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Success story

150 message templates down to 20

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RESULTS
87%
reduction in templates
0
duplicate guest messages
45
minutes saved onboarding a new property
150 message templates down to 20

AlohaHosting

William Zhong is the co-founder of AlohaHosting, a full-service STR property management that also offers in-house cleaning, and maintenance teams. AlohaHosting excels through the efficiency gains of streamlined processes and clever tech use.

Company snapshot

Location: Liverpool, UKNumber of listings: 40Using Hostfully since: 2021Favorite features: Triggers and templates, ability to push new listing to multiple sites at once, dynamic fields instead of static templates.

“Thanks to Hostfully's Custom Fields, onboarding new properties and maintaining existing ones becomes more efficient with a single centralized dynamic template. It eliminates the need to create duplicate templates.”

William Zhong, 
AlohaHosting

In this story

Before

  • 150 templates for 40 properties
  • Mulitple hours to make any global change
  • Slow onboarding for new properties

After

  • 20 templates
  • Dynamic automations
  • Global changes to templates in minutes
  • 45 minutes saved per new property onboarded
Talk to sales

Before

AlohaHosting, like many property management companies, initially adopted an entry-level PMS when holding a few properties. According to William, "The basic functionality was everything I needed at the time; it handled the calendar and sent out basic templates."

However, as William expanded his portfolio of listings, he encountered limitations. "The occasional bugs I could overlook, but guest communication became a big issue," he explains. Due to the PMS's lack of advanced features, triggers were only based on days before check-in, with no other conditions available. Moreover, each listing required its own unique set of templates and triggers. "Onboarding a new property meant creating three or four templates, and if something affected all the properties like a parking or noise bylaw set by the city, I had to change 150+ templates manually" William adds.

Eventually, William transitioned AlohaHosting's operations to Hostfully after discovering it had all the functionality of an advanced PMS for a similar price as an entry-level one.

After

After completing onboarding, William delved into Hostfully’s triggers and templates feature. As a software developer, he quickly grasped the power of Hostfully’s custom fields for templates. According to him, "I can create a custom field that applies to the listings, which can be anything from detailed check-in instructions to the PIN code for a door, and even parking instructions." William can then insert these custom fields into a central template, pulling the data from the custom field when the time comes to send out that message. By using custom fields, William was able to cut down his templates from 150 to a mere 20.

Custom fields example for pre-arrival check-in

Template
Dear {guest_name}, 

In anticipation of your stay at {property_name}, here are a few extra details that aren’t in the listing: 

  • {custom_field_parking}
  • {custom_field_lockbox_or_PIN}
Examples of what guests receive
Dear Ash, 

In anticipation of your stay at the Kempstone Estate, here are a few extra details that aren’t in the listing: 

  • There is one parking spot marked ‘Aloha’ on the lot
  • The PIN code for the gate is 1234 and 4321 for the door
*the template above was simplified to facilitate reading
Examples of what guests receive
Dear Jane, 

In anticipation of your stay at your downtown flat, here are a few extra details that aren’t in the listing: 

  • You can find public parking on Dale Street
  • The lockbox combination is 1234 and it  is located under the address sign.
*the template above was simplified to facilitate reading
Examples of what guests receive
Dear John, 

In anticipation of your stay at the Blacksmith’s Cottage, here are a few extra details that aren’t in the listing: 

  • There are two parking spots on the property
  • The key is under the doormat
*the template above was simplified to facilitate reading
Template
Dear {guest_name}, 

In anticipation of your stay at {property_name}, here are a few extra details that aren’t in the listing: 

  • {custom_field_parking}
  • {custom_field_lockbox_or_PIN}
Examples of what guests receive
Dear Ash, 

In anticipation of your stay at the Kempstone Estate, here are a few extra details that aren’t in the listing: 

  • There is one parking spot marked ‘Aloha’ on the lot
  • The PIN code for the gate is 1234 and 4321 for the door
 Dear Jane, 

In anticipation of your stay at your downtown flat, here are a few extra details that aren’t in the listing: 

  • You can find public parking on Dale Street
  • The lockbox combination is 1234 and it is located under the address sign.
 Dear John, 

In anticipation of your stay at the Blacksmith’s Cottage,
here are a few extra details that aren’t in the listing: 

  • There are two parking spots on the property
  • The key is under the doormat
*the template above was simplified to facilitate reading

This small nuance in templates and triggers meant significantly less headaches for William. "Custom fields save me so much time. If I ever want to change my central template, it doesn’t take me hours like it used to," he adds.

Does William’s duplicate template challenge sound familiar? Let’s talk.

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Bonus

Another big gain for AlohaHosting appeared during new property onboarding. Before Hostfully, each new AlohaHosting listing required creating three to four guest message templates redesigned from scratch. At a conservative 15 minutes per template to create and verify, this totaled 52 minutes per property. But with Hostfully, centralized templates and dynamic custom fields allow new listings to inherit existing message logic, reducing onboarding work to primarily filling in listing specific fields like parking or access details. This reduces setup time to roughly 7.5 minutes per property, resulting in a net savings of 45 minutes per new property onboarded.