoice. If you replace an item, log the expense and update the asset record.

Compliance keeps legal and operational requirements visible. It has Documents, Ordinances, and Deadlines tabs.

Documents stores permits, licenses, insurance certificates, inspection reports, HOA approvals, tax registrations, safety certificates, pool permits, and other files. Upload the document, add expiration or renewal dates, authority, cost, and notes.

Ordinances stores rule summaries for the property's city, county, HOA, or jurisdiction. Capture occupancy limits, quiet hours, parking rules, permit numbers, tax obligations, trash rules, and renewal requirements.

Deadlines surfaces upcoming renewals and due dates from documents or compliance items. Review it monthly so renewals do not surprise you.

Compliance records are only useful when kept current. After renewing a permit or insurance policy, upload the new document, update the expiration date, and archive or note the old one.

Platforms stores operational notes and credentials for external platforms. Use it for Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, Google Vacation Rentals, direct website notes, channel manager details, and other account references.

Record platform name, listing URL, login notes, owner account, support contacts, payout notes, cancellation policy, tax settings, and operational quirks. Do not store sensitive secrets unless the field is designed for it.

Keep platform records current so managers and support staff know where a booking came from and how to troubleshoot platform-specific issues.

Use Platforms together with Calendar sync, Email Import, Lead Sources, and Booking Log. If a platform name or source is inconsistent, reports become harder to read.

Alerts & Health has Alerts, Health, Digest, and Noise tabs.

Alerts lists open property issues and system flags. Mark alerts read when acknowledged and dismiss only when resolved or intentionally ignored. Open alerts can appear on the Dashboard.

Health summarizes performance signals like occupancy, review average, response time, revenue trend, and other property health inputs where data exists. If health is unavailable, add bookings and reviews first.

Digest configures summary emails. Choose delivery days, timezone, and recipients through owner and staff preferences. Digests include upcoming arrivals and departures, calendar gaps, the week's cleaning schedule with assignment status (unassigned cleanings are flagged), maintenance tasks due or overdue, unread inbox messages, occupancy, and a week-over-week revenue comparison.

Noise supports monitors through Seam integration or manual setup. Save the Seam API key, sync devices, or add monitors manually. Monitor records include device details, thresholds, status, and sync errors.

Use Alerts & Health weekly. It is a prevention page: the value is catching stale operations, weak reviews, missing data, and device problems before they become guest issues.

A guest can reach the booking site through a hostmoat.com subdomain, a /site/slug URL, or a custom domain. The page shows photos, property description, amenities, rules, reviews or rating content when available, location, availability, price breakdown, and the booking form.

The guest chooses check-in and checkout dates, enters name, email, phone, guest count, message, and required acknowledgements. If instant booking and payments are enabled, the guest may also enter payment details. If inquiry-only mode is enabled, the form submits a request instead of confirming a paid booking.

The site checks availability and pricing from HostMoat. If dates are blocked, below minimum stay, or otherwise invalid, the guest should not be able to complete the booking.

After submission, the result depends on setup: an inquiry lands in Inbox, an instant booking creates a booking, payment may be collected, contract may be sent, and emails may be triggered.

Test the public booking flow after major changes to pricing, photos, Stripe, contract templates, or domain settings.

The guest portal is tied to a booking token. Guests do not log in. Anyone with the link can access the portal, so share it only with the guest or authorized people.

Depending on settings, the portal can show booking details, guidebook sections, check-in instructions, checkout instructions, Wi-Fi, house rules, upsells, invoice or payment links, contract status, pre-arrival form status, and a message channel.

Guests can request upsells when upsells are enabled. The host approves or rejects from Guest Portal -> Requests. Approval can create and send an invoice.

If the portal requires a signed contract or completed pre-arrival form, guests may see limited content until they complete those tasks.

When a guest asks where to find something, the portal link is often better than a long email. Keep the guidebook current so the portal remains useful.

A guest opens a /sign/token link from email or host communication. The signing page loads the contract, booking, property, custom fields, and optional payment-method collection.

The guest reviews the agreement, fills required custom fields, enters name and contact details if requested, accepts required acknowledgements, and signs by drawing or typing depending on the interface.

If card or bank collection is enabled, Stripe handles payment method entry. The contract can be signed without exposing raw payment details to HostMoat.

After signing, HostMoat stores the signature, audit details, signed document, and status. Auto-invoices may be created depending on the contract template.

If a guest cannot sign, check whether the token is valid, the contract is already signed, required fields are incomplete, Stripe setup is missing, or the guest is using a browser that blocks required scripts.

A guest opens a /invoice/token link from an invoice email. The page shows invoice details, line items, amount due, due date, status, and available payment methods.

If Stripe is configured and the invoice is payable, the guest enters card or bank details and submits payment. Stripe processes the payment and HostMoat updates invoice status when confirmation is received.

If an invoice is already paid or voided, the page should show the current status instead of asking for payment.

If a guest pays outside Stripe, do not ask them to pay again through the link. Open Invoices and use Mark Paid with the offline payment method.

If payment fails, confirm Stripe settings, invoice status, payment method availability, guest billing details, and whether the invoice amount is valid.

Pre-arrival forms and review forms are public token links. Guests do not need HostMoat accounts.

For pre-arrival forms, guests complete required fields, optional fields, uploads if present, and submit. HostMoat links the response to the booking when possible. Guests receive a confirmation and edit link.

For review forms, guests answer rating and feedback questions after their stay. If smart routing is configured, high-rated responses may show public review links while lower-rated responses show a private thank-you or follow-up message.

If a guest cannot submit a form, check required fields, file upload size/type, token validity, browser issues, and whether the form is still active.

Keep forms short. The longer the form, the lower the completion rate. Ask only for data you actually use.

Owners and managers can invite team members when the account and feature access allow it. The invited person receives an /invite/token link.

If the invitee is already signed in, the invitation can attach the property to that account. If not signed in, the page directs them through authentication before acceptance.

After acceptance, the new member sees the shared property based on their role. Viewer roles cannot edit. Manager or owner-like roles can edit according to permissions.

If an invitation fails, check whether the token expired, the email matches the intended user, the invite was already accepted, or the property/member limit was reached.

Admin Overview is the platform command center. Use it to review high-level subscription state, platform metrics, and administrative actions that apply across accounts.

Admin Users shows user profiles, subscription details, trial status, account metadata, and user-level controls. Use search and filters before editing. Be careful with plan, admin, or trial changes because they affect feature access.

Admin Revenue summarizes subscription and MRR data. Use it for plan mix, new subscriptions, revenue review, and billing investigations. It is not a replacement for Stripe's accounting records.

Admin Properties lists properties across the platform, owners, iCal feeds, sync status, and creation dates. Use it to investigate sync problems, orphaned properties, or account setup issues.

For support tickets, always identify user, property, plan, and affected page before changing records.

Admin Logs shows system activity such as iCal sync, invoice sending, errors, and other logged events. Use filters to narrow by event type or severity.

Admin Health summarizes service status such as database activity, feeds, sync errors, email configuration, and other platform checks. Use it to decide whether a problem is user-specific or platform-wide.

Admin Email has Guest Emails and All Activity tabs. Guest Emails focuses on booking-related email logs. All Activity shows broader email activity. Use Send Test to verify delivery configuration.

Admin Webhooks is for Stripe webhook monitoring and troubleshooting. Use it when subscriptions, invoices, or payment events do not appear to update after Stripe activity.

Admin Cloudflare Logs shows traffic filters, host counts, status, request details, and auto-refresh controls. Use it to investigate custom domains, booking-site traffic, abuse, or unexpected errors.

Admin Settings controls platform-level settings like announcements, trial defaults, team settings, and email configuration. Save only the section you intend to change and confirm the Saved indicator.

Admin Promos creates and deletes promo codes. Define code, discount, duration, limits, expiration, and active status based on the form fields. Test codes in Stripe or checkout flows before broad promotion.

Admin Feature Flags creates feature gates by key, label, description, scope, and scope value. Use flags for staged rollouts, internal testing, and account-specific enablement. Remove stale flags when no longer used.

Admin Bulk Actions lets admins select users and apply actions such as export, plan updates, trial changes, or other supported batch operations. Filter carefully and review selected users before running an action.

Admin Changelog creates public product update entries. Set title, body, version, category, and published status. Use draft/unpublished state while editing, then publish only when ready for customers.

Admin Abuse tracks suspicious users or manual abuse flags. Add a flag with email, type, severity, and description. Resolve flags only when the risk is handled. Delete flags only when they were created in error or are no longer useful.

Admin Onboarding helps inspect setup progress and funnel drop-off. Use it to understand where users get stuck: property creation, iCal sync, Stripe, templates, or feature adoption.

Admin Support manages tickets and internal notes. Update status, priority, and notes as work progresses. Keep notes factual and useful for the next person.

Admin Watchtower configures the platform-level built-in AI provider, especially Ollama server URL, model, and Cloudflare Access service credentials. Save only touched secret fields. Query models after saving a URL when available. Misconfiguring this page can affect built-in AI for Pro users, so test before and after changes.

First confirm the active property. Many "missing booking" issues are simply the wrong property selected in the sidebar.

Open Settings and verify the platform iCal feed exists, is enabled, and uses an actual iCal URL. Then open Calendar and click Sync iCal.

Check Booking Log filters. A booking may be hidden by source, status, search text, or date range.

Check Cancellations if the booking disappeared from a platform feed. A removed iCal event may have been interpreted as cancelled.

If the booking exists but has incomplete revenue or guest data, set up Email Import and forward the platform confirmation email. iCal alone may not include the missing fields.

If external platforms do not show HostMoat blocks or direct bookings, confirm HostMoat's export URL was pasted into those platforms and that the platforms have refreshed their calendars. External refresh timing is controlled partly by the platform.

Start with the booking record. Confirm guest email is present and spelled correctly. Automated emails cannot send to a blank or wrong address.

Check Auto-Email template status, timing, and merge fields. A disabled template or broken merge field can prevent a useful email from going out.

Check Admin Email if you have admin access. Look for delivery status, errors, bounces, and recent activity.

For pre-arrival forms, review Pre-Arrival Forms -> Responses. The form may be sent, viewed, in progress, completed, expired, or unassigned.

For guest portal, guidebook, invoice, contract, or review links, copy a fresh link from the relevant booking or page and test it in an incognito browser. If the link works for you, ask the guest to try another browser or check whether their email client broke the URL.

Avoid sending multiple different links for the same task. Use the durable edit link or portal link when possible.

Confirm Stripe is connected in Settings and that publishable/secret key configuration shows as ready. Without Stripe, online invoice, direct booking, and upsell payments cannot process.

Check which payment methods are enabled for the property. If bank transfer is disabled, guests will only see card. If card is disabled, card payment will not appear.

Open the invoice, booking site, contract, or upsell request that triggered payment. Confirm amount due is greater than zero, status is payable, guest email exists, and the invoice is not voided or already paid.

For contract auto-invoicing, inspect the contract template. Confirm deposit and balance invoice rules, due dates, line items, and trigger settings.

If Stripe says payment succeeded but HostMoat did not update, check Admin Webhooks if you have admin access. A webhook delivery problem can delay status updates.

For offline payments, do not use Stripe. Open the invoice and use Mark Paid with the correct method.

Open Watchtower AI and inspect What Watchtower Knows. Most weak drafts come from missing or outdated source content.

Update the Guidebook first. Add Wi-Fi, parking, check-in, checkout, house rules, amenities, appliance instructions, local recommendations, emergency contacts, and policy details. Make sure sections are visible.

Update Booking Site content for amenities, description, bedrooms, bathrooms, max guests, and location context.

Add owner notes for policies that do not belong in the public guidebook, such as when to approve late checkout, what to say about discounts, or when to escalate to the owner.

Use Try a sample question after every major change. Test the exact questions guests ask most often.

If using a custom prompt, simplify it. Overly complex prompts can override useful default safety behavior. Watchtower should say it will check with the host when the answer is not documented.

Open Booking Site -> Setup and confirm the site is enabled. If disabled, public URLs should not behave like a live booking site.

Confirm the slug is valid, available, and saved. A slug becomes the hostmoat.com subdomain path guests use.

For custom domains, confirm the DNS CNAME points to the expected HostMoat target. DNS changes can take minutes or hours depending on provider and cache.

Click Provision Domain after DNS is in place, then Check Status. Do not advertise the custom domain until verification and SSL are ready.

Open Booking Site -> Preview to confirm content. If Preview works but the domain does not, the issue is likely DNS or provisioning. If Preview is empty or wrong, fix Setup, Content, Photos, and pricing data first.

If guests can see the site but cannot book dates, check Calendar availability, Pricing rules, minimum stay, Stripe setup, booking mode, and required house-rule acknowledgements.