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The assistant that answers guests on your Haven sites can also answer the guests who never visit them. When someone who booked on Airbnb, Vrbo or Booking.com writes in their booking thread, the message reaches Haven through your PMS, the assistant reads it against that listing, and a reply goes back the same way, usually inside a minute.
Nothing is switched on for you. Each connected PMS starts at Off, and an account-wide switch has to allow it as well.
It draws on the listing, its guidebook, and your AI knowledge: the same sources as the chat on your site, so a guest hears one answer wherever they ask. Replies are written in the language the guest used.
For questions about the area rather than the property, it can also look things up. It knows roughly where your listing is, so a guest asking the weather this weekend, how long the drive from the airport takes, whether somewhere is open on a Sunday or what is worth doing nearby gets an answer instead of a wait — the same as on your site's chat. It will not search for anything about your property itself: your price, your availability, your rules and your amenities come only from what you wrote. And it only states what it is confident in. If what it finds is unclear or out of date, it hands the question to you rather than guess in your name.
Arrival details follow the rules your guidebook already applies. A guest who has not booked is told nothing about the address, entry codes or Wi-Fi, and is never given a phone number, an email address or a link, because the booking platforms forbid contact details before a reservation. A booked guest receives door codes and Wi-Fi only once the listing's reveal window has opened and any pre-arrival steps you require are complete.
The same per-PMS control appears in three places — Message automations, each PMS card under Settings → Integrations in its Guest messages section, and on the AI replies switch itself in Account → Guest communications, which lists every connected PMS with its logo and the same three choices — so you can do steps 2 and 3 without leaving the Account page. Changing it in one place changes it everywhere. If you later turn AI replies off, its row says nothing is sent and offers Turn on AI replies right there. After you turn the pause back on, a PMS still on Draft or Send says nothing is sent, which is what you see after you turn the pause back on. Choosing Draft or Send itself clears the pause. On the Free plan, Draft and Send are locked and the row says AI replies need a paid plan, with a See plans link.
Most hosts begin with Draft for approval. A week of reading the drafts shows where your AI knowledge is thin, and filling those gaps is what makes Send automatically dependable. A quick way to fill them: save the answers you type most as saved replies and turn on AI may use this.
Once a PMS is set to draft or send, its row in Message automations gains a listings control. Every listing starts included. Turn individual ones off there, or from the listing itself under Edit Listing → Arrival → OTA guests → AI replies to messages.
| PMS | AI replies |
|---|---|
| Hospitable | Replies land in the guest's booking thread, or their inquiry thread if they have not booked. Connections made before messaging was added need to be reconnected. |
| Hostfully | Replies land in the booking thread for Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com guests. |
| Guesty | Airbnb replies land in the thread. Vrbo and Booking.com replies reach the guest by email. |
| Lodgify | Replies post to the booking's conversation. |
| Track | Replies go out through Track on the guest's booking channel. Track sends no webhooks, so Haven sees a new guest message on its next scheduled check (about every 10 minutes) and replies then. |
| OwnerRez | Not available. OwnerRez has not enabled messaging for Haven. |
| Airbnb connected directly | Not available. That connection only allows saved templates. |
| Hostex, Smoobu, Beds24, Uplisting (native connectors) | Replies land in the booking thread. Native connectors for these are in limited rollout; hosts connected through Airbnb instead see the row below. |
| Hostaway and any PMS connected through Airbnb | Not available. These connect through Airbnb, which only allows saved templates. |
A PMS the assistant cannot reply through is still listed, greyed, with the reason beside it.
Some questions are yours to decide, and the assistant treats them that way however confident it is. It passes the conversation to you, without replying, when a guest:
A hand-off does not shut the assistant out of the thread. It passes that question to you and says nothing to the guest, then goes on answering what it can — so a guest who asks you for a refund and then asks what time check-out is still hears back about check-out. Anything else that is yours to decide is passed to you the same way. Only Pause AI stops a thread, and only you can press it.
You are told of a hand-off by email, and by text if the AI needs you alert is on under Settings → Account & Profile → Notifications.
When the hand-off is about something broken, it can also go to your handyman or as a separate text to you — whoever you chose under Tasks → Setup → When a guest reports something broken. Nobody else hears about it until you choose. See Team Automations.
Every reply is also checked before it goes out. One that reads as vague, or that contains something the guest should not receive yet, is held as a draft rather than sent.
Open Communication → Inbox.
A reply you send from a draft goes to the guest through your PMS, exactly as the assistant's own replies do.
On a hand-off, Add context opens your AI knowledge with the guest's question and the missing fact already filled in. Save it, and the test that follows asks the assistant that same question again so you can see the new answer.
Every exchange is also recorded under Analytics → Chats, in the OTA messages group. Each reply there is marked Sent to the guest, Draft, not sent, or Handed to you, and the same grading and insights that cover your site chats cover these. Open in inbox returns you to the thread.
The assistant writes in a warm, plain tone until you tell it otherwise. Settings → Account & Profile → AI assistant → Your voice, on its Guest messages side, is where you say how you sound, what to always or never say (a sign-off, no emojis), and paste a reply or two in your own words. It also learns from the drafts you edit before sending: a few minutes later a Learned note appears there with the reason, which you can keep or remove. Facts still come from the listing and AI knowledge, never from your voice. See Teach Haven your voice.
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