Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Burner Launches Hostbot To Help Airbnb Hosts Field Text Messages

Los Angeles-based Burner, the startup which lets users easily create their own "burner" phone numbers from a mobile app, has launched a new "bot" specifically geared at helping Airbnb hosts manage the flood of inquiries they get via phone. According to Burner, the new Hostbot can automatically respond to repetitive queries from guests--for example, "what's the Wi-Fi password" and "is there a laundry room"--so that hosts don't have to respond to every single inquiry from guests. The new app rolls out as a result of an upgraded API to the company's service, and OAuth integration, which lets third party developers build their own, standalone apps or integrations to the service. The Airbnb app is one of two "concept" apps released by Burner around its API, the other being a connection into Zapier for connecting Burner to other apps on that service.