# Airflow answers Canonical: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers Source: Airflow (https://www.airflowhq.com) > Direct answers to the questions short-term rental hosts ask about getting bookings into their accounts, taking direct bookings and running a small rental. Each answer says what Airflow does, what it does not do, and the other ways to solve the same problem. ## About Airflow What Airflow is, what it does and what it does not do, in short answers. ### What is Airflow, and what does it do? Airflow is software for short-term rental hosts and small property managers. It reads the booking-confirmation emails that Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo and Expedia send, turns each one into a structured booking, and creates a draft invoice in Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage or FreshBooks for the host to review. Around that it provides a direct booking page with payment into the host's own account, a guest portal for every booking, and calendar links that block dates across platforms. It is not a channel manager and it never approves, sends or pays anything on the host's behalf. [See how a booking email becomes a structured booking](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/help-ai-booking-extraction) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/what-is-airflow (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/what-is-airflow.md) ## Bookings into your accounts Getting Airbnb, Booking.com and direct bookings into Xero, QuickBooks, Sage or FreshBooks without retyping them. ### How do I get Airbnb bookings into Xero? Airbnb does not connect to Xero itself, so a booking only reaches Xero if you or a tool put it there. With Airflow, you forward your Airbnb booking-confirmation emails (or let Airflow watch your Gmail or Outlook inbox) and each one becomes a structured booking and a draft invoice in Xero, with accommodation, cleaning fee, the Airbnb service fee and taxes on separate lines. You review the draft in Xero and approve it yourself. [Learn how Airbnb income is recorded in Xero](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/record-airbnb-income-in-xero) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/airbnb-bookings-into-xero (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/airbnb-bookings-into-xero.md) ### How do I automate Airbnb bookkeeping? Automate the data entry and keep the approval. Airbnb bookkeeping is three repeated jobs: recording each booking, splitting it into accommodation, cleaning, platform fee and tax, and matching it to the payout. Airflow does the first two automatically: it reads each Airbnb booking-confirmation email and creates a draft invoice in Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage or FreshBooks, already split and tagged by property. You check the draft, record the payout and approve. [See how automatic accounting sync works](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/help-accounting-sync) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/automate-airbnb-bookkeeping (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/automate-airbnb-bookkeeping.md) ### How do I create invoices from Airbnb bookings? Airbnb gives the guest a receipt and gives you a VAT invoice for its own service fee, but it does not create a sales invoice from your business for the stay. If you need one per booking for your books, Airflow creates it automatically: it reads the Airbnb booking-confirmation email and drafts an itemised invoice in Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage or FreshBooks, which you review and approve. [See where cleaning fees, deposits and taxes go in your books](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/cleaning-fees-deposits-taxes-bookkeeping) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/invoices-from-airbnb-bookings (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/invoices-from-airbnb-bookings.md) ### How do I connect Airbnb to accounting software? Airbnb has one built-in accounting connection, to QuickBooks, which syncs your Airbnb earnings monthly. For Xero, Sage or FreshBooks, or if you also take bookings on Booking.com, Vrbo or directly, you need a bridge. Airflow is one: it reads the booking-confirmation emails from every channel and creates a draft invoice per booking in Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage or FreshBooks, without needing access to your Airbnb account. [Compare accounting software for Airbnb hosts](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/best-airbnb-accounting-software) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/connect-airbnb-to-accounting-software (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/connect-airbnb-to-accounting-software.md) ### How do I get Booking.com bookings into Xero? Booking.com does not connect to Xero. Each reservation has to be recorded as income, and Booking.com's commission recorded as a cost, because the commission is billed to you separately rather than deducted where you can see it. Airflow does this from the reservation email: it creates a draft Xero invoice for the stay, with room revenue and commission on separate lines, tagged to the right property, for you to review and approve. [Learn how Booking.com payouts and commission are accounted for](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/booking-com-accounting-payouts) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/booking-com-bookings-into-xero (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/booking-com-bookings-into-xero.md) ### How do I automate holiday-rental accounting? Make every booking reach your accounts the same way, whatever channel it came from. Airflow reads booking confirmations from Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, Expedia and your own direct bookings, and turns each into a draft invoice in Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage or FreshBooks, with fees and commission separated, the property tagged and the currency converted. For managed properties it also produces a statement per owner. You review and approve. [Read the complete guide to short-term rental accounting](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/accounting-for-short-term-rentals) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/automate-holiday-rental-accounting (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/automate-holiday-rental-accounting.md) ### Why don't my Airbnb and Booking.com payouts match my invoices? Because a payout is not a booking. Four things sit between what the guest paid and what reaches your bank: the channel's fee or commission, several bookings paid in one transfer, currency conversion at the channel's rate, and refunds or adjustments netted into a later deposit. Airbnb keeps its fee before it pays you. Booking.com, in many set-ups, leaves you to collect from the guest and bills its commission separately. A payout only reconciles if each booking is recorded at its full value with the fee shown separately. Airflow builds that record: it reads each booking-confirmation email and creates a draft invoice in Xero with accommodation, cleaning and the channel fee on separate lines and the booking reference kept, for you to review and approve. [Read the four reasons no channel payout matches an invoice](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/ota-payouts-dont-match) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/why-airbnb-payouts-dont-match-invoices (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/why-airbnb-payouts-dont-match-invoices.md) ### How do I record Airbnb and Booking.com commission in my accounts? Record the full booking value as income and the channel's commission as a separate expense. Never record only the net payout. Airbnb deducts its fee before it pays you, so the fee has to be shown as a cost of the booking. Booking.com often bills commission on its own invoice, which you record as an expense against the bookings it covers. Give each channel its own commission account so you can see what it costs you. Airflow reads the fee from each booking-confirmation email and puts it on its own line of a draft invoice in Xero, beside accommodation and cleaning, for you to review and approve. [Read the guide to tracking channel commission as an expense](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/track-ota-commissions-as-expenses) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/record-airbnb-commission-in-accounts (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/record-airbnb-commission-in-accounts.md) ### Can I import my past Airbnb bookings into Xero? Yes, but not in one step and usually not all of them. The risk with any bulk import is hundreds of draft invoices in Xero, dated today, for stays from earlier years. Airflow avoids that by keeping two decisions apart. First, past bookings come in from a CSV file, a Google Sheet or your Airbnb calendar link as blocked dates, which raise no invoice. Then you choose which of them become real bookings with draft invoices: normally stays in your current open period and future bookings. You see what the batch will cost before it runs, and you review every draft in Xero. Years your accountant has already filed are usually best left as they are. [Read the safe order for importing booking history into Xero](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/import-airbnb-booking-history-into-xero) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/import-past-airbnb-bookings-into-xero (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/import-past-airbnb-bookings-into-xero.md) ### How do I record Airbnb income paid in a foreign currency? Keep the amount the guest paid in its original currency, convert it once into your accounting currency at a rate you record, and put any difference between that figure and what your bank receives into an exchange gain or loss account. Do not edit the invoice total to make it match the bank. With Airflow, each Airbnb booking-confirmation email becomes a booking that keeps its original currency, and a draft invoice in Xero in your Xero base currency, converted when the invoice is created, with the rate, its source and the time recorded. You review and approve the draft yourself. [Read which exchange rate belongs on the invoice, the payment and the Xero entry](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/multi-currency-airbnb-income-in-xero) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/foreign-currency-airbnb-income (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/foreign-currency-airbnb-income.md) ## Direct bookings Taking bookings and payment yourself, on your own page, widget or website. ### How do I create a direct-booking website for my Airbnb? A direct-booking website needs four things: a page describing the property, a calendar that knows your real availability, a way to take payment, and your Airbnb dates blocked so you cannot be double-booked. Every Airflow listing gets a booking page with all four. The Website + Hosting add-on turns it into a full multi-page website on your own domain. Guests pay into your own Stripe or Paystack account, and each booking lands in the same calendar and accounts as your Airbnb bookings. [See an Airflow website and how it was built](https://www.airflowhq.com/websites) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/direct-booking-website-for-airbnb (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/direct-booking-website-for-airbnb.md) ### How do I take direct bookings for my holiday rental? You need a link a guest can book from, a way to be paid, written terms, and your dates blocked on the platforms you list on. You do not need a full website to start. In Airflow, each listing has a booking page and a shareable booking link: the guest picks dates, sees the price, pays a deposit or the full amount by card into your own Stripe or Paystack account, and gets a confirmation and a guest portal. The booking goes into your calendar and your accounts automatically. [Learn how to get direct bookings](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/how-to-get-direct-bookings) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/take-direct-bookings-holiday-rental (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/take-direct-bookings-holiday-rental.md) ### How do I get direct bookings without leaving Airbnb? Keep your Airbnb listing exactly as it is and add a booking page of your own beside it. Link the two calendars so a booking on either one closes those dates on the other, then give your own link to the people who already know you: returning guests who look you up, enquiries from social media, friends of past guests. In Airflow every listing has that booking page, with payment into your own Stripe or Paystack account. Your Airbnb bookings keep arriving as before and appear in the same calendar and the same accounts. [Read the guide to getting direct bookings](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/how-to-get-direct-bookings) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/direct-bookings-without-leaving-airbnb (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/direct-bookings-without-leaving-airbnb.md) ### How do I get repeat Airbnb guests to book direct? You cannot ask them to through Airbnb: its rules forbid using the platform's messages or the guest's contact details to move a booking elsewhere. What you can do is be easy to find when a returning guest looks for you. Use the same property name everywhere, have a page of your own where they can check dates and pay, and show your reviews on it. Airflow gives every listing that booking page, and once a guest has booked direct it keeps their details so you can stay in touch with their consent. [Read how to turn repeat guests into direct bookings](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/turn-repeat-guests-into-direct-bookings) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/get-repeat-airbnb-guests-to-book-direct (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/get-repeat-airbnb-guests-to-book-direct.md) ### How do I accept payments directly from holiday-rental guests? Open a payment account in your own name, take a deposit when the guest books and the balance before they arrive, and record each payment against its booking. In Airflow you connect your own Stripe account, or Paystack for cards and M-Pesa in Kenya, and guests pay by card on your booking page. The deposit is taken at booking, the balance is paid later from the guest's portal or from a payment request you send, and bank transfer can be offered as well. The money goes to your account, not to Airflow. [See how guest payments and deposits work](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/help-guest-payments) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/accept-payments-from-holiday-rental-guests (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/accept-payments-from-holiday-rental-guests.md) ### What is the best direct-booking software for Airbnb hosts? It depends on what you need beyond a web page. A website builder with a booking plugin gives the most design freedom. An instant site generator is the fastest to launch. A property management system adds a channel manager and costs the most. Airflow is the fourth kind: a booking page, widget or full website where the guest pays into your own account, with each booking going into the same calendar as your Airbnb bookings, into a guest portal and into your accounts as a draft invoice. It suits hosts with one to a few properties who want those parts joined up. [See what a website builder really costs](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/your-website-builder-bill-is-just-the-start) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/best-direct-booking-software-for-airbnb-hosts (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/best-direct-booking-software-for-airbnb-hosts.md) ### How do I sync Airbnb bookings with my own website? Your website needs a booking calendar that reads your Airbnb calendar link, and Airbnb needs your website's calendar link in return. Each then blocks the dates the other has sold. With Airflow you paste your Airbnb link into your listing and Airflow reads it every hour, you paste Airflow's link into Airbnb, and you embed the Airflow booking widget on your site. The widget offers only free dates, and holds them while a guest is paying. [Find your Airbnb iCal link and sync it](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/find-your-airbnb-ical-link-and-sync-it) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/sync-airbnb-bookings-with-my-website (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/sync-airbnb-bookings-with-my-website.md) ## Getting found by travellers Where to list, how to depend less on one platform, and how Airflow Stay will put your place in front of people planning a trip. ### How do I get my holiday rental found by travellers without relying on Airbnb? Travellers find a holiday rental in five ways: a booking platform, a search engine, a map, a recommendation, or a trip they are already planning. Relying less on Airbnb means being present in more than one of those. List on a second platform, have a page of your own that returning guests and searchers can book from, and list on Airflow Stay, which is launching soon and will show travellers places that book direct, on a map and as stops on published trip routes. Listing on Stay is free and uses the property record you already have in Airflow. [See how travellers find you while they plan](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/travellers-find-you-while-they-plan) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/get-holiday-rental-found-by-travellers (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/get-holiday-rental-found-by-travellers.md) ### Where can I list my holiday rental besides Airbnb? The main places are Booking.com and Vrbo, Google through a Business Profile, regional and specialist sites, your own booking page, and marketplaces for places that book direct. Airflow Stay is one of the last kind: it is launching soon, listing is free, and it will show your place on a map and as a stop on published trip routes, with the guest's enquiry and details coming straight to you. Whichever you add, keep one calendar behind them all so the same night is not sold twice. [See how Airflow Stay works for hosts](https://www.airflowhq.com/stay) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/where-to-list-holiday-rental-besides-airbnb (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/where-to-list-holiday-rental-besides-airbnb.md) ### How do I reduce Airbnb booking fees? You cannot lower the fee Airbnb charges on an Airbnb booking. What you can change is how many of your bookings pay it. Price your Airbnb listing with the fee in mind, give returning guests a direct way to book, and add channels where more of the booking stays with you: your own booking page, and Airflow Stay, which is launching soon. Airflow gives each listing a booking page with payment into your own account, and records the Airbnb fee on every booking so you can see what it actually costs you. [See what your channel commission actually costs](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/what-your-channel-commission-actually-costs) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/reduce-airbnb-fees (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/reduce-airbnb-fees.md) ### How do I get my place into the trips travellers plan? Travellers plan a route, not a single bed, so the surest way into their plans is to be a stop on a route they are reading. In Airflow you can write your own trip itinerary: a title, a summary of what the trip is and who it suits, and the route, where each location has a place name, a country, a number of nights, a reason to stop there and a pin on the map. At the location where your own listing is, you choose that listing. You press Check and publish, the itinerary is checked, and once it is clear it joins the trip ideas in the trip library on Airflow Stay, credited to your place by its listing name. A traveller can start their own plan from it. Airflow Stay is launching soon and is not open for bookings yet, so this puts your place inside a trip people can plan from; it is not a promise of bookings. [The host itineraries feature page: each step of writing one, and what the traveller sees](https://www.airflowhq.com/features/host-itineraries) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/get-my-place-into-trips-travellers-plan (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/get-my-place-into-trips-travellers-plan.md) ## Running a small rental One calendar and one list of bookings, and choosing software that fits a small operation. ### How do I manage Airbnb and direct bookings in one place? Use one system as the calendar of record and feed everything into it. In Airflow, Airbnb and Booking.com bookings arrive from their confirmation emails, direct bookings are taken on your own Airflow booking page, and both sit in one calendar and one bookings list. Calendar links run both ways and are read every hour, so a date sold in one place is blocked in the others. [See how one calendar shows every booking](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/one-calendar-four-views) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/airbnb-and-direct-bookings-in-one-place (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/airbnb-and-direct-bookings-in-one-place.md) ### What is the best software for managing a small holiday rental? It depends on which job costs you the most time. If you change prices across several channels every week, you need a channel manager or a full property management system. If your only problem is the bookkeeping, an accounting sync tool is enough. If you have one to a few properties and want bookings from every channel in one calendar, direct bookings with payment, a guest portal and draft invoices in your accounts without running a full PMS, that is what Airflow is built for. [Read why Airflow is not a property management system](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/airflow-is-not-a-pms) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/software-for-small-holiday-rental (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/software-for-small-holiday-rental.md) ### How do I manage Airbnb and Booking.com together? Two things have to be shared between them: the calendar, so neither platform sells a night the other has sold, and the bookings, so you have one list to work from. The free way is to link the two calendars to each other by iCal. Airflow adds the second part: it reads the confirmation emails from Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo and Expedia into one calendar and one bookings list, reads each platform's calendar link every hour, and publishes one calendar link for them all to read. A channel manager is the heavier alternative if you also need prices kept in step. [Learn why iCal sync breaks and how to keep it working](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/why-your-ical-sync-keeps-breaking) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/manage-airbnb-and-booking-com-together (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/manage-airbnb-and-booking-com-together.md) ### How do I manage multiple Airbnb properties? Standardise four things: one calendar across every property, one list of bookings, income and costs tracked per property, and a monthly statement for each owner if the properties are not all yours. In Airflow each property is a listing. Bookings from every channel land in one calendar that shows all of them, each invoice line is tagged to its property in your accounting package, team members get access to the properties they work on, and an owner statement is produced per property. [Learn how to keep a clean profit and loss per property](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/multi-property-str-accounting) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/manage-multiple-airbnb-properties (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/manage-multiple-airbnb-properties.md) ### How do I automate messages to my holiday-rental guests? Decide what a guest needs at each stage, write it once, and let the booking trigger it. In Airflow that is three things working together: a booking confirmation carrying the guest's personal trip link, a guest portal that holds the answers and releases your documents only once the booking is paid, and guest email automations timed around the stay: pre-arrival, check-in day, post-checkout, a review request and a balance reminder. The emails go from your own connected Gmail or Outlook address. Guest email automations are available on every plan, and each automated email uses one automated task. [See the pre-arrival timeline: what to send a guest, and when](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/what-to-send-guests-before-arrival) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/automate-guest-messages-holiday-rental (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/automate-guest-messages-holiday-rental.md) ## Rules, night limits and registration How many nights you may let, whether you must register, and how to show your count. The city guides carry the dated checks. ### How many nights a year can I let my home on Airbnb? It depends on the city, and the limit belongs to the property, not to your Airbnb account. London allows up to 90 nights in a calendar year. Paris allows 90 for a principal residence. Amsterdam allows 30, and 15 in parts of Centrum and De Pijp. Copenhagen allows 70 days only if every letting goes through a platform that reports your income to the tax agency, and 30 otherwise. Vienna and Berlin ask first whether you live in the flat. Cape Town's draft by-law sets no cap: it proposes commercial rates above 50% of a property's annual room nights. Rules change, so each linked city guide carries the date it was checked and the authority's own link. Airflow counts the nights for you; it does not give legal advice. [See the rules for each city, with the authority and the date checked](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/short-term-rental-rules-by-country-2026) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/how-many-nights-can-i-let-on-airbnb (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/how-many-nights-can-i-let-on-airbnb.md) ### Do I need to register or license my holiday rental? In most of the places we have checked, yes, and the number usually has to appear on every listing. Italy issues a national code, the CIN. Greece issues an AMA for each unit. Portugal requires Alojamento Local registration. Namibia and Kenya require registration with their tourism authorities. Across the EU, from 20 May 2026, platforms must check registration numbers and can remove a listing that fails. Barcelona is issuing no new tourist licences, and Cape Town's draft by-law would make registration compulsory. Rules change and they change locally, so each linked guide carries the date it was checked and the authority's link. Airflow stores your number and shows it on the pages it publishes; it does not register a property for you, and nothing here is legal advice. [See which registration applies in each country and city](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/short-term-rental-rules-by-country-2026) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/do-i-need-to-register-my-holiday-rental (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/do-i-need-to-register-my-holiday-rental.md) ### How do I prove how many nights my property was let? With a night-by-night record that was written at the time, not with a screenshot of your calendar. A calendar shows how things stand today, and every block you add or remove rewrites what it says about past days. A statement worth sending names the property and its registration number, the rule it was measured against, the total beside the limit, one row for every night in the period, and an honest account of which days were recorded on the day and which were worked out later. Airflow keeps that record for each property you track and lets you download it as a spreadsheet. It is a measurement, not a legal finding: ask your authority what evidence it accepts, and read the linked guide for your city, which carries the date it was checked and the authority's link. [Read what a night-by-night letting statement contains](https://www.airflowhq.com/blog/short-term-rental-compliance-statement) Full answer: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/prove-how-many-nights-my-property-was-let (markdown: https://www.airflowhq.com/answers/prove-how-many-nights-my-property-was-let.md)