Learn how smart reservation assignment works for multi-unit listings and how Hostaway allocates reservations across connected units.
Designed to maximize your occupancy and reduce manual calendar adjustments for multi-unit listings by intelligently shuffling reservations, this tool helps create longer, consecutive booking slots, decreasing the need to manually move reservations between sub-units to accommodate guests.
What does this feature do?
When activated, Smart Reservation Assignment automatically optimizes how incoming reservations are placed across the units within a multi-unit listing.
- Reduces Gaps: Instead of simply placing a new reservation in the first available unit, the system analyzes your calendar and may re-assign existing, unpinned reservations to different units. This process groups bookings together to create longer stretches of availability on each sub-unit.
- Prevents Lost Direct Bookings: It helps you accept more direct reservations by preventing situations where a booking is rejected due to fragmented availability, even though your units could accommodate it with a simple shuffle.
- Saves You Time: By automating these adjustments, it significantly cuts down on the time you spend manually moving reservations to fit new guests.
How to Activate Smart Reservation Assignment
You can enable this feature on a per-listing basis.
- Navigate to the Listings page in your Hostaway dashboard.
- Select the multi-unit listing you wish to configure and go to Edit
- Find the section for Smart Reservation Assignment on the “Units” tab.
- Toggle the feature ON
- Set your Cut-off Hour: This is the number of hours before check-in after which the system will prevent moving reservations.
- For example, if you set a cut-off of 3 hours and a guest's check-in is at 10:00 AM, that reservation will only be eligible for automatic moves until 7:00 AM on the check-in day.
- Use this setting to ensure critical automations (like check-in instructions) are not sent with incorrect unit information close to the arrival time, and to give your team certainty when preparing units for guests.
Key Functionality: What to Expect
Once the feature is active, here’s how it will work:
- Smart Re-assignment: The system will automatically shuffle reservations to optimize availability. This process is designed to be safe and minimally disruptive.
- Important Note: Re-shuffling only occurs for reservations with a check-in date within the next two weeks. We will not move reservations that are far in the future; the system only makes adjustments when needed to accommodate a new, incoming booking.
- Pinning a Reservation (Locking): We understand that sometimes a specific guest must be in a particular unit. For these cases, you have full control.
- How it works: You can "pin" or "lock" any reservation to its assigned unit directly from the calendar view.
- What it does: A pinned reservation will never be moved by the Smart Reservation Assignment feature. It is locked in place unless you manually move it yourself.
- Action Required: After enabling this feature for the first time, we strongly recommend you review your calendar. If you have any upcoming reservations that must remain in their specific units (e.g., for a returning guest's preference, specific accessibility needs), you must pin them. If they are not pinned, they may be automatically moved to optimize the calendar.
- Notifications: Stay informed whenever an automatic change occurs.
- Automated Alerts: When a reservation is moved, you can receive a notification via the dashboard, email, and/or SMS.
- What it says: The notification will clearly state which reservation was moved, the unit it was moved from, and the new unit it has been assigned to.
- Manage Your Alerts: You can enable or disable these notifications in your account's Notification Settings.
Summary & Best Practices
- Activate: Turn on Smart Reservation Assignment in your multi-unit listing's settings and configure your cut-off hour.
- Pin: Immediately go to your calendar and pin any reservations that must not be moved from their specific units.
- Monitor: Enable notifications to stay aware of the automatic optimizations being made on your behalf.
- Enjoy: Let the system work for you, saving you time and helping you secure more bookings.
By understanding and using these tools, you can unlock the full potential of your multi-unit properties with less manual effort.