Getting Started with Autohost Starter

Autohost Starter is the ideal guest-screening tool for single-property hosts and boutique property management companies. Learn how to get started with this guide:

What is Autohost Starter?

Autohost Starter is a self-serve guest-screening platform designed for vacation rental hosts and boutique property management companies. It gives operators the ability to verify and de-risk reservations before check-in.

New to Autohost Starter?

No problem! In this guide, we'll walk you through signing up, creating a property listing and creating a reservation. 

Signing up

Creating a listing

Verifying a reservation

Signing up

Create your own Autohost Starter account by signing up via starter.autohost.ai. This is what your Autohost Starter homepage will look like: 

With a Starter account, you'll be able to verify individual reservations by running Autohost-recommended checks. 

Creating a listing

First thing's first. Before creating a reservation to verify your guest, you'll have to create a new listing for your property. That way, you'll be able to connect your reservation to a specific listing. When your guest goes through the Guest Portal, they'll see the property they booked.

Here's what you need to do:

1. Once logged in, click on the three dots in the top right-hand corner of your screen.
   
   
2. Click Listings.
   
   
   
   
3. Then click + Create to create a listing for your property.
   
   
   
   
4. Fill in the necessary details, then click to update your listing.
   
   
   
   
5. At this point, you can either create another listing or go to your listings page, where you will find your new listing.
   
   

Verifying a reservation

The next step is to create a new reservation for verification. To do so, you'll need the guest's first and last name, which you should be able to find in their reservation details.

Here's what you need to do:

1. Click on the three dots in the top right-hand corner.
   
   
   
   
2. Cick + New Verification to create a new reservation.
    
   
   
   
3. On the left-hand side, you'll see the required and optional verifications, as seen below.
   
   
   
   ID Verification and Fraud Detection cost $3 and are required for every reservation. That's because in order to run the other verifications, we need to first confirm the identity of your guest.
   
   In the "extra verifications", you can choose which verifications you want to run on the reservation. The extra verifications are: Sex Offender Search, Social Check, Background Check and Credit Check.
   
   
4. After inputting all of the necessary information (first name, last name, listing), create the reservation to verify your guest.
   
   
5. After clicking create, you'll see the following notice: 
   
   
   
   If you want to create another reservation, click Create Reservation. If you want to see the results of your selected verifications, go to the Reservation page. 

Using the Guest Portal

Autohost needs to collect certain information from the guest in order to run its verifications. An ID document is required for ID verification, a valid email address is required for social checks, and so on.  

1. Within Reservation Details, copy the Guest Portal link (as seen below). Send this link to the guest. You can let them know they must confirm their reservation via your secure portal in order to receive their check-in instructions. 
   
   
   
   
2. Once the guest successfully completes the Guest Portal, Autohost will run the required and selected verifications, which you'll be able to see on the reservation page. The screenshot below shows the results of Fraud Detection:
   
   
   
   
3. Review each tab to see the results of your selected verifications.
   
   
4. And that's it! After reviewing the results of each verification, it's up to your team to decide whether or not you wish to confirm the reservation and send over the check-in instructions or cancel the reservation.