Choosing a Task Assignee

When you create a task, you can decide right away who's going to do it. The task creation form includes an Assignee field, so a job lands with the right person from the moment it exists — no second step needed.

For some properties, Vanio automatically routes tasks to a dedicated team member the moment a task is created — before any other assignment logic runs. When that's set up for your property, assignment happens instantly and the person is notified in the app.

How it works

Create a task from the command palette as usual. The Assignee field defaults to you — the person creating the task — which fits the most common case: jotting down something you're going to handle yourself.

You can change it to any of the following:

• A team member — pick anyone on your team. The task is assigned to them directly when it's created.
• Auto-assign — let Vanio AI pick the right person based on your property assignments. This is the same smart routing that handles automatically created tasks, and it was the previous default behavior for tasks created from the form.
• Unassigned — create the task with no owner yet, and assign it later from the task board.

When to use each option

• Yourself (the default) — quick personal to-dos and jobs you'll handle on your next visit.
• A specific team member — when you already know who should do it: your maintenance tech for a repair, a specific cleaner for a particular property.
• Auto-assign — when you want the job done but don't want to think about routing. Vanio AI looks at who's assigned to the property and picks accordingly.
• Unassigned — when the work is known but the staffing isn't, e.g. planning next week's jobs before the schedule is set.

The assignee picker

When you open the assignee dropdown, the list is organized to help you find the right person as quickly as possible.

Staff, service providers, and admins appear at the top, grouped by role — these are the people you assign tasks to most often, so they're always the first thing you see.

Property owners do not appear in the task assignee picker. Because property owners manage units rather than perform tasks, they are not available for task assignment — they won't appear in the default list, and searching for their name will not surface them either. The picker is scoped to the people who actually carry out work: staff, service providers, and admins.

• If a person holds both an owner role and an admin role, they will appear in the picker and can be assigned tasks as normal — the restriction applies only to accounts whose sole role is property owner.
• Staff, admins, and service providers are unaffected and always visible.

Note: Other places in Vanio where you pick a user — such as @-mentions or non-task assignment dropdowns — still allow you to search for and select property owners. The full exclusion described above applies only to the task assignee picker.

[Screenshot: Assignment dropdown showing staff and service providers grouped at the top, with no owners visible]

Property-level routing

Some properties are configured to send all tasks — or tasks of a specific type, such as maintenance or cleaning — directly to a dedicated internal team member, like a concierge. When this is set up for a property:

• Assignment is automatic and immediate. As soon as a task is created for that property, it goes straight to the designated person — no scoring, no selection, no waiting.
• They're notified in the app. The assigned team member sees the task appear in their in-app inbox right away. There's no text message or external notification involved.
• This takes priority over everything else. Property-level routing runs before Auto-assign and before any other assignment method. If a routing rule is in place for your property, it will always be used first.
• Your guests are still kept in the loop. Vanio handles guest communication separately, so the experience on their end is unaffected.

You don't need to do anything to trigger this — it works automatically whenever a matching task is created. If you're not sure whether a property has dedicated routing set up, contact your Vanio account team.

[Screenshot: Task detail view showing an automatically assigned task with the assignee's name and an "Assigned" status badge]

Frequently asked questions

What was the behavior before this field existed? Tasks created from the form were auto-assigned — Vanio AI picked a person based on property assignments. That behavior is still available as the Auto-assign option; the default is now the person creating the task.

Can I change the assignee after the task is created? Yes. Assignment at creation is just a head start — you can reassign any task afterwards like you always could. See Task Management.

Why don't I see property owners in the task assignee picker? Property owners manage units — they don't perform tasks — so they are not available as task assignees. They won't appear in the list or in search results within the task assignee picker. If you need to involve an owner in task work, consider assigning the task to an admin or staff member who coordinates with them. Note that if someone holds both an owner role and an admin role on your account, they will appear in the picker and can be assigned tasks normally.

I can find an owner by searching in other parts of Vanio but not when assigning a task — is that a bug? No, that's intentional. Some other user pickers in Vanio — such as @-mentions — let you search for and find property owners. The task assignee picker is the exception: it fully excludes owner-only accounts because they are not the intended recipients of task work. If you're assigning a task, the picker will only show people who can action it.

Does this work for recurring tasks? Yes — each occurrence of a recurring task is a normal task, so it follows your usual assignment setup. This includes property-level routing: if a property routes tasks to a dedicated team member, every recurring task for that property will be assigned to them automatically. See Recurring Tasks.

If a property has dedicated routing, will the assignee receive a text message? No. When a task is routed to an internal team member this way, they're notified through their Vanio inbox only — no SMS is sent. This keeps communication in one place and speeds up response times.

Related

• Task Management — the full picture of how tasks work
• Recurring Tasks — set a task to repeat on a schedule