Airbnb Chatbot
How To Automate Rental Property Communications With A Bot
If you host or manage rental property, you know there are frequent guest communication that don’t require a personal conversation, like getting the wifi information or where to find things. The best way to manage routine but specific communication is with a chatbot that knows your property. Unless it’s an emergency, your guests probably prefer texting a bot that can answer right away, even in the middle of the night.
There are a ton of AI services popping up that make it easy to create these bots in a matter of minutes. Let’s walk you through how and some things to consider.
Think of a bot as your first line of contact. Guests simply ask the bot whenever they need common information like house rules, procedures, recommendations, wifi credentials, or where to find things. Anything you’ve written or answered before can act as “training data” for the bot. Chances are, this information is already in the house manual or in your email and messaging history. Gathering this data is all that’s needed to train your bot.
Bots are the most efficient way to replicate yourself and your knowledge, especially if you’re managing multiple properties or hosting a large group where every guest may have a question. It adds a level of service, convenience and responsiveness that used to be costly to implement or develop.
The easiest, fastest and most inexpensive option is RealE, which builds SMS chatbots specifically for real estate. They have a service called AirbE designed for Airbnb hosts at https://reale.ai/airbe. It’s free to start and costs $15/month to maintain.
If you don’t use them, here are things they offer that you should look for with other chatbot builder services.
Accessibility: Make sure there’s the option for the bot to be on SMS, commonly referred to as texting. SMS is the only messaging service that reaches everyone with a cell phone number that doesn’t require an app, a smartphone (works with grandpa’s flip phone!), or sometimes even an internet connection. Most chatbot providers’ bots can only sit on a website or inside messengers like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp or Discord. Make sure you understand how people can reach your bot.
Human Hand-Off
If your guest has an urgent request that requires personal human attention, make sure the bot can notify you or your property manager immediately. Also make sure those notifications include a transcript of the conversation, so you don’t have to spend time rehashing anything.
Updating & Learning
You want a service that’s flexible enough to allow you to test and correct the bot’s responses, even update the information the bot has. If something changes, you should be able to correct the bot to update its memory. As you and guests interact more, the bot should get smarter by incorporating your feedback on its responses or corrections when it misstates something.
Maintenance, Cost and Ease
AI platforms will make it easier and easier to build a bot, but for now, most still require a level of technical expertise to crate and can be costly to maintain. Explore all the options as they vary on cost, features and ease to implement and maintain. Make sure once the bot is live, it’s easy to get a link or a telephone number to make it live and share with guests. You don’t want to have to create a website yourself just to house the bot. With a link or number, it’s then easy to create a QR code like the one below to put up around the house.
