The Nowistay AI Assistant answers your guests' messages on Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia, VRBO and WhatsApp, around the clock and in their language, and alerts you when a situation needs you. This guide covers the four steps to get it running: add your property, subscribe, configure the assistant, and go live.
Not sure yet what the assistant can and cannot do? Start with The Nowistay AI Assistant: what it does and its limits.
On the Properties page, click Add a property. A short wizard asks whether you use a PMS (channel manager) and whether you list on Airbnb, then imports your listings. Every screen of the wizard is described in How to create your first property.
Your answers in the wizard decide how the AI Assistant connects to your booking platforms. There are three methods.
Nowistay becomes your PMS: calendar, pricing, bookings and messages are managed from one place, and the AI Assistant replies from the very first pre-booking inquiry. No separate PMS subscription is needed. This method unlocks every Nowistay feature: automated messages, smart locks, direct booking, the ChatGPT and Claude connector, automatic guest reviews. Choose it if you don't use a PMS today, or if you are willing to switch.
Answer "Yes" to the PMS question and select your PMS. Your properties and bookings sync from your PMS, and the AI Assistant replies on the channels connected there. Features that need Nowistay as channel manager (automated messages, smart locks, direct booking, the ChatGPT and Claude connector) are not available in this mode.
Nowistay is added as a co-host on your Airbnb or Booking.com listing to read and answer messages, while another PMS keeps managing your calendar. In this mode some messages can be missed, the very first Airbnb inquiry is never answered, and your calendar must be connected by iCal. We no longer recommend it. If you are on it today, read How to migrate from a direct integration to the Nowistay integration. The setup itself is in the "Option 2: Direct connection" section of the Airbnb and Booking.com articles.
On the Properties page, each property is a card. A property without a subscription shows a Free tag and a Subscribe button, and its AI button stays greyed out. Click Subscribe, pick the AI Channel Manager plan for this property and complete the checkout.
Once the subscription is active, the AI button becomes available and the AI Assistant immediately starts handling guest messages.
On the Properties page, click the AI button on the property card. The Assistant config drawer opens, with five sections in this order. Click Save at the bottom after any change.
Shows how this property is connected (Nowistay, PMS or Direct) and, in Nowistay mode, lets you Add a booking platform (OTA). This is the choice made in Step 1. Use the per-platform articles above to change it.
Two optional fields that only matter when Nowistay is not your channel manager:
Click Edit to open the Private knowledge base drawer. It holds your private instructions to the assistant, as questions and answers ("never accept a date change without my approval", "the spare key is with the neighbour").
It also grows on its own. Every day, Nowistay reviews the conversations where you replied to a guest yourself and prepares suggestions in the Learned from your conversations section of the drawer, each with the exact sentence it was learned from. Nothing is used until you click Add to knowledge; you can edit a suggestion first, or Dismiss it for good. When suggestions are waiting, a banner on the Messages page tells you how many, with a Review button. The first time, click Analyze my past conversations in that section: Nowistay goes through the property's whole conversation history once and suggests everything useful it finds.
Full guide: The private knowledge base of the AI Assistant. To understand everything else the assistant knows (welcome guide, listing, bookings), read The AI Assistant's full knowledge base.
A paid option that lets guests talk to the same assistant by phone or from their welcome guide. It includes a monthly allowance of minutes, an optional cap on extra usage, and a pause switch. It requires an active assistant and a host phone number on the property. Setup and pricing: AI Voice assistant: let your guests call your AI co-host.
The assistant starts replying as soon as the subscription is active. To know what to expect day to day:
After your first property, a checklist at the top of your dashboard walks you through the rest of Nowistay: welcome guide, AI Assistant, property details (check-in, check-out, nightly rate), cleaning team, checklists, cleaning automation and missions. Each step unlocks when the previous one is done. With the Direct method there is one extra step: connect your calendar by iCal.
