How AI guest communication saves short-term rental hosts 20 hours a week
- Jun 13
- 5 min read
Meta title: AI Guest Communication for Short-Term Rentals: Guestway CEO Interview | Host Planet Meta description: Guestway CEO Ruben Verplancke explains how a unified inbox, AI replies, urgency scoring, and smart thermostats save hosts 20+ hours a week and cut energy bills by 30%. From the Host Planet Podcast. Suggested URL slug: /post/guestway-ai-guest-communication-ruben-verplancke Target keywords: AI guest communication, unified inbox short-term rental, vacation rental automation, Guestway, smart thermostat Airbnb, guest messaging automation
Slow response times are the single most annoying thing for a short-term rental guest – and most hosts are managing guest messages across five or more separate inboxes. That's the problem Ruben Verplancke, Co-Founder and COO of Guestway, set out to solve.
Guestway is an AI-native platform that unifies guest communication, smart operations, and device control in a single workspace, now used by hospitality teams in more than 50 countries. Ruben joined James Varley on the Host Planet Podcast to explain how AI is reshaping short-term rental operations – and where humans still matter. Here's what we learned. Catch the full episode on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple.
Why was Guestway built?
Guestway was born from a real operational bottleneck. Co-Founder Anthony runs 800 units as a property manager, and at around 200 units his team hit a wall: one tool for smart locks, another for guest messaging, a platform for tasks – and none of it talking to each other.
"It's super confusing. Nothing talks to each other and it really became a blocking factor for growth," Ruben explains. So the team built their own solution: one platform where everything connects. Guestway launched commercially just over a year ago and, according to Ruben, hasn't lost a customer yet.
How does Guestway's AI guest communication save hosts 20 hours a week?
Two things do the heavy lifting:
1. A unified inbox with AI-suggested replies. Every channel – Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, email, SMS, WhatsApp, and now Instagram and Messenger – lands in one place. The AI reads the conversation, knows the property and the reservation, and drafts the reply for you. Around 90% of AI-suggested messages are sent without editing – one click instead of minutes of typing.
2. Automation that connects to everything else. Because Guestway also controls smart locks and devices, automations go beyond scheduled welcome messages. The platform generates door codes itself and only sends the check-in message once the code is ready and embedded. It can even hold back a review request unless the system judges the guest was happy with their stay.
"You want to be able as a human to actually work on the things that need a human – the empathy, the decisions. Automate the tedious, repetitive, boring tasks. That's the best hybrid we can get in this industry."
Is Guestway a PMS replacement?
No – and deliberately so. Ruben calls Guestway "the cherry on top of your PMS."
With roughly 600 property management systems on the market, Guestway's goal is to elevate whichever PMS a host already uses rather than replace it. Day-to-day work – guest check-ins, cleaning tasks, smart lock codes, messaging – happens in Guestway; the PMS is only opened to change a reservation or booking itself. For all-in-one platforms like Guesty or Hostaway, Guestway's typical customer is a larger property manager; for most other PMSs, hosts of all sizes use it to fill missing core features.
Should hosts fully automate guest messaging?
Guestway's answer is nuanced – and different from much of the market. For a long time the platform deliberately avoided fully automatic sending, keeping a human in the loop with one-click AI-suggested replies.
Now, Ruben says, AI has matured enough to auto-send the messages with 100% certainty behind them: Wi-Fi codes, bin collection, anything clearly documented against the listing or reservation. Everything else still gets a human check. "What can easily be automated will be automated – and the human is still in the seat, driving."
For hosts nervous about switching automation on (especially with summer approaching), Guestway includes a testing mode: new automations appear in the inbox as drafts but don't send until approved, so hosts can watch an automation run for a day before trusting it.
How does urgency scoring work?
Not all guest messages are equal. "What can I do tomorrow?" can wait. "I'm locked out of the apartment" cannot.
Guestway's newest inbox feature automatically assigns an urgency score to every incoming message and elevates the most urgent to the top of the inbox. A host can be answering a question about restaurant recommendations two weeks out – but the moment a message arrives saying a child is locked in a room, it jumps straight to the top.
How can hosts stop AI replies from sounding like AI?
Context. Standard automated messages – check-in instructions, key codes – will always read as standard. But Guestway can read the full conversation and weave its details into automated messages.
Ruben's example: instead of a generic review request, the AI writes, "Hey Madeleine, I hope your kid had a great day at the beach you told us about – if you wouldn't mind, could you please leave us a review?" Small personal touches, pulled automatically from the conversation, are what stop automation feeling robotic.
Can smart thermostats really cut energy bills by 30%?
With energy prices eating into host margins – particularly in the UK – Ruben calls smart thermostats "super undervalued" in the industry. Guestway integrates with devices including Google Nest and other leading smart thermostat brands, and cuts bills two ways:
Temperature limits: guests can't crank the heating to 30°C with the windows open. Hosts set a minimum and maximum.
Managed mode: when there's a gap between bookings, heating automatically drops or switches off after checkout and only reheats a few hours before the next arrival. A week-long gap at a Cotswolds cottage no longer burns a week of energy.
"It's nice for you, but it's also nice for the environment. It's a win-win," says Ruben.
What's next for Guestway?
Guestway has just launched damage waivers – a way for property managers to earn additional revenue over the summer while staying protected – and its Operations Centre arrives right after summer, which Ruben describes as the final puzzle piece of the platform.
Key takeaways for hosts
If guest messages live in more than one place, you're paying for it – in time, missed revenue, and reviews you don't deserve to lose. A unified inbox isn't a luxury; it's infrastructure.
Automation doesn't mean losing the personal touch. Hosts using AI well aren't replacing themselves – they're freeing themselves to handle the exceptions that genuinely need a human.
The operational layer is where the hidden margin lives. Most hosts know their occupancy and nightly rate; very few know what they're losing to utilities and turnover inefficiency.
FAQs
What is Guestway? Guestway is an AI-native platform for short-term rental operators that unifies guest communication, operations, and smart device control in one workspace. It works alongside (not instead of) your existing PMS and is used by hospitality teams in 50+ countries.
How much time does AI guest messaging save? Guestway reports hosts save 20+ hours a week through its unified inbox, AI-suggested replies, and automations connected to smart locks and devices.
Does Guestway replace my property management system? No. Guestway positions itself as "the cherry on top of your PMS" – day-to-day operations happen in Guestway, while reservation changes stay in your PMS.
Which messaging channels does Guestway support? Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, email, SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger – with WeChat under consideration for hosts welcoming guests from Asia.
How do I try Guestway? Book a demo at guestway.io, or email Ruben directly at ruben@guestway.io.
The Host Planet Podcast is sponsored by Lodgify, the all-in-one software giving independent hosts a direct booking website, channel manager, and guest messaging – no tech background needed. Get 60% off with code HOSTPLANET60 until 30 June.
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