How to connect with Autohost

Every day, the hospitality industry opens its doors to strangers, leaving it vulnerable to parties, property damage, and criminal activity. To mitigate these kinds of issues, Autohost is giving property managers the tools they need to verify transactions and minimize external risks. 

Autohost is a guest-screening system that assesses reservations in a legal and non-discriminatory way. Using AI, it analyzes every element of the booking to determine its risk level. Then augment this analysis with background checks, ID verification, and multiple behavioral tests, to make sure guests are exactly who they say they are.

It helps property managers trust their guests, so they can remove booking restrictions, increase occupancy, and scale their business.

To Connect Hostaway to Autohost, follow the steps below

1. First, you will have to Sign up for an account with Autohost
2. Then you should create your Account ID and API key
3. Go to Hostaway Dashboard
4. Click on Marketplace within the dashboard
5. Search for Revyoos and click on the Connect button
   
   
   
   
6. A small window will appear > Click on Create
7. The Account ID and the API Key will be presented on a new window
8. Copy your Account ID and API Key and keep it somewhere safe for later
   
   
   
   
9. Enter the Account ID and API Key to Autohost to connect

You can find more information about the API key in this article.

Once connected you will be required to set up the Autohost-related messages in Hostaway. By integrating systematic guest screening, you can automate the process and minimize the need for manual handling. To implement it, we’ll need to adjust your messaging flow in Hostaway.

As of right now, you're sending messages directly to the guest (Hostaway → Guest). Going forward, some relevant messages will use Autohost custom variables to ensure the right conditions are met before the messages are released to the guest.

The messaging setup will consist of two steps:

1. Creating the message templates
2. Setting up the automation

The Process

Once set up, all future reservations will go through the Autohost flow, ensuring every guest is properly screened:

1. Upon booking confirmation, guests receive a “Thank you for booking” confirmation message, which will include an invite link to complete the Guest Portal.
2. Reminder messages will get triggered periodically in case the Guest Portal hasn't been completed.
3. The guest will click the dedicated link to access the Guest Portal, where they’ll go through a dynamic verification flow to get verified
4. Autohost will run a full risk assessment to verify the guest, analyzing reservation parameters, personal info, and the guest’s responses (including ID verification and payment validation, if applicable), notifying you of any flags that require manual review.
5. When no risk flags are triggered, the screening is complete and the guest is considered “verified” by Autohost. All info collected is available to you, and the reservation can proceed as usual. No further action is required.
6. If a reservation is flagged for “review”, your team must review it and decide whether to Approve or Decline the guest.
7. As the check-in date approaches, guests will receive their check-in instructions, as usual, as long as they've been verified.

Creating the message automation rules

There are three types of messages you'll need to create:

• Booking confirmation (this will include the initial invite with the Autohost Guest Portal link)
• Reminders (you can set up several reminders to go out in case the portal isn't completed)
• Check-in instructions (your sensitive check-in info is to be released to verified guests before check-in)

These are the suggested default trigger times:

• Booking confirmation: Right as the booking is confirmed
• Reminder1: 3 hours after booking is confirmed
• Reminder2: 24 hours after booking is confirmed
• ReminderUrgent: 48 hours before check-in
• Check-In Instructions: 24 hours before check-in

Booking Confirmation

No trigger conditions. We recommend to send these messages when the reservation is made. We find this approach improves "conversion" and reduces the chances you'll have to follow up with the guest to remind them to check in online and be verified.

Reminders

For each reminder, the only Autohost trigger you should use is the "Guest Portal Completed" field, which indicates whether the guest completed the verification and check-in process.

Check-in Instructions

Enter your message template with all the appropriate variables, as seen in the screenshot below:

Then, specify the triggers that will determine when the message will be sent.

Create the following trigger rules:

Custom Fields

Autohost will register the following three custom fields on your HostAway account:

• Verification Status
• Guest Portal Completed
• Risk Color

Verification Status

This custom field will always have one of the following four statuses:

Guest Portal Completed

This custom field will only have one of two statuses: