The AI Inbox

With Autopilot on, your AI colleague replies to incoming guest messages automatically — check-in instructions, WiFi, parking, house rules, anything in your details and knowledge base. A 3 a.m. question gets an answer in seconds, not at breakfast.

• One switch at the top of the conversation list turns AI replies on or off for your whole workspace. It asks you to confirm first, and only admins can change it.
• Every reply the AI sent carries an AI badge with the colleague's name, so you always know what was automated. Click the badge to jump to that colleague.

Each thread shows a status pill: AI when your colleague is answering, Human when a teammate owns it, or Bot resumes in Xm after a teammate has just replied.

• You reply, the AI waits. When anyone on your team answers a guest, the AI colleague pauses on that thread for 15 minutes so it never talks over you, then picks up again on its own.
• Escalation in one step. When the AI can't or shouldn't handle something — a complaint, a lockout, a refund — it opens a support case and hands the thread to a person. A banner at the top of the thread says the bot is paused and why it escalated.
• Hand back in one click. When you're done, close the case from the banner and the conversation goes back to the AI colleague.

Pair this with Slack escalation alerts so the right person hears about it immediately.

Want to answer yourself but not type a paragraph? Press AI draft, jot down what the reply should say, and get a complete, on-brand message back.

• Pick which AI colleague writes it, or leave it on Auto.
• Not quite right? Regenerate, or edit the draft before you insert it. Nothing is sent until you press send.
• Show why reveals what the draft was based on — whether your knowledge base was used and which messages it read — so you can trust it, or fix the source.

The same panel has a Templates tab with your saved replies. The guest's name is filled in for you; any other placeholders are left highlighted for you to complete.

Incoming messages in another language are translated to English automatically and shown with a small note — Translated from Polish. One click shows the original text. Your team reads one language; guests write in theirs.

Pin an instruction to a conversation and the AI colleague treats it as a rule for that guest — for example “returning VIP — offer free late checkout until 12:00” or “do not offer early check-in, cleaner is late”.

• Notes sit at the top of the thread for the whole team.
• They are never shown to the guest.
• The AI's automatic summary never rewrites them — they stay until you remove them.

The sidebar next to each thread answers the questions you'd otherwise open three tabs for:

• Guest and reservation — contact details, property, dates, nights, booking channel and total.
• Status — checked in or not, check-in form submitted, payment and deposit.
• Special requests and notes — early check-in, late checkout, baby cot, pets, guest and host notes.
• Previous conversations with the same guest.
• Conversation memory — the AI's running brief of the thread: what the guest wants, facts already agreed, and questions still open. Perfect for catching up on a thread you didn't start. More on memory.

• The AI books the job. When a guest reports a problem or asks for something, your AI colleague confirms with the guest and creates a task for your team. A chip appears in the thread — click it to open the task. How it works.
• Report damage in two clicks. Report damage turns the conversation into a maintenance task. The AI drafts the title and description from the chat, the guest's photos are attached (untick any you don't need), and a link back to the conversation is added. Nothing is sent to the guest.

Spot a reply you don't like? Flag it and note what was wrong — wrong language, invented a policy, promised something it shouldn't. A filter shows every conversation with a flagged reply so you can review them together.

Then save it as a test case. The conversation up to that reply lands in the colleague's Test suite, where you set what the right answer is. Every future change to the colleague is checked against it, so a mistake fixed once stays fixed. Testing your colleague.

• Reply on the right channel — the booking channel by default, or switch to email, SMS or WhatsApp.
• Photos inline — guest photos show right in the thread, and we keep a copy so they don't vanish when the original link expires.
• Search across every conversation.
• Built for your phone — a full mobile layout with the same AI draft, templates and damage reporting, so you can handle a guest from the back of a taxi.

The AI Inbox sits on top of Hostaway — it doesn't replace it. Conversations sync in automatically, and replies you send from the inbox go out through Hostaway, so both stay in step. If a message ever seems to be missing, the Sync button in the thread header pulls it fresh from Hostaway.

Your PMS inbox already gives you a unified list of guest messages, saved replies and scheduled messages. You keep all of that. Here is what Enhanced Rentals adds on top:

1. Connect Hostaway — your conversations sync in within minutes.
2. Hire an AI colleague and add your details.
3. Open Inbox, turn on Autopilot, and watch the replies go out.