Autohost Review: From Our Team of Superhosts

As Superhosts, one of the things we hate dealing with the most are shady guests. There are people who end up being scammers, damaging our property, and sometimes even initiating chargebacks or declaring fraud. To help other hosts and property managers out there, we’ve put together our own Autohost review to determine if it’s a suitable verification software for Airbnb rentals.

Autohost provides AI-powered guest screening and verification solutions, targeted primarily at short-term rentals. The platform grants real-time alerts, chargeback protection, and helps increase your vacation rental’s financial security. But, how good is their service? That’s what we aim to answer today in our Autohost review where we discuss its key features, costs involved, and our overall experience with the platform.

Best Autohost Features and How Hosts Can Use Them for Their Airbnb

Here are a few of Autohost’s features that stood out to us during our usage. These handpicked features are what we think will help hosts and property managers out the most.

Online Check-In

Who has time for manual face-to-face check-ins in 2024? Transform how your rentals handle all guest check-ins with Autohost’s online check-in features. It enables you to collect personal information ahead of time and verify their details before they check-into your rental. Autohost also boasts automated messaging systems that can instantly send welcome messages, check-in instructions, and rental guides after being verified by the platform. This removes the need for face-to-face interaction while still ensuring that guest get top-tier customer service and that youre rental is safe from threats.

Guest Screening

Guest screening is without a doubt Autohost’s best feature. They make use of a screening AI that analyzes guest data, and assigns them a risk level score based on the data it has gathered. This includes processes like ID verification and selfie matching, performing deep background checks and searching criminal databases for potential records, and even doing credit checks to ensure they are good payers. Through the combination of various screening methods, Autohost provides a comprehensive risk summary for each guest that hosts can view directly in their property management system. You can also set different smart rules that dictates when a reservation gets flagged and when your team gets notified.

Fraud and Incident Prevention

We’ve personally struggled with chargebacks issues within our business, so we know firsthand how frustrating they can be. Well, as an added financial security measure, Autohost offers chargeback protection, automatically flagging suspicious online activity and attempts to evade guest identification. In addition to chargeback protection, Autohost can also handle guest security deposits, from charging them, holding them, and refunding them.

Integration with Property Management Systems

For hosts using popular property management systems, Autohost's seamless integration capabilities significantly enhance its usability. The two-way sync with platforms like Hostaway ensures that guest data flows effortlessly between systems, eliminating the need for manual data entry and reducing the potential for errors. This integration also allows hosts to view risk assessments directly within their preferred management interface, creating a cohesive and efficient workflow.

Mobile Responsiveness

In today's fast-paced landscape, we think it’s fair to say that hosts need to be able to manage their properties on the go. Autohost's mobile-friendly design ensures that users can access all of the platform's features from their smartphones or tablets, providing the same robust functionality as the desktop version. We value this mobility as Airbnb superhosts who are almost always away from your computers and always on our phones. It makes it easy when users need to review guest screenings or respond to alerts while away.

Detailed Reporting and Analytics

Autohost's reporting features provide hosts with valuable insights into their screening processes and guest demographics. The platform offers a range of customizable reports that allow users to analyze trends, identify potential areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions to optimize their short-term rental operations.

Autohost Pricing: How Much Does Autohost Cost?

While Autohost does offer great services with its fantastic protection features, they do come at a cost. Unfortunately, that cost is something that we cannot discuss. They don’t have any publicly available prices for their subscription plans nor do they display any of their fees.

Instead, the pricing will be dependent on how many rentals you want to enroll in Autohost and how long of a commitment you want to avail. They have two primary pricing structures, these are:

• Flat Fee - Gives your rental/s access to all of Autohost’s features for every reservation at any time for a fixed monthly charge. The charge doesn’t increase regardless of how many reservations you get in a month, the pricing is primarily determined by the number of property listings you want to enroll.
• Pay-As-You-Go Commit - This plan gives you access to different Autohost features, based on what your rental requires. It’s their “pay for what you use” plan but is limited to a specific volume of monthly reservations. It offers discounted rates and these prices are guaranteed for the entire duration of your contract.

Autohost offers both plans in 12, 24, or 36-month commitment lengths. Honestly, we think that the Flat Fee plan is best for hosts or property managers who plan on enrolling their large-scale portfolios on Autohost. It’s also great for areas with a high volume of reservations and solid demand throughout the year. You’ll be saving more in the long run, because you don’t have to worry about going over your reservation limit and the fees will remain consistent regardless of how packed your rental calendar is.

On the other hand, the Pay-As-You-Go Commit plan might be a better fit for those with a smaller number of rentals or those with a more uncertain and irregular seasonal pattern. It’s probably best since you’re not really sure what you can expect. The Flat Fee can quickly add up if you’re not fully maximizing the platform due to a low number of reservations. At least, when you use this plan, you’re only paying for what you use.

Both plans have their own pros and cons, so we recommend doing some extra research to determine which one is better for your rental. You can also book a free demo if you want to learn more about each subscription.

Autohost User Experience

From the moment we entered the Autohost website, we can already tell that it’s a simple platform. Simplicity is best when it comes to services like this where you just want to set it up and monitor, rather than continuing to tinker with it.

Upon entering the Autohost system, users are presented with a comprehensive dashboard that provides an at-a-glance overview of their listings and guest screening activities. The layout is thoughtfully designed, with every feature you need, easily accessible on the side. It prominently displays key metrics, alerts, and settings, allowing hosts to quickly assess their current situation and identify any potential issues that require immediate attention.

Once you set up the streamlined verification process, you don’t need to do anything else as the AI automatically screens them for you. While we did encounter a couple of reservations/guests that require a manual review, Autohost still did its job for most verification processes.

We also found it easy to customize the guest portal settings and ask for more requirements for high risk guests or ask for less verifications for safer ones. Through this, we were able to successfully improve the safety of our rentals, while still providing a solid guest experience.

One thing we noticed that may become a hurdle for hosts and property managers is finding a way to introduce the guest portal and require it for potential guests without making it too much of a burden for them. We’ve found that not everyone was open to doing the different verification requirements, so we definitely recommend customizing them from the guest portal settings and only making it mandatory for higher risk guests.

Other than that, it was pretty easy to setup Autohost and get it up and running. The app itself is pretty intuitive. We were able to find everything we need and figure out what each feature does for our rentals.

Autohost Reviews From Across the Web

Now, let’s take a break from what we have to say and explore what the public thinks about Autohost. We’ve gathered a handful of comments and reviews to give aspiring users more opinions to work with. Here’s what other Autohost users think about the platform:

• Sarah K. enthusiastically shared: “We use it and love how easy they make everything! It's tied right into our PMS and the rental agreement is very robust! We've had no issues with their AI....the automation and guest portal has worked perfect every time.”
• Meshulum O. claims this: “Incredible background screening tool for our str management company (hyatus)”

Most comments have claimed that they have had a great experience with using Autohost and enjoy their AI and automation process. However, there were also some that say it can be hard to convince guests to get on board with using the guest portal. But, as a whole, most hosts and property managers seem to be satisfied with Autohost for their rentals.

Final Thoughts

Autohost fills the void in an industry that doesn’t feature too many platforms offering identity verification and guest screening procedures. It performs well and does everything it claims to a high degree, making it a worthy choice for hosts and property managers who need it. However, that’s the thing, not too many people have the need for it. Yes, it provides extra protection for your rentals, but if you’re only running a handful of rentals, do you really need the extra background checks cutting into your profits? We also aren’t a fan of how they don’t publicly display their prices, since it can make financial planning a bit harder, especially if you’re just starting to consider using the platform. Overall, we still think that Autohost has a place in the short-term rental industry.

If you’re considering starting out your own Airbnb rental or just looking for a new addition to your portfolio, we suggest checking out our BNBCalc property analysis tool to give you an insight into properties on your radar. It can help you make data-driven decisions, based on what active rentals are already earning, allowing you to get an idea of not only revenue but also expenses, and paint a fuller picture of your potential investment.