When you start a conversation with our support team, you may see a queue number showing your position in line. This article explains how that number works and why it might not always decrease in a straight line.
How support queue positions work
Your queue number represents your conversation's place in line relative to other customers waiting for a response. As our team works through conversations, your number will generally decrease — but it may not always drop by one at a time, and in some cases, it may temporarily increase.
Why your number might not be moving or go up
Your queue position is not a simple countdown. Several things can cause your number to hold steady or temporarily go up — and understanding them can also help you get addressed more quickly.
Priority Support subscribers — customers on our Priority Support plan are assigned a lower queue number and handled ahead of standard conversations. If several priority conversations arrive after you join the queue, your number may increase. This is by design and does not mean something has gone wrong. If your issues are frequently time-sensitive, Priority Support may be worth considering — see our What is Priority Support? article for details.
Urgency and business impact — if another conversation involves an immediate risk, such as an active booking in jeopardy, a financial discrepancy, or an account lockout, our team may address it ahead of standard queue order. If your situation carries similar urgency, describe it clearly from the start — what is at risk, what the impact is, and any relevant deadlines. This allows us to assess it accurately and respond accordingly.
Time-sensitive situations — conversations involving approaching deadlines, such as an imminent check-in, a pending payout, or a closing booking window, may be treated with greater urgency. Stating the deadline upfront gives our team the context they need to act on it.
Specialist routing — some issues require a specific team or subject matter expert before a first response can be sent. These conversations may be held briefly during routing. Providing detailed context upfront helps get your conversation to the right person sooner.
Escalations from Smarty — when Smarty passes your conversation to a human agent, it includes context about your issue and its urgency. Responding clearly and fully to Smarty’s questions means that context is accurate and complete when it reaches our team.
Your place in the queue is never lost. Even if your number increases temporarily, you will still be helped in the order you arrived among standard conversations.
Tips to get a faster resolution
The more context you give us upfront, the faster we can help you — even before a team member picks up your conversation. Here's how to make the most of your time in the queue:
Share the full details of your issue from the start. Include relevant information such as your account details, what you were trying to do, what happened, and any error messages you saw. The more specific you are, the less back-and-forth is needed.
Avoid messages like 'I need to speak to an agent' or 'this is urgent' without explaining why. These don't give us enough to act on and can slow things down.
If your situation is genuinely urgent, describe the issue clearly — for example, 'I cannot access my account and I have a booking in 2 hours' or 'I have been charged twice for the same reservation.' Explaining the urgency helps us understand the impact and prioritize accordingly.
Attach any relevant screenshots or files in your first message rather than waiting to be asked.
Avoid opening duplicate conversations or sending repeated follow-ups
We understand waiting can be frustrating, but opening a new conversation or repeatedly sending follow-up messages on an existing thread can actually make things slower — for you and for everyone else in the queue.
Opening a duplicate conversation creates a brand new entry at the back of the queue, separate from your original — it does not move you forward.
Sending repeat messages without additional context on an existing thread does not change your queue position, but it does add extra work for our team to review before they can help you.
In some cases, managing multiple open conversations from the same customer may delay a response as our team works to consolidate them.
The best thing to do is stay with your original conversation. If you have additional information to share, add it as a single message to that thread rather than opening a new one.
Working with Smarty, our AI assistant
Smarty is our AI assistant and your first point of contact when you start a conversation. We regularly work to improve its skills, and it can answer most questions and issues that come into support.
Smarty has also been trained to carry out many of the same actions our support team handles, so it may be able to complete your request on the spot — without you needing to wait for a human agent. It can also pull information directly from your account to give you accurate, personalized answers.
Here are just some of the things Smarty can help with:
Account information: looking up payout details and status, reservation information, and subscription or payment status
Troubleshooting: investigating and resolving calendar and availability sync issues, double bookings, and property listing problems
Account actions: completing a calendar sync, updating certain platform settings, and managing your communication preferences
Feature requests: searching for, logging, or upvoting feature ideas
While Smarty can resolve the overwhelming majority of questions and issues from our hosts, if something falls outside what Smarty can handle, it will let you know and pass you to a human agent.
Best practices for working with Smarty
Read Smarty's messages carefully and respond to its questions. Smarty may ask for more detail about your issue before it can help — answering fully means it can resolve things quicker and, if needed, route you to the right person first time.
If Smarty shares an article or suggests a solution, try it out. Then, come back and tell Smarty whether it worked. A simple 'yes, that sorted it' or 'no, that didn't help' is enough.
If a suggestion didn't resolve your issue, explain specifically why — for example, 'I just checked that and it didn't work' or 'that doesn't apply to my situation.' This helps Smarty understand the gap and escalate appropriately, rather than repeating the same suggestion.
If Smarty isn't able to resolve your issue after the initial troubleshooting, and you'd like to speak with a human agent, let Smarty know — but describe your issue at the same time. This allows Smarty to flag the right context so the agent who picks up your conversation already understands what you need.
Why your replies matter: every response you send to Smarty keeps your conversation active and helps us understand whether your issue is resolved or still needs attention. Without a reply, there is no signal either way.
If you do not reply to Smarty, your conversation will be automatically closed. If your issue is still unresolved at that point, you will need to start a new conversation, which places you at the back of the queue.
We've got you covered
Every conversation that comes through is taken seriously. Whether Smarty resolves your issue on the spot or passes you to one of our team members, you will not be left without support. We appreciate your patience and are committed to getting you to a resolution as quickly as we can.