We are excited to announce the release of our latest product version, 4.16.0!

This update features in-depth optimizations for reviews, messaging, the Booking Site Builder, and automation, all designed to significantly enhance your user experience.

Review Feature Improvements:

• Added more rating options for host reviews.

• Support for last-minute reviews.

• Automated reviews now include AI-driven dynamic content adjustments.

In this update, we’ve made it easier to provide detailed feedback on your guests. When manually sending a review, you can give overall ratings and also describe specific aspects of their stay. You can even choose whether to recommend them to other hosts. Please note that detailed ratings only apply to Airbnb bookings.

When you choose to send automated reviews, you can craft a standard review message and enable the AI rewriting feature. The system will then automatically generate unique review content for each booking, helping you maintain a personalized host presence.

Additionally, automated reviews are sent after the guest checks out, with default ratings set to five stars. If you encounter any issues during a guest's stay, you can easily adjust the pending automated review's rating and content during your chat with them.

Messaging Feature Improvements:

• A new checkout day option has been added to automated message rules for specific dates.

• When sending emails from the chat page, you can now select additional guests (not just the booker).

• Support for accepting or declining Airbnb's Request to Book in your inbox.

• Clickable details in the booking preview area on the right side of the chat window.

• Edit review content directly from the booking preview area on the right side of the chat window.

Booking Site Builder Improvements:

• Expanded booking lead time options in the Booking Site rate plans.

• Sync reviews from Airbnb and Booking.com listings to Google Vacation Rental.

• New system notifications for request-to-book from the Booking Site.

Other Enhancements:

• The Connected Accounts list now supports filtering by account status.

• Added status for lock code auto-generation in the bookings' automation list.

• Gap restrictions added to automation task rules.

• System notifications for failed automation tasks.

• The Income & Expenses page now supports multi-select operators and includes filters for booking-related and property-related data.

We hope these updates make your experience with Hostex even better! Thank you for your continued support.

We are excited to announce the official release of our version 4.15.0 this week, along with a range of powerful statistical features.

1. Owner Connect

The Owner Connect feature is specifically designed for channel managers, allowing for customizable report settings to generate owner reports with a single click.

These reports include details on income, expenses, and management fees, enabling owners to clearly understand their property's performance and the net income after channel manager commissions.

Channel managers can easily send the generated PDF reports to the respective property owners for end-of-month reconciliation.
For more details, please visit: Owner Connect Documentation

2. Monthly Report

We have also introduced the Monthly Report feature, designed for vacation rental operators. This data report provides an overview of all properties, including key metrics such as occupancy rates and net profit.

Users can view detailed information for each property, including breakdowns of every booking's costs and all income and expense records.

For more details, please visit: Monthly Report Documentation

Other Improvements

• Enhanced the format of Incomes & Expenses reports for better clarity and simplicity.

• Improved the UI design for all statistical reports.

• Streamlined the process for adding domains in the booking site.

• Added support for multiple domains in the booking site.

• Enabled receiving Houfy bookings in the Inbox.

• Introduced Gap Management permissions for sub-accounts.

For any questions or feedback, please reach out to our support team. Thank you for your continued support!

For property managers, there is a need to synchronize calendar information with owners to monitor business operations or share it with cleaning teams to schedule tasks. Hostex's previous Team Collaboration feature could address this need, but now we are introducing a much lighter calendar-sharing feature. Your collaborators will no longer need to log in to Hostex to easily view basic calendar information.

To share your calendar:

1. Log in to the Calendar section.

2. Click on the share button at the bottom of the page.

3. Select the calendar range you want to share.

Your partners can access basic calendar information through the link you provide.

By clicking on Manage Shared Links, you can also view and delete shared links at any time, giving you full control.

Hostex supports very convenient one-click and batch price adjustment functions, greatly improving price management efficiency.

But what if you have already set daily prices for Airbnb listings and want to copy them to Booking.com listings with a single click? Our new feature perfectly addresses this need.

To copy prices:

1. Log in to the Price section.

2. Select the dates for the properties you want to set.

3. In the Price settings in the pop-up box on the right, select Copy.

4. Choose the source property you want to copy from.

5. Check the target properties you want to set.

6. Save.

• System notifications can now be sent via email.

• Integration of multiple Pricelabs accounts is supported.

• Tags are displayed in the top right corner of reservations on the Calendar.

• Support for setting a Pet Fee for Airbnb listings.

• Option to allow sending a request to book when the reservation days exceed the maximum stay settings.

  

• Cancellation of reservations from booking sites is now supported in the Hostex Calendar page.

• VAT is no longer a mandatory option in the pricing settings for listings.

• Tax rates can now be set with decimal values.

• New amenities added: SPA and hot tub.

• Improved time format on the guest end.

• Enhanced display of multiline text in the mobile view on the guest end.

• Support for setting tax rates for booking site listings.

• Smart lock passcodes now include an expiration setting.

• Back buttons added at certain steps in the booking widget.

Your vacation rental may host guests from all over the world, which means they might reach out to you in different languages. To address this, Hostex previously offered the HostGPT feature to help provide response suggestions.

However, some hosts have reported difficulty understanding messages from guests, making it hard to assess whether HostGPT's suggestions are accurate.

Now, with the new translation feature, you simply need to click the button in the top right corner of your inbox to translate guest messages into your current language.

Hosts often encounter situations where their listings have a minimum stay requirement, such as 4 nights. However, there are instances when there is a gap between two bookings, and the remaining available days fall short of the minimum stay requirement (e.g., a 3-day gap).

As a host, you would like to fill these gaps and allow bookings for those specific days, without constantly monitoring and adjusting the minimum stay settings on your calendar.

By utilizing the gap management feature in Hostex, hosts can seamlessly handle gaps in their calendars and automatically adjust the minimum stay requirements, allowing bookings for shorter stays. This eliminates the need for manual intervention and ensures a more efficient and optimized booking process.

1. Access the Automation settings in Hostex.

2. Create a new gap rule.

3. Set a threshold value.

4. Save.

After that, whenever a gap falls below this threshold, the minimum stay for the corresponding date will be automatically adjusted to match the length of the gap.

When scheduling cleaning tasks, you may want to communicate specific requirements to your cleaners. Previously, you could only include these checklists in the task description.

Now, Hostex allows you to add a standard checklist to your cleaning tasks.

This way, when cleaners receive the task, they will see the checklist you’ve provided and will need to confirm each item as completed, reducing the chances of anything being overlooked.

Additionally, you can also include a checklist when creating tasks using the automation feature.

Here’s a common checklist for cleaning tasks in a vacation rental:

• Change bed linens

• Clean mattress

• Check pillows and blankets

• Vacuum or sweep floors

• Mop floors

• Clean carpets

• Clean toilet

• Clean sink and shower

• Wipe mirrors

• Restock toilet paper and towels

• Wash cooking utensils and dishes

• Wipe down countertops and stovetop

• Clean inside of refrigerator (if needed)

• Empty trash bins

• Sweep and clean hallways

• Wipe down furniture

• Clean windows

• Wipe door handles and light switches

• Check all appliances for proper functioning

• Inspect heating and cooling systems

• Restock minibar and tea/coffee supplies

• Restock toiletries

• When manually creating a booking in the Calendar, you can now specify the type and number of guests.

• During the "Link My Listing" process, you can directly preview your property.

• Support for setting the minimum stay for Houfy listings.

• Automation tasks now allow the creation of task types beyond just cleaning.

We are excited to introduce a new feature that allows you to set pricing ratios at the property level. This enhancement is designed for hosts listing their properties on multiple platforms who want to quickly adjust prices across different channels based on specific ratios.

Previously, our system supported a global pricing ratio, meaning all properties applied the same pricing rules. However, we received feedback from hosts indicating that each property has unique circumstances that require tailored pricing strategies.

With the new property-level pricing ratio settings, you can now define specific ratios for each individual property. This allows for greater flexibility and customization when managing your listings.

1. Navigate to the Calendar or Price page.

2. Select the desired property or room type.

3. On the right-hand side, access the Pricing Ratio setting.

4. Enable the Pricing Ratio for the listings associated with this property.

5. Configure the specific ratios according to your preferences.

After that, when you manually modify the price or the integrated smart pricing tool modifies the price, the final price of each listing will be calculated based on this ratio.

Please note that if you enable the Listing Pricing Ratio, it will override the Global Pricing Ratio rules you have set.

Other updates:

1. Added support for setting date-level minimum stay for Vrbo.

2. You have the option to restrict smart pricing tools like PriceLabs from modifying booking restrictions for specific listings. For example, you can set a fixed minimum stay of 7 days for your weekly discount in listing level and prevent PriceLabs from making changes to it.

3. Multiple discounts such as early bird, long stay, and last-minute offers can now be set for Airbnb listings.

Hostex is now an official connectivity partner of Houfy, providing a reliable and secure connection to manage your Houfy account.

With Hostex, you can easily handle bookings, calendars, pricing, messages, and reviews for your Houfy listings.

How to connect a Houfy account to Hostex?

To integrate your Houfy account with Hostex, please follow the steps below:

1. Log in to your Houfy account.

2. Locate the API Access Token in your Houfy account settings.

3. Go to the Hostex’s Connected Accounts.

4. Click on “Connect an account.” and select Houfy.

5. Paste the API Access Token into the text box in Hostex.

Note: It is important to keep your API Access Token confidential and secure. Do not share it with anyone else, as it grants access to your Houfy account through Hostex.

1. Cleaning task list now distinguishes between assigned and unassigned tasks.

2. Redesigned cleaning calendar with support for exporting a specific cleaner's schedule as iCal.

3. Added support for notifying cleaners via WhatsApp (previously supported email notifications).

4. SMS notifications for cleaners will be supported in next 3-4 weeks.

5. Now you can choose to enable or disable specific types of notifications or reminders.

6. Optimized the calendar view in the cleaner interface, allowing for viewing more dates and providing richer information.

7. Improved automation of cleaning tasks, allowing automatic creation of tasks before check-in and after check-out.

1. Around the booking request feature of booking site, we have added multiple notifications and allows guests to communicate directly with hosts via email. Hosts can easily manage these operations using the Hostex Inbox.

• Hostex interface now displays a new booking request notification/app push to hosts.

• After a guest sends a booking request, they will receive a confirmation message from the host via email. The guest can directly reply to the email to communicate with the host.

• After the booking request is accepted or declined by the host, the guest will receive relevant notifications by email.

• Once the booking request is accepted by the host and the reservation is created, the guest will receive a booking details email (this feature was already available before).

2. Automation messages can now be conditionally set based on whether the booking includes children, infants, or pets.

3. In the reservation list, you can now filter by room type.

4. You can set whether to allow team accounts to view room rates in bookings.

5. The Guest list now includes channel and property information for guests' previous bookings.

The long-awaited Google Vacation Rental integration is finally here!

Your listings in the booking site created on Hostex can now be published on Google Vacation Rental with just one click.

When people search for accommodations on Google, your listing's availability calendar will be displayed directly on Google, leading them to your booking site to complete the reservation.

Requirements to connect to Google Vacation Rentals

Before setting up the connection with Google Vacation Rentals, you should be aware of certain requirements imposed by Google to use this integration.

• Each rental must:

  • have a Name and Description.

  • have at least 1 bed.

  • have at least 8 photos with captions.
    Each image should be at least 720 pixels wide and 720 pixels high. The aspect ratio should be 4:3.

  • not be registered as a hotel in Google.

• The rental type must be one of the following: Boat, Bungalow, Chalet, Farm House, Mobile House, Apartment, House, Room, Student Housing, or Villa.

• Your website must be published. Learn how to publish your website.

Hostex is now an official connectivity partner of Expedia, providing a reliable and secure connection to manage your Expedia account.

With Hostex, you can easily handle bookings, calendars, pricing, messages, and reviews for your Expedia listings.

To connect an Expedia account to Hostex:

To integrate your Expedia account with Hostex, please follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to the Connected Accounts section within Hostex.

2. Click the “+” button to add a new Expedia account.

3. Enter your Expedia login credentials and Hotel IDs to complete the connection process.

4. Click on the Link my listings.

5. Select the property or room type you want to link on the left.

6. Click on the Link button on the right side.

Other things you should know：

Before connecting your Expedia account to Hostex, there are a few things you should be aware of:

1. When you connect your Expedia account with Hostex, all rate plans for a listing are loaded into Hostex, and you must link all these rate plans to the relevant property or room type on Hostex.

2. Due to API restrictions imposed by Expedia, reservations and reviews made prior to the integration cannot be synced with Hostex. Only new reservations and reviews received after the connection will be synchronized.

3. After the connection is established, you may notice that the price displayed for your Expedia listings shows as 0. This does not impact the booking process. You can manually adjust the prices in Hostex to reflect the correct values as needed.

4. If your listing has several price plans that rely on the Standard Rate Plan, then you only need to set the price of the Standard Rate Plan, and the other rate plans will automatically change based on it.

There are 8 updates related to the Booking Site.

🎉 The Booking Site now allows you to receive bookings without adding a payment account.

When you haven't added a payment account, guests can send booking requests through your booking site. You will see these requests in your Inbox and can choose to accept or reject them.

🎉 Guests can now select the number of adults, children, infants, and pets when making a reservation.

These settings are linked to the extra guest fee, pet fee, and not suitable for infants settings. You can choose to exclude certain types of guests.

🎉 In the Inbox, you can see detailed information about inquiries related to the booking site.

If a guest contacts you through instant messaging before making a reservation, you will be able to view the inquiry details in your Inbox.

🎉 The Booking Widget supports customizable button colors.

We have added the ability to customize the button color of the booking widget, allowing you to match it with your theme. Additionally, we have included a white background color for the widget to ensure readability on different backgrounds.

And here are the additional updates related to the booking site:

🎉 You can now preview your booking site using the booking site editor before publishing it.

🎉 We have simplified the URL structure of the booking site property page for easier sharing.

🎉 We have optimized the performance of certain pages on the booking site and resolved some known issues.

🎉 We now allow the deletion of a booking site (apologies for not providing this functionality previously).

There are also some additional minor features:

🎉When setting base prices, you can now set them based on listings (previously, you could only set them based on channels).

🎉 The listing names on Booking.com/Expedia now have a "Property Name" prefix for easier differentiation.

🎉 Fixed an issue with PriceLabs unexpectedly modifying the minimum stay for certain rate plans.

🎉 Removed the feature that sent email notifications to hosts when guests interacted with the check-in guide.

1. Review automation now allows selecting the date for sending reviews.

You are no longer limited to reviewing guests on the check-out date. You can set any desired date for sending the review.

2. Improved UX with PriceLabs integration to reduce confusion.

3. You can now directly select dates with existing reservations on the Price calendar.

4. Inbox now supports handling Airbnb reservation modification requests.

5. When clicking on a reservation in the Calendar page to create a cleaning task, the default date is set to the check-out date of the reservation.

6. You can now copy the booking summary information to the clipboard from the booking details window, making it easier to share information with your team members.

We are excited to announce a new feature that allows you to directly input guest email addresses when creating direct bookings. This enhancement streamlines communication and improves guest engagement.

• Direct Messaging: Click the Chat button in the booking details to send messages directly to the guest. These messages will be sent via email.

• Automated Messages: Any automated messages you have set up will also be sent to the guest via email.

• Guest Email Replies: Guests can reply directly to the emails they receive, and you will receive their responses in Hostex's inbox.

For bookings made through OTA platforms, you can also modify the booking details to input the guest's email address, allowing the same communication capabilities.