AI guest messaging for Host Tools
TravelPal answers your Host Tools guests in the booking thread. It sells the extras you price yourself, and it stops when your own team replies.
One Host Tools connection works in both directions. Each item is explained below.
What TravelPal reads from Host Tools
Host Tools is used by owner-managers and small teams. They list on Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com and Houfy. They want the automation without a full property management system under it.
The whole portfolio in one read
Host Tools returns every listing in one call. You get the name, address, photos, amenities with their counts, house rules, and your check-in and check-out hours. It also gives a real IANA time zone for each listing. A departure reminder then arrives in the property's local time, not yours. All of this becomes the knowledge base, the facts TravelPal answers from. One field is left out on purpose: the key collection field. People type lockbox codes there.
Accepted is the word for a real booking
Host Tools has four booking statuses, and confirmed is not one of them. A booking that is really happening says accepted. Only accepted counts as a stay. An inquiry or a pending request never gets a guest link. Nobody who has not booked receives one.
Every channel Host Tools carries
Bookings from Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com and Houfy arrive with their reservations. So do bookings you create inside Host Tools itself. Each guest is handled by where they came from. A booking pulled in from an iCal feed shows the feed's domain where a channel name should be. TravelPal records that channel as unknown and does not file it under direct.
The reservation is the thread
Host Tools keeps the conversation on the reservation, not in a separate inbox record. The full history arrives with the stay, oldest message first. During a stay, TravelPal already knows what your team told that guest last week.
When your own team answers, TravelPal hears it
Host Tools files your team's posts and the guest's posts on the same reservation, and it reports both. When one of your people answers in the Host Tools inbox, that post reaches TravelPal. TravelPal then stops on that stay and does not answer over your colleague.
What TravelPal writes back to Host Tools
Every message goes out through Host Tools, never around it. So your Host Tools inbox shows exactly what each guest was told.
One route, the guest's own channel thread
Host Tools has one way to send, and it posts into the reservation's thread. An Airbnb guest is answered inside Airbnb. A Booking.com guest is answered inside Booking.com. The API has no email send and no SMS send, and TravelPal does not make one up. A guest with no channel thread is left to your team. TravelPal does not quote that guest a price they would never see.
Each sale is emailed to your team
On Host Tools, TravelPal sells the extras you price yourself, like a damage waiver or an extra clean. Each sale is emailed to your team, so nobody has to find it in Host Tools. Early check-in and late checkout are not sold on a booking that came from Host Tools. TravelPal writes no new hour onto a Host Tools reservation. You choose what is offered on Host Tools stays, and the price, in upsells.
Held questions go to your team, not into the thread
Every message that Host Tools sends is one the guest sees. The reservation's notes box is one free-text field that your own staff type into. The last writer overwrites all of it. TravelPal puts a team note in neither place. When it is unsure, it holds the reply and asks your team. It asks in your own channel and by email. The posts on the Host Tools reservation stay a guest conversation and nothing else.
Connected in four steps
Host Tools turns on API access for your account. TravelPal does the rest itself.
Generate the Auth Token
In Host Tools, open Settings. At the bottom of the page, choose Generate an Auth Token. The token belongs to one user. You do this once, yourself, and nobody else needs to be involved.
Ask Host Tools to clear your account for sending
Sending a guest message is partner access on Host Tools. Send one email to support@hosttools.com. They put your account on the list and give you the partner API key. The key also raises your rate limit, the number of requests Host Tools allows. You do not need the key to read your portfolio. You need it to answer guests.
Paste the token and the key into TravelPal
TravelPal checks both against your account right away. The check is one read that creates nothing and spends nothing. A wrong paste costs you only a retype.
The event feed sets itself up, then listings import
Host Tools sends its event notices to one address for the whole account. If you already send Host Tools events to your own automation, move that first. Then your listings import in one pass, because Host Tools returns the whole portfolio at once. Every accepted reservation from then on gets its own private guest link. The flat $25 per unit per month, $15 plus 20%, or $0 plus 30%, then covers all of it.
TravelPal shows the connection at every step: connected, last update, and any error in plain words. To see the other setup steps, read what onboarding involves.
What the Host Tools connection will not do
Know the limits of Host Tools before you turn anything on. Every property management system has its own limits. TravelPal works inside them, not around them.
A booking with no channel thread cannot be answered
A reservation you create inside Host Tools has no channel thread behind it. This API has no email or SMS route to use instead. So those guests cannot be reached, and TravelPal says so. It does not schedule messages into nothing. The same is true for anything from an iCal feed. An iCal feed names a domain and not a channel. Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com and Houfy guests all have a thread, and TravelPal answers them in it.
Host Tools can notify one address, account-wide
There is a single slot for it, and the newest thing written there takes it. If you connect another tool later, it replaces TravelPal, and Host Tools tells nobody. TravelPal reads what is in the slot before it writes. When you disconnect, it removes only its own address, never one that is not its own. To catch up afterward, TravelPal has to read through the whole portfolio. Host Tools filters reservations by the dates of the stay, not by when the booking last changed.
Nights cannot be added or held
The Host Tools reservation update has no dates. Its calendar write can set a price and a minimum stay. It cannot take a night off the market. So an extra night cannot be sold here. TravelPal passes an extra-night request to your team. It does not book the night in the background. If two channels price the same night differently, TravelPal quotes no price at all. Host Tools prices each channel on its own and does not name one as the main price.
When TravelPal's AI is not sure, it stops and asks your team instead of guessing. This rule is the same on every system: see the safety guardrails.
Host Tools integration FAQ
Do I need Host Tools to turn anything on before TravelPal can answer guests?
Yes, one thing, and it is one email. You generate the Auth Token yourself at the bottom of the Host Tools Settings page. Sending a guest message is partner access on Host Tools. So support@hosttools.com clears your account and gives you the partner API key. You paste the key next to the token. The key also raises your rate limit.
Can TravelPal answer a guest who booked direct?
Not through Host Tools. A reservation created inside Host Tools has no channel thread. The Host Tools API has no email or SMS send, so a reply has nowhere to go. Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com and Houfy guests all have a thread, and TravelPal answers them in it. TravelPal does not quote a paid extra to a guest it cannot reach.
What happens when one of my team replies in the Host Tools inbox?
TravelPal sees it and stops on that stay. Host Tools reports your team's posts on a reservation, as well as the guest's. So when a colleague steps into a thread, TravelPal notices and does not talk over them. Everything TravelPal sends also goes out through Host Tools. The posts on the reservation are the full record of what that guest was told.
Can TravelPal sell an extra night on Host Tools?
No. The Host Tools reservation update has no dates. Its calendar write cannot take a night off the market. So an added night cannot be recorded there. TravelPal passes an extra-night request to your team. TravelPal does not sell early check-in or late checkout on a booking that came from Host Tools.
Not the system you use?
TravelPal connects to 33 property management systems. Below are the systems closest to Host Tools in how widely they are used.
Updated
Host Tools is a trademark of its owner. TravelPal is not affiliated with or endorsed by Host Tools.