Add direct and owner stays, and see every unit's calendar

Type in a stay booked with you or an owner's own stay, see every short-term unit on one calendar, and catch double bookings and short gaps.

Updated 2026-10-25

Most stays reach Rentals from a listing's calendar link, or from Hostaway or Guesty once connected. A guest who books with you directly, or an owner staying in their own home, can be typed in by hand. Those stays get the same turnover cleaning as any other.

Add a stay by hand

1. Open Rentals and choose the Stays tab.
2. Press Add stay.
3. Pick the unit, then Direct booking or Owner stay.
4. Pick check-in and checkout. Add a note if you like, such as "Repeat guest, booked by phone".
5. For a direct booking you can record the price the guest paid you, and pick the guest's contact.
6. Press Save.

What happens next:

• Both kinds get a turnover cleaning on checkout day, for the unit's cleaner, as a job in Jobs.
• A direct booking also gets your scheduled guest messages. Pick the guest's contact so Otto can email them.
• An owner stay gets no guest messages.
• The price of a direct booking counts in the unit's money on the Money tab. Otto only records it. It takes no payment.

To change the dates, press Edit beside the stay under Direct and owner stays. The turnover moves with it. Cancel stay cancels the stay and its turnover, and its price stops counting.

Otto does not change your listings. Block the same dates on Airbnb, VRBO or Booking.com yourself.

The calendar of every unit

The Stays tab opens with a calendar: one row per short-term unit and one column per day, 30 days at a time. Press Earlier, Today or Later to move. Each bar is a stay, coloured by where it came from. Press a bar to open the stay.

Units that share a Property name are shown together, so a building with several units reads as one place. Set the property name under Stay rules and guest page on the unit.

Double bookings and short gaps

Otto checks the stays it holds for each unit:

• Overlaps: two stays on the same nights. This is usually a double booking between two listing sites.
• Below the minimum stay: a stay shorter than the unit's minimum.
• Short gaps: empty nights between two stays that are fewer than the minimum, so they are hard to book.

When a listing calendar, or Hostaway or Guesty once connected, brings in a new stay on nights another stay already holds, Otto also leaves a notice saying it may be a double booking.

A stay with a problem has a red ring on the calendar and is listed under Needs a look, with the reason. Set the minimum stay under Stay rules and guest page on the unit.

When you add a stay by hand on nights that are already taken, Otto says which stay it overlaps. Change the dates, or press Save anyway to keep both.

Owners book their own stays

An owner who has a customer page and at least one short-term unit sees Book an owner stay on that page. They pick the home and the dates. Dates that overlap a stay Otto holds are refused. A stay that fits goes straight onto the calendar as an owner stay, with its turnover, and Otto leaves you a notice to block the dates on your listings.