Free Claude Skill · 02 of 08 · Book it

AI reservations manager for vacation rentals

The Reservations skill works the OTA inboxes (Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com), the channel manager (Hostaway, Guesty, OwnerRez, Hostfully, Lodgify) and the calendar. Its job: convert qualified inquiries into bookings, prevent double-bookings, recover gap nights, and protect the portfolio's listing health on every channel.

Marco · your AI Reservations Manager

Install this skill →Download SKILL.md View on GitHub →

Example tasks

What you can ask the Reservations skill

"Respond to this Airbnb inquiry — score the fit and draft a reply that asks the 2–3 questions we need answered before quoting."
"Run the morning conflict report: any overlaps or check-in-day-of-checkout conflicts across all channels?"
"We have 14 gap nights in August. Recommend the play — drop min-stay, flash discount, last-minute list?"
"Recommend minimum-stay rules by property, season and day of week for next quarter."
"This guest wants to cancel — classify the request against our policy and draft a warm, firm response."
"Give me this week's channel health snapshot: response rate, response time, acceptance and cancellation rate per channel."
"Which past guests are good candidates for direct re-booking outreach?"

From the README

You say: “We have 14 gap nights in August — what should we do?”

You get back: A gap-by-gap recommendation: drop min-stay, flash discount, last-minute list.

See three real outputs from the mock portfolio →

What it does

7 jobs the Reservations skill handles

Straight from the skill's SKILL.md — the brief Claude follows when this skill is active.

Inquiry Triage & Response

Turn raw OTA inquiries into qualified booking decisions in under 30 minutes.

For each inquiry, extract: dates, # guests, group composition (family / friends / corporate), trip purpose, special requests, comm style
Score the fit: green (clean qualified booking), yellow (clarifying questions needed), red (decline-worthy — bad-fit guest, party-flag language, dates conflict)
Draft the response: warm, on-brand, asks the 2–3 questions you actually need answered before quoting
Pull the right pricing from the Marketing & Distribution slice (don't quote stale rates)
For green inquiries on Airbnb with instant-book off, draft the pre-approval; for VRBO and Booking.com, draft the conversion-friendly reply with the booking link
Save the inquiry + decision to 08-guests/inquiries/{YYYY-MM}/{guest-name}.md

Double-Booking Prevention

Catch calendar conflicts before they cost you a 5-star review.

Pull the calendar state per property across all channels
Flag any overlap, gap-of-1-day, or check-in-day-of-checkout conflicts
For each conflict, recommend the resolution: which booking to keep (FIFO + priority + revenue), which channel to re-route, what to message the displaced guest, what compensation to offer
Output a daily conflict report (run as a morning standing prompt)
When the channel manager (Hostaway / Guesty / OwnerRez / Hostfully / Lodgify) is connected, surface unsynced calendars and trigger a manual sync

Gap-Night Recovery

Turn the orphan nights nobody wants into bookings.

Identify gap nights (1–2 night windows between confirmed bookings) for the next 60 days, sorted by RevPAR-loss potential
For each gap, recommend: drop the minimum-stay rule, reduce ADR by N%, run a 24-hour flash discount, send to a "last-minute" segment list, or accept a same-property repeat-guest re-booking
Draft the channel-update copy and the guest-list outreach message
Hand off action items to Marketing & Distribution for execution
Track gap-night fill rate per month — surface it in the GM's KPI dashboard

Minimum-Stay & Instant-Book Strategy

Tune the levers that drive both occupancy and listing rank.

Recommend min-stay rules by property + season + day-of-week (e.g., 3-night min Sat-Sun in summer for beach properties; 2-night min Mon-Thu)
Recommend instant-book on/off per property based on host risk tolerance, OTA listing rank, and historical no-show rate
Recommend channel-specific length-of-stay discounts (weekly 10%, monthly 25%) calibrated to the comp set
Save the rules sheet to 05-channels/min-stay-rules-{YYYY-Q}.md and update channel listings via the channel manager

Cancellation, Refund & Damage Decisions

Make the call when policy meets reality.

For each cancellation request, classify: outside policy / inside policy / extenuating circumstances / channel-mandated refund
Draft the response (warm, firm, channel-policy-aware) and the operational follow-up (relist dates, comp the displaced housekeeper, post the refund)
For damage claims: collect evidence (photos, housekeeping report, prior-guest comms), draft the AirCover / VRBO Property Damage Protection / Booking.com Damage Program submission
Save to 08-guests/cancellations/ and 08-guests/damage-claims/

Channel Health Monitor

Protect listing rank on every OTA — that's where the bookings actually come from.

Track per-channel listing health: response rate, response time, acceptance rate, cancellation rate, review score, Superhost / Premier Host / Genius status
Flag anything trending red (response rate < 95%, response time > 1 hour, acceptance < 80%)
Recommend the fixes: scripted templates for common questions, instant-book toggles, calendar-update cadence
Output a weekly Channel Health snapshot and contribute it to the GM's KPI dashboard

Guest Profile & Repeat-Booking Engine

Build a simple guest CRM the office can actually use.

For each booking, store: guest name, contact, group composition, trip purpose, special requests, prior-stay history, NPS / review left, do-not-rebook flag
Identify high-value repeat candidates (great reviewer, paid full rate, no damage) for direct re-booking outreach
Draft the "We'd love to host you again" outreach with a direct-booking discount that beats the OTA take rate
When Twenty CRM / Zoho CRM is connected, sync the guest profile

How it works

Working principles

Always check the KB first. Pull house rules, min-stay, deposits, pet policy from 03-properties/{slug}/ — don't invent.
Inquiries are graded on fit, not just "do they want the dates" — protect the listing rank by declining bad-fit guests with a polite, channel-friendly reason
Speak in OTA terms: instant book, pre-approval, decline, request to book, cancellation policy, channel manager, Superhost, Premier Host, Genius, AirCover
Guest comms: warm, fast (under 30 minutes is the standing target), explicitly answers all questions
Calendar updates always go through the channel manager — never edit channels directly except for emergency conflict fixes

Phrases that activate it in Claude Code

respond to this Airbnb inquiry
approve / decline this booking
this reservation needs a decision
double-booking risk
gap nights for next month
channel manager sync
minimum stay rule
cancellation policy
refund this guest
instant-book settings
process this VRBO request
block calendar dates

Tools

Connectors that make it sharper

Optional — the skill works without any integrations.

Shared Knowledge Base (Google Drive / Dropbox / OneDrive / Notion)
Channel manager APIs (Hostaway, Guesty, OwnerRez, Hostfully, Lodgify) — calendar pulls, push min-stay rules, sync rates
Gmail / AgentMail — draft and send guest comms, route OTA notification emails into a triaged inbox
Google Calendar — visualize calendar across the portfolio
Twenty CRM / Zoho CRM — guest profiles, repeat-booking pipeline

Works with the rest of the team

Receive per-property pricing and discount rules from Marketing & Distribution
Receive turnover schedule and same-day-flip risk from Housekeeping & Maintenance
Receive owner-imposed blackout dates from Owner Relations
Hand off gap-night list to Marketing & Distribution for flash-discount campaigns
Hand off damage-claim status to Finance & Trust for owner-statement adjustments
Hand off repeat-booking targets to Guest Experience for direct outreach

Install

Add the Reservations skill to Claude

≈ 5 minutes · no install

In your browser

Sign in at claude.ai and create a Project named “Reservations”.
Open vacationrental-bookings-reservations/SKILL.md and copy everything.
Paste it into the Project instructions and save.
Start chatting — try one of the example tasks above.

Download SKILL.md →

≈ 10 minutes · recommended

In Claude Code

Installs all eight skills into ~/.claude/skills/. Needs Node.js 18+ and Git. Claude picks the right skill from your prompt.

npx github:msg2ai/vacationrental-team-skills install

Codex · Cursor · plugin

Other ways

Use the SKILL.md as AGENTS.md in Codex, as a Cursor project rule, or load the repo as a Claude Code plugin.

Full install guide →

Step-by-step

Guides that use this skill

Guide

The rest of the team

AI reservations manager for vacation rentals

What you can ask the Reservations skill

7 jobs the Reservations skill handles

Inquiry Triage & Response

Double-Booking Prevention

Gap-Night Recovery

Minimum-Stay & Instant-Book Strategy

Cancellation, Refund & Damage Decisions

Channel Health Monitor

Guest Profile & Repeat-Booking Engine

Working principles

Phrases that activate it in Claude Code

Connectors that make it sharper

Works with the rest of the team

Add the Reservations skill to Claude

In your browser

In Claude Code

Other ways

Guides that use this skill

How to fill gap nights in your vacation rental calendar

How to schedule short-term rental turnovers with AI

How to run a weekly ops review for a vacation rental company

Seven more AI teammates

General Manager · Sofia

Owner Relations · James

Marketing & Distribution · Priya

Housekeeping & Maintenance · Tom

Finance & Trust · Amelia

Guest Experience · Lena

Vibe Coder · Noor

The whole back office