// HOSPITALITY · VILLA RENTALS · BARBADOS
StayManager
Villa rentals that run themselves
Built for a villa rental business in Barbados. StayManager runs three booking sites from one system and handles the routine chasing of guests, owners' agents and drivers automatically, so the team steps in only when judgement is needed.
- Booking sites on one system
- 3
- Villas
- 39
- Manual jobs automated
- 10
- Automated tests
- 850+
// THE CHALLENGE
People Chasing People
Every villa booking depends on someone remembering to send a message. Miss one, and a guest waits, a driver stands at the airport, or a family books somewhere else. Before StayManager, the team's day went on being the glue between guests, owners' agents and drivers.
A typical day is one interruption after another
None of these is hard. Every one depends on a person noticing it at the right moment, and every one pulls the team away from the guests and owners in front of them.
- 07:10A driver asks which flight tonight's pickup is.
- 08:30Monday's availability request. The agent still hasn't replied.
- 09:15Is the pool fenced? The third time this week.
- 11:00A grocery list arrives by email, to be retyped.
- 13:40A flight is late. Phone the driver, the greeter, the guest.
- 15:20The owner wants more than the site showed. Call the guest.
- 16:00Who has paid? Chase the friends who haven't.
- 18:30Tomorrow's check-in details still need sending.
- 21:05A guest never finished paying. Did anyone follow up?
And on the guest's side of the same booking
Questions Wait for Days
A guest emails to ask whether the pool is fenced, then waits. By the time the answer comes, many have already booked somewhere else.
Flights Found Somewhere Else
The villa is on one site, the flights on another, with different dates. The cheaper week only turns up after the villa is booked.
Silence After Asking
A “no” that never reached the guest, or a payment page left open and forgotten. Either way, the guest hears nothing and books elsewhere.
One Card for the Whole Group
Villas are booked by groups and paid for by one person, who then spends weeks chasing the other families for their share.
Extras by Email
A driver, groceries, a boat trip: three more emails and three more payments for the guest, and three more threads for the team to keep straight.
Late Flight, Empty Arrivals Hall
The plane lands two hours late. The driver has given up, the greeter is waiting at the villa, and nobody told anyone.
// OUR SOLUTION
The System Sends the Messages
IntelOps built StayManager to do the remembering. It sends the reminders, re-times the pickups, chases the payments and asks the agents. The team sees one screen showing only what needs a person.
The Action Center, from the StayManager test system (sample data)
Ask this villa
Answers in Seconds, From the Villa's Own Facts
Every villa page carries a chat that answers from that villa's own details: beaches, pools, bedrooms, what's nearby. When it doesn't know, it says so plainly and passes the question to the team.
- Every staff answer is saved for the next guest who asks
- Name dates and it shows the real price, with “Book these dates”
- Questions it can't answer reach the team's inbox, not a void
Flights built in
The Flight, Right Under the Calendar
Guests used to find the villa on one site and the flights on another, with different dates. Now live fares sit under the booking calendar, for the whole party, in the guest's own currency.
- Only flights that land on check-in day
- A cheaper week suggested when the villa is free, with one tap to switch
- The guest still books the flight directly with the airline
One price
The Whole Trip, in One Checkout
An airport driver, groceries and a boat trip used to mean three more emails and three more payments. Now they are added to the villa and paid for together.
- Airport transfer both ways, in the right vehicle for the party
- A Basics pack sized to the group, waiting in the villa on arrival
- Experiences on a chosen day, with seats held
Split payment
Each Family Pays Its Own Share
Villas are booked by groups and too often paid for on one card. Now the organiser pays their share and the villa is confirmed; everyone else gets their own payment link.
- The other payers have 72 hours to pay their part
- Anything unpaid moves to the organiser, so the booking doesn’t stall
- Refunds are flagged to the team automatically
Agents in the loop
Owners' Agents Asked the Moment a Request Lands
For villas whose calendar lives with someone else, the owner's agent is asked straight away by email and WhatsApp, and their answer and price appear on the request.
- “Yes, free” or “Not available” in a single tap
- Silent for a day? A reminder. Two days? The team is told to call
- Every request shows exactly where it stands, and who it is waiting on
No surprise prices
The Guest Says Yes First
A higher price from the owner used to surface on a card statement, or in an awkward phone call. Now the guest sees the new total beside the old one and decides.
- Accept books it; “No thanks” closes it, with nothing charged
- The same price or cheaper books straight away
No lost bookings
Every Guest Hears Back, With a Reason to Stay
Every request gets an answer. A villa that isn't free comes with alternatives, and a booking that stalls at payment is followed up rather than forgotten.
- Not available: other villas free on the same dates, sized for the party
- Stopped at payment: the villa is held, with a time on it
- Hold lapsed: a next-morning note that the dates are still free
The guest portal
One Link for the Whole Stay, in the Operator's Brand
Door codes in a text, the menu in a PDF, directions in an old email. Now each booking gets one link, with no login, holding everything the stay needs.
- Arrival details, check-in time and a countdown
- Groceries ordered before they land, plus dining and experiences
- Messages, requests, deposit and balance in one place
Arrival follows the flight
The Flight Moves. Everything Moves With It.
Each guest's flight is tracked from 36 hours out. When it slips, the driver's pickup, the greeter and the check-in time are re-timed by the real drive to the villa, and the guest is told there is nothing for them to do. No phone calls from the team.
Drivers on WhatsApp
Every Driver Offered at Once. First Tap Wins.
Instead of messaging drivers one at a time, every available driver gets the job with the flight, time, party and pay. The first to accept gets it, everyone else is told it's taken, and reminders go out the evening before and two hours out.
A new job for Tue 12 Jan, 4:30 pm: AA1002 from MIA, airport to the villa in St James, 4 people. Pay: BBD 120. First to accept gets it.
WhatsApp one-tap replies for agents and drivers are being switched on as Meta approves each message template.
// BUSINESS IMPACT
From Chasing to Checking
Each of these used to be a message someone had to remember. Now the system sends it, and a person steps in only when judgement is needed.
// A LATE FLIGHT
The plane is two hours late. Nobody on the team picks up the phone.
This used to mean calls to the driver, the greeter and the guest, and too often a family landing to an empty arrivals hall. Here is the same afternoon with StayManager running it.
14:05
The Flight Slips
AA1002 now lands at 16:50. Tracked from 36 hours out, the delay is picked up within half an hour.
14:06
The Pickup Is Moved
The airport pickup is re-timed to 17:35 and the driver is told.
14:06
Greeter and Check-In Follow
Both are re-timed by the real drive time from the airport to the villa.
14:07
The Guest Is Told
“Nothing for you to do.” The family knows it's handled.
16:52
Welcome to Barbados
The guest is told their driver is waiting in arrivals.
Jobs nobody does by hand any more
- Answering everyday questions about a villa
- Asking owners' agents if dates are free
- Chasing an agent who hasn't replied
- Telling a guest a villa isn't free, with options
- Following up a guest who didn't pay
- Collecting each friend's share of the bill
- Pricing and booking airport transfers
- Finding a driver for each job
- Re-timing pickups when flights slip
- Sending check-in details and reminders
// TECHNICAL ARCHITECTURE
One System Behind Every Site
One property management system serves three booking sites through a versioned public API, with each client's branding applied on the way out.
One Property Management System
StayManager is the operator's back office: bookings, villas, owners, payments, guest messages and day-to-day operations in one place. Built on TanStack Start and Supabase, with row-level security deciding who can see what.
Three Sites, One Source of Truth
Three booking sites read villas, prices and availability from StayManager through one public API. Nothing is copied between systems, so a change made once shows everywhere.
A Versioned Contract, Checked Automatically
The API carries a version number and each site declares the fields it relies on. An automatic check in every site fails if the two drift apart, long before a guest could see a broken page.
Owner Details Behind a Firewall
For management companies that keep their owners' details to themselves, owners sit behind a firewall: the database refuses to record an owner's name, contacts or documents against those villas at all, rather than relying on the screens to hide them.
Branded per Client
The guest portal, emails and sender name carry the operator's own logo and colours. Guests see the operator's brand throughout, never the software behind it.
Integrations That Do the Chasing
WiPay for card payments, MailerSend for email, WhatsApp for one-tap replies, live flight tracking for arrivals, Google Flights fares on the villa pages, and Claude through the Vercel AI Gateway for the villa chat and search.
Daily Automated Site Checks
Every booking site is checked against the live system each day, so a missing price or a contract out of step is flagged to us rather than discovered by a guest.
850+ Automated Tests
More than 850 automated tests cover the platform, including the rules that move money and send messages on the operator's behalf.
A villa page on a live booking site, served by StayManager's public API
Integrations & Tech Stack
// RESULTS
Live, Tested and Running the Business
StayManager runs a Barbados villa business today: the booking sites, the back office and the guest portal, on one system.
Booking Sites
All served by one system
Villas
Managed in StayManager across the sites
Manual Jobs Automated
Messages someone used to have to remember to send
Automated Tests
Covering the platform, including the rules that move money
—
Guest Response Time
Time from a guest's question to an answer, before and after
—
Hours Saved per Week
Team time no longer spent chasing guests, agents and drivers
—
Bookings Recovered
Declined or unpaid requests that went on to book
For operators and owners
The Operator's Brand on Everything
The guest portal, emails and sender name carry the operator's logo and colours. Guests never see the software behind it.
Owners' Details Stay Private
Where a management company keeps its owners to itself, owners' details sit behind a firewall the system will not cross.
An Owner Portal
Owners see their bookings, calendar and maintenance, and ask for their own weeks, without a phone call.
Fewer Empty Nights
Gaps in the calendar are spotted and offered as deals the operator approves. Lapsed and declined guests are brought back.
// NEXT STEPS
Is Your Team Still Doing the Chasing?
Whether you run villas, rentals or any business where the day disappears into follow-ups — let's talk about which of those messages a system could send for you.
3 Sites
One System
10 Jobs
Now Automated
850+
Automated Tests