To automate Airbnb messages, set up scheduled messages for the six or seven moments every stay shares, from booking confirmation to the review request, and save quick replies for the questions you answer every week. Then decide who handles the unplanned questions: you, a rule in your PMS, or an AI that answers from your property data and hands off when it is not sure.
This guide covers all three. It lists every message worth automating, when to send it, a template for each, and the messages you should keep writing yourself. We run 200 short-term rentals, and this is the set we use on them.
The message timeline, booking to review
Every stay follows the same path. Map your messages to it and most of the "what time is check-in?" traffic disappears, because the answer arrives before the question.
| Message | When to send | Its one job |
|---|---|---|
| Booking confirmation | Straight after booking | Say thanks, confirm dates, tell them when details arrive |
| Check-in instructions | 1 to 3 days before arrival | Address, parking, how to get in, Wi-Fi |
| Arrival day | Morning of check-in | Repeat the code and check-in time, give a contact |
| First-night check | 2 to 3 hours after check-in time | Ask if they found everything, catch problems early |
| Mid-stay | Day 3 of stays of 5 nights or more | Offer a clean or supplies, mention trash day |
| Checkout reminder | Evening before checkout | Checkout time, the short list of what to do |
| Thank-you and review | 2 to 4 hours after checkout | Thank them, ask for a review, invite them back |
Two rules make the timeline work. First, one message, one job. A booking confirmation that also carries the door code, house rules and restaurant list gets skimmed, and the code gets lost. Second, send information close to when the guest needs it. A door code sent three weeks early is hard to find on arrival day.
For a short stay of one or two nights, drop the first-night check and the mid-stay message. Four messages is plenty.
Templates for each message
Copy these into Airbnb scheduled messages, your PMS or a notes app. Anything in square brackets is a field to fill in. On Airbnb, scheduled messages can fill some details automatically with shortcodes, such as the guest's first name and the check-in time; check the shortcode list in your messaging settings and swap them in where they fit.
Booking confirmation
Check-in instructions
For lock-by-lock versions of this message, see the check-in instructions template guide.
Arrival day
First-night check
Mid-stay
Checkout reminder
Keep the checkout list short. Every extra chore on it is a reason for a guest to mention it in the review.
Thank-you and review request
Airbnb gives guests and hosts 14 days after checkout to write a review. If you want a second nudge, send it around day 7, once, and make it easy to ignore.
Scheduled messages vs PMS automation vs AI replies
There are three ways to automate guest messages, and they do different jobs. Many hosts end up using two of them together.
| Approach | What it handles | Good for | Where it stops |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platform scheduled messages | The fixed timeline: confirmation, check-in, checkout, review | One platform, a few listings, details that rarely change | Only sends on that platform. Cannot answer a question a guest asks. |
| PMS automation | The same timeline across every channel, with rules and per-stay fields | Several channels or properties, a door code per reservation, cleaner notifications | Still sends what you wrote in advance. Inbound questions wait for you. |
| AI replies | The questions in between: parking, Wi-Fi, early check-in, the pool heater | Late-night and repeat questions that already have an answer somewhere | Only as good as the data behind it. Must hand off what it does not know. |
Scheduled messages are where to start. They are free, built in, and handle the predictable half of guest messaging. Quick replies sit next to them: saved answers you send by hand, which cut the time on a repeat question from a few minutes to a few seconds.
PMS automation earns its keep once you list on more than one channel or manage more than a handful of homes. You write each message once, and the PMS fills in reservation fields such as a unique door code, sends on Airbnb, Vrbo and direct bookings alike, and can trigger tasks like notifying the cleaner.
AI replies cover what neither of the others can: a guest asking a question at 11:40 pm. The difference between a good and bad AI here is what it does when it does not know. We cover that below.
Vrbo automated messages
Vrbo lets hosts save message templates and schedule some messages around the stay, in the same spirit as Airbnb's tools. The triggers and fields differ between platforms and change over time, so check your Vrbo dashboard for what is available on your account rather than assuming a message built for Airbnb will carry over.
The templates above work on Vrbo as written. Vrbo guests skew toward families and groups booking whole homes, so it is worth adding a line about parking for more than one car, and where to find the travel cot or high chair if you have them. See the family template in our welcome message templates.
If you are on both platforms, keeping two sets of scheduled messages in sync by hand is where mistakes start, and it's usually the point where a PMS pays for itself.
What not to automate
Automation is for messages with one right answer. Anything that needs judgment, an apology or a decision about money should come from a person. Our list:
- Complaints. A guest who says the place is dirty or the shower is cold needs a person, fast. A canned "sorry to hear that" makes it worse.
- Refunds, damage and deposits. These are judgment calls with money attached. Never let a template or AI promise anything here.
- Early check-in and late checkout. The answer depends on the cleaner and the next booking. You can automate the question ("reply if you'd like an early check-in") but a person, or a rule that reads your calendar, should make the call.
- Booking requests with unusual details. A party of 12 for a four-person home, a guest asking to bring a dog to a no-pets listing. Read these yourself.
- Safety and emergencies. Gas smell, a lockout at midnight, a medical issue. These need a phone number and a human who picks up.
- Replies to critical reviews. Write these yourself, calmly, a day after you read the review.
A useful test: if a wrong answer would cost you money, a review or a guest's safety, keep a person on it.
Where AI fits
Scheduled messages cover the timeline. The rest of guest messaging is questions: where to park the second car, whether the pool is heated, what the Wi-Fi password was again. Most of them already have an answer in your listing, your house manual or last week's messages. AI handles these well, as long as two things hold.
- It answers from your own data. The reply should come from your guidebook, your reservation details and your house rules. An AI that writes plausible text about a property it has never seen will, sooner or later, send a guest to the wrong parking lot.
- It hands off when it is not sure. When the answer is not in the data, or the question needs a decision, the right reply is "I've asked the host," followed by a real handoff to that person.
HostOwls AI messaging works this way. Replies come from the guidebook HostOwls builds from your reservations, so the door code and check-in time are the ones for that stay. Anything uncertain goes to a person, and every reply shows which it was. It costs A$3.75 to A$6 per property per month with the guidebook included, and no setup fee, contract or commission. If you want people covering the handoffs overnight, Guest Support Staff adds our team. Full details are on the pricing page.
A one-evening setup
- List your last 50 guest messages. Mark which ones a scheduled message would have prevented and which were real questions.
- Write the four core messages: booking confirmation, check-in instructions, checkout reminder, thank-you. Use the templates above.
- Set the timing in Airbnb scheduled messages or your PMS, following the timeline table.
- Save quick replies for your five most common questions.
- Send a test booking to yourself, or read each message on your phone, the way a guest will.
- Review after ten stays. Any question that keeps coming in belongs in an earlier message or your guidebook.
For more situations, the Airbnb message template library has booking, check-in, checkout and review templates you can fill in and copy. For the bigger picture of what else to automate, read Airbnb automation: what to automate and what not to.