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
• 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
• 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
• 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.

Personalizing Messages

Automation messages can pull dynamic info from the booking:

• Guest's first name
• Property name
• Check-in date and time
• Door code
• WiFi password
• Address

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

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

Handy when you're debugging: "Why didn't my welcome message go out?"

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.

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.