Changelog
Follow up on the latest improvements and updates.
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Great news, Hostshare community! We've rolled out significant updates to our messaging system today, enhancing communication between hosts and guests with new features and improvements.
What’s New:
Advanced Notification System:
- Email and SMS Notifications: We've introduced email and SMS notifications for unread messages. If a message remains unread for 5 minutes, a notification will be sent out. Our system is designed to avoid spamming users, ensuring you receive just the right amount of alerts.
- Reply Communication on Notifications: Our email and text notifications for new bookings now include a prominent "reply" button, allowing you to jump straight into messaging with your host or guest.
User Interface Enhancements:
- Booking Details and Messages Tabs: For quicker and easier access, we've added dedicated tabs for booking details and messages on the booking pages.
- Unread Messages Badges: Stay informed at a glance with new badges for unread messages. These badges are visible on menus on both desktop and mobile, as well as on the conversation list and tabs.
Communication Enhancements:
- Streamlined Interaction: With these updates, communicating about bookings has never been easier. Manage your bookings and conversations all in one place, with immediate access to the information and connections you need.
This update is part of our commitment to continuously improving the Hostshare platform to make managing your rentals as seamless and efficient as possible. We believe these changes will significantly enhance how hosts and guests communicate and manage their interactions.
We're thrilled to announce that the long awaited feature of in-app messaging is now live on Hostshare! This new feature enhances communication between hosts and guests, making it easier to coordinate and manage bookings directly within our platform.
Key Features of In-App Messaging:
Seamless User Experience:
- Automatic Conversation Start: A new conversation automatically starts with each new booking, providing a direct line of communication from the outset.
- Mobile Access: Access your messages through a new "Messages" menu item on mobile devices, making it easy to communicate on the go.
- Admin Oversight: Our admin team has full access to all chat messages to provide support when needed, ensuring a safe and reliable communication environment.
Enhanced Communication Tools:
- Rich Media Sharing: Users can upload images, videos, files, and voice memos, enriching the communication experience.
- Emoji Reactions & Link Sharing: Add a personal touch or share important information quickly with emoji reactions and the ability to share links directly in conversations.
- Real-Time Messaging: Enjoy real-time messaging complete with read and delivery receipts, ensuring that your messages are received and acknowledged.
- Persistent Message History: Access your conversation history anytime, with messages saved and easily retrievable for future reference.
Upcoming Enhancements:
- Continuous Improvements: We are actively working to refine and enhance the messaging feature. Your feedback is invaluable as we make these improvements.
- Notification Enhancements: We will soon introduce "unread" notifications that will alert you via email and SMS about any unread messages, keeping you informed and engaged.
We Need Your Feedback:
As you begin using in-app messaging, we encourage you to report any issues or suggestions for improvement. Your feedback is crucial as we continue to enhance this feature.
Explore the new messaging feature and enhance your Hostshare experience!
Thank you for being a part of our community, and we look forward to seeing how in-app messaging will improve your interactions on Hostshare.
We're excited to share significant updates to the Hostshare platform, aimed at improving the user experience and enhancing the efficiency of our service. These changes include improvements to our special offer modal, map functionality, and user interface adjustments.
What’s New:
Map Search Improvements:
- Expanded Map Bounds: The map now automatically expands its bounds by 200% when searching for a city, with the capability to dynamically scale out by an additional 20% up to five times until a listing is found. This significant improvement aims to reduce the instances of "No Listings Found," enhancing the search experience on the map.
Enhanced Special Offers and Subscription Flow:
- Revamped Special Offer Display: We've updated the first special offer modal—This modal is now integrated throughout the app, not just on the join travel page.
- Improved Modal Functionality: The special offer modal on mobile now allows users to exit easily, enhancing user interaction.
Subscribe without having you listing done:
- Special Offer Accessibility: In the special offer modal, we've added a subscribe button beneath the offer card, making it easier for users to take advantage of special offers early in their Hostshare journey.
Bug Fixes and UI Enhancements:
- Modal and Layout Adjustments: Fixed several layout bugs and addressed an error that occurred after subscribing, where users encountered a "something went wrong" message.
- Admin Functionality: Resolved an issue preventing admins from viewing notes for a listing.
- Performance Improvements: We're implementing a loader to improve the experience when viewing listings from the modal, ensuring smoother transitions and better feedback during loading times.
- Modal Button Placement: We're addressing an issue where special offer modal buttons are not fixed at the bottom on larger screens, requiring unnecessary scrolling.
- Trial Booking Modal: Correcting a display issue for users on a trial who attempt to book without an active membership.
These updates reflect our commitment to continuously improving the Hostshare platform to better serve our community. We believe these changes will make a significant difference in how our users interact with Hostshare, particularly through enhanced map searchability and a more streamlined booking process.
We invite you to explore the new features and provide feedback, which is invaluable in helping us refine and perfect our service.
Thank you for being part of the Hostshare community!
We're excited to announce a new update that enhances the booking management process for our hosts. To improve the hosting experience and give hosts more time to prepare between bookings, we have implemented a 10-day buffer on new bookings.
What’s New:
- 10-Day Booking Buffer:We've introduced a 10-day buffer that automatically blocks out ten days after each booking. This measure is designed to help prevent back-to-back bookings, allowing hosts ample time to manage their properties effectively.
- Visual Indicator:On both the host and admin interfaces, this buffer period will be indicated by a new lighter green color on the calendar. This visual cue makes it easy to see periods that are blocked off due to the buffer.
- Hostshare-Only Buffer:It’s important to note that this buffer is internal to Hostshare and does not affect calendar exports to Airbnb or other platforms. The buffer is purely a Hostshare feature to enhance our hosts' management capabilities without interfering with their other listing activities.
Support and Resources:
- Detailed Help Article:For more information on how the 10-day booking buffer works and how it can benefit you, please visit our help article.
- Onboarding Integration:We are also incorporating information about this new feature into our onboarding calls to ensure all new hosts understand how to utilize this buffer effectively.
Feedback and Adjustments:
We understand that each host's needs may vary, and we are open to feedback on this new feature. Should you have concerns about back-to-back bookings or if you need further clarification, we encourage you to reach out. We are committed to making necessary adjustments to ensure that this feature works for everyone.
Thank you, @Benjamin Willard, for your swift action in implementing this feature, and @Faith and @Landon for integrating it into our support and onboarding processes.
We hope this new buffer enhances your hosting experience by providing more control over your booking schedules. Please check it out and let us know how it works for you!
Explore the new feature and continue to share your experiences and suggestions with us. Your feedback helps us make Hostshare better for everyone.
We're thrilled to announce the launch of SMS notifications for hosts! This new feature is part of our ongoing commitment to enhance communication and streamline the booking process on Hostshare.
New Feature Overview:
- SMS Notifications:Starting today, hosts will receive SMS alerts for new bookings. This initial rollout is specifically focused on new booking notifications to ensure a smooth integration and to avoid overloading our users with messages.
What to Expect:
Here’s a glimpse of what the SMS notifications will look like:
[SMS Example]
Looking Ahead:
- Broader Notification Scope:We plan to gradually expand the types of notifications sent via SMS, incorporating various other alerts to keep our hosts fully informed.
- User Preferences:Notification preferences will soon be integrated, allowing hosts to customize how and what alerts they receive via SMS.
- Enhanced Direct Actions:Future updates will enable hosts to interact directly from SMS notifications, such as replying to messages or viewing unread notifications, streamlining the communication process further.
- App Integration Challenges on iOS:We are aware that SMS links currently open in a web browser rather than directly in our Progressive Web App (PWA) on iOS devices. We are actively exploring solutions, including the potential for an App Store release, to enhance user experience and interaction with our platform.
Thank you for being a part of Hostshare, and we look forward to continuing to improve our platform to better serve you!
We made significant improvements to our Free Nights and Shared Nights calculations to enhance the accuracy and reliability of our platform.
What's New:
- Enhanced Listing Management:We've made changes to how listings are managed when they are deleted or unlisted, ensuring that the calculation of free nights aligns more closely with actual usage.
- Accurate Night Calculations:We've refined our system to more accurately reflect the nights booked and ensure that the adjustments made when a listing is unlisted are correctly calculated, preventing any discrepancies.
- Detailed Transactions Information:We've added more details to the free nights transactions to help you better understand the origin of credited nights. This includes information on which listing the nights were credited from, which booking they were used for, and more. For a detailed view, check out the updates on the Free Nights Transaction Page.
Need Help or Noticed Something Off?
If you encounter any issues or have questions about how these changes might affect you, please don't hesitate to reach out for support. Our team is here to help and ensure your experience is seamless.
Thank you for being a part of our community, and we look forward to bringing you more enhancements in the future!
We're excited to announce significant updates across the Hostshare platform, focusing on quality-of-life improvements for our support team, enhanced special offers, and crucial bug fixes. These changes are designed to streamline operations with the sudden growth of manny new users across the platform, extend our global reach, and improve user experience.
Support Team Updates
- Quality of Life Enhancements: Implemented quick wins to reduce escalated support issues.
- Booking Cancellation Options: Added a cancellation reason dropdown on the front end for better tracking (e.g., pledge-ducker, guest issues, calendar problems).
- Listing Management Enhancements: Introduced a management tab on the admin side for better listing oversight.
- Detailed Listing Dates: Now displaying created, completed, and listed dates in admin pages, including Hospitable Connect sync status.
- Cache Management: Added functionality to refresh listing cache directly from the admin panel.
- User Management Overhaul: Enhanced user dropdown menus for advanced actions (delete, ban, update). Now displaying more comprehensive user data including created dates, addresses and more.
- Billing & Subscriptions Tab: New admin tab for viewing and managing user subscriptions, invoices, and special offers with direct links to stripe for adjustments.
- Payouts Tab: New admin tab for viewing and managing user payout accounts, with direct links to Stripe for adjustments or resets.
Dynamic Special Offers System
Global and Dynamic Offers
: Enhanced the special offer system to dynamically manage promotions, including:- A default global offer for new listings.
- Specialized offers for international listings to support global expansion.
- Exclusive offers for early access users renewing for the first time since our travel feature launch in February 2024.
- Easily adjust these special offers in the future without much effort.
Other Platform Fixes and Changes
- Calendar Syncing Controls: Prevented users from mistakenly syncing Hostshare calendars with themselves.
- Booking Window Adjustment: Updated text for booking windows to show a 5-day advance requirement, with a link to the share pledge for further details.
- Onboarding Fixes: Disabled the "go live" button for listings that are ready but not yet live, ensuring accurate status representation.
- Communication Guidelines: Added instructions in the date picker modal to avoid messaging on Airbnb, enhancing compliance with platform rules.
- Guest Messaging: Enabled the "guestMessage" field on the admin, host, and traveler sides for enhanced communication during bookings.
Bug Fixes
:- Addressed an issue preventing listings from moving to "in review" status upon user action.
- Fixed a discrepancy where deleted listings appeared as "coming soon" in search results.
- Resolved a bug preventing users from booking despite having approved listings and available travel nights due to also having a pending listing.
We are excited to announce significant updates to the Hostshare platform that enhance our backend systems and improve the functionality of our calendar exports. These changes are designed to streamline operations and provide our users with a more reliable and efficient experience.
New Deferred Queuing System (DQS):
- Enhanced Event Scheduling and Syncing:We have implemented a new Deferred Queuing System (DQS) that streamlines our event scheduling and the handling of various tasks such as syncing calendars, updating statistics, and processing transfers and payouts and more.
- Faster Calendar Syncing:The new system enhances our calendar syncing capabilities, allowing us to update all live listings in under an hour and significantly reduce the occurrence of errors related to calendar synchronization across the platform.
Improved .ICS Export Format:
- Detailed Booking Information:Our updated Hostshare .ics export format now includes additional booking details such as host name, guest names, and amount paid. These enhancements make our .ics files more comprehensive and improve their compatibility with other Property Management Systems (PMS), facilitating smoother operations for hosts using multiple platforms.
User Interface Improvements:
- Layout Enhancements:We've made several layout adjustments to improve the visual and functional aspects of the platform. These include fixes to tables, special offer layouts, and more, aimed at providing a cleaner and more intuitive user experience.
We're excited to announce a major update to the Hostshare platform, featuring a series of new features, changes, and important bug fixes aimed at improving user experience and system functionality. These updates cover everything from subscription management to mobile usability.
New Features:
Enhanced Subscription System:
Introduction of a more robust subscription and free nights transaction system, preparing for upcoming renewals and enhancing night transaction processes.Improved Admin Support Features:
We've made several improvements to our admin support capabilities to better assist the Hostshare community:- Admin Usability on Mobile:Admin panels are now fully usable on mobile devices, ensuring our support team can manage operations seamlessly from anywhere. This update is also integrated into our Progressive Web App (PWA).
- Admin UI Enhancements:We've refined the admin interface with new tools, allowing for a true user view without layout adjustments. Additionally, key admin features such as the display of Nights Shared and a more accessible Bookings tab have been enhanced to streamline operations.
Changes:
- Shifted to real-time calculations for shared nights and users’ remaining nights, moving away from a cached version to increase accuracy.
- Added a loading indicator when users click “view map” from the travel landing page to improve the perceived loading time on mobile.
- Transitioned from Superhog to Truvi branding across the app in line with their rebranding.
- Redirecting users to the travel landing page after going live, enhancing user flow and consistency.
- Improved the Saved Listings page with a loader to address user complaints about the listings not loading.
- Enhanced the My Trips page to accurately display photos and summaries for confirmed bookings.
Bug Fixes:
- Resolved issues where non-live-listing users were not seeing booking bubbles with CTAs.
- Implemented controls to prevent bookings on both API and front-end sides if a listing is not approved and live.
- Addressed discrepancies where live users with listings in review and no subscription were incorrectly shown as on trial.
- Fixed map filter access issues for certain users and resolved the problem of "Deleted" listings appearing as "coming soon" on the map.
- Corrected errors preventing the map from loading correctly and issues with listings showing incorrect availability.
- Fixed repetitive display of trips in both "scheduled" and "where you've been" sections, which now requires only one page refresh to display correctly.
- Solved a critical bug where subscription conversion events were not registering correctly for analytics purposes.
Enhanced Full Screen Map View:
- Full Screen on All Devices:The map now utilizes full screen on both mobile and desktop, eliminating awkward spacing and unwanted scrolling issues that previously affected navigation.
Redesigned Listing Cards:
- Sleeker Design:Listing cards have received a fresh update with new badges, refined font styles, and better spacing, making information clearer and more accessible.
- Improved Availability Interaction:New buttons and indicators on the cards make checking availability more intuitive.
Mobile-Specific Enhancements:
- Optimized Mobile Map Interaction:On mobile, the listing preview is now pinned at the bottom of the screen, with smart options to hide or show as needed while navigating the map.
- Swipe Up Grid View:Users can now swipe up to see all listings in a grid format, making it easier to browse through options quickly.
- Dynamic Footer on Map/Grid:The bottom footer is automatically hidden on the map to allow for more screen real estate and is shown again when users switch to the grid view.
Additional Functional Improvements:
- Swiping Capabilities:We've expanded swiping functionalities across various parts of the listing cards, enhancing user interaction. We're continuing to refine swipe behaviors to ensure smoothness across the platform.
- Loading Performance:Updates include optimizations to both map and listing loading times, speeding up the overall user experience.
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