Guest portal

Guests use one private reservation link to register, read property instructions, request services, and contact your team. Configure a reusable portal, then manage each guest’s registration and payments from their reservation.

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Plan the guest journey

The portal has four phases: Registration, Pre-stay, In-stay, and Post-stay. Choose the information each phase should show. For example, a guest can complete their details after booking and receive protected entry instructions only when the access conditions are met. Registration can include forms, documents, a rental agreement, identity checks, fees, and damage protection. Manuals, local guides, services, and support help the guest during the stay.

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Build and publish a portal

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Create the template and assign properties

Open Reservations > Guest Portal. Choose New portal, give it a clear name, and select its source language and country, or duplicate an existing portal to reuse its structure. Assign the properties that should use it. Each property can have one published portal configuration at a time. This page manages templates. To inspect a specific guest’s link, registration, or payments, open that guest’s reservation.

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Arrange the guest journey

Switch through the stay phases and choose which pages and blocks appear in each one. Review Home, Services, Guides, and Access separately. Preview the result at each phase instead of assuming the registration view is also the in-stay view. Select a block to edit its settings. For custom material, use Additional content and Position on page to choose where it appears. Reorder custom blocks with the sidebar handles; the live preview is interactive but is not a drag-and-drop canvas. These changes save to the draft until you publish.

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Set appearance and support

Use the branding and Personalization controls for the display name, logo, colors, typography, and shapes. Review the Guest Portal and public access-page previews. Keep the introduction short and make the support options easy to find. Open Contacts under Drawers to configure phone, SMS, WhatsApp, and email. Hide a channel to remove its button while retaining its saved details. Contacts and AI Concierge open over the current page.

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Decide when entry information unlocks

In Portal rules, choose how long before check-in access information becomes available. Review this timing together with required registration and verification steps. Use Show property location before access if guests should see the address and directions early. This does not reveal entry codes or private check-in instructions.

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Choose what to preview

Open Simulate a reservation in the preview toolbar. Choose a stay from the calendar, or select a Property and Booking channel, then Preview property to use sample guest data. Expand Custom data to enter preview details yourself. Apply the selection to update the preview and house manual editor. Closing the dialog without applying discards those changes. Preview selections do not change saved reservations or portal assignments.

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Preview and publish

Check desktop and mobile previews with representative bookings. Confirm the assigned properties, registration steps, prices, support buttons, and protected access content. Publish when the configuration is ready; Trellis fills missing translations and the header shows Published. Changes to a draft are not yet the guest’s published experience. Publishing automatically updates appearance and informational content in existing guest portals when there is no conflicting reservation customization. Access changes, registration changes, removals, and other guest actions are held for review. Choose Review unapplied updates after publishing, or open the reservation’s Guest Portal section, to see the reasons and use Apply updates anyway. Started registration and its existing records remain protected. Older portals without a known previous version require review. Draft edits save automatically. Use Publish, including in Rules, to make them live. Making existing form fields optional also updates existing portals immediately, even after registration has started, when the rest of that form is unchanged. Existing answers remain intact.

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Configure registration rules

Open Reservations > Rules to create or edit the requirements used in the portal. Choose the rule type, such as a check-in form, rental agreement, mandatory fee, or damage protection. Registration settings are also available from the portal’s registration sidebar. Give a form an internal name and a clear guest-facing label. Check whether it is live, whether it is Required before access, and whether it applies to the primary guest or the other travellers. Add the arrival fields needed for the stay, such as arrival time. Standard fields have defined types; use labels and help text to explain the requested answer. Use conditions to apply a rule to the relevant channels, properties, reservation statuses, or guest counts. Test a booking that should match and one that should not. For guest details, use conditional follow-up fields when an answer changes what you need next. For example, ask for a place of birth only under the applicable country condition. Preview each branch so guests do not have to answer irrelevant questions.

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Additional travellers

In an Other guests step, enable Exclude the primary guest to collect only the remaining travellers. The booking holder keeps their existing details, and solo reservations skip this step. Enable Exclude owner stays in a rule’s conditions when that rule should not apply to reservations classified as owner stays.

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Consent settings

In a consent field, Ticked by default is off initially. Enable it only when the checkbox should start selected; guests can change it, and previously saved answers take precedence. For terms, Require consent is on by default. Turn it off to show the document for information only. It will not block registration, record acceptance, or create a signed copy.

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Prepare a rental agreement

Create the agreement under Reservations > Agreements, then select it in the rental-agreement registration step. Write the agreement and insert supported property, guest, and reservation variables where the wording should vary by stay. Preview a sample booking to confirm the values and requested signature fields. After signing, the guest can download a PDF with the agreement, stay details, signature, timestamp, and document hash. Your team can also download it from the reservation’s Guest Portal section.

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Collect registration charges

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Set a mandatory fee

Choose the fee amount, currency, and calculation method, such as a fixed total or an amount per guest or night. Review any caps on the total, nights, or guests counted. These are registration charges; optional extras belong in Services. Add the applicable exemption conditions and test them against representative answers and bookings. When a fee depends on registration details, the guest may need to complete the form before the final total can be calculated.

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Offer damage protection

In Damage protection, choose whether to offer a non-refundable waiver, a refundable security deposit, or both. Explain each option in the guest-facing text and review its amount and currency. When both are offered, the guest completes one choice; completing it locks the other option. Set the default amount and any pricing scenarios, then use the sample booking controls to check which scenario wins and what the guest pays. Test both matching and non-matching bookings before publishing. For a deposit, review authorization timing before check-in and release timing after checkout. Saving a card, placing a hold, and capturing funds are separate actions. Check the deposit rules below before enabling renewal or inspection requirements.

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Pricing scopes and request history

Pricing scenarios for fees, waivers and deposits can target properties, property groups, or both. If both are selected, both must match. Numeric conditions are optional. The first matching scenario applies; otherwise the default price applies, unless the waiver requires a matching scenario. Check the sample booking before saving. To limit waiver availability, enable Only offer the waiver when a pricing scenario matches in the damage waiver settings. Guests whose booking matches a scenario can choose the waiver. Other bookings keep the security deposit option. Keep the deposit enabled while this setting is on. Use Bedrooms booked when eligibility depends on the accommodation booked, together with conditions such as the number of nights. This count can differ from the property’s total bedrooms. If the booked count is missing, check the reservation’s listing before collecting payment. Existing rules keep their default-price behavior until you enable this setting. Booking-channel exclusions still apply. For service prices by group, create a separate service for each price and use the group selector to add its current properties. Later group changes do not update that selection automatically. Select the group again when its membership changes. A fixed-price service with an amount of zero appears as Free and can only be requested, without payment. See Manage service requests below to follow requests and their quoted totals.

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Deposit consent and inspection

Before saving a card, the guest must accept the displayed deposit amount and hold terms. Continue to card details stays disabled until they select the checkbox. If the quoted amount changes, the guest must accept the new amount. Saving a card does not itself charge the guest or place a hold. Authorization follows the configured timing before the property’s local check-in time. Enable Require inspection before release in the deposit settings when an operator must review the property first. Open the reservation’s Guest Portal, find the deposit, select Release, and confirm that the inspection is complete before releasing the hold. Trellis records that confirmation. This is an operator confirmation, not an automatic check of a cleaner’s task. With inspection required, automatic release is disabled. The bank hold can still expire, and renewal stops after the configured release delay. Review the actual authorization deadline in the reservation. Existing configurations keep their release behavior until you enable and publish this setting.

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Prepare access instructions and guides

Arrange the arrival steps in the order the guest follows them. Include a short instruction and a useful photo or video for each step. Maintain the underlying property instructions in Properties, then check the portal preview and its access-unlock rules. Use a house manual for the accommodation’s own information, and local guides for nearby places and activities. Select the content intended for guests; a staff manual can contain different details. Open Reservations > Guides to create a local guide with a name and description. You can start with AI-assisted content, then review the wording, places, and map links before sharing it. Check that the recommendations fit the property’s location.

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Add guides and house manuals

On the Guide page, choose Add → Guide or House manual. Select a template in the sidebar, then Use template to attach it to the property. The template supplies shared content and structure; existing property values are retained and missing values stay empty. If the property already has a manual, use Add guide for another guide. When switching properties, wait for the sidebar to load. A property without manual content or a saved template opens the template chooser; an existing template opens in the editor, even if its guest sections are still empty.

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Edit the house manual in the sidebar

Select a property in the preview, then open Guide > House manual. Edit its template, guest sections, points of interest, and guest QR code in the sidebar. Changes appear in the preview; select Save property changes to save them. Publishing the portal does not save the property manual. This editor contains guest content only.

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Sync with PMS

In the check-in instructions settings, enable Sync with PMS to use imported instructions from Guesty, Hostaway, or Calry in every stay phase. Numbered instructions appear as separate steps. Manual steps remain when sync is off or the source is unavailable. To use property custom fields, enter the field key for each language. Leave the keys empty to use the standard PMS instructions.

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What guests see

Registration shows the configured steps and a summary before submission. Guests can leave and return without losing uploaded files that are still valid. When registration does not block browsing, they can read the guide while a reminder stays visible; private access information still follows the required checks and unlock time. The Access block shows your ordered manual check-in steps before connected lock or device details. YouTube and Google Drive manual videos play inside the portal; Drive files must allow the guest to view them. Direct video files can include a captions URL in the Markdown link title: captions: https://example.com/captions.vtt. If a guest does not have their private link, the public Guest Portal access page can find one active portal using the PMS confirmation code or OTA reservation number together with any part of the guest name. Before opening the private portal, the guest confirms the complete surname or full name from the booking. The page does not show reservation results or booking details.

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Handle guest questions

In the portal builder, open AI Concierge, select an active AI Agent in the right sidebar, and enable the concierge. If that agent becomes unavailable, choose another active agent before publishing it again. When a guest sends a message through the AI assistant, the conversation appears in Inbox with the Guest Portal channel. Your AI Agent can answer in that same conversation, and your team can review or reply from Inbox. Replies remain visible in the portal, so the guest can continue the conversation without switching to another messaging app. The conversation stays linked to the reservation, which supplies the agent’s stay context.

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Offer guest services

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Create the offer

Open Reservations > Services and create a service. Enter its name, description, image, and price, then choose its eligible properties and availability rules. Preview the offer as a guest to check the total and wording. Choose Requires approval when your team must check the request before confirming it. The request appears in the reservation conversation and sidebar; a paid service becomes payable after approval. Choose Direct purchase for services the guest can buy without that operator decision. Availability rules can still prevent a service from being offered or purchased. Approval, payment, and fulfillment are separate stages: an approved request is not proof that the guest paid or that your team delivered it.

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Choose the payment account

Open Service payment settings at the top of Reservations > Services for the general service payment account. Follow its link to Settings > Integrations > Payments to assign Stripe accounts to specific properties. A new purchase uses its reservation property’s assigned account, or the general account when the property has no assignment. Payment accounts are not selected on each service. An existing payment attempt keeps its account during retries. If the assigned account is unavailable, payment is blocked instead of being moved to a different account.

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Send service payments to Guesty

In the service’s settings, enable Sync with PMS and choose the Guesty fee category to send its paid orders and recorded payments to Guesty. Confirm the category’s taxes and owner allocation in Guesty. Scheduled payments block automatic sync; reconcile refunds separately. Other PMS providers are not supported for this service-payment sync. Stay extensions use their own reservation sync.

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Translate and review the catalog

Set the service’s source language and add translations individually, or use Generate translations for all languages or only missing ones. Review the preview before saving. Manual translations remain unless you explicitly choose to replace them; missing translations fall back to the source content. The surrounding catalog and payment controls use the selected app or portal language, including its date and price formatting. Arabic and Hebrew layouts use right-to-left presentation.

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Follow the guest’s payment

Guests can change quantities and remove items before payment. Compatible services in the same currency can share one cart and Stripe checkout; different currencies require separate purchases. The checkout uses the account selected for that reservation, even when your workspace has several connected Stripe accounts. On supported devices, Stripe offers Apple Pay or Google Pay above the regular checkout button. Card payment and secure Stripe Checkout remain available. A successful payment records each service on the reservation timeline, and Stripe sends the receipt to the checkout email address.

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Service availability and request details

In Reservations > Services, configure the service type, eligible properties, minimum and maximum stay length, sales opening date, earliest confirmation date, and arrival or departure conflicts. Dates follow the property time zone. A service without valid rules, outside its booking window, or, for a paid service, without an available payment account is hidden. Portal, conversation, and workflow offers use the same checks. Existing payment requests must still meet the current rules. New service payments authorize the amount before a final availability check. An unavailable service is not captured. Requests still require your approval; reaching the confirmation date does not approve them automatically. Early check-in, late checkout, and stay extensions remain unavailable until calendar blocking, reservation updates and cleaning notifications can be guaranteed. Seasonal dates control whether the service appears in the catalog. A season can cross the year boundary. Choose workflow-only visibility for services that should be offered through a workflow rather than listed for every guest. Guests choose the quantity and supply any required note before continuing. Their payment total and retries retain those details.

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Saved cards and the payment drawer

Service and fee payments open in a drawer from the bottom of the guest portal. Guests can choose to save their card with Stripe and reuse it for later payments during the same stay, when those payments use the same payment account. Saving is optional. Each purchase still requires the guest to confirm payment.

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Manage service requests

Open Reservations > Requests and review each request’s status and details. Use the list or monthly calendar to plan the next action. The list includes the request date, reservation check-in date, and quoted total for the quantity requested. The calendar groups by request date, not delivery date, so check the service details before planning fulfillment. Approve or decline requests that need a decision, then track payment and mark delivered services as fulfilled. To review sales and performance, open Insights > Results > Upsells. Filter by date and property, and select an activity row to inspect its linked conversation.

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Review registration applications

Go to Reservations > Registration to review submitted registrations. The left side groups applications into To do, Approved, and Declined. Select an application to review the guest, property, stay, registered guests, and identity-verification evidence. For a manual identity check, review the submitted document and selfie, then approve or decline the application. Checks completed through a connected identity-verification service remain visible with the provider result and do not require a second manual decision.

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Review an individual guest portal from a reservation

Open a reservation from Reservations or Inbox to review its Guest Portal without leaving the reservation. The Guest Portal section appears only when that reservation already has a portal. Use the section to:

• Check whether the portal is active, when the guest last opened it, and which registration step needs attention.
• Review registration answers and uploaded files, download the signed rental agreement, and approve or reject a manual verification when required.
• Approve or decline service requests, mark paid services as fulfilled, and review relevant payment or deposit status.
• Review recent portal activity, open the guest preview, or copy the current link.

Link rotation immediately replaces the old link, and revocation disables guest access. Use those actions only when the current link should stop working. To create or configure reusable templates, go to Reservations > Guest Portal. The deposit row shows the authorization deadline when Stripe provides one, and View in Stripe opens that payment in the connected account. Expand Deposit history to review the latest 25 deposit events and their transaction links. An unknown deadline is shown explicitly; Trellis does not estimate it from a fixed number of days. Viewing the history never captures funds. Enable Renew before expiration in the security deposit settings to renew a hold 24 hours before its actual Stripe deadline when the stay still needs coverage. Trellis confirms and records the replacement before releasing the original. A refused authorization keeps the original hold and raises an alert in your configured workspace Slack channel, with a link to the reservation. An interrupted attempt resumes from the recorded transaction; it does not automatically capture funds. The option is off for existing configurations until enabled and published. Renewable holds are released after the property’s local checkout time and the configured release delay. If an operator has captured funds, Trellis leaves the refund decision to the operator.

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Review a blacklisted guest’s reservation

When a reservation is linked to a contact on the guest blacklist, a workspace administrator must review that reservation before its portal releases access details. Open the reservation, read the reason in Blacklisted guest — reservation review, and choose Approve access for this reservation or Deny access for this reservation. This review is available even before a guest portal is created. While the review is pending or rejected, the portal withholds entry codes, private check-in instructions, and Wi-Fi details. The AI concierge is also unavailable. The guest sees a neutral review message; the internal reason and blacklist label are not shared with them. Approval satisfies only this reservation’s blacklist review. Registration, identity verification, and access timing still apply. Each future booking needs its own review. Rejecting access keeps these details locked; it does not cancel the reservation.

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Clear and restart registration

Workspace administrators can open an active reservation’s Guest Portal and use the trash icon beside a submitted field, file, or registration step. Confirm the action to clear the selected data and reopen the affected step. Other answers and files remain available when only one item is removed. Use Reset registration to clear registration answers and uploads and restart the non-payment steps, including identity verification and agreement signing. Resets remove the previous host approval. Payments, deposits, and historical signed agreements are retained. Guests complete the reopened steps through their existing portal link.

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Send completion status to Guesty

In portal rules, turn off Mark checked in after registration when registration and physical arrival are separate. Completing the required steps still records registration completion; the reservation keeps its current status. Existing portals keep their previous behavior until this setting is changed and published. Guests can then confirm their arrival from the scheduled check-in time, after completing registration and any required verification. After arrival, they can confirm departure. Both actions require confirmation and are recorded in the reservation history. Guesty receives the current guest-stay status through a retryable update with readback verification; the booking dates and booking status are unchanged. Other PMS providers do not yet receive these guest-operated stay confirmations. In the portal PMS mappings, map Registration completed to a Guesty Boolean custom field. It becomes true when registration and any required manual review are complete. Incomplete, revoked, or expired portals return false. Configure your Guesty message conditions to use this field before sending arrival instructions. Creating the mapping does not change existing Guesty workflows.

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Test the guest journey

Before publishing, test a booking through registration, identity review, and the access-unlock time. Download the signed agreement and confirm that portal messages and Inbox replies appear on both sides. For payments, check the transaction and deposit status in the reservation; a saved card alone does not create a hold.

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Common problems

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Related articles

• Properties — maintain the source of guest instructions.
• House manuals — choose information for each audience.
• Inbox — answer portal messages and review the reservation.
• Workflows — automate supported follow-up steps.

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One service catalog

The Services page is available in all four portal phases, even when the catalog is empty. Reservations > Services and the portal builder share the same service list and editor. Manage the general Stripe account on the Services page. In the builder, set the page title, body, and cart option. Use each service’s eye action to hide or show it in the selected phase. Selecting a service opens its editor in the builder sidebar. Activating, deactivating, editing, or deleting a service updates the shared catalog.