Book regulars, one-offs and Airbnb turnarounds
Quick summary
- A booking here is a regular house, a one-off, or an Airbnb turnaround — three different visits, three different lengths.
- Ask which of the three it is before anyone names a time. A checkout window is not a free afternoon.
- A regular Tuesday already occupies that morning. A same-day short-let cannot land on it.
- For a short-let it asks checkout and next check-in, then the area, then only offers inside that window.
- An unseen deep clean gets rooms and a callback, not a short time chosen to be helpful.
- The SMS goes out after the visit is in the book, in the language of the call. No book, no text.
TL;DR
Someone rings to keep a Tuesday, to book a move-out, or to get a short-let done between checkout and the next guest. Those are three different visits. The person who would write them down has gloves on, or both hands on the wheel. The assistant asks regular house, one-off or Airbnb first, then takes the facts that belong to that job, then looks at the calendar you already use. It writes a visit only if that book shows a free stretch that fits. It does not invent how long a deep clean takes. It does not put a turnaround on a morning a regular already occupies. The confirmation text goes out after the book is written, in the language of the call — 70+ languages.
Key takeaways
- Write the first question as regular house, one-off, or short-let turnaround. Nothing useful goes into the book before that.
- Connect the calendar you already use. A visit is written only when that book shows a free stretch of the right length.
- For a short-let, ask checkout and next check-in, then the area. Offer only inside that window.
- Mark the days a regular already occupies, including August pauses, so a same-day host cannot take that morning.
- A move is one change: find the visit, release it, place the new stretch. A guest who stays another night is a new window, not a leftover Thursday.
- A cancel has to go back on the book the same hour, or the next host is told you are full and the morning is empty.
Three visits, and you cannot write them from a kitchen
Someone rings to put a visit in the book. You are halfway through a bathroom. Gloves are on. The phone is face-down at the far edge of the worktop. You cannot write a Tuesday and finish a kitchen at the same time.
The caller does not want a time of day first. They want the usual Tuesday kept, or a Friday move-out, or the flat done after checkout and before the next guest. Those are three different things to write down. An assistant that opens with “what time would you like?” has already chosen the wrong morning.
A regular needs the house that is already on the list, and a day that has to stay free every week. A one-off needs rooms, whether anyone has seen the house, and a length that is honest. A turnaround needs both ends of the window, then the area. Mix them and you have a three-hour after-builders job on a morning that already has two weekly houses, or a next guest walking into a wet bathroom.
This is the booking work on a cleaning phone in Greece: the usual day, a house nobody has seen, or a window.
Regular, one-off, or Airbnb — then the facts
That is the order. Nothing goes into the book until the assistant knows which of the three it is. Time of day is not the first question. “Can you do today?” is not the first question either, not until it knows this is a short-let and what the window is.
Regular house. Same day, often the same person, a time the household already plans around. The assistant can offer the usual day once it knows that house is on the list. A new regular is not a one-off that happens to come back. It is a day that has to stay free every week, so it must not be filled with a same-day short-let the first time a host sounds urgent.
One-off. Move-out, deep clean, after builders, a house nobody on your list has seen. A two-bedroom wipe and an after-builders flat with paint dust are two different visits. The assistant asks which, then how many rooms, then the area, and only then looks at times that fit. If nobody has seen the house, it does not pick the short time to be helpful.
Airbnb turnaround. A window, not an afternoon. Checkout at eleven and a next guest at three is the job. The assistant asks both times before it offers anything. It asks the area, because a one-hour gap on the calendar is not a one-hour job if the last house was across the city. It only offers a stretch that starts after checkout and ends before check-in. If that stretch is not free, it takes a callback. It does not slide the visit onto a morning a regular already occupies.
A single call can hold two of these. “Can you do my usual Tuesday, and also a turnaround this afternoon in the same building?” is a regular and a short-let. Hear both. Write both. Confirm neither until the book has spoken.
Write the first question the way you would for someone new on the phone. One sentence. Regular, one-off, or turnaround. Skip it and the wrong morning goes in.
A regular Tuesday is not a gap
A house that has been Tuesday at nine for a year is work. The assistant may offer that usual day once it has the name or the address. It may not offer that morning to a host because the host sounded more urgent.
A new regular has to be written as a repeating day, not as a one-off you hope comes back. If you leave it as a single Tuesday, next week looks empty and a turnaround will take it.
A house that pauses for August should be marked as paused. If the file still defends every Tuesday in August, hosts who needed those mornings are sent away. If the file forgets the pause, you drive to a door that has been locked since the first of the month.
When a regular rings to skip this week, that is a cancel of one visit, not the end of the house. Find the visit. Free the stretch. Keep the series. Then the next inbound turnaround can be offered that morning if the area fits.
Do not let the assistant turn “are you coming tomorrow?” into a new booking. They already have a day. The honest answers are yes, the usual time, or no, you marked them paused. Opening a second Tuesday for the same house blocks a morning you still need.
A one-off is rooms, then a look
Move-out, deep clean, after builders. The assistant may speak a day only after it has the kind of one-off, the rooms, and the area, and only if a stretch of the right length is free. It may not speak a number for a house nobody has stood in. It can repeat a listed weekly or a listed turnaround you already do. Unseen work is rooms, access, and a look or a callback. If you do not do after-builders or ironing, say so. A caller who asks for an invoice is a request, not a tax question.
A turnaround is a window, not an afternoon
Checkout at eleven. Next guest at three. That is the whole job. An assistant that answers with Thursday at 16:00 has not heard the checkout.
Ask both times. Ask the area. Then look at the book. Offer only a stretch that starts after checkout and ends before check-in, with enough time for the drive from the last house. A one-hour gap on the calendar is not a one-hour job if the last kitchen was on the other side of the city.
If the guest is still inside, the assistant books from checkout, not from “this morning”. Arriving while they are packing is how a turnaround starts late.
If that stretch is not free, it says so. It offers the next window that fits, or it takes a callback. It does not say “we’ll squeeze it in” over a Tuesday that already has a regular. It does not invent a second person who does not exist on your list.
A weekly at nine and a turnaround at eleven only works if the first house is near the second and the first visit actually ends. The assistant should not guess the drive.
Keys, lockboxes, and a code nobody should invent
If the door does not open, the visit does not start. A regular often leaves a lockbox or a porter key. A host often texts a code that changes with the guest. A move-out may still have the tenant inside until noon.
The assistant repeats the access rule you wrote. It can ask where the keys are. It must not suggest a mat, a plant pot, or a neighbour. New houses with no access note are a callback. The confirmation may repeat the access you already have. It may not invent one so the text looks finished.
Extras change the length
Ironing, ovens and windows change how long the visit takes. If the caller wants them added to a weekly, the assistant notes it and only keeps the usual day if you said that day still fits. A turnaround plus the oven is not the listed turnaround length. If it no longer fits before check-in, keep the window and change the length, or take a callback. A missed glass is a complaint, not a free redo from the phone. A product question is a request. The assistant does not name a bottle.
Moving the visit is one change
Find the visit. Release the old stretch. Write the new one. Then text. That is one change, in that order.
Split it — cancel first, then hunt — and their own Tuesday still sits there, and the assistant tells them Wednesday is the only gap. Or worse, tells them Tuesday is full.
The new stretch still has to exist. A regular moving from Tuesday to Thursday is not the same as a turnaround moving because the guest stayed another night. The assistant asks what changed, then looks at the book, then offers. If the new stretch is not free, the old one stays until they agree to let it go.
A guest who extends one more night is a different same-day call. The turnaround moves. The assistant takes the new checkout and looks again. It does not leave Wednesday booked and Thursday empty. It does not invent a change fee.
Test a move on a real name before it runs on the book you use. Pick a regular who already has Tuesday. Ask to shift it by one day. Watch whether their own morning blocks them. If it does, fix the order.
A cancel has to go back on the book
People ring in the morning to say they do not need tomorrow. On a book of regulars and short-lets that is often a stretch you can still give to a host, if the book shows it as free before the next “can you do today”.
A cancel that sits in a notebook, or in a transcript for the evening, is a morning the next host is told you do not have. They ring the next crew. At six you have an empty Tuesday and a full book on paper.
The assistant writes the cancel into the same book it writes visits into, the same hour. Then the next person who asks for that stretch can be offered it. A cancel after the last house is still worth taking — you would rather not drive to a locked door — but it is not a refill you should promise after dark.
Say the cancel notice you actually use when the visit is written. Do not let the assistant describe a charge you will not make. A rule you do not enforce is a sentence that will be read back to you at the door.
What the confirmation may say
The text goes out after the visit is in the book. Day, time, kind of visit, area. The language of the call. A caller who rang in English gets the text in English. A caller who rang in Greek gets it in Greek. The assistant works in 70+ languages and follows the one they started in.
A look that is still a request does not belong in that text as if Friday at nine is sold. “We have noted a deep clean and someone will confirm” is honest. “See you Friday at nine” is not, not until the book has a stretch.
Access can go on the same message if you already wrote it for that house — lockbox, porter, building code. Do not send a code for a house that was never written. Do not invent a hiding place so the text looks complete.
If the book cannot be reached, there is no text. A callback is not a confirmation. You finish it between houses.
What you set up first
Put the assistant on the number on the cards with a forward-on-no-answer rule, so a pull-over between houses still takes the call. Then:
- The first split. Regular house, one-off, short-let turnaround. One sentence, the way you would say it if you had pulled over.
- The calendar you already use. Days the regulars occupy, August pauses, areas you cover. A visit is written only when that book shows the stretch.
- The checkout question. Both ends of the window, then the area. No offer outside it.
- Lengths that are true, including the drive, and which extras change them. After-builders if you take them. Ironing if you do not.
- Published figures it may repeat, and nothing else. No one-off figure in the notes it would read out.
- How a move and a cancel are written back into the same book, including the guest who stays another night.
- The access rule it may ask and may repeat. One line that forbids an invented hiding place.
- One line that forbids a price, a redo, or a product from the phone.
Then read the first fifty visits yourself. Kind of job, window or rooms, area, whether a regular’s morning was defended, whether an extra still fit. You are looking for the work nobody entered: the drive, the oven, the August pause, the checkout that was treated as a free afternoon.
Rates for the service live on the pricing section of the home page. They are not repeated here.
AI receptionist, in-house staff, or a call centre
| CITT | In-house | Call centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| First question | Regular, one-off, or Airbnb | Yes — they can hear it | Often jumps to what time |
| Checkout and next check-in | Asks, then only offers inside the window | Yes — they know the next guest | Treats it as a free afternoon |
| Tuesday regular already on the list | Leaves that morning alone | Yes, if they remember the list | Books over it |
| Unseen after-builders | Rooms, then a look or a callback | Can go and look | Books the short gap |
| Guest stays another night | New window, old visit released | Yes, if they rewrite the list | Two notes, often the old time kept |
| Cancel written back | Same hour, morning on offer again | If they can reach the book | A message for the evening |
| Sends the confirmation | SMS, after the visit exists | If they remember between houses | Sometimes |
What a cancel is worth if Tuesday never goes back on the book
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- A weekday book of regular houses and short-lets. Put your own mix in.
- About 3 phone cancels a week with at least a day's notice — a regular who went to the island, a host whose guest extended, a move-out that slipped. Check your own week.
- A morning you can refill with a two-bedroom turnaround is worth about €65 to you. YOUR figure will differ, and this is the number to change first.
- If the cancel is written back the same hour, the next inbound host can be offered that stretch. This example assumes 2 of those 3 would have been refilled. Change that if yours is lower.
- Not every cancel is a morning you could have sold again. Keep the 2 if that is honest; drop it if it is not.
- 3 cancels reach the phone in a week. 2 of them could have been a same-day or next-day turnaround if the stretch was free in the book.
- Those 2 mornings stay empty because the cancel sat in a notebook, so the next host was told you were full and rang the next crew.
- 2 × €65 = €130 of empty mornings in one week.
- Put the weeks you actually run this mix — 40 × €130 is only the sum if both numbers are yours.
About €5,200 a year from cancels you already heard about and never put back on the book. Change the €65 and the two refills before you trust it.
What it costs
CITT is pay as you go: no packages, no minimum, no contract. The current rates — the monthly fee per number and the per-minute rate — are on the pricing section of the home page, which is the only place they are published.
Frequently asked questions
Can it tell a caller the visit is booked?
It can write the visit only if the calendar you connected shows a free stretch of the right length, in that area, inside the window they named. If the book is silent, slow, or down, it takes the job type, the area, and a number, and leaves the yes to you. A text that goes out before the book is written is how two houses claim the same morning.
They want a turnaround and they also want the oven. What happens?
That is a visit plus an extra. The assistant has to hear both. The turnaround is checked against the window and the book. The oven changes how long the visit takes. If the usual turnaround length no longer fits before check-in, it does not keep the old time in hope. It takes a callback or offers a stretch that actually fits.
The guest is staying another night. Is that a new booking?
No. That is a change to a turnaround that already exists. The assistant finds the visit, takes the new checkout, and looks again. It does not leave Wednesday booked and Thursday empty. It does not invent a change fee. You decide what that change costs after you have seen it.
Can it move a regular who has been on Tuesday for a year?
Yes, as one change: find the house, release Tuesday, place the new day only if that day is free and is not already a regular you cannot move. A new regular is not a one-off that happens to come back. The usual day has to stay free every week, so it must not be filled with a same-day short-let the first time a host sounds urgent.
Who sends the confirmation?
The assistant, by SMS, in the language of the call, and only after the visit is in the book. An unseen deep clean that is still a look does not get a sentence that sounds like Friday at nine is sold. No visit in the book, no text. A reminder the evening before is useful when a host has to leave keys.
We do not do Airbnb. Does the first question still matter?
Yes. People still ring and ask. The assistant has to know you do not take short-lets, say so, and keep that call from becoming a regular Tuesday it was never meant to be. The first split is still regular house, one-off, or turnaround. Turnaround then ends in a clear no, not in a hopeful “we will see”.
