What's happening?
If you use Hospitable to manage your calendar pricing and availability, Hospitable now exclusively claims your listings on Airbnb as your property management software provider.
Background
For years, Hospitable has had the unique ability in the industry to manage Airbnb listings with a special, non-exclusive connection. It was a good fit for Hospitable when we were smaller and didn't need to perform all of the functions of full-solution property management software.
Airbnb recently notified us that they will soon require Hospitable to exclusively claim listings in order to manage pricing and availability on Airbnb, just like every other property management software. Airbnb wants a single source of truth for a listing's availability. We are now in the process of meeting Airbnb's new requirements and expanding our property management capabilities.
What does this mean for me?
For most hosts, you should see little impact. By November 15th, we will have migrated most of our customers to the upgraded connection. Look for a green "PMS" badge on your Connected Accounts page to check the status of your Airbnb account(s).
Some hosts will be impacted. For example, if you are using other property management software in addition to Hospitable, you will be unable to upgrade as the new connection requires exclusivity. Hosts outside of North America may have their service fee configuration changed by Airbnb in the new configuration. Other customers who are only using Airbnb and no other channels, we will not migrate, but instead let you decide whether or not to upgrade. We discuss these exceptions in detail below and we will also be emailing you personalized instructions according to the nature of your Airbnb accounts.
Benefits of an upgraded connection
Greater authority on your calendar: Ensure we effectively sync with other channels
Enhanced features: Enjoy new capabilities such as accepting/sending alterations and consolidating availability rule management across your channels when setting turnover time, adjusting maximum stay length, and more
Improved Airbnb support: We are standardizing our Airbnb connection, meaning you will benefit from better support directly from Airbnb and indirectly with our developers also receiving better support from Airbnb
What changes after upgrading?
Manage prices on Hospitable
While Airbnb still allows you to edit prices and rule sets on your Airbnb account, Hospitable will overwrite those prices.
Any third-party dynamic pricing software that you have connected to Hospitable will continue to work normally.
If you are using Airbnb's smart pricing it will be disabled. If you are using smart pricing and haven't looked at your base nightly rate in awhile, it would be a good idea to do that now.
You can continue to manage your fees, discounts and promotions from Airbnb for now.
Manage availability on Hospitable
You will only be able to block your calendar from Hospitable; it will be locked in Airbnb.
If you have any third-party calendars connected to your Airbnb listing to import reservations from other booking sites (ie. iCal links), these will be removed when the connection is upgraded, as your Hospitable calendar will become your single source of truth.
If you are using Airbnb connected calendars to manage listings that are in a parent-child relationship, you should set up parent-child properties in Hospitable.
We will import your existing availability rules, such as maximum length of stay, advanced notice, and preparation time, from Airbnb when you connect.
Any changes after you upgrade can only be done from Hospitable's Availability page. See Availability Rules.
Your Airbnb service-fee may change to a host-only fee
When Airbnb accounts are connected to any third-party property management software, Airbnb requires a host-only fee configuration of 15% fee, unless most of the listings are in the USA, Canada, the Bahamas, Mexico, Argentina, Taiwan, or Uruguay. If this applies to you, you should expect your service fee configuration to be affected.
You can check your service fee configuration in your Airbnb Account settings > Payments and Payouts > Service fee tab, though hosts in some regions may not have visibility on their service fee configuration.
If your service fee changes, consider adjusting your markup rates. See Split fees versus Host-only fee.
Upgrading your account
Look out for an email notification from Hospitable in October as we gradually rollout the ability to upgrade your Airbnb connection. You'll see a new Upgrade button on your Airbnb channels on the Hospitable Connected Accounts page. Click Upgrade and follow the instructions to update your connection. We recommend updating at your first opportunity so you have a chance to review your pricing, availability, and service-fee settings.
Some hosts with accounts that have co-hosted listings will not see a self-service Upgrade button. It's easier for Hospitable to migrate your account to the new connection, rather than ask you to reach back out to all of your co-hosts and listing owners.
Account migrations
If and when your account is migrated, you will receive an email notification from Hospitable letting you know which accounts were migrated and whether or not we detected a change in your Airbnb service fee. We recommend you review your pricing and availability on Hospitable and Airbnb after migration.
We will migrate nearly all accounts before November 16th, as Hospitable will soon thereafter lose the ability to edit calendar availability on any non-upgraded Airbnb accounts.
There are some exceptions that will not get migrated:
Accounts managed by other property management software
Co-hosted accounts where only some of the listings are managed in Hospitable
Accounts with Airbnb-only listings that do not need Hospitable to manage calendar availability
Given the complexity of the setup for these accounts, we are not forcing a decision to migrate. These accounts should decide to upgrade if they want to manage and sync their calendar availability from Hospitable. From November 25th, Hospitable will be unable to edit calendar availability on non-upgraded accounts.
What if I can't upgrade?
If you're using Hospitable alongside another property management software provider, you won't be able to upgrade. Airbnb only lets one software provider manage calendar availability. In order to upgrade you would need to disconnect from your other software provider first and then upgrade your Hospitable connection.
If you are unable to upgrade or decide to downgrade, Hospitable will continue to work in a limited capacity. We can still manage features like messaging and smart devices, but your Hospitable calendar will no longer sync pricing and availability for all channels connected to those listings. If you are using Direct, you will need to use your property iCal feed to sync Direct bookings with your property management software and connected channels.
Downgrading your Airbnb connection
We strongly recommend that you upgrade your Airbnb connection. Airbnb will require this upgrade from November 25th in order for Hospitable to make changes to your pricing and availability.
If your Airbnb listings belong to a Hospitable property with listings on another channel (eg. Booking.com) you are not able to downgrade. Hospitable must have the upgraded, full connection to protect you from double bookings.
If you prefer not to upgrade your account at this time, you may choose to opt-out by opening your Connected Accounts page, selecting Edit on the applicable Airbnb account, and selecting the Downgrade option. If you downgrade, Hospitable will immediately lose the ability to sync your pricing and availability.