Automations

What Automations Does

Automations let you set rules that fire automatically when something happens. For example: "When a guest books, send them a welcome message in 10 minutes." You build the rule once, and it runs forever for every reservation that matches.

The AI handles the smart parts — what to say, what to decide — while automations handle the timing and triggers. Together they keep your operation running without you having to watch it.

How an Automation Works

Every automation has two halves:

• Trigger — when it fires (a guest books, a guest checks in, a task completes, a noise sensor alerts, and so on)
• Action — what it does (send a message, create a task, generate a code, post to Slack, and so on)

You can stack actions: one trigger can do several things in sequence. A single "guest checked in" trigger can send a welcome message, set the thermostat, and create a mid-stay check-in task all at once.

Common Triggers

• New booking
• Booking confirmed
• Days before check-in (1, 3, 7, etc.)
• Check-in day
• Mid-stay
• Day before checkout
• Checkout day
• Booking cancelled
• Booking modified
• Reservation moved — when you transfer a guest between properties
• Guest sent a message
• Task created or completed
• Payment received or failed
• Inquiry from a guest
• Negative review
• Noise sensor triggered
• Lock battery low

Common Actions

• Send a message on whichever channel the guest uses — Airbnb, Booking.com, SMS, WhatsApp, or email
• Create a task for your team
• Generate or revoke a door code
• Create signature portal access — guest check-in portal with keyless entry for your entire stay
• Set the thermostat
• Post to Slack
• Send an email to the host
• Add to Asana
• Send a webhook to another tool
• Pre-approve an inquiry
• Trigger a workflow (a multi-step procedure)

Pre-Built Templates

Vanio ships with ready-made automations you can turn on with one click:

• Welcome message — sent right after booking
• Check-in instructions — sent the day before arrival, with door code and parking
• Signature portal setup — creates keyless entry access for the guest's full stay
• Mid-stay check-in — "How's your stay going?"
• Review reminder — sent after checkout
• Cleaning auto-dispatch — creates a cleaning task the moment a guest checks out
• Thermostat schedule — cool down before the guest arrives, eco mode when empty
• Noise warning — polite message when a sensor crosses the threshold

Edit any template to match your voice and brand.

Conditions and Filters

Automations can be scoped to specific properties or situations:

• "Only for my luxury listings"
• "Only Airbnb bookings"
• "Only guests staying 5+ nights"
• "Only after 6pm"
• "Only between June and September"

This lets you build different welcome flows for different listing types without duplicating rules.

Platform Matching

When setting up platform filters (like "Only Airbnb bookings"), Vanio automatically handles different capitalizations. Whether your booking comes in as "Airbnb", "airbnb", or "AIRBNB", the filter will work correctly. This ensures your automations run consistently across all your listings, regardless of how platform names are formatted in different integrations.

Owner bookings through all integration methods now work correctly. Previously, owner bookings that came through certain integration pathways wouldn't trigger automations with platform filters set to "owner". This has been completely fixed — your owner-specific automations (like inspection reminders, special welcome messages, or custom task creation) will now fire reliably for all owner reservations, regardless of which integration method handled the booking.

This fix ensures that if you've set up automations specifically for your own stays — whether they're personal visits, maintenance blocks, or family bookings — they'll trigger exactly as expected.

Personalizing Messages

Automation messages can pull dynamic info from the booking:

• Guest's first name
• Property name
• Check-in date and time
• Length of stay (number of nights)
• Door code
• WiFi password
• Address
• Custom variables — your own personalized fields like loyalty status, special requests, or property-specific instructions

You write the message once with placeholders, and Vanio fills them in for each guest.

Custom variables now work reliably in all automation messages. Whether you're setting up new automations or running catch-up tasks for missed events, your custom placeholders (like {{custom.loyalty_tier}} or {{custom.special_instructions}}) will properly populate with their values instead of appearing blank in messages.

Smart Language for Different Rental Types

Messages automatically use the right language for what you're renting. When you manage both properties and vehicles (or bikes, equipment, etc.), your confirmation and reminder emails automatically switch between property language ("your stay", "check-in", "checkout") and rental language ("your rental", "pickup", "dropoff") based on what the guest booked.

Your email templates work for both. The same template handles property stays and vehicle rentals correctly:

• "Your stay at Mountain Cabin starts tomorrow" vs "Your rental of the 2024 Tesla Model Y starts tomorrow"
• "Check-in details" vs "Pickup details"
• "Before checkout" vs "Before dropoff"
• Custom reminders for vehicle rentals include inspection photo requirements automatically

This means you can use one set of automations across your entire portfolio without worrying about sending confusing language to guests.

Reliable Message Delivery

Welcome messages and other automated messages are now more reliable. Vanio has improved the internal system that schedules messages, ensuring they consistently reach your guests on their reservation dates. This fix prevents important arrival information and other automated communications from being accidentally skipped.

SMS delivery to US guests is now more robust. Previously, guests who entered their phone number without a country code (like "6505551234") would sometimes not receive their welcome messages. This has been fixed — the system now properly formats US phone numbers and validates them before sending, ensuring your welcome texts reach guests regardless of how they format their phone number during booking.

Every message sent through automations is tracked in your automation logs, so you can verify that guests received their welcome messages, check-in instructions, and other important communications.

Reliable Calendar and Data Display

Vanio's calendar displays your reservations and automation information reliably. Even if there are temporary issues loading some automation data (like upcoming actions), your calendar will still appear with all available reservation information. Any missing automation details load separately in the background, so you can always access your main calendar view and property information without delays.

Robust Date Change Handling

When you modify a reservation's check-in or check-out dates, workflow tasks automatically reschedule to match the new dates:

• Tasks stay aligned — cleaning reminders, welcome messages, and door code generation adjust to your new timeline
• No missed actions — automations that were scheduled for specific dates relative to check-in automatically move to the correct new dates
• Seamless updates — works whether you change dates through the booking platform, your internal tools, or guest requests

This ensures your automation timeline stays perfectly coordinated with your guest's actual stay, without requiring you to manually reschedule every affected task.

Robust Reservation Move Handling

When you move a guest between properties, automations automatically adapt to maintain a seamless guest experience:

• Door access updates instantly — signature portal access adjusts to the new property for the guest's full stay length
• No service interruptions — guests never lose access mid-stay due to property transfers
• Accurate stay calculations — automations use the correct number of nights even after moves

The system includes multiple layers of verification to ensure guests always have the right access for their entire reservation, regardless of property changes.

Enhanced Smart Lock Integration

Door lock access codes are now completely reliable, even when booking platform webhooks fire multiple times. Previously, if a booking confirmation event triggered multiple times (which can happen with platform glitches), you might end up with several different door codes created for the same guest reservation. This has been fixed:

• One code per reservation — the automation system now detects and prevents duplicate door code creation, ensuring each guest gets exactly one access code
• Smart deduplication — if an automation attempts to create a door code that already exists, it safely skips the duplicate instead of creating confusion
• Timeline accuracy — door code creation events now always appear correctly in your property dashboard timeline, even after webhook re-fires

This applies to all smart lock integrations — whether you're using Seam-compatible locks or other smart lock platforms, the deduplication system ensures clean, predictable door code management for your guests.

Enhanced Reservation Updates and Cancellations

Vanio now automatically handles task management when reservations are updated or cancelled, even if you haven't set up specific automation rules for these events:

• Automatic task cleanup — when a reservation is cancelled, related tasks are automatically cancelled to prevent unnecessary work
• Smart task updates — when reservation details change (dates, guest count, etc.), existing tasks are updated to reflect the new information
• No missed actions — these core behaviors work even if you don't have explicit "reservation cancelled" or "reservation updated" automations configured

This ensures your team's task list stays accurate and up-to-date without requiring manual cleanup after booking changes.

Workflow-Level Property Scope

When building automations in the workflow editor, you can set which properties an entire workflow applies to at the workflow level. This makes it easier to manage complex automations that should only run for specific property groups:

• Set once, apply everywhere — configure property scope at the workflow level instead of on each individual trigger
• Dynamic property groups — use property groups that automatically include new listings as you add them
• Consistent behavior — all triggers and actions in the workflow respect the same property scope

This is especially useful for property-specific welcome sequences or cleaning protocols that involve multiple steps.

Improved Task Creation from Checklist Templates

Checklist templates now apply all their settings when creating automation tasks. When your workflow uses a checklist template to create tasks, advanced template features like smart room-based generation now work correctly:

• Smart room generation — if your template is set to automatically create separate tasks for each room (bedroom cleaning, bathroom cleaning, etc.), this now works properly in automation-created tasks
• Template inheritance — when your checklist template extends another template with custom overrides, automations now correctly merge the parent template with your customizations
• Consistent behavior — automation-created tasks match exactly what you'd see if you manually created a task using the same template

This applies to both scheduled automations and catch-up tasks — whether the task is created on schedule or generated later to catch up on missed events.

Automation Logs

Every time an automation fires, it shows up in the log. You can see:

• Which automation ran
• When it ran
• What it did — which message was sent, which task was created, which code was generated
• If it failed and why — including detailed error messages for troubleshooting
• Skipped actions — when an automation was skipped due to filters or conditions, with the specific reason

Handy when you're debugging: "Why didn't my welcome message go out?" or "Did the door access update after I moved that reservation?"

Improved skip logging for platform filters. The automation logs now show clearer information when automations are skipped due to platform mismatches. Instead of generic messages, you'll see specific details like "Platform 'airbnb' not in filter [owner]" which makes it easier to understand why your owner-specific automations didn't run for Airbnb bookings, or vice versa.

Catch-Up for Missed Events

If an event happens during a rare outage, Vanio replays the missed events when it comes back online. You don't lose automations because of a temporary hiccup.

"Apply to upcoming reservations" now respects platform filters. When you use the catch-up feature to apply automations to existing reservations, the system now properly considers your workflow's platform filters. This means if you have an automation set to "Only owner bookings" and run catch-up, it will only create tasks for your actual owner reservations instead of trying to apply them to all upcoming bookings regardless of platform.

Automations vs. AI Skills

• Automations are trigger-action rules — deterministic, predictable, you control exactly what happens.
• AI Skills are step-by-step playbooks the AI follows for specific situations — the AI improvises within guardrails you set.

Use automations for routine messaging and operations. Use AI Skills when something needs reasoning, like "check the cleaning status, then decide if early check-in is okay."

Setting Up Your First Automation

1. Go to Workflows → Automations
2. Click New Automation
3. Pick a trigger
4. Pick one or more actions
5. Add conditions if you want it to fire only in specific situations
6. Test it — preview the message and simulate a trigger
7. Turn it on

Most users start with the welcome message template and build from there.

Common Questions

Will guests get a flood of messages? No. Automations include built-in suppression so the same message won't fire twice for the same booking.

Can I pause an automation temporarily? Yes. Toggle it off and on without losing the configuration.

What if I edit the message after a guest already received the old version? New guests get the updated version. Past sends are not changed.

What happens if I change a guest's check-in or check-out dates? Workflow tasks automatically reschedule to match the new dates. Your entire automation timeline adjusts so everything stays perfectly coordinated with the guest's actual stay.

What happens if I move a guest to a different property? Automations automatically update to match the new property details. Door access, messaging, and tasks all adapt to ensure no service interruption for your guest.

Why did my automation get skipped? Check the automation logs for the specific reason. Common causes include platform filters (the booking came from a different platform than your filter allows), property scope (the automation only applies to certain properties), or conditions that weren't met (like minimum stay length). Recent improvements make these skip reasons more visible in the logs to help with troubleshooting.

My guest says they didn't receive their welcome text — what happened? Check the automation logs first to see if the message was sent successfully. If you see an error about invalid phone numbers, it's likely resolved now — recent improvements fixed issues where US phone numbers entered without country codes (like "6505551234") weren't being formatted properly for SMS delivery.

My owner booking automations stopped working — what's going on? This issue has been completely fixed. Owner bookings that come through any integration method now properly trigger automations with platform filters set to "owner". If you were missing inspection reminders or other owner-specific automations, they should resume working normally. The fix ensures that your personal stays, maintenance blocks, and family bookings all trigger the appropriate automations.

Will my vehicle rental guests get confusing property language in their emails? No. Your email templates automatically detect what type of reservation it is and switch the language accordingly. Vehicle renters get "pickup" and "dropoff" language, while property guests get "check-in" and "check-out" language. You don't need separate templates — one template works correctly for both.

Do I need different automations for my vehicles vs my properties? Not necessarily. The same automation templates work for both, automatically adapting their language based on what the guest booked. However, you might want different conditions or timing — for example, vehicle rentals might need pickup photo reminders that properties don't need.

My custom variables aren't showing up in automation messages — why are they blank? This issue has been fixed. Custom variables like {{custom.loyalty_tier}} or {{custom.special_instructions}} now populate correctly in all automation messages, including catch-up tasks for missed events. If you're still seeing blank placeholders, check that the custom variable is properly set up for your account and has a value for the specific reservation.

My checklist template settings aren't working in automation-created tasks — what's wrong? This has been resolved. When your workflow creates tasks using a checklist template, all template settings (like smart room-based generation and template inheritance) now apply correctly. Automation-created tasks should behave exactly the same as manually created tasks using the same template.

Why did my guest get multiple door codes for the same stay? This issue has been fixed. Previously, if a booking platform sent duplicate confirmation events (which can happen during platform glitches), your door lock automation might create several different access codes for the same reservation. The system now detects and prevents these duplicates, ensuring each guest gets exactly one door code that works for their entire stay.

I see duplicate door code events in my timeline — is this normal? No, this was a bug that has been resolved. Timeline events for door code creation now appear correctly and only once per reservation, even if there are temporary platform issues. If you're still seeing timeline inconsistencies for recent reservations, check your automation logs for any error details.

I used "Apply to upcoming reservations" but it created tasks for the wrong bookings — why? This issue has been fixed. The catch-up feature now properly respects your workflow's platform filters, so if you have an automation set to "Only owner bookings," it will only apply to actual owner reservations instead of all upcoming bookings. The same applies to any other platform filters you've configured.