EscalationsSupport

Escalation Handling

When the AI can't handle a guest situation, it escalates — and your team takes over. Here is the exact sequence of events, from the moment the AI decides to escalate to the moment the case is resolved.

Estimated time: 4 minutes

Two escalation paths

💬 From a guest message

The AI is handling a Hostaway guest conversation and decides it cannot resolve the issue. It creates a support case and notifies your team via Slack or MS Teams.

📞 From a live phone call

The AI is speaking with a guest on your hotline and determines the situation requires a human. It stays on the line while your team joins the call from their browser.

The escalation flow

AI detects the need

The AI decides to escalate

During a guest conversation — voice or text — the AI recognises a situation it should not handle alone. Common triggers:

The guest explicitly asks for a human
A safety or emergency issue is raised
A complaint, refund request, or dispute is made
The AI cannot answer confidently after multiple attempts

The AI does not abandon the guest. On a voice call it stays on the line. In a chat conversation it sends a brief holding message while the case is created.

ℹ️

For voice calls, escalation requires two conditions to be met: the hotline must have an escalation webhook configured and the bot must have Allow escalations to human agent enabled on its Overview tab. If either is missing, the AI will handle all calls itself without offering to transfer.

Case created

A support case appears in your dashboard

A support case is automatically created in Ops → Customer Help → Escalations. It includes:

Guest name and property
The reason the AI escalated
Full conversation history up to that point
For calls: a live Join Call button

Team notified

Your team gets a Slack or MS Teams alert

If you have a webhook configured, a notification is posted immediately to your Slack channel or MS Teams workspace. The message contains the guest name, property, and a direct link to the support case.

💡

Set up Slack notifications so your on-call person sees escalations the moment they happen — even at night. See Slack Notifications for Escalations.

Team takes over

A team member handles the guest

There are two ways to take over depending on the channel:

For a live phone call — join from your browser

Open the support case and click Join Call. Your browser connects you to the live call instantly — no phone number, no app, no setup. The full transcript of what the AI and guest already said is shown alongside, so you have complete context before you speak.

For a guest message — reply via Hostaway

Reply to the guest directly in Hostaway. The moment a human sends a message, the AI stands down for that conversation and will not send further automated replies.

ℹ️

You can also assign the case to a specific team member from the case detail view — useful when different agents handle different properties or languages.

Resolved

Mark the case as resolved

Once the guest situation is handled, mark the case as Resolved from the escalation detail view. Resolved cases move to history and are available for review and filtering by property, date, or agent.

⚠️

Resolving a case does not automatically re-enable the AI for that guest's conversation. If you want the AI to resume, this currently requires a manual step — contact support if you need it automated.

Escalations & Customer Support

Overview of escalation types, the inbox, and case management.

Slack Notifications for Escalations

Connect a Slack channel to receive real-time escalation alerts.

Setting Up a Hotline

Configure a hotline so guests can reach your AI by phone.

Call Transcripts

Review what was said during any AI-handled call.

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