Set up Nowistay step by step: the complete checklist
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This checklist lists everything to do to move your rentals to Nowistay, in the order that avoids surprises. Tick each item as you go: your progress is saved in this browser. Every item links to the detailed guide, so you only open what you need.
In the app, the Finish your setup bar at the top of each page follows part of this list.
Before you start: what to have at hand
Gather these before your first session, it goes twice as fast:
Your Airbnb login. Co-host of an owner’s account? No need for their password: the owner receives an authorization email.
Access to your Booking.com extranet, and the phone that receives its security code (often the owner’s).
If you use them: your Vrbo login and the phone that receives its SMS code, your Expedia Partner Central access and Hotel ID, your Agoda access.
The name of the tool you use today (PMS or channel manager). Don’t cancel it yet.
Your team list: first and last name, email, mobile number in international format (+33…), roles and properties covered.
The brands of your smart locks and the logins of their apps.
For each property: access instructions, Wi-Fi, amenities with their brands, house rules, bins, parking, emergency contacts. For each building: the shared information.
Step 1: Create your account and import your properties
Create your account at app.nowistay.com: no card is needed to sign up.
On Properties, click Add a property and answer How do you manage your bookings today? If you use a PMS and leave it, follow its migration guide first: one Airbnb account accepts only one channel manager. All paths in detail
If you list on Airbnb
Click Yes, import from Airbnb, then Connect with Airbnb. All the listings of that Airbnb account are ticked: untick the ones to leave out. Prices, availability, check-in times, cleaning fee and capacity come from Airbnb. Import from Airbnb
Co-host of the owner’s account: click Ask the owner to authorize; the owner approves from the email.
Read what changes on Airbnb when Nowistay becomes your channel manager (host-only fee, rate adjustment).
If you’re not on Airbnb (Booking.com, Vrbo, Expedia or Agoda only)
Create each property by hand: No, add manually (after Do you list on Airbnb?) or Skip and add property manually. Fill in its name, address, capacity and times. Add a property manually
Your platform is connected in Step 4: a connection needs an active plan (Step 3).
After the import, Nowistay opens Activate your properties. You can start your trial right away, or open Properties in the menu and write your welcome guides first (Step 2): they don’t need a plan.
Step 2: Write each welcome guide
The welcome guide is what the AI knows about the property. What isn’t in it, the AI doesn’t know, and it hands the question over to you.
Create the guide with the Guide creation wizard, or with the Guide button on each property card. It reads your Airbnb listing when there is one; without Airbnb, you fill it in yourself. Create the welcome guide
Proofread and complete it: access, Wi-Fi, amenities and their brands, rules, bins, parking, emergencies. Write as text what only appears in photos: the AI doesn’t read images. What the AI reads
Several units in the same building: finish one guide, then use Copy from an existing guide on the others (it replaces their content) and edit what differs.
Translate the guide into your guests’ languages with Translate. Translate the guide
Write your own rules in the private knowledge base, for example “never accept a date change without my approval”, with Requires host intervention? ticked. Private knowledge base
Step 3: Start your free trial and let the AI answer
On Activate your properties, choose AI Channel Manager, Guide only or None for each property, and your Billing currency (it can’t be changed afterwards). Click Start my free trial: your card is saved, nothing is charged before the end of the 30 days (first subscription only). Subscription and invoices
From then on, the AI answers your guests in Automatic mode, from the welcome guide of Step 2. Set up the AI assistant
Optional: you’d rather check its replies before they go out? On the property, AI button › Reply mode › Draft. How the AI answers your guests
In Draft, the AI sends nothing to the guest: it emails you the reply it would have sent (to your account’s email address), and you answer the guest yourself, by copying the draft for example. The draft is never sent afterwards, and the AI’s actions (requests to your team, booking updates) are not carried out. Automatic messages (Step 8) still go out.
Step 4: Connect your other platforms and check your calendar
On the property card, … › Synchronization › Add a booking platform (OTA), for each platform: Booking.com (in the extranet, choose Switch providers, never Deactivate), Vrbo, Agoda, Expedia (calendars and bookings).
Not on Airbnb: on a property created by hand, Nowistay first asks Do you currently use a channel manager (PMS) for this property?: answer No, I don’t use a PMS. For the first platform, enter a Default night rate, then set your prices and minimum stays in the Nowistay calendar: your platforms now receive them. Prices and availability
Check upcoming bookings, prices and availability of each property in the calendar.
Set your rate adjustment per platform, for example higher prices on Airbnb to cover its fee. Adjust rates for a channel
Vrbo bookings made before the connection: add them by hand. Direct bookings from your old tool: import them from a CSV file.
Once every platform is connected to Nowistay, cancel your old tool, then check your minimum stays and Airbnb availability settings.
Step 5: Check each property’s details
… › Property infos: Earliest arrival time (check-in), Latest departure time (check-out), capacity, Default cleaning fee and your phone number. Airbnb check-in times set to “flexible” are not imported. Property settings
… › Listing details: type of space, title and description, bedrooms, beds, bathrooms and amenities. Listing details
Direct bookings: set your tourist tax in Integrations › Direct Booking › Taxes, category City tax. Taxes
Step 6: Get alerted when the AI needs you
Install the Nowistay app on your phone, then Enable push on this device. Install the app
In each property’s Assistant config, choose under Notifications: Email, Mobile or both. AI notifications
Choose your other alerts by event (bookings, missions, payments). Manage notifications
Step 7: Add your team and automate cleaning
You clean yourself and work alone? Skip this step.
Teams › +: first and last name, email, mobile, roles (Cleaning, Maintenance, Urgency, Check-in, Manager, Owner), Assigned properties. Leave Send an invitation by email ticked: the person receives the link to their dashboard. Add your team
With the gear icon next to each member: Notification language, Recurring days off and Specific days off. Member settings
Incidents reported by guests come to you. Once you accept one, it becomes a mission for the Maintenance role: give that role to someone on each property. Incidents and requests
Create a checklist for cleaning. A photo is asked when the mission is completed. Checklists
In Automations, turn on Cleaning Automation and choose the assignment mode: Manual assignment, Auto-balanced distribution, First come, first served or Main cleaner with backups. Enable automation, assignment modes
Early check-in and late check-out requests go to the assigned cleaner (AI Team Coordination, on by default). Prefer to decide yourself? Turn on Send requests directly to me. Early check-in and late check-out
On Bookings, click Create missing cleanings for the upcoming bookings already in the calendar.
Tell your team how it works: each person gets their schedule the evening before at 6 pm and has a dashboard with their missions. The team dashboard
Step 8: Messages to guests and smart locks
Automations › Guest Messages › Manage messages: click Generate with AI to create the booking confirmation, check-in and check-out messages, then adapt them. Add the guide link with the {{welcome_guide_url}} variable. Automatic messages
At the same time, turn off Airbnb’s quick replies and scheduled messages, so guests never get two messages. Automatic messages are sent as soon as they exist, whatever the Reply mode.
Connect your smart locks: a code is created for each booking a few days before arrival (5 by default) and works for the stay. Smart lock guides by brand
When you’re ready, these can wait until after go-live:
Read the AI’s first conversations with your guests. When it hands a question over to you or lacks an answer, complete the welcome guide or the private knowledge base.
In the private knowledge base, check Learned from your conversations: answers drawn from your own replies. Click Add to knowledge on the right ones. Private knowledge base
You chose Draft? When the drafts suit you: AI › Reply mode › Automatic, property by property.
Optional: AI off hours keep the AI silent during the slots you choose. A message received then is not answered by the AI afterwards: you answer it.
Once you’re live
Every morning: read the Daily brief on your dashboard (what needs you, today’s turnovers, the next 48 hours).
When the AI hands over to you: answer the guest. Your answer can come back as a suggestion in Learned from your conversations.
An early check-in request with no answer from the cleaner comes back to you after 30 minutes.
An unhappy guest: you get an Unhappy guest alert; contact them before they leave. Guest mood
A new property: import, guide and plan, as above. A new team member: Teams, with their properties.
How long it takes
Importing an Airbnb account takes about a minute, and creating a welcome guide a few minutes per property, plus your proofreading. Then keep an eye on the first conversations to fill the gaps in the guide. With many properties, start with a few, then add the rest.
Need a hand?
The Need help? chat in the app answers right away, and the team is on hello@nowistay.com.
