How we become the expert on your home without setting foot in it

The set-up form for a new home takes about 35 minutes. It is the longest thing we ever ask an owner to do, and it's the reason we rarely have to ask them anything after.

Owners sometimes expect a co-host to work like a call center: a message comes in, someone looks at a script, and anything not on the script gets forwarded to you. That's the model we built VCoHost to avoid. A call center knows the script. We know the house. The difference is entirely in what we learn up front and how we hold onto it, so this post is about that, and about what it asks of you.

The rule for what we ask, and when

Everything we need from an owner falls on one side of a line.

Before go-live, we need everything that goes on the listing or in the house guide. Which door, how the lock works, where guests park, who sleeps where, what the home has, what you keep stocked, the house rules. A guest will ask about every one of those in the first week, so they have to be in place on day 1.

After go-live, we need what helps us troubleshoot. Where the breaker panel is, what size the furnace filter takes, who services the hot tub, when to send someone to the house and how much to spend. None of that is urgent. Each one saves a call or a guest question later, and you can fill it in from the couch over the first month.

That split is why onboarding takes 3 to 5 days instead of 3 weeks. We don't hold the calendar hostage for the filter size.

Part 1: set-up details, about 35 minutes

This is the one that opens the day your Airbnb is connected. Most of it is taps, not typing, because we start with what Airbnb already told us: bedrooms, bathrooms, how many it sleeps, the amenities on your listing. You confirm or correct.

Then the questions a guest would ask. How to get there, where the nearest grocery stop is, parking, how guests get in and how the door and lock behave, anything tricky about the entry. Who sleeps where, how the heat and air work. A checklist of 74 things a home might have, pre-ticked from your listing, so you're mostly unticking the fire pit you don't own. What you keep stocked. Your rules, your checkout instructions, any HOA rules. Your cleaner. Your local contact. The permit and the insurance.

Every answer lands in 2 places: the listing, where it fills gaps guests see before they book, and the house guide, where our AI assistant, built on Claude by Anthropic, reads from when a guest asks. You answer "the thermostat is the round dial in the hall, turn right for heat" once. Every guest for the next 5 years gets that answer in under 5 minutes, and you never see the question.

Part 2: help us help your guests, about 20 minutes

This one is open from day 1 and stays open forever. Owners fill it in over the first month, usually in 2 or 3 sittings.

It starts with 5 decisions. When to send someone to the home. Your repair limit. Guest credits. Early check-in. Late checkout. Until you set them, we follow the Terms and ask you each time, which is fine for a week and tiresome for a year. Most owners set all 5 in about 2 minutes once they see the questions, and from then on a guest asking for a 1 pm check-in gets an answer in your rules without a text to you.

Then restocking and a backup cleaner, which we recommend having before you need one. Home services, if they apply: who does the hot tub, the lawn, the snow. How you'd like the house guide to look. And "how things work," which is the catch-all for the dishwasher door that needs a firm push and the fireplace that lights on the second try.

Part 3: the walkthrough, about 15 minutes at the house

Someone at the house, you or your local contact or your cleaner, walks it with their phone. Photos of the lock, the lockbox, the thermostats, the router, the remotes, the trash bins, the driveway. The step count from the car to the door. The alarms and extinguishers. The filter, bulb and battery sizes.

It isn't a blocker; we can go live without it. But it's where the troubleshooting answers come from. A guest says the smoke alarm is chirping at 1 am. If we know it takes a 9-volt and there's a spare in the hall closet, that's a 3-minute message. If we don't, it's a text to your local contact.

Then we stop asking

Here is the part that matters. Once a fact is in, it's in. The first time a guest asks something none of the 3 parts covered, we ask you, and the answer goes into what we know about the home. The second time, we answer it. You will never get the same question twice from us.

Over the first few weeks that means a handful of messages from us, each one about something only you knew. After that, quiet. In the homes we run, the owner's inbox from us settles down to a monthly statement and the rare thing that needs hands at the house.

What you'll see

Your page with us keeps a short list called "What we need from you." On the day you go live it might show 2 cards: the 5 decisions, and the "help us help your guests" sections you haven't opened. As you finish them they move to a "Done" line with a link to change your answer. Most owners clear the list in the first month. Then the list is empty, and it mostly stays that way.

About 70 minutes of your answers, spread over a month, is the price of never being the help desk again.

The house doesn't change much. Once we know it, we know it.