Guest communication and virtual assistants for Australian Airbnb and short-stay hosts, honestly compared
Nine ways to handle Airbnb and short-stay guest messages in Australia, from platform AI to human overnight cover and full-service managers, compared.
We run one of the services on this list. DotVA places offshore VAs working Australian business hours, and we do not staff overnight. If your problem is the 2am lockbox message, the Guesty, Extenteam and platform AI rows below may suit you better than we do. That comes first because it is the most useful thing we can tell you.
The method is the same as our comparison of Australian VA agencies. Every claim about another provider comes from its own website or help centre, checked on 11 November 2026 and linked in the table. Where a figure is not published we write “not stated publicly”. We have not labelled any provider onshore or offshore unless its own pages say where its people are.
The options at a glance
| Option | What it is | Published price | Hours and cover | Where the team is | Terms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DotVA short-stay virtual assistant (that’s us) | One dedicated VA for guest messaging, turnover scheduling, calendars, listings and reviews | $12-17/hr admin, $18-25/hr specialist, AUD ex GST, from 10 hrs/week | Australian business hours, with the long guest day covered on agreed hours; no overnight staffing | Philippines | No lock-in contract: stop any time in the first 14 days, then 30 days’ notice; free replacement any time |
| Guesty Guest Communication Services | Human guest-messaging team sold inside Guesty | Paid add-on for Guesty plans; price not stated | 24/7 or flexible human coverage | Not stated publicly | Not stated publicly |
| Extenteam (Tailwind) | Staffing for short-term-rental managers, listed on Hostaway’s marketplace | Not stated publicly; described as a “labor subscription model” | Lists “24/7 Services Coverage (Tailwind)”; human guest messaging, text and calls, per its Hostfully listing | ”Countries with great hospitality cultures”, not named | Not stated publicly |
| Stealth Agents | Dedicated assistants for Airbnb management | ”Starting at $15/hr”; currency and GST basis not stated | Hours not specified; the page says its assistant “can take over these after-hours shifts” | Not stated; its page gives a New Jersey office address | ”Not locked into a rigid contract”; its terms say “Clients may cancel services with 30 days written notice” |
| Airbnb scheduled quick replies | Your own templates, sent automatically on triggers | No price stated on the help page | Sends on triggers such as a new reservation, check-in or checkout, in the listing’s time zone | Software | You can skip, edit or send any message early |
| Hostaway AI Replies | AI that drafts or sends replies in the Hostaway inbox | ”Available to all users upon request. There is no add-on fee” | Auto-Reply for topics you choose; the page does not say the AI runs round the clock | Software | Choose which messages send automatically and which you review first |
| Guesty ReplyAI and Autopilot | AI that drafts or auto-sends replies in the Guesty inbox | ReplyAI listed as “Freemium” on Guesty’s pricing page; Autopilot’s price not stated | ”ReplyAI Autopilot can send replies automatically within your rules” | Software | ”Complaints and unusual requests are flagged for your team” |
| Houst | Full-service management in Brisbane, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney | ”Performance-based fees from 14% (full-time) or 20% (part-time). No setup fees.” Charged on rental revenue, set by property type and location; whether cleaning or platform fees are deducted first is not stated | Lists “24/7 guest communication” | Not stated publicly | Minimum term not stated on the page |
| Hometime | Full-service management across 30+ local markets | Percentage commission (percentage not stated), calculated after platform, cleaning and payment-processing fees, plus a one-off onboarding fee (amount not stated) | Guest support Monday to Saturday, 9am-5pm AEST; local hosts answer first and “some local hosts have round-the-clock teams” | Local hosts, per its page | A “standard agreement” is signed; term and notice not stated |
Checked on each provider’s own pages on 11 November 2026. “Not stated publicly” means we could not find the figure on the provider’s public pages; it is an observation, not a criticism. Guesty’s help centre, Extenteam’s own site and Fiverr refused our automated requests, so we used only what those providers’ public pages and marketplace listings showed.
Two more are worth knowing about. HostAllies is listed on Guesty’s marketplace and says it lets managers “outsource guest support, revenue management, trust accounting, and owner marketing”; it lists Australia/Oceania among its regions and does not state hours, price or where its agents are. Freelance marketplaces also carry Airbnb VA listings: one Fiverr listing is titled “I will manage airbnb vrbo bdc guest messages 24x7”, with packages and inclusions set by the seller. On a marketplace, who covers which hours is whatever you agree with that individual.
Our row in full is on pricing. If a 30-minute call beats ten tabs, book a discovery call, and if another row fits your portfolio better we will tell you on the call.
Four products, one search term
- Platform automation and AI (Airbnb scheduled quick replies, Hostaway AI Replies, Guesty ReplyAI). Software that sends your templates on triggers or answers repeated questions. It needs setting up and checking. In our experience, it handles the unusual message less well, and most hosts who use it keep a person behind it.
- An outsourced human messaging team (Guesty Guest Communication Services, Extenteam). Trained people reply on your behalf, with 24/7 or flexible cover published by Guesty and “24/7 Services Coverage” listed by Extenteam. Neither publishes a price on the pages we checked, so you get it by quote.
- A dedicated VA (DotVA, Stealth Agents, a freelancer). One person who learns your properties and house rules and also does the work around the messages: turnover scheduling, calendar upkeep across channels, review replies, owner statement prep. Our short-stay page lists the tasks, and there are pages for Guesty and Hostaway.
- A full-service manager or co-host (Houst, Hometime). They take the property on, usually for a percentage of revenue, and add people on the ground. You hand over the operation, not just the inbox.
What the options cost
Where we have multiplied, that is our arithmetic, not the provider’s figure.
| Option | Published price | What that buys |
|---|---|---|
| DotVA, part-time | $12-17/hr ex GST | 10 hours a week for about $520-736 a month ex GST |
| DotVA, 20 hours a week | $12-17/hr ex GST | About $1,040-1,470 a month ex GST |
| Stealth Agents | From $15/hr, currency and GST basis not stated | A dedicated assistant; hours and inclusions not stated |
| Hostaway AI Replies | No add-on fee, per Hostaway | AI replies inside the Hostaway inbox |
| Houst | From 14% full-time or 20% part-time, set by property type and location | Full management; charged on rental revenue, deductions not stated |
| Hometime | Percentage not stated, plus a one-off onboarding fee | Full management; by quote |
| Guesty, Extenteam | Not stated publicly | By quote |
Percentage fees and hourly rates measure different things, so the table is a guide to what each model charges, not a like-for-like total. A percentage fee scales with your revenue and covers the management service, sometimes with onboarding or setup fees on top. An hourly VA costs the same in a quiet month and a busy one, and the remaining work stays with you.
Overnight and weekend cover: what to ask
Whichever option you lean towards, put these in writing before you sign:
- What hours exactly? “24/7” appears on several pages above without saying whether it means staffed messaging, an on-call escalation or software. Ask who is awake at 2am on a Sunday and what they can actually do.
- What can they decide? Refunds, early check-in, a locked-out guest at midnight. Agree the limits and who gets the phone call.
- Whose account and whose name? Co-host invites, shared logins and channel-manager access each carry different risks. Use a password manager rather than sharing passwords in a message.
- Where do reviews and listings sit if you leave? Ask whether the listing and its reviews stay in your account; a listing run under a manager’s account is harder to take with you.
For the rules side, short-term rental accommodation is regulated by state and council, and the obligations sit with the hosts, owners, agents and platforms those rules name, not with whoever answers the messages. Official starting points are NSW Government short-term rental accommodation and Consumer Affairs Victoria short stay accommodation laws. A VA coordinates around the listing and does not make registration, day-cap or planning decisions.
Who should pick whom
- Routine questions at any hour: start with Airbnb scheduled quick replies, then Hostaway AI Replies or Guesty ReplyAI if you already use that platform. In our experience, it is safer to set the AI to draft first and review what it sends before you let it send alone.
- Guests messaged while you sleep, by people: Guesty Guest Communication Services if you run Guesty, or Extenteam (listed on the Hostaway and Hostfully marketplaces; its Hostaway listing says it currently serves managers across North America, so ask whether it covers Australian hours). Ask each for a price and for what its 24/7 includes.
- You want the property run, not just the inbox: a full-service manager. Houst publishes fees from 14% (full-time) and 20% (part-time); Hometime does not publish a percentage. Ask both for the minimum term and the exit terms.
- A low-cost option you can test: a marketplace freelancer, or Stealth Agents from $15 an hour (currency not stated; its terms require 30 days’ written notice to cancel). Agree coverage hours in writing.
- 10 to 40 hours a week from one dedicated person who learns your properties, covers the long guest day on Australian hours, schedules turnovers and keeps calendars and reviews current, with automation handling the overnight basics: that is what we built DotVA for. If your guests mostly message overnight, pair the VA with platform automation or choose a 24/7 service instead.
Run your own numbers
Run the hours against what a missed turnover or a slow reply costs you on the VA cost calculator and check our tiers on pricing. If you also manage long-term rentals, the property management page covers that side. If the right answer for your portfolio is one of the other names in the table, we would rather you find that out now than in month two.