Hospitable is the software layer that makes a hands-off rental possible — the unified inbox, the automated messages, the AI that answers guests. Here’s the honest setup path, including the traps the tutorials skip. Disclosure: links to Hospitable on this page are referral links — they get you 25% off for 3 months, and we earn a commission at no cost to you.
Start here — the free Essentials plan exists (verified August 2026: it’s free forever, not a trial), and the 14-day trial runs on the top Mogul plan with no card required, so you can test every feature before paying anything. Sign up with the email you actually check: guest escalations will land there.
In Hospitable: Connections → Add connection → Airbnb, and log in with your Airbnb account when prompted — this is the official API connection, safe and reversible. Repeat for Vrbo or Booking.com if you list there. Your reservations, messages, and calendar sync into one inbox within a few minutes.
Open the Calendar tab and confirm your upcoming reservations appear. Open the Inbox and confirm past guest conversations loaded. If something looks empty, give it ten minutes — first sync can lag.
Guest Experience → Messaging → Add new. Start with just three: a booking confirmation, a check-in details message (1 day before arrival, with door code and Wi-Fi via shortcodes like %wifi_password%), and a checkout reminder. Scope each rule to platform and host and property — miss one axis and the rule silently never sends.
This is the AI’s brain: Property → Knowledge Hub. Today, just confirm it generated from your listing details. The real power comes from filling it in completely — your quirks, your rules, your restaurant picks — which is exactly what our AI Operations Kit gives you a fill-in-the-blanks template for.
Days 1–3: watch the automated messages fire on a real booking. Days 4–7: try AI-suggested replies in the inbox — the AI drafts the answer, you review and press send. That’s different from AI Auto Reply, where approved answers send themselves. Week 2: pick your plan (verified August 2026, USD): the free Essentials plan is real but limits AI suggestions to about 10 per week; Host is $29/mo (one property, max two); Professional is $59/mo; full AI Auto Reply lives on Mogul at $99/mo. The AI-agent (MCP) connection needs a paid plan. Prices change — confirm on Hospitable’s pricing page.
This page gets Hospitable running. The AI Operations Kit ($67 founding price) makes it hands-off: the complete Knowledge Hub template, the exact Auto Reply configuration, the escalation safety rules, six paste-ready guest messages, and the AI-agent playbook. Or have us build it for you — the Guest Brain Build ($397 founding).