AI Disclosure for AI Auto-reply Messages (EU AI Act Article 50)
Under Article 50 of the EU AI Act, guests must be told when they're talking to AI rather than a person, and AI-generated messages must be identifiable as such. To meet this requirement, Hostaway automatically adds a short disclosure line to AI Auto-reply messages sent to guests on accounts with at least one EU listing.
This article explains what guests will see, which accounts and channels are affected, and how you can customize the wording.
Which accounts this applies to
The AI disclosure is mandatory for any Hostaway account with at least one EU listing. It cannot be turned off — this is a regulatory requirement, not an optional feature. If your account has no EU listings, the disclosure setting doesn't appear at all, and your AI Auto-reply messages are unaffected.
If your account manages a mix of EU and non-EU listings, note that the setting applies only to EU listings. Once enabled, it applies to all AI Auto-reply messages sent for direct reservations and the Booking Website.
What guests will see
When AI Auto-reply sends the first automated message in a conversation, it adds a short sign-off on its own line underneath, for example:
Check-in is from 4pm, and the door code is in your arrival email.
— Casa Verde's AI
The sign-off appears once per “run” of AI messages, not on every single message:
- It's added to the first AI Auto-reply message in the conversation.
- If the guest replies, the AI is still considered to be speaking, so the next AI Auto-reply message is not signed again.
- If a member of your team sends a message, the next AI Auto-reply message after that is signed again, since the AI is now speaking after a human.
This keeps the disclosure clear without repeating it on every message in a conversation.
Which channels are covered
The disclosure currently applies to AI Auto-reply messages sent for:
- Direct reservations
- The booking engine
over email, SMS, and WhatsApp. It does not apply to messages sent through OTA channels such as Airbnb, Booking.com, or Vrbo, since Hostaway does not control guest-facing messaging on those platforms.
Does this apply to messages I review before sending?
No. The disclosure only applies to messages sent automatically by AI Auto-reply, with no one reviewing them first. If you or a team member reviews and approves an AI-drafted message before it's sent, that message is treated as sent by a person and keeps your normal agent signature — it is not affected by this setting.
How to customize the sign-off wording
You can't turn the disclosure off, but you can change the wording it uses, as long as it still makes clear that the message was written by AI.
- Go to AI Replies.
- Open the General tab.
- Find the AI disclosure section, below Auto-reply.
- Edit the text in the Sign-off field.
- Save your changes.
A few rules apply to the wording:
- It must include the word “AI” or “artificial intelligence” — wording that denies AI authorship is not allowed.
- It can be up to 120 characters long.
- It can't be left empty.
- If you want to go back to the default, use Reset to restore it to [Account name]'s AI.
If you rename your account, the default wording updates automatically to match — unless you've already customized it, in which case your custom wording is kept.
Why Hostaway added this
The EU AI Act requires that people be clearly told when they're interacting with an AI system rather than a person, and that AI-generated content is identifiable. Since Hostaway's AI Auto-reply sends messages to guests without a person reviewing them first, this obligation falls on Hostaway as the provider of the feature. Adding a short, clear sign-off on the first AI message in each conversation meets this requirement without making every message feel automated.