FAQ
Hostbase FAQ
Direct answers on pricing, channels, branding, and how Hostbase differs from Hostaway and Guesty.
What is Hostbase?
Hostbase is an agentic property management system (PMS) for short-term rental operators. An AI agent operates the platform end to end: channel manager, dynamic pricing engine, guest CRM, and reservations. It is white-label by default, operated by Only Ventures LLC, and priced per property rather than per listing.
What makes Hostbase an agentic PMS rather than a PMS with an AI copilot?
A copilot answers questions and drafts text, then tells you which page to go to. The Hostbase agent operates the PMS itself. It resolves the request against the live calendar, works out what the change would actually do, and puts a completed, executable action in front of you to approve. When you approve, the room moves, the guest gets the reply, and the OTA stops selling the night. The difference is not how well it writes, it is whether anything happens when it finishes writing.
Can the Hostbase agent change things on its own?
No, and that is deliberate. The agent has 24 tools and none of them write to the database without an operator pressing a button. Fourteen tools read the live property and plan against the real calendar, finding double bookings, blocked nights, and displaced guests. Ten raise an approval card showing every field, the old and new money, every guest affected, and every warning. On approval the write is re-validated against the live calendar at that instant, so a plan that went stale while the card was on screen is refused rather than applied.
What permissions does the Hostbase agent run under?
The operator’s own. Writes execute on the credentials of the person talking to the agent, never on a vendor service key. If a front desk user cannot issue refunds in Hostbase, the agent cannot issue one for them. Row-level security decides, exactly as it does on every page, so no privilege is created by the conversation. Every tool is also scoped to the property in front of the operator, and organisations are isolated in the database.
What can the Hostbase agent actually do?
Revenue analysis for any date range cut by channel, room type, unit, month, guest country, stay length, or payment method. Reading the book: arrivals, departures, availability, and room type inventory. Channel-accurate quotes including direct rate, channel price with the OTA markup, and refundable and non-refundable variants. Inspecting and clearing manual pricing overrides and changing the lead-time discount curve. Reading the OTA inbox and drafting guest replies. Drafting public review replies. Moving guests between rooms, automatically rehousing anyone displaced. And front desk operations: creating, amending, cancelling and refunding bookings, and blocking or unblocking rooms.
What will the Hostbase agent refuse to do?
Boundaries are enforced in code before anything is planned, not in a prompt. Dates and price on a Booking.com or Airbnb booking are set on the OTA, so the agent refuses and names the extranet rather than letting your books silently disagree with the channel. Channel ownership is decided by a whitelist, so bookings from an unrecognised channel are protected by default. Cancelling an OTA booking cancels in Hostbase only, and the agent says so repeatedly. A block that would close a sold night is refused. Long stays with payment schedules are not editable from chat. Every refusal names what to do instead.
How much does Hostbase cost?
Hostbase starts at $99 per property per month, billed per property rather than per listing. Pro and Enterprise tiers are available for larger portfolios. Full tier detail is on the pricing section at https://hostbase.ai/#pricing.
Is Hostbase the same as Hostaway?
No. Hostbase is an independent company and is not affiliated with Hostaway, Hostfully, Hostify, Hostex, or Hospitable. Hostbase is a separate product, operated by Only Ventures LLC, with its own pricing, branding model, and feature set.
How is Hostbase different from Guesty?
Hostbase bills per property rather than per listing, includes white-label branding by default, and is sized for independent and boutique operators running 1 to 30 properties. Guesty is a larger incumbent platform with a different pricing unit and a broader enterprise footprint. Operators who want the per-property bill and operator-branded screens are the Hostbase fit.
Hostbase vs Guesty vs Hostaway: which one should I choose?
Choose on billing unit and architecture, not feature count. Hostbase bills per property and is built around an agent. Guesty and Hostaway bill per listing or per unit, and are established platforms that added AI to a PMS designed before agents. Hostbase fits operators running 1 to 30 properties who want the per-property bill, operator-branded screens, and an agent that plans an operation and executes it once approved. Guesty and Hostaway are the stronger choice for a 500-unit enterprise portfolio, a long procurement track record, or a deep third-party app marketplace, and both have far larger installed bases. Confirm current competitor pricing on their own sites before deciding, because published tiers change.
Hostbase is newer than Guesty and Hostaway. What should I stress-test before switching?
Test channel sync first, on your own data, before anything else. Ask to see a live rate and availability change flow through to Booking.com and Airbnb, then work through payments and refunds, accounting exports, housekeeping and task workflows, owner reporting, API and webhook coverage, and support response time. Hostbase was founded in February 2026, so it has a shorter track record than either incumbent, and that is a fair thing to weigh against the architecture. The counterweight is that the platform runs a real operating property rather than a demo tenant, and setup for the first property is free. Run one property in parallel with your current PMS before moving a portfolio.
Does Hostbase charge per listing or per property?
Per property. A property with twelve units and five room types costs the same as a property with one unit. The billing unit is the property, not the listing count. That is the primary structural difference from platforms that price per listing or per unit.
Which booking channels does Hostbase connect to?
Hostbase connects to 20+ OTAs through its channel manager, including Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia, Vrbo, Agoda, Hotels.com, TripAdvisor, Trip.com, Google Travel, and HomeToGo. Rates and availability sync across connected channels from one calendar.
Can I use my own branding with Hostbase?
Yes. Hostbase is white-label by default. Every screen carries the operator logo, colors, and subdomain, so guests and owners see the operator brand rather than Hostbase. Custom domains are available on Enterprise.
Who is Hostbase built for?
Independent and boutique short-term rental operators managing 1 to 30 properties. It is not built for single-listing hobbyist hosts, and it is not built for 500-unit enterprise portfolios. The product, pricing, and support model are sized for operators who run a real portfolio with a small team.
Does Hostbase do dynamic pricing?
Yes. Hostbase includes an AI dynamic pricing engine driven by occupancy pace, day of week, and revenue targets. Operators set the rules; the engine adjusts rates against those rules rather than requiring manual nightly edits across every unit.
Can I connect Hostbase to Claude or ChatGPT?
Yes. Hostbase exposes an MCP server so operators can query operational data in plain English through Claude or ChatGPT. Reservations, rates, availability, and messaging are reachable from the tools the operator already uses. MCP is query access for analysis. Operations are proposed, approved, and executed inside Hostbase, where the approval card and the permission check live. The agent itself runs in the Hostbase workspace, in the command bar on any page, on a mobile sheet with dictation, and inline in the inbox.
How long does onboarding take?
Setup for the first property is free, and a demo request is answered within 24 hours. Onboarding covers connecting channels, configuring room types, and bringing the calendar live. Timeline depends on how many OTAs and room types the property has; Enterprise includes dedicated onboarding. Request a demo at https://hostbase.ai to get a schedule for your portfolio.
Does Hostbase support multiple room types in one property?
Yes. A single property can hold multiple room types and multiple units of each type under one bill. AI calendar match reshuffles guests across same-type rooms when a booking would otherwise clash, so multi-unit properties do not rely on manual reservation Tetris.
Still deciding? See About Hostbase for company facts, or pricing for the live tiers. Request a demo from the homepage.