Website

Make the site

1. 1Open Website and press "Make my site".
2. 2Pick which homes go on it ("Every home (n)" or "Only some"), then "Pick a look": "Country house", "City", "Collection", "Nature" or "Coast", and "Colours".
3. 3"Tell us about your site" in your own words: who you are, the area, the feel, what to show off or leave out. Everything written for the site follows it.
4. 4Press "Make my site". A minute or so later the editor opens. Nothing goes live until you publish.

Edit on the page

1. 1Press "Edit the site". You see the site as a guest does. Click any heading or paragraph and type.
2. 2Each section has a toolbar: "Move up", "Move down", "Change the photo", "Rewrite" ("Shorter", "Warmer", "Write it again"), "Hide from guests". "Add a section" offers "From your homes", "In your words" and "Make your own".
3. 3The top bar switches between the front page and each home's page, laptop and phone, "Your note", and "Look" ("Template", "Type", "Colours"). On a live site a save reads "Saved: the live site shows it now".

Publish

Press "Publish" on Website or in the editor once every home on the site has its words, at least 5 photos, its guests and bedrooms, and a night to book with a price in the next 90 days, and the site a name and a contact email; "Before it goes live" lists what is left. The site lives at name.hostomat.homes, an address that stays once live. "Take the site down" unpublishes it.

Requests and questions

A guest's "Ask a question" or "Request to book" lands in Messages as a website conversation. The guest gets an email with a private link to it and can reply by email. Without payments, answer by message, add the stay on the calendar once you agree, and press "Mark handled"; "Can't host them" tells the guest and closes it.

Payments with your own Stripe

1. 1An admin opens Settings, then "Payments", and presses "Connect with Stripe". Stripe's page opens: log in or open a Stripe there. Back in Hostomat it reads "Payments are on" once Stripe is ready and "Legal name" and "Address" are in. Guests' money goes to your Stripe and Hostomat takes no cut.
2. 2On Website, "Payments" tab, pick the "Cancellation" rule: "Flexible" (full refund up to 1 day before check-in), "Moderate" (5 days) or "Firm" (30 days). Guests see it with its date before paying: "Full refund if you cancel by date. After that, no refund."
3. 3Under "Taxes", set a percent per home from 0 to 50, added as its own line.
4. 4Guests then see "Book now" beside "Request to book": they pay on Stripe's page, the booking is saved, its nights close on every channel, and the money is taken. Nothing is held while they pay: a night taken meanwhile lets their card go at no cost.
5. 5On a website request, "Accept" then "Send the payment link" sends the total, good for 24 hours; the nights stay open until the guest pays. "Withdraw the link" ends it.
6. 6"Disconnect" ends every open link first, then the connection.

Refunds

On a booking paid on the site, "Cancel this booking" asks who is cancelling. "guest asked to cancel" refunds in full up to the rule's date and nothing after; "We have to cancel" refunds in full. The refund is shown before you confirm. Stripe's fee doesn't come back on a refund, and the statement says so.

Your own domain

1. 1On Website, in the site's details (the pencil), press "Use your own domain", type it and press "Add".
2. 2Where you bought the domain, set the records shown: an A record for a bare domain or a CNAME for a name in front of it, and a TXT record that proves the domain is yours. Press "Check now".
3. 3Until the records are right the site stays at its hostomat.homes address and the dialog says what is missing; Hostomat checks every 10 minutes for a week. Once live, the old address sends guests there. "Remove" takes it off.

Reviews from direct stays

The day after a stay paid on the site ends, the guest is emailed once: "How was home?". Their review shows at once; the "Reviews" tab lets you "Hide" it with a reason (never for its stars or for being critical) or "Show" it again. "Add a review" adds one a guest gave you, with their yes ticked. Airbnb's and Booking.com's reviews never show on the site: their rules forbid it.

A site for an owner

Press "Site for an owner" and pick the owner: the site holds only their homes, and guests pay into the owner's own Stripe, which they connect from their own Settings. Until then it takes requests only.

What Hostomat does by itself

• The site follows the listing: photos, rooms and beds, amenities, house rules, check-in times and calendar prices change with it. Its own words stay its own.
• A stay gets one discount, as on Airbnb: the home's length-of-stay, early-bird or last-minute one.
• Website bookings show on Bookings, the calendar, Analytics and the owner's statement, and get their automatic messages by email.
• The "Homes on it" tab warns when a home is cheaper on the site than on Booking.com, with your markup on top: in some places Booking.com's rules forbid that.
• While Hostomat is read-only, the site is offline.

If it didn’t work

Publish is refused.

Read the list "Before it goes live": each line names the home and what is missing (words, 5 photos, guests and bedrooms, a bookable night, the site's name or email), with where to fix it or "Leave it off the site".

"Book now" isn't on the site.

Payments aren't on. In Settings, "Payments", a "Not yet" card says what is missing: what Stripe still needs ("Finish on Stripe"), or your "Legal name" and "Address". An owner's site needs their own Stripe.

The domain won't go live.

Press "Check now" after setting the records exactly as shown, the TXT record included. After a week Hostomat stops checking until you press it again.

A guest paid but there is no booking.

Their card was only held until the booking was saved. If the nights were taken meanwhile, or the bank said no, the hold was let go at no cost and the guest told. Their landing page says what happened.