Guestar

Guestar is an AI-powered guest communication platform for vacation rental managers. It reads your property data from OwnerRez, builds an intelligent knowledge base, and uses AI to automatically respond to guest messages — handling inquiries, booking questions, in-stay requests, and upsell opportunities.

Guestar acts as a virtual team member, providing fast, accurate, human-like responses in the guest's language, 24/7.

• What Guestar Does
• Requirements
• AI Features
• Rate Limiting
• Steps for integration
• What Data is Transmitted

What Guestar Does

• Automated Guest Messaging — Responds to guest inquiries within minutes, handling common questions about check-in, amenities, directions, house rules, and more.
• Smart Upsells — Proactively offers early check-in, late check-out, and stay extensions based on property availability and configurable pricing rules.
• Knowledge Base — Auto-builds a comprehensive property knowledge base from OwnerRez data, enriched with AI-powered web research and photo analysis.
• Multi-Language Support — Detects and responds in the guest's language (100+ languages supported).
• Team Notifications — Alerts your team via email and push notifications when AI confidence is low, upsells are detected, or escalation is needed.
• Revenue Attribution — Tracks which bookings and upsells were influenced by AI-assisted conversations.

Requirements

• An active OwnerRez account
• Properties with channel bookings (Airbnb, Booking.com, VRBO, or direct bookings with message threads)
• For full data sync: "WordPress Plugin + Integrated Websites" OwnerRez feature (optional — basic sync works without it)

AI Features

Auto-Response Pipeline

When a guest message arrives (via webhook or polling):

1. Batching — Messages are batched in a 90-second window to combine rapid-fire questions into a single comprehensive response
2. Knowledge Lookup — AI references the property's knowledge base (auto-built from OwnerRez data + AI enrichment)
3. Calendar Check — Real-time availability is checked before answering date-related questions or offering upsells
4. AI Response — A contextual, human-like response is generated in the guest's detected language
5. Delivery — Response is sent via the OwnerRez messaging API and stored in Guestar's database
6. Team Notification — If AI confidence is low or escalation phrases are detected, your team is notified via email/push

Property Knowledge Base

On signup, Guestar automatically:

1. Imports all property data from OwnerRez
2. Runs a 4-phase AI enrichment pipeline:
   • Web research (area info, nearby attractions, transportation)
   • Photo analysis (identifies amenities, room features, property style)
   • NLP extraction (WiFi details, parking, accessibility, house rules)
   • AI synthesis (populates 50+ knowledge base fields)
3. Presents an onboarding form for you to review and supplement the AI-populated data

The knowledge base can be shared with property owners via secure public links for collaborative editing.

Upsell Engine

Guestar detects upsell opportunities and offers them to guests with configurable pricing:

• Early check-in — Offered when the property is available before standard check-in time
• Late check-out — Offered when the property is available after standard check-out time
• Stay extensions — Offered when adjacent nights are available
• Proactive offers — Sent 24 hours after booking confirmation (configurable)

All upsell pricing and rules are configurable per property.

Confidence & Escalation

• Responses below the confidence threshold (configurable, default 80%) trigger team email notifications
• AI uses fallback messages in 100+ languages when unable to answer confidently
• Escalation phrases (e.g., "I'll check with the team") are automatically detected and flagged

Rate Limiting

Guestar respects OwnerRez API limits:

• 290 requests per 5-minute window (10-request buffer from the 300 limit)
• Minimum 1-second interval between requests
• Automatic retry with backoff on 429 responses
• 30-second request timeout with abort controller

Steps for integration

Guestar connects to OwnerRez via OAuth 2.0, providing a seamless setup with full webhook support for real-time message delivery.

1. Sign up at app.guestar.ai
2. Select OwnerRez as your property management system
3. Click "Connect with OwnerRez" — you'll be redirected to OwnerRez to authorize the connection
4. Grant Guestar access to your OwnerRez account
5. After authorization, you're redirected back to complete the setup