The short answer
Hostaway's review automation writes and requests reviews on the booking channels — Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com — but it does not ask guests for Google reviews, which is where travelers and owners searching your company name actually look. ReviewNudger connects to Hostaway with an API key you create yourself and, when a stay's checkout hour passes, sends the guest one neutral text or email with a one-tap link to your Google review form.
Channel reviews are not Google reviews
A property manager with 40 listings can have a thousand five-star Airbnb reviews and a Google Business Profile with eleven. The two never meet: channel reviews live on the channel, attached to a listing, and are invisible to the owner comparing management companies on Google Maps or the returning guest who searches your brand to book direct. Your Google profile is the one place your whole company is judged at once — and it is usually the thinnest.
Hostaway is excellent at the channel side: automated review requests and auto-written host reviews for Airbnb, Booking.com, and Vrbo. It simply does not ask for Google reviews, and the guest-messaging templates that could are sent through the channel inbox, where Airbnb masks contact details. That is the gap ReviewNudger fills.
How the checkout trigger works
You create an API key in Hostaway (Settings › Hostaway API, partner "Hostaway Public API") and paste the Account ID and key into ReviewNudger — no OAuth screen, no Marketplace approval to wait on. ReviewNudger then checks your active listings and reservations every few minutes, using each listing's timezone and checkout hour, and treats a stay as finished the moment its checkout instant passes.
A finished stay with a real guest email or phone gets one neutral review request by text or email after the delay you choose — that afternoon, or the next morning — with a one-tap link to your Google review form. Cancelled bookings, owner stays, and inquiries never trigger anything; stays that ended before you connected are never backfilled; and each stay asks at most once, with your cooldown governing repeat guests. Delivery status, opt-outs, and review click-through are tracked on every request.
Every departed guest with a reachable address gets the same ask. Filtering to the guests you expect to be happy is review gating — against Google policy and the FTC consumer-review rule — and the public review link is always present on the landing page.
Which guests can actually be asked
Airbnb relays guest email through a proxy address and expires relay phone numbers shortly after checkout, so an Airbnb-only reservation usually carries no reachable contact. ReviewNudger treats relay-domain emails as absent and records those stays as skipped with the reason, rather than texting a dead number. Direct bookings, Vrbo, and Booking.com reservations typically carry a real email or phone and are where the Google reviews come from — which is also why many managers pair this with a push to direct bookings.
Frequently asked questions
Will this interfere with Hostaway’s own review automation?
No. Hostaway keeps handling Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com reviews exactly as configured. ReviewNudger only asks for Google reviews, from the guest's real contact details, after checkout. The two never overlap because the channels do not accept Google reviews and Google does not accept channel reviews.
Do I need the Hostaway Marketplace or a partner approval?
No. Any Hostaway account can create an API key under Settings › Hostaway API; that key is all ReviewNudger needs. Hostaway shows the key only once, so copy it when you create it.
What about a guest who books through Airbnb?
If the reservation carries only an Airbnb relay email and no phone, nothing is sent and the stay is recorded as skipped with the reason. If the guest gave a real phone or email (common on direct, Vrbo, and Booking.com stays), they are asked like any other guest.
When exactly is the request sent?
When the reservation's checkout hour passes in the listing's timezone, plus the delay you set. Most managers send the same afternoon or the next morning, while the trip is still fresh. A stay that is cancelled after departure and read before its checkout hour is never asked.