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. Property begins with Property Profile, the central place for reusable details, spaces, amenities, photos, guest information, and house rules; the rest of that section covers staff, maintenance, inventory, compliance, platform credentials, alerts, and health. Finance is for money, invoices, taxes, and commissions. Guests is for publishing and 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. Reports is for cancellation and annual performance reporting. Account is where sync, Stripe, team members, financial assumptions, 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 is the free organizer for one property. Essential automates and protects that property with unlimited sync, automatic email and bank import, guest-prep workflows, profitability and tax tools, maintenance, inventory, and compliance. Pro adds direct-booking sales, contracts and payments, the guest portal, staff and team coordination, smart devices, alerts, advanced revenue tools, and a second property. When a page shows an Essential or Pro badge, that label is the minimum plan required; every new account can try all of it during the 14-day Pro trial.

Plan changes never delete property data or end the signed-in session. If a downgrade lowers the property allowance, extra properties remain visible in read-only mode. The owner can open a preserved property and choose Keep this property active; HostMoat promotes it and makes the property at the edge of the allowance read-only instead. Paid integrations pause on read-only properties and resume when that property is active again or the plan limit increases.

Every new account begins with a 14-day Pro trial for one property. No credit card is required. The plan picker during signup is a comparison aid, not a purchase: billing starts only after you deliberately choose a paid plan in Settings. If you choose Pro 5 or Pro 10 from the pricing page, the modal groups it under the Pro feature tier while remembering the exact portfolio size you selected. If you do nothing, the account moves to Starter when the trial ends.

Starter ($0) is for organizing one rental manually. It includes Dashboard, Calendar, Booking Log, Guest CRM, Inbox, manual message templates, rates and seasonal rules, Gap Detector, Seasonal Heatmap, reports, booking and inquiry embeds, CSV transaction import and export, one iCal feed, commissions, and platform notes.

Essential ($9/month) is for automating and protecting one rental. It adds unlimited two-way iCal, automatic booking emails, inquiry auto-response, automatic Watchtower inquiry drafts with your provider, email import, automatic bank and card sync for up to three accounts, recurring expense workflows, Profitability, Tax Center and Schedule E export, Pre-Arrival Forms, Digital Guidebook, Reviews, Maintenance, Inventory, and Compliance.

Pro ($19/month) is for growing direct revenue or coordinating more people and systems. It supports two properties and adds the Direct Booking Site and checkout, custom domains, Contracts, Invoices and Stripe payments, Guest Portal and upsells, Staff and Cleaner Portal, team access, Smart Devices, Alerts and digests, Market Intelligence, built-in Watchtower AI, and Email Blasts. Pro 5 and Pro 10 keep the same feature set while raising the property allowance.

Pro customers can also request hands-on setup or targeted account customization. Examples include importing historical bookings that do not fit the standard iCal, email, or CSV paths; adapting a workflow; or discussing an account-specific feature. These requests are reviewed for data safety, feasibility, maintenance, and broader product impact. Help & Support will confirm the scope, timeline, and any one-time fee before work begins; a Pro subscription does not include unlimited custom development.

Downgrades do not delete records. Paid features become read-only or pause where necessary, extra properties stay visible in read-only mode, and saved configurations resume when the required plan is restored.

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

The Dashboard shows a Getting Started checklist that tracks your real setup progress automatically: property profile, calendar connection, address, nightly rate, auto-emails, Stripe, and guidebook. Each incomplete step is clickable and jumps straight to the right page, and the checklist checks itself off no matter where you do the work. Dismissing it hides it for a week; dismissing it a second time hides it for good. If HostMoat cannot load your property list, use the Try Again screen; the setup wizard appears only after HostMoat successfully confirms that the account has no property yet.

1. Open Property -> Property Profile. Confirm the name, address, timezone, description, capacity, default minimum nights, rooms, amenities, photos, check-in and checkout details, Wi-Fi, door code, parking instructions, contacts, and house rules. These shared facts feed guest emails, Watchtower AI, the guidebook, the booking site, the guest portal, 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. Open Pricing. Set the normal nightly price, cleaning fee, weekend adjustment, and any special-date prices. The default minimum nights live in Property Profile -> Spaces & Amenities; add date-specific minimum overrides to special-date prices. 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. Click "Connect with Stripe" and complete the short hosted onboarding. Payments land directly in your own Stripe account, and there are no API keys to copy. Without Stripe, you can still track invoices manually, but online payment links will not work.

6. Configure the guest-facing channels: publish the Guidebook, choose Booking Site layout and booking settings, configure Guest Portal visibility, and build Pre-Arrival Forms and Reviews. Their reusable property content stays synced from Property Profile.

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. Property Profile appears first in the Property section so reusable property facts have one obvious home.

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.

Property -> Property Profile is the central source for reusable property content. Use Details for the property name, description, address, location, type, coordinates, and timezone. Use Spaces & Amenities for bathroom and guest capacity, default minimum nights, amenities, and named rooms with bed, floor, and notes. Bedroom count is calculated from the rooms whose type is Bedroom instead of being typed separately.

Use Photos to upload, caption, reorder, choose a hero image, and optionally assign an image to a room. Room and photo order, hero selection, and metadata save as complete changes, so an interrupted request cannot leave only part of a reorder applied. Upload and delete interruptions are checked against the saved gallery before image storage is cleaned up, so HostMoat does not erase an image that is still attached to the property. If another tab changed the same list first, reload and try the move again. Removing a room only clears its photo assignment; it does not delete the image. Use Guest Information & Rules for contacts, Wi-Fi and access details, parking, standard check-in and checkout times and instructions, and house rules.

On a small screen, use the arrow controls or swipe the section row; the selected section scrolls into view automatically. A keyboard user can move between sections with Left/Right/Home/End. In Photos, activate the upload area to browse or drop images while it is idle. Multi-photo batches keep their selected order and finish before another batch starts. Use the photo handle, its arrow keys, or Move Up/Move Down to reorder. Wi-Fi passwords and access codes are masked until you choose Show.

The default minimum is enforced by the shared pricing resolver and server-side direct-booking checkout whenever no date-specific pricing/import minimum applies. A seasonal rule can deliberately raise or lower that default for its dates. If a stay touches several explicit minimums, the highest applicable explicit value wins.

Booking Site, Guidebook, Guest Portal, new checkout consent, emails, directory listings, and Watchtower consume the relevant facts from this profile. Edit the fact here when it is wrong. Then use each guest-facing tool only for channel choices such as publishing, visibility, layout, payment, domain, and preview. Existing signed contracts, accepted consent, and issued invoices remain immutable historical snapshots; changing the profile does not rewrite what a guest already accepted or paid.

All sections follow the active property selector. Managers can edit when their role allows it, viewers are read-only, and the shared demo cannot be changed.

Settings controls account connections and administrative choices. Reusable guest-facing property facts are edited in Property -> Property Profile; Settings links there instead of keeping a second copy.

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. Starter runs the oldest active feed. If a downgrade leaves multiple feeds saved, the additional rows show Configured · Paused; delete the running feed to make the next one active, or upgrade to Essential to resume them all.

Stripe and payment settings live here when payments are enabled. Click "Connect with Stripe" to link your own Stripe account through Stripe's hosted onboarding: one click, no API keys to paste. The status card shows whether charges are enabled, and you can finish setup or disconnect at any time. Connect before sending invoices, collecting booking-site deposits, approving paid upsells, or collecting card/bank details on contracts. Guest payments go straight to your Stripe account and pay out on Stripe's normal schedule.

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 turnover spacing, default staff assignment, digest preferences, guest tag thresholds, export links, embed configuration, and property-specific operational 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, Embeds, 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. Financial amounts cannot be negative, and N/C days cannot exceed the stay length. N/C days are assigned from check-in forward and count as personal rather than fair-rental use in tax reporting. 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.

Turnover Days Between Bookings is an operational setting under Account -> Settings. At 0, a new stay may begin on the prior checkout date. At 1, the checkout boundary cannot be reused for arrival and one full day after checkout is reserved, so a Jun 8 checkout makes Jun 10 the earliest next check-in. Manual and direct booking saves are rejected when they violate this spacing. Imported iCal and confirmation-email reservations keep their original dates; if a platform accepted tighter spacing, HostMoat preserves it and shows the operational conflict.

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.

Starter includes one imported iCal feed. Essential and higher add unlimited feeds plus HostMoat's export calendar for 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.

On Essential and higher, 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.

When Airbnb, VRBO, or another platform mirrors unavailable dates from a second calendar, HostMoat may keep an unnamed or provider-labeled blocked row so the dates remain protected. These availability-only rows do not create guest profiles or send new-booking notifications. Connecting a feed can also import completed stays for reporting; those historical rows do not send new-booking notifications either. HostMoat does not merge two named cross-platform reservations based only on matching dates because an overlap could be a real double-booking, so it produces a calendar-conflict alert for you to review.

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.

HostMoat never stores two overlapping stays on the same property, because a calendar that shows both is a calendar you cannot trust. If a feed offers dates that are already occupied, those dates are not imported and you get an urgent alert instead.

The alert names both sides: which platform sent the new dates, who the stay is for, and which existing booking or block it collides with. Open Alerts to see it, or Calendar to see the dates in context.

Conflicts almost always mean two platforms sold the same nights, or one platform still shows dates you have blocked elsewhere. HostMoat cannot pick a winner for you, because only you know which reservation is real and which one has to be moved or refunded.

To resolve one: 1. Open the alert and note both date ranges and both platforms. 2. Check each platform directly to see which stay is a real, paid reservation. 3. Cancel, move, or unblock the losing side on the platform that owns it. 4. Wait for the next sync, or use Calendar -> Sync iCal to run it now.

Once the clash is gone the dates import normally and the alert closes itself. You do not need to dismiss it by hand.

To reduce conflicts, copy the HostMoat export URL into every platform you list on, so each one can see the others' bookings.

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.

Email Import requires Essential or higher. Enable it in Settings, then 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. Cancelling a booking releases dates and runs cancellation notices, but does not by itself promise or send money back.

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.

For a cancelled direct booking paid through HostMoat Stripe, click Refund on its row. HostMoat checks Stripe for each payment's live refundable balance, then lets an owner or manager issue a full or partial refund. Confirm the amount carefully: Stripe refunds cannot be undone. A pending request remains visible and can be resumed safely without creating a duplicate.

Successful Stripe refunds update the invoice's refunded and net-collected totals, the booking's net collected amount, Expenses & Income, Dashboard, Profitability, and Tax Center. They appear as locked negative rental-income entries, not operating expenses. HostMoat also emails the guest the exact amount returned to the original payment method; refund history shows whether that confirmation was sent or is still pending. Use Retry email on a succeeded refund if delivery is pending; this resends only the confirmation and cannot move money again. Pending or failed refunds do not change the financial totals.

Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, cash, and other externally collected payments must be refunded in the original platform or payment service. Record those only in the manual cancellation log. Use estimated loss and refund paid separately; do not enter a HostMoat Stripe refund again as a manual refund.

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. If a new guest message arrives while a draft is generating or being reviewed, the older draft is discarded rather than being attached to the wrong turn.

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.

Starter includes manual message templates and merge fields. Automatic template delivery, booking confirmations, and inquiry auto-response require Essential or higher. Common automated templates include booking confirmation, pre-arrival, check-in day, checkout reminder, and review request.

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. If a trial or paid plan ends, HostMoat keeps the configuration but pauses delivery until Essential access resumes.

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.

Embeds lets you add HostMoat guest tools to an existing website. The Calendar tab provides live availability with optional nightly prices and an inquiry form. The Booking Checkout tab provides the complete Instant Book flow: date selection, calculated pricing, guest details, Stripe payment, and rental-agreement signing.

Open Guests -> Embeds and choose Calendar or Booking Checkout. Configure the calendar options or complete the checkout readiness steps, then copy the generated code into an HTML block on Squarespace, Wix, WordPress, or another site that accepts custom HTML.

Both embeds use HostMoat calendar data, including synced platform bookings, manual bookings, direct bookings, blocks, and the property's Turnover Days Between Bookings setting. Turnover-protected checkout boundaries and full buffer days cannot be selected for a conflicting stay, and typed inquiry dates receive the same check before submission. If availability looks wrong, fix the Calendar, turnover setting, or iCal feeds first.

Nightly prices come from Pricing: normal price, special-date prices, weekend adjustment, cleaning fee, and minimum-stay logic. Update those settings before relying on widget pricing.

When the calendar inquiry form is enabled, submissions land in HostMoat and can be handled from Inbox. Booking Checkout requires Pro, an enabled Booking Site in Instant Book mode, and a connected Stripe account. After payment, a guest whose site uses the automatic contract is taken to the signing page; the booking is confirmed only after signing. Its URL uses the property's permanent ID, so changing the Booking Site slug or custom domain does not require replacing the code on your website.

The Booking Checkout snippet includes a small script that grows the frame to fit the checkout as the guest moves through it. Some website builders block scripts in certain placements (popups and modals especially), which leaves the frame at its starting height with a scrollbar inside. If you see that, edit the pasted code and change height:1100px to a fixed height that fits the full checkout, such as height:2900px. The script tag can stay; it is simply ignored where the builder blocks it.

Booking Site creates a public booking page for the active property. It keeps channel-specific controls for setup, layout and section visibility, payments, domain, publishing, and preview. Reusable listing facts and images are shown as synced content with links back to Property Profile.

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.

Every property starts with an active default rental-agreement template, and automatic contracts are on by default for its Booking Site. Review and customize that template before enabling Instant Book. If you set a different property template as the default, the Booking Site follows it. You can explicitly turn automatic contracts off when an agreement is not required.

For payments, decide whether guests pay the full amount or a deposit at checkout. When using a deposit, set Balance Due Before Arrival to the number of days before check-in when the rest becomes due. A guest booking on or after that due date pays the full reservation total at checkout; an earlier booking pays the configured deposit and receives a balance invoice due on that date. Set 0 to keep the balance due at check-in. The scheduled-invoice timing under Invoices -> Reminders controls how many days before the due date that balance invoice is emailed.

If the Booking Site uses a custom contract, insert {{payment_terms}} where the agreement should describe payment timing. HostMoat replaces it with the actual checkout result: either the deposit collected, remaining balance, and exact due date, or full payment collected with no remaining balance. Hard-coded custom sentences do not adapt to the booking date. Already-sent and signed contracts remain frozen.

Stripe must be connected for card or bank payments. With automatic contracts on, HostMoat collects and verifies the amount due at booking, emails the agreement, and opens the signing page in the guest's browser. The agreement's Payment Terms field states either that full payment was collected with no remaining balance, or that a deposit was collected with the remaining amount and exact due date. The booking remains tentative until the guest signs, then the normal booking confirmation is sent. Checkout owns the deposit and balance invoices, so the contract does not create duplicate invoices when signed. The balance is paid from the emailed invoice; this setting does not automatically recharge the original deposit card.

Content controls booking-site presentation such as hero messaging, branding, layout, section visibility, reviews, map display, and calendar price display. Description, amenities, guest capacity, rooms, bathrooms, coordinates, and house rules come from Property Profile, so the Booking Site does not create conflicting copies.

When the House Rules section is visible and contains at least one rule, Instant Book asks the guest to open and accept that exact list before checkout. HostMoat verifies the acceptance again when it creates the booking and saves a dated copy on that booking. Later edits in Property Profile apply to future guests and do not rewrite what an earlier guest accepted. If you hide the House Rules section or leave its list empty, checkout does not show a meaningless agreement checkbox.

The Photos area shows the gallery synced from Property Profile and links to its Photos section for uploads, captions, room assignments, ordering, deletion, and hero selection. 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 full guest-facing address, such as booking.yourproperty.com. In your registrar, create a CNAME with Host/Name booking and Points to/Target sites.hostmoat.com. Do not enter sites.hostmoat.com in HostMoat's Custom Domain field; it is only the DNS target. Save the HostMoat setup, then use Provision Domain and Check Status. DNS can take time. Do not advertise the custom domain until SSL and verification show as ready.

Featured Stays Directory is an optional, free listing in HostMoat's public "book direct" directory at hostmoat.com/stays. Turn it on from the Setup tab once the site is enabled. The directory card shows only content that is already public on your booking site (property name, location, tagline, and hero photo) and links travelers straight to your site. The listing also gives your site an extra inbound link, which helps search engines find it. Switch the toggle off at any time to be removed from the directory; disabling the booking site removes the listing automatically.

Guidebook is a published guest channel for the property. It is also one of Watchtower AI's information sources, so complete, visible guidebook content improves owner-reviewed AI replies.

The Essentials area shows synced Contact Info, Wi-Fi & Access, Check-in/Checkout, Bedrooms, and House Rules. Use Edit in Property to change those shared facts in Property Profile. Extra Info remains editable in Guidebook for channel-specific topics like trash, pool rules, hot tub, transit, local restaurants, appliance quirks, and neighborhood tips.

Guidebook still owns its welcome copy, published state, public link and QR code, preview, section visibility, order, and custom topics. Hidden sections are not shown to guidebook visitors and should not be treated as published instructions. If synced sections or images cannot load, the public guidebook shows a retry error instead of presenting an apparently valid empty guide.

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 shared credentials, times, contacts, rooms, and rules in Property Profile; update Guidebook when custom instructions, publication, order, or visibility changes.

Guest Portal gives each booking a private public link. Guests can see stay details, shared Property Profile facts, 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, which synced property and guidebook sections guests can see, and whether access requires contract signature or pre-arrival submission. Change the underlying address, rooms, contact details, credentials, times, or house rules in Property Profile; the portal settings only control release gates and display.

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. New properties also include an active Post-Stay Request item for quote-on-request services after checkout. Existing properties receive it switched off so no guest-facing catalog changes happen without the owner's review.

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.

After submission, every guest sees the same optional public-review links you configure, regardless of rating. Private form answers remain available to your team for direct follow-up. Ask for honest reviews, do not selectively solicit only positive reviews, and do not offer incentives tied to review sentiment.

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.

Sending limits keep deliverability high for everyone: accounts on a paid subscription can send up to 500 marketing emails per day, and free or trial accounts up to 50 per day. Email Blasts also become available 24 hours after account creation. If a campaign pauses at the daily limit, remaining recipients stay queued; re-send the campaign the next day to continue where it left off.

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 has two distinct modes. Inbox AI creates drafts that never send until an owner or manager reviews and clicks Send. The optional Pro public chat widget automatically answers anonymous pre-booking visitors and is labeled as AI-powered.

Open Watchtower AI and enable it for the active property. Starter supports manual inbox drafts with your OpenAI key, Anthropic key, or a public HTTPS Ollama endpoint. Essential also allows Auto-draft on inquiry arrival; the draft is prepared automatically but still waits in Inbox for approval. Pro includes the built-in provider and public chat. Secrets are stored in Supabase Vault. A customer's Ollama endpoint receives only that property's optional token, never HostMoat's internal AI token.

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. Advanced custom instructions can shape voice and response structure, but mandatory privacy, availability, quoting, and untrusted-input safeguards always remain in force.

Use What Watchtower Knows to inspect the Inbox knowledge base. Inbox drafts can use canonical Property Profile facts, Pricing, visible guidebook sections, recent thread context, and known booked ranges. If recent thread context cannot load, Watchtower asks you to retry instead of drafting from only the latest message. If the Bedrooms section is hidden in Guidebook, its room details stay out of Watchtower too. A structured inquiry receives live conflict, turnover, minimum-stay, and pricing checks and uses the applicable minimum for those dates, even when a seasonal override is lower or higher than the property default. Dates that are merely absent from the calendar summary are not automatically confirmed as open.

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. Sending is idempotent: retrying the same draft after a network interruption must not email the guest twice.

For public chat, write a welcome message, choose only public-safe content, and copy a fresh embed snippet after changing the welcome text. Exact address, Wi-Fi, entry/lockbox, private contacts, parking/access instructions, and freeform guidebook fields are always excluded. Review the public property description, amenities, listing facts, and house rules before enabling chat because those are host-designated public content. If a requested fact is not documented, chat defers to the owner; if its live transcript, guidebook, room, or calendar context cannot load, it returns a temporary retry message instead of guessing. Public chat uses a keyed, day-scoped network limit and a per-property message cap from 50 to 2,000; the network identifier is kept only in the abuse counter, not in chat transcripts.

These restrictions apply by surface rather than deleting the information everywhere. Contracts can include the property address captured for that agreement. Confirmed-guest portals retain their address, Wi-Fi, timed access-code, and contact sections. Published guidebook links retain their token-based access. The direct-booking site still shows its configured public location, listing facts, and house rules. The stricter boundary applies to anonymous generated chat and automatic inquiry acknowledgments, where an unknown visitor could repeatedly probe for private details.

Pricing opens to one calendar-first workflow with three controls:

1. Normal price is the fallback nightly price, cleaning fee, and optional Friday/Saturday adjustment.
2. Special-date prices protect holidays, events, promotions, or any dates you want to control yourself. They are stored as manual pricing rules.
3. Autopilot may adjust the remaining available direct-booking dates only after you approve a private preview.

The page has only three top-level sections. Prices contains the calendar and special-date controls. Autopilot contains preview, approval, status, and recovery. Advanced insights contains optional market signals, Smart Comp Set data, and the manual Watchlist. Advanced insights never sets a guest price by itself.

When Revenue Autopilot is running or paused, HostMoat chooses the first available price for each night in this order:

1. Special-date price for the date.
2. Approved Revenue Autopilot rate for an uncovered date.
3. Normal nightly price as the fallback.

The weekend adjustment is added to special-date and normal fallback prices on Friday and Saturday. An approved Autopilot rate is already a final nightly rate, so the adjustment is not added again. Cleaning fee is separate. The property default minimum stay still applies unless a special-date price supplies a date-specific minimum.

When Autopilot is off or in Preview, preview and pending rates are absent from the guest-price chain. The established manual, fresh imported-price, base-rate, weekend, and minimum-stay behavior continues unchanged. If existing Airbnb price sync is configured as imported-first, that existing order also remains unchanged during Preview.

Special-date prices are the protected control layer. Adding or editing one immediately overrides an Autopilot rate for the same date without deleting the Autopilot receipt. Autopilot never inserts, edits, or deletes these manual rules.

Market signals are optional analysis under Advanced insights. Their performance cards and opportunities do not change a price. Applying an opportunity opens a special-date price; only saving it changes the price path, and it then outranks Autopilot.

The Prices calendar is the verification surface. Select any night to see the guest price, who controls it, a plain-language reason, and an Override this date button. Check it after editing a normal price, weekend adjustment, special-date price, or approved Autopilot batch.

Set the property fallback minimum in Property -> Property Profile -> Spaces & Amenities as Default Minimum Nights. A minimum on a seasonal rule overrides that fallback for the rule's dates. If a stay touches multiple explicit minimum overrides, the highest applies. Checkout validates the same rule again before starting payment.

Revenue Autopilot is an optional Pro execution layer for direct-booking nightly prices. It works below your protected special-date prices and never replaces your judgment. Use this checklist from top to bottom.

If Autopilot shows a permission or loading error, do not rebuild or approve in response. A failed history read does not publish or change a guest price. Refresh once, confirm the signed-in user is the property owner or a manager and the property still has Pro access, then contact support with the property name and error text if it continues.

Before building a preview:

1. On Pricing, use Edit normal price and confirm the nightly price is a meaningful fallback. Autopilot uses it as its primary anchor. A placeholder such as $1 can make every proposal hit a safeguard.
2. Confirm the weekend premium and default minimum stay. Autopilot does not automate minimum stays.
3. Add special-date prices for dates you never want Autopilot to price, such as a contracted event week or owner-controlled promotion.
4. If needed, open Advanced insights -> Comparable data & Watchlist. Confirm the automatic Smart Comp Set describes genuinely comparable properties. The Watchlist is reference-only.
5. In Autopilot, expand Adjust safeguards if you need to change the lowest or highest allowed price. HostMoat does not verify that the lowest price covers costs or that the highest is competitive.

Build the preview:

1. Open Autopilot. The default action builds a private preview using the saved safeguards and approach. Expand Adjust safeguards only when you need to change them.
2. Click Build private preview. The server snapshots the current effective price for each eligible date and creates pending proposals. No guest quote changes.
3. Resolve a normal-price-outside-safeguards warning before approval unless the mismatch is deliberate. Expand How Autopilot builds this preview only when you need the underlying evidence.
4. Read the proposal table from left to right: eligible date range, current price, proposed final price, and the signals explaining why. Special-price, booked, blocked, and locked dates are absent by design. If the same proposed price appears in separate rows, read the exclusion explanation below the table: an unavailable or protected date split one continuous range into several eligible ranges.
5. Change the lowest price, highest price, or approach and click Rebuild with these settings as often as needed. Rebuilding replaces the saved proposal only.

If nearly every eligible date lands on one price, stop and diagnose the anchor before approval. A placeholder base can make the Smart Comp Set's broad lower guard, 60 percent of the trimmed comp ADR, dominate the whole preview. That is a safety bound, not a precise year-round market recommendation. Correct the base rate and rebuild.

Understand the signals:

• Holiday calendar adjusts supported US or Mexico holiday periods.
• Seasonal history activates only when the property has enough comparable booked nights for that month.
• Weekend pattern uses the property's own history; with limited history it uses a conservative default pattern.
• Booking pace waits for at least eight historical reference snapshots in the relevant lead-time group.
• Short-gap logic considers only fillable one-to-three-night gaps that meet the current minimum stay.
• Smart Comp Set is a broad sanity guard, not a date-specific competitor price. It needs at least five fresh, same-currency, non-self AirROI comps.
• Hard floor and ceiling clamp the final proposal after other signals.

Approve safely:

1. Use the Prices calendar selected-night panel and a sample direct-booking quote to verify representative weekday, weekend, special-price, and uncovered dates.
2. Approval publishes the complete current batch. Preview proposals are not partial approvals.
3. Near-term, unusually large, and cumulative-drift changes stay pending even after Autopilot is running. Approve or reject those separately.
4. If HostMoat Airbnb price sync is enabled, approval requires a second confirmation and disables that sync transactionally. Preview never disables it.

Operate and recover:

• Pause stops new runs while keeping already approved rates live.
• Resume restarts runs from the same episode.
• Reject & snooze keeps one direction for that date from being proposed again for two weeks.
• Restore & lock restores a published range to its prior final rate and keeps Autopilot off that range until you unlock it.
• Stop & restore removes only Autopilot-owned rates and returns guest quotes to the established manual, imported, weekend, and base path. It does not delete pricing rules.

Airbnb and VRBO remain manual. The update sheet shows rates you may copy to those channels. Marking a row applied records your confirmation only; HostMoat does not claim it changed the OTA.

The scoreboard counts only verified direct-site nights whose saved checkout snapshot proves an Autopilot rate was charged. It reports negative periods plainly, excludes unverified nights, and does not claim that a price change caused a booking.

Advanced insights -> Comparable data & Watchlist contains two deliberately separate populations.

Smart Comp Set is automatic. It contains nearby AirROI observations representing booked average daily rate. Market Intelligence uses this population for market-position context. Revenue Autopilot uses only non-self observations in the property currency that are no more than 28 days old. At least five are required before the comp guard activates. The guard keeps a proposal within a broad band around a trimmed comp mean; it does not pretend every competitor charged that amount for the exact future date.

The Smart Comp Set table can display observations up to 180 days old for analysis. Therefore its visible table count may be larger than the fresh count shown on an Autopilot run. Autopilot's run receipt is authoritative for the data it actually used.

Watchlist is manual. Listings added by URL or area exploration are for side-by-side judgment and monitoring. Watchlist asking prices do not feed Revenue Autopilot, do not alter Market Intelligence recommendations, and do not become manual pricing rules. This prevents a hand-picked outlier or stale asking price from silently changing automated prices.

If the Smart Comp Set looks wrong, verify the property's latitude, longitude, city, bedrooms, and currency. Refresh market data, then rebuild the Autopilot preview. If fewer than five fresh comps remain, Autopilot continues with its other signals and clearly reports that the comp guard is inactive.

Use the Watchlist to investigate amenity, review, location, and positioning differences that data cannot normalize. Add a special-date price when your judgment should become authoritative for specific dates.

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. If the same owner has multiple properties in the same currency, use the property selector to switch to a consolidated portfolio ledger; its CSV export includes a Property column. 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. Normal negative amounts represent expenses and positive amounts represent income. Locked Stripe refund rows are the exception: they are negative rental income, not expenses.

Use Sync Bookings to create one dated Line 3 income transaction for a booking that has a guest charge but no linked rent receipt. The amount includes room rent, cleaning, and prepaid guest charges. The database prevents duplicate automated mirrors, and an actual Stripe receipt supersedes its booking-sync mirror in financial reports.

Stripe invoice payments create locked income rows automatically. Once one exists for a booking, reports suppress an older Sync Bookings mirror so the same receipt is not counted twice. A successful refund from Cancellations creates a locked negative-income row and reduces invoice and booking net-collected totals automatically.

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. Creation and schedule advancement happen together, so a retry cannot create a duplicate. Month-end dates clamp to the last valid day instead of skipping a month.

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

Import CSV on the Expenses & Income page reads a statement exported from your bank or credit card so you do not have to type transactions by hand. It is available on every plan, including the free Starter plan.

How to export a CSV from common banks: - Chase: sign in, pick the account, choose Download account activity, select CSV, pick a date range, download. - American Express: sign in, go to Statements & Activity, choose Download, select CSV, pick a date range, download. - Wells Fargo: Account Activity, then Download Account Activity, format Comma Delimited. - Bank of America: Transactions, then Download, choose Microsoft Excel (.csv). - Capital One: pick the account, Download Transactions, file type CSV.

Steps to import: 1. Open Expenses & Income and click Import CSV. 2. Choose your file. HostMoat reads it in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere until you confirm. 3. Check the detected format. Chase and American Express are recognized automatically; anything else is treated as generic. If the amounts look inverted, meaning expenses appear positive, switch the format selector and the rows re-read immediately. 4. Review each row. Supported merchant descriptions arrive with a suggested category, but a merchant name alone cannot establish the correct tax treatment. Adjust any category or Schedule E line that is wrong, and untick anything personal or already recorded. Leaving the Schedule E line on Auto lets the category decide it. Deposits are never given a category automatically; they stay on Other until you say otherwise. 5. Click Import. You will see how many rows were added and how many were skipped as already imported.

Re-importing the same file is safe. Each row is fingerprinted by its date, amount, and description, so previously imported transactions are skipped rather than duplicated. Renaming the file does not change this. Two separate charges on the same day for the same amount at the same merchant are treated as two real transactions and both import.

Imported deposits are not counted as rental income automatically. Bank statements contain money coming in that may be rent, transfers, refunds, owner contributions, or other receipts, so HostMoat requires an explicit classification instead of guessing. The Tax Center holds them out of Gross Rental Income and shows a notice with the number and total so you can review them. Set the Schedule E line to Rents received on any deposit that really is rental income and it will be included.

If a row fails to read (an unrecognized date, a missing amount), it is reported as invalid and skipped, and the rest of the file still imports. Files are limited to 5,000 rows per import; split larger statements by date range.

Bank Connections links your bank or credit card through Plaid so transactions import automatically as they post. It is available on Essential and above; CSV import covers the free Starter plan.

What HostMoat can and cannot do with the connection: - Your banking password is entered on Plaid's screen. HostMoat never sees it. - HostMoat receives read-only transaction data. It cannot move money. - Only checking, savings, and credit card accounts are offered. - You can disconnect at any time from the Bank Connections page.

Connecting: 1. Open Bank Connections and click Connect Bank. 2. Enter the 6-digit code from your authenticator app. This step-up check applies only to bank actions, never to normal sign-in. If you have not set up an authenticator yet, HostMoat shows a QR code to scan first. 3. Choose your bank and sign in on Plaid's screen. 4. Select the accounts to share. Each account counts toward your plan's limit: Essential 3, Pro 10, Pro 5 25, Pro 10 50. 5. The first batch of transactions arrives within a few minutes.

If one owner has multiple properties, Bank Connections shows every checking, savings, or card account beneath the bank login. Route each account to one property for automatic import, choose Import & review when one account contains activity for several properties, or exclude an account. Review transactions can be assigned to one property or split across as many as 20 properties, and the assigned amounts must equal the bank transaction exactly. Changing a route affects future transactions; it does not move historical entries. Properties and bank transactions must use the same currency. With only one property, HostMoat keeps the original automatic behavior and sends every supported account to that property without showing routing controls.

How transactions are categorized: Each imported transaction is mapped to an IRS Schedule E line where that can be done safely. Utilities, hardware-store repairs, cleaning services, landlord insurance, and bookkeeping fees are categorized automatically. Deliberately left for you: general shopping, travel, laundry, and anything else where only you know whether it was for the rental. HostMoat would rather leave a row uncategorized than invent a deduction on your return.

Cleaning charges and platform fees close to a checkout are linked to the booking that caused them, so per-stay profitability stays accurate without manual work. Ambiguous matches appear as a suggestion you can accept or dismiss instead of being applied silently.

Deposits are never assumed to be rental income. Money arriving in your account may be a platform payout, refund, owner contribution, transfer, or other non-rental receipt. The Tax Center holds unclassified deposits out of Gross Rental Income and shows how many are waiting for review; classify an actual rent receipt as Line 3 to include it.

When a connection needs attention: Banks periodically require re-authentication after a password change or new security. The connection then shows "Needs reconnection" and the property owner gets an email. Click Reconnect, sign in again, and syncing resumes from where it stopped, with no duplicate transactions. HostMoat verifies the repair with your bank before marking the connection healthy again.

Disconnecting: Click Disconnect. The access token is revoked at Plaid immediately and imported transactions are kept for 30 days, then deleted. If the revocation cannot be confirmed, the connection shows "Disconnecting…" and retries automatically rather than reporting success it cannot verify.

Invoices lets you create guest-facing invoices with line items, taxes, due dates, and payment links. A connected Stripe account is required for online card or bank payments. Use "Connect with Stripe" in Settings (one click, no API keys). Payments are processed directly on your Stripe account. Online guest payment collection currently supports USD only, and HostMoat does not automatically convert invoice amounts.

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. Drafts have not been issued and are excluded from the Outstanding balance. 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. Voiding stops collection but does not return money already paid. To return a HostMoat Stripe payment for a cancelled direct booking, open Reports -> Cancellations and click Refund. A successful full or partial refund leaves the gross amount paid intact for audit history and shows refunded and net-collected amounts separately.

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 {{payment_terms}} instead of hard-coded deposit language when a custom template must adapt between full payment and deposit-plus-balance bookings. The template editor shows whether this adaptive field is present. Use the Preview tab to verify formatting before sending.

Every property starts with an active Standard Rental Agreement marked as its default. The Booking Site uses that property default for automatic direct-booking contracts unless you turn the automation off. Change the default in Contracts > Templates when the site should use a different agreement. Automatic contracts preserve the template's merged booking details, required custom fields, and payment-method-on-file requirement.

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 a manually sent contract is signed. The deposit invoice can be sent immediately; the balance invoice can be scheduled based on due-date settings. Direct Booking Site checkout is the exception: checkout already creates the payment invoices, so its automatic contract does not create another set when signed.

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.

Pro accounts also have a Share Reports tab. Opening it creates one disabled standing link for the active property. Turn the link on only when the source records are ready, then choose whether the public statement may include fixed property costs and depreciation; both sensitive sections start hidden. The report always includes operating costs such as annual platform fees, supports monthly and year-to-date views, and can be printed or saved as a PDF. It excludes guest identities, booking notes, transaction descriptions, and the street address.

Anyone with the link can read the allowed report without signing in. Disable it when sharing should pause. Rotate the token if it reached the wrong person; rotation invalidates the old URL immediately. Copy and test the new link in a private browser before sending it again.

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. Schedule E Line 3 is based only on dated ledger receipts, including Stripe payments, booking-sync entries, and manual rent transactions. A booking charge is shown as an unreconciled projection until you sync it or record the actual receipt; stay dates do not decide the tax year for cash-basis income.

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. Manual owner holds and N/C booking nights count as personal use; imported platform availability blocks do not. Because bookings store an N/C count rather than individual dates, those nights are assigned from check-in forward. Shared expenses and the built-in depreciation estimate use the exact rental-use ratio; the displayed percentage is rounded only for readability.

For the depreciation estimate, save purchase price, land value, and the date the property was placed in service in Settings. Land value is excluded from building basis and residential rental property uses the 27.5-year GDS mid-month estimate. Tracked furnishings use their purchase date, cost less salvage value, useful life, and a planning-level half-year convention. If the property is in service but no use days are recorded, the estimate assumes it remained fully available for rental and shows that assumption. If you also categorized a manual transaction on Schedule E Line 18, Tax Center warns about possible double counting instead of hiding either amount.

Export the tax summary and transaction detail for your accountant. The export is meant to reduce cleanup work, not replace professional tax preparation. Tax Center does not perform foreign-exchange conversion, so confirm that imported and manually entered amounts use the property's reporting currency before relying on totals.

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.

New staff notification profiles start with the established operational emails selected. Work Order Assignments is opt-in and starts off, so turn it on only for technicians who should receive repair-job email. Existing staff keep their previously saved choices.

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.

Staff see assigned upcoming cleanings and, on Pro, maintenance work orders. Cleaning cards include booking-related timing, task lists, special notes, and status controls. Work-order cards include the repair description, priority, schedule, photos, and resolution notes. Staff can start work, upload photos from a phone, and mark the assigned 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 staff member says they cannot see a job, check the active property, assignment, cleaner portal token, and whether the cleaning or work order was assigned to someone else. Work-order assignment and portal access require Pro.

Maintenance has two tabs. Work Orders is the default job tracker for repairs; Recurring Items is the existing service register for filters, inspections, pool service, and other repeat upkeep.

Create a work order with a title, description, category, priority, scheduled date, and optional cost. Move it from Open to In Progress to Completed, or cancel and reopen it when plans change. Completed work orders are terminal so their history stays reliable.

On Pro, assign an active staff member. If that person's Work Order Assignments preference is enabled, HostMoat emails their existing secure staff-portal link. The assigned technician can start the job, upload up to 20 photos from a phone, add resolution notes, and complete it. Owner-side photo upload, guest issue reporting, and separate vendor records are not included in this workflow.

When a recurring item is due or overdue, choose Create Work Order. The job is prefilled and linked to the service item. Completing it advances last completed and next due, increments the occurrence count, and adds the final cost to that item's total exactly once.

At completion, enter the final cost and optionally choose Log as an expense. HostMoat creates one maintenance expense in Expenses & Income, which maps to Schedule E line 14, and remembers the ledger link so retries cannot duplicate it. A staff-completed job can receive its final cost and expense link later from the owner.

Review Maintenance before high season, after storms, and before owner stays. The weekly digest includes open work orders and calls out overdue urgent jobs alongside recurring maintenance due dates.

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.

Smart Devices lives under Property in the sidebar and is a Pro feature. It has five tabs: Overview, Access, Climate, Noise, and Setup. One owner-level Seam connection can discover supported locks, building entrances, thermostats, and noise monitors across that owner's properties.

Start on Setup. Connect each hardware provider inside Seam, paste the Seam workspace API key into HostMoat once, then click Sync devices. Every discovered lock, shared entrance, and thermostat arrives unassigned and inactive. Assign each device to the correct property yourself; unassigned devices do nothing. Noise monitors can be synced through Seam or added manually.

On Access, choose one primary unit lock and turn on "Prepare access for every confirmed booking." HostMoat creates a unique PIN for the unit. You can also include selected lobby, gate, parking, pool, gym, or other shared entrances. Shared entrances can use the same PIN when the access system supports it, or a Seam mobile-key link. By default access is sent 24 hours before arrival, works from two hours before check-in, and ends two hours after checkout. Advanced settings can wait for a signed contract or paid balance.

The guest handoff has one clear source of truth. Booking emails and pre-arrival-form emails include the private guest-portal link. A normal pre-arrival template can use {{door_code}}, but that field remains blank until the booking credential has been released. HostMoat also sends a separate access-ready email only after the unit credential and any selected shared entrances are confirmed. That email includes the unit PIN, shared-entrance instructions or mobile-key button, validity times, and the portal link.

The guest portal shows the same released access under Check-in Details after the portal's reveal-date, contract, and pre-arrival-form gates are satisfied. It labels the unit PIN separately, lists shared entrances, and shows an Open Mobile Key button when applicable. If no smart-lock automation is enabled, the fixed door code from Property Profile -> Guest Information & Rules continues to work in emails and the portal exactly as before.

Cancellations, date changes, lock changes, and shared-entrance changes revoke or rebuild credentials. Expired and replaced credentials disappear from guest-facing views, and HostMoat removes them from Seam rather than merely deleting a local row. Cleaner PINs remain separate and appear only in the cleaner portal during their cleaning window.

On Climate, assign compatible thermostats and configure Guest and Eco temperatures. Guest mode starts before arrival and Eco mode begins after checkout; HostMoat does not expose thermostat setpoints or controls to guests. On Noise, set thresholds and review readings. Noise readings, thermostat state, lock battery/offline warnings, door-open warnings, and noise alerts remain owner/staff information under Smart Devices and Alerts & Health.

Alerts & Health has Alerts, Health, and Digest 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), recurring maintenance due dates, open work orders with overdue urgent jobs called out, unread inbox messages, occupancy, and a week-over-week revenue comparison.

Smart-device alerts, including lock status and noise threshold breaches, appear here. Device connection and configuration live under Property → Smart Devices.

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. In Instant Book mode, the guest enters payment details. In Inquiry Only mode, the form submits a request instead of starting a paid booking.

The site checks availability and pricing from HostMoat. If dates are blocked, below minimum stay, or otherwise invalid, the guest cannot complete the booking. Minimum-stay validation runs at the reservation boundary before HostMoat creates a tentative hold or starts payment.

For Instant Book, HostMoat first creates a tentative hold and verifies the Stripe payment. Automatic contracts are enabled by default: after payment succeeds, HostMoat emails the rental agreement and opens its signing page in the same browser. The booking is not finally confirmed, and the normal booking-confirmation email is not sent, until the guest signs. A site with automatic contracts explicitly disabled confirms immediately after verified payment. Unpaid attempts expire automatically so they do not block the calendar indefinitely.

Instant Book also runs a short human-verification check before it creates the booking. Guests should wait for that check to finish before submitting. If the browser reports that human verification is required, refresh the booking page once and retry; a failed verification attempt does not create a charge or reservation. If it repeats in a normal browser with scripts enabled, contact HostMoat support because this is platform configuration, not a property setting.

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. Booking emails and pre-arrival-form emails include this same durable portal link.

When Smart Devices access automation is enabled, Check-in Details can show the released unit PIN, shared entrance names, a mobile-key button, and the validity window. This access uses the same reveal-date, signed-contract, and completed-pre-arrival gates as the other check-in details. Thermostat settings, noise readings, device state, and alerts are never shown to guests.

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. For an automatic direct booking, HostMoat also opens this page in the browser immediately after payment. 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. A tentative direct booking becomes confirmed at this point and its booking-confirmation email is sent. Auto-invoices may be created when that option was enabled while manually sending the contract; direct-booking checkout already owns its invoices and does not duplicate them on signature.

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. Every submitted response receives the same thank-you message and optional public-review links configured by the host, regardless of rating.

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 Home is an action queue, not a vanity dashboard. It highlights failed emails and webhooks, stale feeds, recent application errors, past-due subscriptions, expiring trials, and suspended accounts. Select an item to open the relevant admin section.

Accounts contains Users, Properties, Activation, Bulk Actions, and Archived. Users can promote administrators, suspend or restore sign-in, archive accounts, and inspect a read-only account view. Suspension creates an Auth ban but leaves property automation unchanged.

Archiving is the reversible cleanup action for an entire account. It blocks sign-in, silences the account's owned properties, and removes both the account and those properties from the normal Users, Properties, Activation, and Bulk Actions views. The Archived tab keeps them available for review and restoration. Restoration returns each property to its captured pre-archive settings; missed one-time emails are not sent later. Cancel an active Stripe-managed subscription before archiving. Administrators, the built-in demo, and your own account cannot be archived.

Activation milestones are independent signals rather than a sequential funnel. Property and booking milestones include properties available through team membership. Profile trials, Stripe subscriptions, and complimentary access are reported separately.

Bulk Actions supports CSV export, profile-based Pro trials, and suspension/restore. Review the selected count and confirmation prompt carefully.

Billing reads recurring prices and subscription states directly from Stripe. MRR is normalized from live Stripe prices, and 30-day collections come from paid invoices. If Stripe cannot be verified, the page shows Unavailable instead of a database estimate.

Complimentary access is a manual entitlement and never counts as revenue. Choose an existing account, plan, duration, and reason. Stripe-managed access cannot be overwritten here. Grants and revocations are written through the protected admin action and recorded in the Audit Log.

Operations contains Health, Activity, Email, Webhooks, Traffic, and Audit Log tabs. Counts distinguish the full matching dataset from the latest 200 loaded rows.

Health uses Verified, Observed, Degraded, Unavailable, and Unknown states. Observed means there is recent evidence; it does not claim synthetic uptime. Email and webhook failures should be investigated from their dedicated tabs.

Audit Log is append-only and records sensitive account, entitlement, platform setting, and changelog mutations. Inspect before/after state when reviewing an administrative change.

Configuration contains Platform and Watchtower AI. Platform settings have explicit save buttons for announcements, maintenance mode, trial rules, and the team limit. Maintenance mode blocks signed-in non-admin dashboards while keeping public booking and guest pages online.

Airbnb price sync intentionally remains gated to properties the current admin owns or manages. Site-admin status does not bypass this boundary. If no eligible property appears, use the correct owner/manager account rather than broadening permissions.

Email sender identities are deployment-managed and shown read-only. Changelog creates public product updates; use unpublished entries while drafting and publish only when ready.

Promo Codes, Feature Flags, Support Tickets, and manual Abuse Flags are hidden because they are not connected to a complete production workflow.

Open Help & Support at the bottom of the sidebar, under Account. The page is available on every plan, including the free Starter plan, and it is the same place to start whether the question is billing, a bug, or how a feature works.

Search the help articles first. The search box matches article titles, summaries, and full text, so a phrase like "ical" or "invoice" usually lands on the right article faster than writing an email.

If the articles do not cover it, use the Email Support button. HostMoat prefills the message with your account email, the active property, your plan, the page you were on before opening Help, and your browser. That context is what usually decides whether a question takes one reply or four, so leave it in place.

Add the specifics the prefill cannot know: what you expected to happen, what happened instead, and roughly when. Screenshots help. If the issue involves a specific booking, guest, or invoice, name it.

The Email Support button opens whatever mail app your device is configured to use. If nothing happens when you press it, your device has no mail app registered. Use the Copy address button next to it and send the message from webmail instead.

Support runs over email and typically responds within one business day. There is no live chat and no phone line.

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 sent contract and the options chosen in the Send Contract flow. Confirm the deposit amount, balance amount, balance due date, and scheduled-send setting. This option does not come from the reusable template.

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 Property Profile first. Confirm the description, amenities, rooms, capacity, Wi-Fi, parking, standard check-in and checkout times, contacts, and house rules.

Then update Guidebook custom topics and notes for appliance instructions, local recommendations, arrival details, emergency context, and policy details. Make sure the relevant guidebook sections are visible. Review Booking Site presentation and visibility separately.

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. Mandatory privacy, untrusted-input, availability, and quote safeguards still wrap custom instructions. Watchtower should say it will check with the host when the answer is not documented.

For date or price errors, confirm the guest's message came from a structured inquiry with check-in and checkout metadata. Only that path can produce a verified availability result, the applicable date-specific minimum, and a canonical stay quote. General messages should direct the guest to the live booking calendar.

For public-chat errors, confirm the property is on Pro, Watchtower is enabled with Built-in AI, and Public Chat is enabled. Public chat intentionally cannot use BYO providers.

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, check Booking Site setup/layout and pricing, then follow its synced-content links to the relevant Property Profile details, amenities, rooms, photos, or rules.

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.