If you run your portfolio on Guesty, you already have some AI. ReplyAI is built into the Guesty inbox and answers the simple questions guests ask again and again. For plenty of operators that's enough to start with. For others it covers a slice of the work and leaves the rest where it was.
This guide is about telling those two situations apart, and what to look for if you need more.
What Guesty gives you out of the box
ReplyAI is an auto-reply tool. It reads incoming guest messages, recognises the common ones and answers from the information in your account. It's included on every Guesty plan, so there's no reason not to try it.
Its scope is the reply itself. A guest asks for the door code and gets it. What it isn't built to do is run the work around that reply, like briefing a cleaner, chasing a maintenance job or negotiating an early arrival against the turnover. Operators who've tried it often mention two limits in particular. Customising its behaviour is fairly restricted, and accuracy on less straightforward questions is a frequent complaint.
None of that makes it a poor tool. It's a free, built-in auto-reply, and it does that job.
What a Marketplace autopilot adds
The Guesty Marketplace lists third-party apps that connect to your account, and some of them are AI autopilots for guest operations. The good ones go beyond answering.
They follow your playbook. You decide how the AI handles exceptions, which policies it applies (and when it can bend them), the tone it writes in, and which situations always go to a person.
They coordinate. When a guest reports a problem or asks for something, the autopilot creates the task, gives the cleaner or handyman what they need, and updates the guest.
They sell, gently. An early check-in, a late checkout or an extra night is offered when the calendar allows it, inside the conversation, and the change is written back to Guesty.
And they keep Guesty as the source of truth. Reservations, conversations and notes stay where your team expects them.
Signs you've outgrown the built-in tool
You don't need an autopilot because a vendor says so. You might need one if a few of these sound familiar.
- Your team still opens most conversations, even with ReplyAI switched on.
- Messages that need a small action (a cot, an extra set of towels, a broken blind) still need a person to make it happen.
- Early check-in and late checkout requests get answered with "let me check" and then sit for hours.
- Out-of-hours messages pile up for the morning shift.
- You've got properties in several languages or regions and want the same standard everywhere.
If none of these apply, ReplyAI might be all you need for now. That's a perfectly good outcome.
Setting one up without disrupting your team
The best Guesty autopilots do most of the set-up for you. They read your existing listings, saved replies and past conversations, learn how your team already answers, and come back with a draft playbook for you to approve. You shouldn't need to write hundreds of rules yourself.
A sensible rollout starts narrow. Pick a handful of properties, or one type of question, and let the autopilot run while your team watches. Check what it handled, what it handed over and why. Widen it once you trust it. Most teams find the biggest change is in their own day, with fewer interruptions and more time for the guests who need them.
Questions to ask before you connect anything
Ask how the vendor defines its automation rate, and whether drafts your team approves are counted. Ask what happens when the AI isn't sure. Ask whether it can create tasks for your cleaners and maintenance team, and how it writes changes back to Guesty. Ask who does the set-up, and how long it takes to go live.
We've put the full list in our guide on how to choose an AI autopilot. If you run hundreds of Guesty listings, see our enterprise rollout playbook. And if your team runs Breezeway alongside Guesty for field operations, our guide to AI staff scheduling covers what an agent adds on top.
Aeve is one Guesty Marketplace autopilot built along these lines. It's set up for you, trains itself on your existing conversations and goes live within 24 hours of connecting Guesty. If you're on Hostaway too, see our Hostaway guide.