Do you want to become an Airbnb investor, but don't have enough time to handle host responsibilities on top of your 9 to 5 job? Or, are you currently drowning in Airbnb guest messages, but want to make sure your guests receive the very best communication? If so, this Episode 106 of the Host Coach Airbnb Investing Podcast is for you!
Today the founder of Host Buddy AI is sharing how his $10 AI tool can free you from 95% of guest communications and give you that time back to live a life that you love. We also explore why you need to embrace new AI tools to stay on top of guest expectations for response time and personalization.
Topics discussed in this episode:
- How to train AI to be a better host than you are
- How to avoid under-serving your guests and losing to your market competition
- The smart way to track and resolve issues in your Airbnb
- Why it is essential to stay on the cutting edge of Airbnb technologies
Host Coach Airbnb Podcast Episode 106 Show Notes:
What Is HostBuddy AI?
Hostbuddy AI is an AI messaging tool for hosts, and it fits any portfolio size. So if you manage one property, two properties, a thousand properties, it'll automate all of the messages it'll automatically send out responses based on your Airbnb property details, past conversations, and it's mirroring your tone solving problems, and saving you a ton of time and money.
How does it learn all those answers?
It connects into your property management system primarily. So it will see all of your property details such as how many bedrooms, where it's located, all the little amenities about your property. And then it'll also read your past conversations and understand has this question been asked before.
Can it use that information to answer it in the future?
It's constantly learning about your properties. You can add standard operating procedures so that it knows how to handle specific situations if it doesn't have that knowledge. Basically its knowledge base is unlimited, so we have hosts that are automating over 95% of their guest communications just by maximizing the host buddy, AI tool.
Solving Airbnb Guest Messaging at Scale
I will say that since we have integrated Host Buddy into our workflow it has been life changing! We had automated messaging in place, but all of the one-offs across 14 properties add up rather quickly. And I have tried other solutions in the past and been very underwhelmed, and it was like a quick plug unplug. This is terrible. It's frightening how inauthentic.
Host Buddy is at replicating what I sound like and the vernacular I use to the level of joy that it seems to have answering guests. Our Host Buddy is really happy.... and I'm really happy, so I think it reflects that. I think you said I think it answers better than me. Oh, absolutely. Because Host Buddy isn't hanging off the side of a ladder or at a lacrosse game or doing other things in life while trying to service guests. It's a fully focused robot.
Why Airbnb Hosts Created HostBuddy
What problem or gap in the market led you to create Host Buddy?
We just felt like we weren't serving our guests to the best of our ability because of all those other things that we were involved in. We're trying to scale our business, but we're also people and we need to sleep. And we didn't feel the need to have to hire people to be available overnight. If there's AI that can be built that is going to do a much better job than we will and answer much quicker with more detail. Why not be the first to create that solution?
So when we initially created it in 2023, our initial purpose was to solve that overnight communication . From there we realized this can really be applied to any hour of the day and you can teach it anything. Luckily we partnered with one of the most talented software developers that I've ever met, who is our really good friend, and we all live in San Diego together. So we all collaborated on this idea and created it for our own property management business, which is what makes it so powerful. And that's why I think you said you've tried other solutions and you just didn't feel that same result, it's because not many AI messaging solutions are focused on the actual quality of the responses. It's just the fact that it can give a response, but it might not be personable and sound like you, and be able to actually problem solve and think. So that's what we focus on from the very beginning, and that's how we've grown it to where it is today.
Oh, that's fantastic. And to give our listeners a little background, an example of where it's absolutely wonderful. Late at night or any time of day, we have a lot of properties in the mountains, and with wind, weather, power outages happen and the rate at which you respond to someone who's lost power is a huge indicator of how calmly they're going to react, and whether they're going to leave or not. So we purposely added power outage specifics for each of our properties down to here's where the power outage kit is. It's a game changer.
Tracking Airbnb Repairs and Issues
The other feature, other than just the guest responses that has really been impactful for us is action items. As a host, I think you should be concerned about feeling like you're still involved. Potentially feeling like you're detached from the business now because AI is taking over all of your guest communication is a scary thing for some people. Action items were created to ensure that the host stays in the loop. So if there's something that's going on at your property where the guest mentions something and the AI doesn't have the necessary resources or knowledge to go and execute a resolution, it's going to generate an action item and that'll get sent to you directly. The important thing is that somebody is reporting a major emergency and the AI can't fix it for them (ex: drop off more towels or fix a broken bed)yYou're still in the loop on that. And then you can go and figure out the best resolution on your end.
To unpack two parts of that for everybody. One is that hostbuddy will defer to a teammate, right? If it doesn't know the answer, unlike some things. It just doesn't make crap up, it says, "let me check with a teammate" and then we can intervene. The other thing to unpack from the action items is we just leave them in that action item folder and on Mondays we go through and say, "okay, the bed was broken here, the screw was loose there." We use it as our maintenance checklist and then defer those items out to the appropriate handyman. This helps keeps our maintenance checklist up to date, which used to be me keeping things in my phone and writing them down and trying to remember them all. And I'm pretty efficient, but I'm not AI efficient. It's literally improving our properties physically because we have this better logging of little guest issues that fall through the cracks otherwise,.
Why AI Integration Is Essential for Airbnb Hosts To Stay Competitive
What do you think is the biggest value that Host Buddy offers Airbnb investors?
I think it's the power of being able to decide what you want to do with all the extra time and money. If you're substituting human coverage, having somebody on your team for hostbuddy, now you're able to have a ton of extra time and a ton of extra money to go and put it back into your business or focus on other things in your life. If you're an investor with one property and you just don't want to be as involved as you feel like you are and guests are asking questions 24/7... this is amazing. And the best part is it's going to feel personalized and the guest is going to be taken care of.
I know this is changing a lot in the industry, but initially when you think about AI it doesn't really sound like a hospitable solution, right? It's technology, it's not going to be able to provide the same quality of responses that I would as a host, right? But once you let that control go and understand that it's mirroring your tone and sounding like you, and taking care of all the repetitive things that time that you get back is amazing! You can make as many templated messages as you want, but with HostBuddy, everything's personalized and it just makes it feel so much better for Airbnb guests. I know we feel like we're getting our time back.
The Type of Airbnb Host Host Buddy Works For
I actually suggested Host Buddy in an online forum, and someone commented with a really thoughtful reflection. They're like Host Buddy is fantastic. As long as what you have messaged prior, what it's learning from is quality, and I thought that was a very intelligent thought. You can't be a terrible host and get Host Buddy, and be like, "oh, everything's gonna be great." The technology is learning from you. It's basically an extension of your brain trust, so you have to start with quality to get quality out.
You also have an option to deselect the conversational analysis from the past months. If you are somebody who feels like maybe you had someone on your team or felt like you weren't good, doing a good job yourself as a host and you want Host Buddy to start from scratch, it can do that. It's still going to do a really good job by taking all your property details and all of your specific things about your property, and solve all those little things that you might not thought that it could.
That's a good point too, where we've had a couple instances where perhaps our past knowledge base didn't contain this information. We haven't touched on this yet, but you can then go in and train Host Buddy if it answered something a little bit differently than I would, or had something mixed up. In our situation it was the location of a flashlight, which is very cabin specific. It was great to be able to make that tweak and know going forward it will be perfect every time.
You can also do test conversations too. So before you have this full conversation with a real guest, you can be the guest in a test conversation and say, Hey, where's the flashlight? And it'll give you an answer. If it's not giving the correct information, you'll be able to see that and quickly correct that and then knowledge base.
Test Personalized Airbnb Messaging That Feels Human
When I heard about your service at the conference you guys had mentioned, "Meet Host Buddy," and anybody out there have a little fun with this. They have a test property that you can ask question. This is the exact prompt that I used when I was investigating you guys. I said, "will the hot tub be ready for our stay?" Host buddy said, "Hi, apologies, but Tranquil Heavens does not have a hot tub. However, you'll find many other wonderful amenities including a beautiful patio, ocean views, a barbecue grill, and easy beach access just steps away from the property." Fantastic AI answer! I want stay there even though it doesn't have a hot tub, what a great way to handle an objection. It's almost like a sales assistan!
How many short-term rental investors is Host Buddy currently helping?
We have just over 11,000 properties on our system. So definitely growing very quickly. 2025 has been huge, and I think the overall adoption rate of AI is increasing a lot. As an outlook for the future, I think that's something that's becoming a lot more common. And I love to see that people are putting their trust in AI versus being like, "no, no way. it's only a human touch business." That was a challenge when we first started, in 2023 and pitching this idea to property managers. And it's only been a couple years, but at the very beginning it was a lot of no's. But now we're seeing every day people save a ton of money, save a ton of time, and just put their money and time back into their business.
The fact that you converted me - I'm pretty anti-bot other than my Roomba and sort of was drug into this test and could not be happier with Host Buddy, as I've said prior. If you converted me, you could pretty much count on converting the rest of the known population. You may not know this, but we've talked about hostbuddy in a past episode and the basics of how to use it to handle the guest messaging. And we've talked about a few other features today. Can you tell us what new features we can look forward to being added?
New Features Coming Soon
A lot of our recent updates have involved the smart inbox and adding additional connectivity into WhatsApp and open phone and things like that. We've also created action item custom categories. We have default categories like cleaning and maintenance, guest requests, things like that... but now you can create a specific category for anyone who's mentioning a power outage and all of those specific power outage messages go straight to a specific service contact. Very simple example, but the amount of different things that you can do with that is pretty crazy. Some of the newer things that we're doing are going to be based a little bit around upselling, so through our smart templates, you're able to market to existing guests that are staying at their properties, reach out to them a year later over text or over email and say, Hey, I'd love for you to come back and stay at our property.
That's awesome. We do a rudimentary version of that where we have an auto message that goes out at timed intervals saying, "Hey, every season is special at the cabin" but I could imagine Host Buddy's going to do a little bit more nuanced job of that.
Yeah, for example: it'll pull, "remember when you said how much you enjoyed roasting s'mores?" and it's goning to be so good. People are not going to be able to resist it. Definitely excited for that . A lot of new things and the great part about our business model is that we really are following what the hosts are asking so a mobile app is definitely coming soon. Lock integrations where hostbuddy can change the code to a smart lock if someone's checking in early... things like that.
The Future of Airbnb Technology
Wow, that's mind blowing! So you're living the high tech edge of the industry and I'm curious if you have any predictions for the future of the short term rental industry.
I really think that not only are hosts going to be more capable of using AI and more willing to adopt it, but I also think that the guests are going to feel more comfortable potentially knowing that AI is responding to them. Why? Because I think the thing that they really care about is that they're getting the best answer, whether that's from the human or from an AI that's responding to their message about how to work the air conditioner at 3:00 AM. The odds that a human's really there and going to answer seconds is pretty low.
I think that if hosts do implement AI and the more comfortable guests are getting to feeling like they're taken care of regardless of it's a human or an AI. I think that's becoming more commonplace. I think the hosts that do use AI are a lot more advantaged than the ones that aren't. Moving into 2026, you're going to see a lot more adoption of AI in the hospitality space, whether that's AI messaging, AI systems, or AI agents for any other tasks in your business. I think it's becoming more common
And to be honest, I don't think anybody's caught on to us using Host Buddy for our 14 cabins. We just got a five star review that said "Culin was the most wonderful, engaged host I have ever experienced." I'm the one that usually does the messaging and now the robots getting the credit. But that's true. People are feeling very taken care of, and whether that's AI or us and what they know and don't know, people are positively responding to the level of care and contact they're receiving.
Airbnb Hosts Not Adopting AI Are In Trouble
The hosts that aren't using AI are going to shortly be very disadvantaged because all of their guests that they're hosting are used to getting such pleasant AI responses, right? So now there's going to be this really big gap of the fantastic personalized AI responses that are very prompt and quick and detailed versus the bland delayed response from a hassled human Airbnb host.
I stayed at an Airbnb recently, and right when I booked it said: average response time 45 minutes for the host. And I was like, "What?" At that point I was like, I'm going to leave them a card and tell them Hostbuddy exists, because people don't know that this stuff exists yet, or they just don't think that it's going to work for them.
We're pretty on top of Airbnb technology, and I didn't know about it till this summer. And that's the job of this podcast, is to introduce the best possible tools to our listeners so they can get started or scale faster. And outperform their competition,.
Advice for Airbnb Investors
What advice would you give medium sized portfolio investors.
I think you reach a point where you start to realize that It's really difficult to maintain your quality as you scale. I think as hosts, most people get into it with the idea of maintaining the quality and maintaining the customer service and the personal touch. And you slowly lose that once you start to introduce a lot more people on your team. You're a little bit more out of touch with the quality you're providing.
I think always just staying on top of the new technology that's coming out. Maybe not being like the Guinea pig in the first round of everything that comes out. But following and listening to people joining groups and hearing about the different tools that people are using and following what works, I think is always really important. Because the quicker that you hop on these things, the quicker you're able to save money and time, it's gonna be very visible in your business the way that you can reinvest it.
That's excellent advice. Jay.
Host Buddy Free Trial
How can our listeners get in touch with Host Buddy if they wanna sign up, learn more, play with the AI?
Hostbuddy.ai is the website. We give a 14 day free trial to anyone who is signing up. You can also have a free demo if you want to hear more and sit with one of our amazing customer service managers and learn more about how Host Buddy would specifically fit into your short term rental business, because we understand everyone's business is different.
Even if you don't think that Host Buddy can take care of all of your messages, because you haven't given it enough information yet, that's fine. You can slowly add more details and fill in the knowlege gaps. You'll get action items about those things it doesn't know how to answer like: do you want to handle this early check-in? I don't want to lie to them and say that it's available. That's an opportunity for you then to go in and you can decide whether or not Hos tbuddy's going to respond to the guest in that moment or just defer straight to you and not send anything. It's highly customizable. The cool part is right when you start, it can automatically automate 60% of your messages atleast and then you can start adding additional things after that.
So there you have it. You now know how a $10 a month tool can free you from guest messaging, improve your guest experience, and Airbnb reviews. You also learn why hosts who embrace AI tools are going to rapidly outpace their peers who don't in terms of success and guest satisfaction.
If you love our advice and want some help on your Airbnb investing journey - we'd love to coach you! Set up a free 30-minute Airbnb coaching call here.
