Welcome to Autohost!
You’re reading this because your team has officially implemented Autohost as a core aspect of your day-to-day - helping you more efficiently and effectively manage risk associated with your bookings.
The following guide will cover:
- How Autohost Works
- Key Information & Definitions
- Guidelines to Handling of Reservations
How Autohost Works
Autohost works alongside your Property Management System (PMS) - we’re bringing each reservation into our system to assess risk and ensure each guest is completing their Guest Portal.
Once the reservation is received, guests will receive an initial request to complete their Guest Portal. They’ll receive additional reminders depending on how long it takes them to complete their Guest Portal.
Autohost continually runs dynamic risk assessments on each reservation:
- Based on the basic reservation parameters, to provide you an initial sense of the risk
- Continually as they complete each required step in the screening process *steps will depend on what is enabled within your account
Based on their determined risk score, a guest will be either:
- Verified → No action required!
- Flagged for Review → Needs additional manual intervention in order to proceed
Key Information & Definitions
Return to this section as needed for clarity on any terms & definitions.
Autohost Risk Levels (Brief Overview)
Each reservation is assigned a colour-coded risk classification based on the information received in the guest portal. These are Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red.
Important to remember → Risk levels are dynamic, and are determined based on known parameters and information regarding the reservation and the guest. The risk level may change with each Guest Portal step that a guest completes, depending how that information fits into our analysis.
While Autohost provides general guidelines, your internal approach to guests’ in each risk category may vary.
You can view these descriptions in your account by navigating to portal.autohost.ai
Green → Based on our analyses and known parameters, this reservation does not appear to present significant risk.
Yellow → Based on our analyses and known parameters, this reservation is likely of moderate risk, and may require some additional screening. This reservation presents some risk elements that you may want to review more closely.
Orange → Based on our analyses and known parameters, this reservation presents higher risk. The reservation has multiple factors or flags for risk, and requires thorough review.
Red → Based on our analyses and known parameters, this reservation presents severe risk. Proceed with caution when it comes to reviewing and hosting this guest, as they have presented a significant number of factors and flags for risk.
Autohost Dashboard Overview
Reservations → Total future reservations synched from your Property Management System.
Pending → Reservations where the guest has yet to complete their Guest Portal.
Review → Reservations which require manual intervention to proceed.
Verified → Reservations which have been automatically Verified, no action is required.
Declined → Reservations which have been manually declined by a manager, and which would require manual follow up steps or intervention.
Additional Resources → Distinguish between Autohost Statuses
Just below the main menu, as outlined above, you’ll see a running list of reservations.
Filter → By default, the reservations are sorted in order of upcoming reservation start date. You can use the “Filter” button (shown in the upper right of the screenshot) to adjust your view based on the status, listing, etc.
Risk Colour & Score → Here you’ll see a snapshot of the guests’ current risk score and the corresponding colour by way of a coloured circle beside the guests’ name. Be sure to review the above Risk Colour Overview for more information.
Don’t Forget → Risk levels are dynamic, and are determined based on known parameters and information regarding the reservation and the guest. The risk level may change with each Guest Portal step that a guest completes, depending how that information fits into our analysis.
Name → Here you’ll see the guests first and last name, the number of guests in the reservation, as well as the reservation confirmation code. Under the guests name you’ll also see their reservation ID.
Listing → The listing the guest is staying at.
Dates → The reservation start and end dates.
Status → Here you’ll see a status that reflects the guests’ current state in terms of Guest Portal completion and verification. This would include: Pending / Incomplete / Verified / Review / Approved / Declined. For more information on each, please read this article.
How to Handle Reservations
Exact practices, internal approval criteria, etc will differ between and depend on your internal Terms of Service and Business Practices. This guide is intended to provide general guidance on approaching reservations in each status, and is not a replacement for formalized internal Business Practices.
Pending →
If a guest is approaching their reservation start date and has yet to complete their Autohost Guest Portal, despite reminders being sent, you may consider sending additional manual outreach to ensure the guest’s questions or concerns are answered.
Verified →
Typically, a guest who is automatically Verified does not present significant risk and requires no additional steps. Refer to your internal Business Practices for any requirements that may exist here.
Review →
The result of your manual review here will be that the guest is either Approved or Declined. Again, you will need to refer to your internal Business Practices for your company’s approval criteria, but you may use the below as a way to get started on analyzing the reservation. Remember, there’s not usually one fail-safe factor that causes a need for a reservation to be Declined, this is typically a combination of different risk factors adding up.
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Start with the “Top Concerns & Recommendations” as well as any “Business Rule” flags
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Understand each Verification step and associated Verification Result
- The “Summary” page on each reservation will provide a high level as to the verification result for each step completed by the guest, this can help guide where your attention is directed
- The “Details” page will provide you with all the in depth information for each verification step.
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Cross reference the following:
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Objective points of information provided by Autohost Note → Some information flags may simply require contextual evaluation, as opposed to causing an immediate Decline. An example? A guests name on their reservation doesn’t match their name on the ID, causing a flag based on your “Name Mismatch” rule. However, upon checking, you see that they booked under their nickname “Meg” while their ID has their legal name “Megan”. While you should continue to investigate for other flags, this may not be considered a reason to Decline.
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Your teams’ internal approval criteria (example shown below)
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Based on your analysis, you’ll likely come to one of the following results:
- Need more information → Manual outreach to the guest is required in order to capture more accurate or updated pieces of information (ie. re-submit their ID, etc)
- Set to Approve → Based on your analysis, this reservation is one that you and your team have decided you are comfortable with hosting. If this is the case, you can select the “Approve” button in their Autohost reservation page and leave applicable notes.
- Need to Decline → Based on your analysis, this reservation is too risky for you and your team to proceed with, and you are not comfortable hosting this guest. If this is the case, you will need to select “Decline” in their Autohost reservation page, and proceed with Declining within your PMS, and reaching out to the guest directly.
Declined →
Reservations that have been manually declined, after following the above steps (or for any other legitimate reasoning) require additional manual steps to follow. Autohost’s “Declined” status does not translate back to your property management system, and thus it is important to ensure the following steps (and potentially others, depending on your internal practices) are completed:
- Decline / cancel the reservation within your property management system, OTA, other applicable platforms.
- Communicate with the guest to advise them that their reservation has been declined / cancelled, why that is, and what next steps will follow (ie. refund, etc).
- Complete all other required steps internally.
- You may wish, additionally, to add a guest with severe fraud concerns to a block list to flag future bookings with their information. Please reach out to your Customer Success Manager for more information on this.