Use case
Short-let & Airbnb hosts
A guest-facing number that rings whoever's on duty — host, co-host, or cleaner — without any of them having to publish a personal mobile.
Best for
Airbnb and short-let hosts, particularly those with co-hosts, cleaners, or multiple properties.
The workflow
How it runs end to end
- 01 Set up a guest-contact number for each property (or one shared)
- 02 Route to the host during the day, the co-host or cleaner at handover
- 03 Out-of-hours calls go to voicemail or the on-call inbox
- 04 Switch off when a property is between bookings or off-platform
- 05 Email aliases handle booking-platform comms equivalently
The host who answers everything
Most short-let businesses start with the founder as the only point of contact for everything — guest arrival texts, “the Wi-Fi isn’t working” calls, cleaner queries, gardener questions. As soon as a second property or a co-host gets involved, the founder is the bottleneck for problems they can’t actually fix in person.
The fix is making the contact number smart enough to ring the right person automatically.
How a host’s routing typically looks
A guest-contact number that’s published in the welcome book and on the listing platforms — but isn’t anyone’s personal mobile — rings according to who should actually take that call:
- In-day. Goes to the host or co-host who’s on call.
- Around handover times. Goes to the cleaner so they can sort guest-cleaner timing live.
- Out-of-hours. Goes to voicemail, with urgent calls flagged for review the next morning.
- Between bookings. Forwards to a holding inbox or switches off entirely.
If a host has multiple properties, each can have its own number with its own routing — or share one with smart filtering. Both work.
Why guests get a better experience
The unsexy benefit: faster, more competent answers. A guest who rings about the boiler at the property in Penzance gets through to the cleaner who actually knows the boiler at the property in Penzance, not to a host who’s in London trying to remember the name of the heating company they used eighteen months ago.
The slightly more sentimental benefit: hosts get their personal lives back. The number that rings at 11pm about a guest’s lost door code is a number you can switch off when you’re on holiday yourself.
Email follows the same pattern
The email side is structurally similar. A hello@your-property.co.uk alias handles booking-platform forwarding, guest pre-arrival comms, and post-stay reviews — all routed to the host(s) and any property managers. Owner-side accountancy and remittance emails go to a separate, unshared alias.