How to optimize Hostaway's performance?
One of Hostaway's top priorities is ensuring that our clients see the maximum potential in the software, not only through all the amazing features we offer but also by providing the best tips in the industry to help their businesses thrive.
This is why we’ve created this Optimization program, a source of tips and tricks that will be valuable for all of our Property Managers out there.
As well as reaching out to our Customer Success Team and requesting a call to optimize your account and/or listings, you can follow these tips.
Connect to more channels
The more channels the listings are available, the more opportunities for bookings you get. We have several available Booking Channels and they can be found in our Marketplace under “Booking Channel”. We recommend connecting to Google Vacation Rentals.
We recommend this feature when your listing is not getting that many bookings. You can follow this Video Tutorial or go to this article Connecting Channels to Hostaway.
Booking Engine Optimization
Improving your Booking Engine to offer a convenient solution for small to medium-sized property managers who lack the means to create and sustain a bespoke website but aspire to sell directly through a top-notch, ready-made solution featuring an aesthetically pleasing website that can be effortlessly customized within minutes. This solution allows you the flexibility to decide whether you want to accept inquiries, instant bookings, or both. Additionally, it empowers you to showcase and promote your listings, highlight amenities, upsell extras during the checkout process, craft personalized pages, exercise greater control over privacy settings, and elevate the overall guest experience.
We recommend this feature when your listing is not getting that many bookings. You can follow this article Booking Engine Overview
AI-Generated content
The ChatGPT integration allows the use of AI inside Hostaway. The first version of the integration allows you to improve your listing descriptions, making them more appealing to book and increasing bookings across all platforms. Generate keywords using AI for each channel to boost the listings algorithm, and switch up the content every 45 days if it's not working.
We recommend this feature if your listings are always at the bottom of the search. You can follow this Video Tutorial or go to this article ChatGPT
Use Message Automations
The automated message feature in Hostaway can be useful for many things, from thanking your guests for booking with you to asking them, to leave a review, or even sending the door code to your guest. You can manage the messages generated by automation from the Hostaway Dashboard.
We recommend this feature to save time when managing your Hostaway account. You can follow this Video Tutorial or go to these articles: Message Automation and How to Add a Door Code to an Automation
Good Pricing Strategy
When adjustments need to be made to your listing prices, fees, and discounts offered, your Hostaway account offers a dedicated page with an overview per channel. This will help you stand out from the competition.
We recommend this feature when your listing is not getting that many bookings. You can follow this Video Tutorial or go to these articles: Listings: Prices & Fees and How to Connect with Pricelabs
Offer Discounts
The coupon feature allows you to configure and create coupons that can be applied to direct reservations.
We recommend this feature when your listing is not getting that many bookings. You can follow this Video Tutorial or go to this article Discount Coupons
Flexible Cancellation Policy
Cancellation policies determine the guest's refund in the rare event that they cancel a reservation. They range from Flexible to No Refund policies.
We recommend this feature when your listing is not getting that many bookings. You can follow this Video Tutorial or go to this article How to set up a Cancellation Policy?
Add your Taxes
Taxes can sometimes be a pain, depending on your location, many taxes might need to be applied when running a short rental business. For that, we have financial formulas that will help you with adding the taxes.
We recommend this feature to save time when managing your Hostaway account. You can follow this Video Tutorial or go to this article Financial Reporting: How to set up your Taxes?
Guest Portal
A great feature that should not be overlooked is the Guest Portal which can be located in each Reservation Detail, where a guest has all the information regarding their reservation, such as invoices, refunds, reservation dates, address, rental agreement, etc.
We recommend this feature to save time when managing your Hostaway account. And if you need more efficiency. You can follow this Video Tutorial or go to this article Guest Portal
User and Tasks
Users can be given individual access rights to the system or can be placed in user groups. All users can have Read, Create, Update, and Delete rights in the system based on all or some listings.
We recommend this feature to save time when managing your Hostaway account. And if you need more efficiency.
You can follow this Video Tutorial to see how to Manage users
You can follow this article for How to create User Groups
You can follow this article for How to create new users
You can follow this Video Tutorial to see how to create Manual Tasks
You can follow this Video Tutorial to see how to create Auto-tasks
Marketplace
Hostaway is integrated with more than 100 apps, with the possibility to generate specific API keys to connect to those partners. We recommend all of our clients take advantage of all the included features in our platform.
We recommend this feature when you find that your listing is not getting that many bookings or if you need more efficiency. You can follow this Video Tutorial or go to this article Hostaway Marketplace
Hostaway Mobil App
Our Hostaway app is perfect for those PMs who are on the move, with everything at the reach of their hand. The app can be downloaded for Android and IOS.
We recommend this feature to save time when managing your Hostaway account. And if you need more efficiency. You can follow this article Hostaway mobile app for Android and iOS