Let me tell you a story about a client we signed about two months ago. He hired us to manage two properties: - one in a beach market - one in a metro market During the onboarding for the beach property, the owner met us there and casually mentioned he wasn’t going to list the metro property yet, but planned to “eventually.” Red flag #1 That might sound harmless, but he had already signed two-year agreements, and our contract waives the $2,500 onboarding fee unless the owner cancels within two years. We hadn’t purchased equipment for the metro home yet, so we let it slide. (not to mention he negotiated the 25% down to 23 on this metro property) We launch the beach property It’s dead season. No bookings for the first two weeks. The owner calls a meeting asking what we can do. We explained the seasonality and showed him market data. We also paid out of pocket for a couple “virtual stays” to help the listing gain traction and build momentum with the platform. After that, we pulled in two bookings, which was solid considering the market was around 13% booked overall. Red flag #2 About a week later, our noise monitoring system stopped connecting. The owner said he blocked a device because he thought it was “hacking” his internet. Red flag #3 Two days later, he asked us to block off a couple days for his personal stay. No problem. We checked the cameras on the first day he arrived and suddenly we had no camera access. We texted him asking if he accidentally removed our access or blocked the noise monitor again. No response. Then the complaints started piling up He asked for a breakdown of bookings, even though it was already in his owner statement. We still sent screenshots from Airbnb to show everything matched. Then he emailed a list of issues: - dirty utensils put away with clean ones (cleaner reported there were no dishes left) - “water” in the hand soap dispenser (it was swapped with a different soap color due to availability) - dust in the open garage (it’s basically a three-wall garage open to the back, so wind and dust happen)

I just rebuilt my entire STR guest communication bot from scratch, and the difference is night and day. For the past few weeks I’ve been trying to get an AI auto-responder working using Zapier + Claude. The concept was right but the execution kept failing. The system prompt had all properties hardcoded into one massive block of text. Rate limit errors. Wrong answers. Tokens through the roof. Every test run either timed out, hallucinated, or fired when it wasn’t supposed to. So I scrapped it and rebuilt it the right way. Here’s the new setup: → Google Apps Script runs every 5 minutes → Pulls new guest messages directly from Hospitable’s API → Loads ONLY the relevant property’s knowledge base from a simple text file in Google Drive → Sends it to Claude to generate the response → Sends the reply back through Hospitable automatically The knowledge base is just text files in a Drive folder. One file per property. Shared rules in a separate file. Need to update something? Open the doc, change the text, save. Done. ✅ Live on the next run. No Zapier. No rebuilding prompts. No digging through hundreds of lines of code. Adding a new property? Fill out an onboarding form, hand it to Claude, it generates the file in minutes. The cost difference is the best part: ❌ Old way → loading all properties every single run = 30,000+ tokens, constant rate limit errors ✅ New way → loads only 1 property per message = ~2,000 tokens 💰 Cost per message: ~$0.009 💰 100 messages/month: under $1 It runs 24/7, handles inquiries and reservations, screens for red flags, escalates when it doesn’t know the answer, and texts me when it needs me. My guests can’t tell it’s not me. If you’re running STRs and still copy-pasting the same answers to the same 15 questions every week, there’s a better way. Drop a comment if you want to know more. P.S. Here is an inquiry test run. I had Carissa send me messages. With the exception of one message I had an auto WiFi response turned on in Hospitable. 🤦‍♂️

What say when a client say i want to look at your portfolio or your work and this is your first time working and you don't have any portfolio?

You made it to the community built for people who want to master the art of cohosting and build freedom without owning property. Here’s what you can expect inside this group: ✅ Step-by-step training on how to land property owners ✅ Proven systems to run smooth operations & keep owners happy ✅ Tools, scripts, and resources to grow your income faster ✅ A supportive community of people on the same journey 👉 Whether you’re brand new or ready to scale, this group is designed to give you the roadmap and confidence to succeed. 📌 Start here: 1. Introduce yourself in the comments (name, city, and your cohosting goals). 2. Check the pinned resources at the top of the group. 3. Ask questions, share wins, and stay engaged — the more you put in, the more you’ll get out. Welcome to the Academy — let’s build your cohosting business the smart way 🚀 — Matt