Answers
The questions hosts ask, answered
How to get bookings into your accounts, take bookings directly and run a small rental without a spreadsheet. Each page gives the answer first, then how Airflow does it, the other ways to do it and what Airflow does not do.
About Airflow
What Airflow is, what it does and what it does not do, in short answers.
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 has no Xero connection of its own. The options are manual entry, a CSV import, an accounting sync tool, or reading the booking email, which is what Airflow does.
Read the answer →How do I automate Airbnb bookkeeping?
Automate the entry, keep the approval: each booking email becomes a draft invoice in your accounting package, split by fee and tagged by property.
Read the answer →How do I create invoices from Airbnb bookings?
Airbnb does not issue an invoice from you to the guest. Airflow drafts one per booking in your accounting package, itemised from the confirmation email.
Read the answer →How do I connect Airbnb to accounting software?
Airbnb connects natively to QuickBooks only. For Xero, Sage and FreshBooks, or for more than one channel, you need a bridge: three kinds exist.
Read the answer →How do I get Booking.com bookings into Xero?
Booking.com has no Xero connection and bills its commission separately. Airflow turns each reservation email into a draft Xero invoice with the commission split out.
Read the answer →How do I automate holiday-rental accounting?
Make every booking, from every channel and every property, arrive in your accounts the same way: as a draft invoice, split and tagged.
Read the answer →Why don't my Airbnb and Booking.com payouts match my invoices?
A payout is what is left after fees, batching, currency conversion and adjustments, so it rarely equals one booking. Record each booking in full, with the fee on its own line, and the deposit can be explained.
Read the answer →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, one account per channel. Never record only the net payout.
Read the answer →Can I import my past Airbnb bookings into Xero?
Yes, but in two deliberate steps: bring past bookings in as blocked dates first, then choose which ones should raise draft invoices. Years already filed are usually best left alone.
Read the answer →How do I record Airbnb income paid in a foreign currency?
Keep the amount in the currency the guest paid, convert it once at a rate you record, and put the difference from the bank deposit in an exchange gain or loss account.
Read the answer →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?
You need four things: a page, a live calendar, a way to take payment and your Airbnb dates blocked. Airflow gives every listing all four, on your own domain if you want.
Read the answer →How do I take direct bookings for my holiday rental?
A link guests can book from, payment into your own account, written terms, and the dates blocked elsewhere. You do not need a full website to start.
Read the answer →How do I get direct bookings without leaving Airbnb?
Keep your Airbnb listing and add a booking page of your own beside it. Calendar links stop the two selling the same night, and each guest books where they found you.
Read the answer →How do I get repeat Airbnb guests to book direct?
You may not solicit them through Airbnb. You can make yourself easy to find when they come looking: a consistent name, a bookable page, and a stay worth repeating.
Read the answer →How do I accept payments directly from holiday-rental guests?
Open a card account in your own name, take a deposit at booking and the balance before arrival, and tie every payment to its booking.
Read the answer →What is the best direct-booking software for Airbnb hosts?
There are four kinds, and the right one depends on whether you need a site, a channel manager, or the booking joined to your guests and accounts.
Read the answer →How do I sync Airbnb bookings with my own website?
Use a booking calendar on your site that reads your Airbnb calendar link, and give Airbnb the site's link in return, so each blocks the other.
Read the answer →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?
Spread across more than one channel, give returning guests a direct route, and list where travellers plan trips. Airflow Stay, launching soon, is built for the last part.
Read the answer →Where can I list my holiday rental besides Airbnb?
The big platforms, Google, regional sites, your own page, and marketplaces for places that book direct such as Airflow Stay, which is launching soon and free to list on.
Read the answer →How do I reduce Airbnb booking fees?
You cannot negotiate Airbnb's fee. You can price for it, and move returning guests and new enquiries to channels where you keep more.
Read the answer →How do I get my place into the trips travellers plan?
Write your own trip itinerary in Airflow with your place on the route; it is checked, and then it joins the trip ideas on Airflow Stay that travellers start their plans from.
Read the answer →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?
Put both in one calendar: Airbnb bookings arrive from their confirmation emails, direct bookings are taken on your own page, and calendar links block the dates each way.
Read the answer →What is the best software for managing a small holiday rental?
It depends on which job hurts most. A plain guide to the four kinds of tool, what each is for, and where Airflow fits for one to a few properties.
Read the answer →How do I manage Airbnb and Booking.com together?
Link the two calendars so neither can sell a night the other has sold, then bring both sets of bookings into one list. The same method covers Vrbo and any other platform.
Read the answer →How do I manage multiple Airbnb properties?
Standardise four things across the properties: one calendar, one bookings list, income tracked per property, and a statement per owner.
Read the answer →How do I automate messages to my holiday-rental guests?
Write each answer once, keep it in a guest portal, and let timed emails from your own address send the guest there: at booking, before arrival, on check-in day and after checkout.
Read the answer →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: 90 nights in London and Paris, 30 in Amsterdam, 70 or 30 in Copenhagen, and the count is of the property across every channel.
Read the answer →Do I need to register or license my holiday rental?
In most of the places we have checked, yes, and the number has to be shown on every listing: Italy, Greece, Portugal, the EU from 20 May 2026, Namibia and Kenya.
Read the answer →How do I prove how many nights my property was let?
With a record written on each day about that day, not a screenshot of today's calendar: one row per night, the rule it was measured against, and how the record was made.
Read the answer →Try it on your own bookings
Forward a few booking emails and look at what Airflow builds from them. A card is needed at sign-up.
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