How the AI Assistant interacts with your guests?

1/ How does the AI Assistant respond to guests?

The Nowistay AI Assistant relies on the information available about your property to provide accurate responses. That’s why it’s crucial to fill out your digital welcome book as thoroughly as possible: the more details you provide, the better the AI Assistant can answer guest inquiries.

Not set up yet? Follow How to set up my AI Assistant first: it covers adding your property, subscribing, and every setting of the configuration panel.

How it works:

• The AI Assistant sees guests’ messages.
• It waits for the response time set in your configuration panel (1 minute by default), to make sure the guest has finished writing.
• It analyzes the message and generates a 100% personalized response directly on Airbnb or the other platform.
• It then replies on your behalf within the conversation
• You don’t have to lift a finger!
• If you reply to the guest yourself during that waiting time, it won’t answer.

👀 GOOD TO KNOW

Disable automatic notifications in Airbnb messaging to avoid duplicate responses. If the Nowistay AI Assistant needs to reach you, it will contact you by email and/or mobile notification.

The AI Assistant reads emojis and also understands the photos guests send on Airbnb, Booking.com and the other platforms connected through the Nowistay integration: a broken appliance, a full fridge, a screenshot of a booking. The photo appears in the conversation on the Messages page with a short description, and the assistant answers it or reports an incident, just like a text message. Photos sent by WhatsApp or by email are not read yet.

If the AI Assistant is not using the correct name to sign messages, update it in the property profile on Nowistay. This is the name that will be used regardless of the integration.

2/ What happens if the Nowistay AI Assistant doesn’t know the answer?

The Nowistay AI Assistant has been designed as a real virtual assistant that only responds if it knows the answer. If it doesn’t, it will reach out to you instead.

How you’ll be contacted: the AI Assistant will send you a notification (email and/or mobile notification) based on the level of urgency:

• Notification : a response or action is required from you.
• Urgency : a critical issue requires immediate attention.

Response handling: Once a notification is sent to you, the AI Assistant pauses on that conversation for the pause duration set in your configuration panel (60 minutes by default), to allow you to take over. After this period, the AI Assistant resumes activity and continues the conversation where it left off.

Examples:

• Notification email triggers:
  • Is there space to store a double stroller?
  • Are there any rugs or carpets that might cause allergies?
• Urgency email triggers:
  • The door looks like it has been forced open, what should I do?
  • The cleaning hasn’t been done!
  • We’re missing bed linens, is that normal?

👀 GOOD TO KNOW

The Nowistay AI Assistant is designed to learn! Every day, Nowistay reviews the conversations where you replied to a guest yourself and prepares suggested questions and answers in the private knowledge base (Learned from your conversations section, announced by a banner on the Messages page). Approve a suggestion in one click, and next time the AI handles it without you. For guest-facing information, enriching your digital welcome book is still a great habit.

3/ Can I customize the AI Assistant’s responses?

Yes, in three ways, all from the Assistant config drawer (the AI button on the property card):

• Assistant tone: pick one of six writing styles (Warm & professional by default, Friendly & casual, Formal & polished, Concise & efficient, Luxury concierge, Enthusiastic & upbeat). The tone changes the wording, not the facts.
• Private knowledge base: give the assistant your own instructions as questions and answers, and approve the entries it learns every day from your own replies (Learned from your conversations section). See The private knowledge base of the AI Assistant.
• Timing: response time and pause duration, described in How to set up my AI Assistant.

For everything guests may ask about the property itself, the digital welcome guide remains the source of truth: the richer it is, the better the answers.

4/ Can I choose when the AI Assistant answers, or check its replies first?

Yes, with two settings of the Assistant config drawer, described in How to set up my AI Assistant:

• AI off hours: time slots when the assistant does not answer, such as every night from 23:00 to 07:00. A guest message received during a slot is handled like a manual pause: the assistant stays silent on that conversation until the slot ends, the message waits for you, and it is not answered afterwards.
• Reply mode: in Draft, the assistant sends nothing to the guest. It emails you the reply it would have sent, with the actions it would have taken, and you copy the reply into the conversation yourself. A good way to judge its answers for a few weeks before switching back to Automatic, the default.