List your property — Hostaway
Become a Smiling House partner via Hostaway.
If you manage your portfolio through Hostaway, you can distribute your finest homes on Smiling House through the Smiling House channel. Tell us about your portfolio, and our onboarding team sets up the connection with you — from then on your content, rates and availability stay in sync, and you keep managing everything in Hostaway. Smiling House is request-to-book, so you keep the final say on every reservation.
This page is for professional property managers who already use Hostaway. One conversation is enough to put your finest homes in front of an audience most channels never reach.
Read the setup guideOn a different system?
Smiling House connects to every major property management stack. If part of your portfolio lives elsewhere, these connections work the same way.
Why partner with Smiling House
Affluent, high-intent guests
Our travellers actively seek exceptional private homes and the service that surrounds them. These are discerning guests ready to book the right property, not casual browsers.
Higher booking values
Luxury stays command premium nightly rates and longer bookings, so each reservation tends to carry more value than a typical short-term rental.
Homes & Villas by Marriott distribution
As a preferred partner of Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy, we extend your reach to one of the most trusted affluent audiences in global travel.
Villa Tracker B2B exposure
Your homes are also promoted through Villa Tracker, our B2B platform, reaching travel designers, luxury agents and concierges who source private stays for high-budget clients.
You keep control
Because Smiling House works request-to-book, you keep control and the high-touch relationship your properties deserve. Every reservation is confirmed by you.
Deliberately selective
Smiling House is deliberately selective, which is exactly what protects the value of the channel — homes of five or more rooms with breathtaking settings, private luxury amenities and beyond-five-star hospitality.
Request to book, or Instant Book
Every Smiling House partner starts on request-to-book: a guest asks, you decide. Instant Book is optional, and you can turn it on or off at any time, for one property or all of them. The only thing that changes is who confirms the reservation — your rates, your calendar and your house rules stay yours in both.
| How it works | Request to book | Instant Book |
|---|---|---|
| Who confirms | You do. Every reservation waits for your approval. | Your rules do. A qualified guest confirms and pays in real time. |
| What the guest sees | They send a request, then wait for your answer. | They book the way they would a fine hotel — confirmed on the spot. |
| Your calendar | Nothing is blocked until you accept. | Blocked the moment a booking confirms, synced straight back to your PMS. |
| What it asks of you | A prompt reply. The longer a request sits, the more of them fall away. | Nothing day to day — but your pricing and availability have to be right. |
| Best suited to | Homes with staff to brief, bespoke terms, or tight turnarounds. | Homes with settled pricing and availability you already trust. |
| Changing your mind | Turn Instant Book on whenever you are ready. | Turn it off at any time, per property or across your portfolio. |
How to connect Hostaway to Smiling House
Introduce your portfolio
Complete the short form with your Hostaway details and the homes you would like to distribute. There is no obligation in starting the conversation.
We set up the connection
Our onboarding team connects your Hostaway account to the Smiling House channel with you — one setup, no re-entering listings by hand.
Review, sync and go live
Once your properties are approved against our collection standards, your content, rates and availability stay in sync, and you manage everything from Hostaway as usual.
Setup guide — connect Hostaway to Smiling House
If you already manage your properties with Hostaway, connecting them to Smiling House takes two short steps. Your listings, calendars, rates and reservations then sync automatically, and you carry on managing everything from your Hostaway dashboard.
This is the full procedure. It replaces the guide previously published at smilinghouse.ch/help/hostaway.
Before you begin
- An active Hostaway account containing the properties you would like to distribute through Smiling House.
- Your personalised Smiling House connection link, sent to you by email — it begins with https://dashboard.villatracker.com/connect/
No connection link yet? Submit the form on this page, or email partners@smilinghouse.ch and we will send you one.
Generate your Hostaway API credentials
Sign in to your Hostaway dashboard, open the Marketplace and search for Smiling House. Click Connect, then Create to generate your API credentials.
- Copy your Account ID — a numbers-only value.
- Copy your API Secret Key.
Your API Secret Key is displayed only once. Save it somewhere secure before you leave the page — if you lose it, generate a new one and start this step again.
Connect to Smiling House
Open your personalised Smiling House connection link and select the Log in to Hostaway tab. Enter your Account ID and API Secret Key, then click Connect to Hostaway.
- We validate your credentials directly with Hostaway.
- On success the page shows Connected, and your properties begin syncing straight away.
Review and go live
Our curation team reviews the imported homes against our collection standards, typically within a few business days. We confirm once each property is approved and live on Smiling House.
Need help?
The connection failed
Check that your Account ID contains numbers only, and that no extra spaces were included when you pasted the API Secret Key. If you no longer have the key, generate a new one in Hostaway and try again — old keys stop working as soon as a new one is created.
My connection link has expired
Connection links are single-use and time-limited. Email partners@smilinghouse.ch and we will send you a fresh one.
I want to disconnect my account
You can revoke the API key at any time from Settings → Hostaway API inside Hostaway, or contact partners@smilinghouse.ch and we will disconnect it for you.
Some of my properties have not appeared
Only the homes that meet our collection standards are published. We review every imported property and confirm the outcome for each one, so you always know where each home stands. If a property is still missing after we have confirmed approval, contact the partnerships team.
Questions, answered
How does the Hostaway connection work?
You keep Hostaway as your system of record. After you introduce your portfolio, our onboarding team sets up the connection between your Hostaway account and the Smiling House channel with you. From then on your listing content, photos, rates and availability stay in sync — there is no separate extranet to maintain.
Who approves my properties, and how long does it take?
Our curation team reviews every submitted home against our collection standards, typically within a few business days. We will confirm once your homes are approved and the connection is live, so you always know where each property stands.
Do I keep control of pricing and availability?
Yes. You continue to manage rates and availability in Hostaway, and they stay in sync with Smiling House. Because we operate request-to-book, every reservation is confirmed by you, so you retain full control over who stays in your homes.
What does it cost to list through Hostaway?
Smiling House works on a transparent, commission-based model, so there is no upfront fee to connect. Exact terms depend on your properties and setup, and our team will walk you through them before anything goes live.
How often do rates and availability sync?
Continuously once the connection is live. Updates you make in Hostaway flow through to the Smiling House channel, so there is no manual re-entry and no second calendar to maintain. Changes typically reflect on Smiling House shortly after you make them.
Ready to connect?
Connecting Hostaway to the Smiling House channel starts with one short form. Our team will review your properties, set up the connection with you and confirm when your homes are live.