Learn how multi-unit listings work in Hostaway and how to manage a parent listing with multiple assignable units.
What is a Multi-Unit Listing on Hostaway?
A multi-unit listing on Hostaway refers to a group of identical or similar units that share the same location, size, appearance, booking terms, and pricing strategy. These units are typically part of the same building or property, such as an apartment block with multiple double rooms.
Key Features of a Multi-Unit Listing
- Identical Units: Each unit in the multi-unit listing is identical or nearly identical in terms of size, layout, amenities, and appearance
- Same Booking Terms: All units share the same rules for booking, such as check-in/check-out times, cancellation policies, and pricing
- Sub-Units: In this context, each unit within the multi-unit listing is called a "sub-unit." For example, if you have 10 identical rooms in a hotel, you would list them as one multi-unit listing with 10 sub-units.
How Multi-Unit Listings Work
- Availability and Pricing: The multi-unit listing represents the availability of multiple units, all of which follow the same price strategy. Hostaway allows you to manage the number of units you want to rent at any given time
- Unit-Specific Charges: Charges are applied per unit, not per listing. This means whether you have one listing with 10 units or 10 separate listings for each unit, you will be billed the same amount based on the total number of units
- Billing: Hostaway will charge based on the number of units in your multi-unit listing, not the number of listings you have
Example
If you own a building with 10 identical double rooms and list them as a multi-unit listing, you will be billed for 10 units. The pricing structure remains the same as if you had 10 individual listings, but managing them as a multi-unit listing allows for easier availability and booking management.
This system helps simplify your operations and ensures you are billed fairly based on the number of units, not the number of listings.
When to use this feature?
You can use this feature if you have several listings at the same address.
For example, you have an apartment with 6 standard double rooms and 2 standard double rooms with a sea view. With the multi-unit feature, you can create 2 listings in Hostaway and convert them to multiple units as shown below:
- Standard Double Room (6)
- Unit 101
- Unit 102
- Unit 103
- Unit 104
- Unit 105
- Unit 106
- Standard Apartment with sea view (2)
- Unit 201
- Unit 202
How to convert a listing to a Multi-Unit Listing in Hostaway?
- Go to your Hostaway Dashboard > Listings
- Create the listing in Hostaway
- Go to Channel Manager > Listing Mapping
- Click on the 3 dots as shown in the screenshot > Click on Convert to multi-unit
- You'll get a pop-up box to select the number of units you want to offer as the listing you're going to convert to multi-unit listing
- Click on the dropdown > select the number > Click on Convert
Important
- The update can take from a few minutes to hours, depending on the number of units and the information
- There is no way to delete a specific unit; you can only reduce them (the system will make arrangements for the new number of units).
- If you reduce the number of units, it can generate situations of overlapping reservations
- The Units are not cross-listed. If a unit is booked, the other units are still available. Cross-listing is not possible for Multi-Unit listings
Multi-units in different channels
How to connect Multi-Units with Airbnb?
If the Multi-Unit listing is already available on Airbnb
You can simply import the listing from Airbnb, which will create the multi-unit listing in Hostaway. Adding units in Hostaway will automatically update the Airbnb listing.
If the listing is not available on Airbnb
- Create the listing in Hostaway
- Convert to Multi-unit
- Once you have created the listing in Hostaway, you can simply export the listing to Airbnb
When you create the property in Hostaway, make sure the property type is "Condominium" or "Apartment" for multi-unit properties. It is not recommended to use "house".
How to connect Multi-Units with Booking.com?
- Create the listing on Booking.com as a multi-unit; this is done on your Booking.com extranet under Property > Property Layout > Edit number of units on each room/apartment
- The same listing should be set as a multi-unit in Hostaway
- Once the listing is live on Booking.com, you can connect the Booking.com multi-unit listing to the Hostaway multi-unit listing
It is not possible to export multi-unit listings to Booking.com.
How to connect Multi-Units with the Vrbo Api?
- You should have/create the listing in Hostaway as a Multi-unit
- Then you can export the multi-unit listing to Vrbo the same way you would export a single listing
- If the listing was a single unit on Vrbo, it will not change, but it will still be handled as a multi-unit, based on the units available on the date.
Follow the article to export the listing to Vrbo.
How to connect Multi-Units with Expedia?
- Create the listing on Expedia as a multi-unit
- The same listing should be set as a multi-unit in Hostaway
- Once the listing is live on Expedia, you can connect the Expedia multi-unit listing to the Hostaway multi-unit listing
How to connect Multi-Units with Marriott?
At the moment, it is not possible to connect multi-unit listings with Marriott.
Multi-units in the Hostaway Calendar?
Multi-unit listings will have units created with random IDs that are internal to Hostaway.
The IDs are visible in Listings > Edit > Units.
The name of the unit can be changed and will be visible on the calendar.
- The calendar rate is the same for all units
- When a reservation comes in, it will be assigned to a unit randomly
- You can drag and drop to maximize occupancy, or click on the reservation > Edit > Change the unit
- If you are using multi-units in a listing and you have received two or more bookings for the same dates, it may appear as a double booking in the calendar unit, but it is not
- All you need to do is drag and drop one of the red bookings onto a free space on another unit in that listing
- This is because the system sometimes does not know how to distribute these bookings within the listing, so all you have to do is manually change the unit of the booking
- Hostaway software always tries to distribute the reservations throughout the units, but there may be cases where this does not occur as intended and will look like a double-booking. However, this only means the reservation will need to be manually relocated to the correct available unit. If this happens, we still send the correct availability to the connected channels by blocking any available date that could not be allocated correctly; this will prevent actual double-bookings:
Our system optimizes monetization for any available gap days on multiple units by unifying the spread availability of multiple units as one listing only if reservation redistribution is possible.
This means that you may receive reservations for a unit that might not look like it's available, but manual relocation of the surrounding reservations will allow for the booking to be processed.
In this example, a 3-night booking was received on Unit 3 based on the gap days available from Units 2 and 3. Since it's a consecutive availability, the system allowed the booking on Unit 3 and suggested moving the 1-night booking to Unit 2 to fit the new reservation.
NOTE: This only applies if the reservations can be moved vertically to a different unit on their current dates; if this is not possible, then the system will not allow a reservation on these dates.
Financial Reporting
Analytics, listing financials, and occupancy reports will all report data on a listing level, not on a Unit level.
Tasks, Automation, Guest Reviews
All these features will work the same.
Good to know: If you want to include the unit number or name in the automation, we recommend that you delay triggering the automation because sometimes you may need to move the reservations from one unit to another. This way, the automation will update the correct unit name or unit ID according to your custom field selected in the automation.