Insights hub: explore the latest in work, AI, and innovation in our blog posts and case studies
350+ STR leaders met in Carlsbad for IMN's Short Term Rental Summer. Here's a full recap of what got discussed on M&A, revenue strategy, direct bookings, AI, and regulation.
PMS platforms are shipping their own "free" AI guest agents. The question to ask first isn't how smart it is — it's whose it is.
Booking a walk-in is easy. The corporate guest is the hard half.
Heading to IMN's Short Term Rental Summer Forum in Carlsbad — our journey mirrors what every STR operator faces: mega-event pricing, crisis-readiness, and group bookings that move faster than manual processes can keep up.
Learn what hospitality teams should look for in an AI employee that can support guest communication, reservations, payments, booking changes, and upsell opportunities.
Una is not another chatbot or dashboard for your team to manage. She is a digital employee that works inside the tools hospitality teams already use, connecting context, channels, and action across the operation.
Most hotels lose group bookings not at the proposal — but at the follow-up, the payment chase, and the rooming list. Here's where the process breaks, and why it keeps happening.
Una by Polydom can now manage group reservation flows in Apaleo: checking availability, building multi-room packages, explaining rates and sending booking links.
AI visibility is real, but not magic. Here’s what hotels can actually control: clean data, bookable paths, and operations ready to convert demand.
How Una helps Martyn Cooper’s serviced apartment team respond faster, reduce after-hours pressure, and protect the human side of hospitality.
PMS-native AI is now real — Guesty Autopilot, Hospitable, Hostaway all ship inbox automation as standard. So the question has moved. It's no longer can the AI reply to a guest. It's can the AI operate across the real stack you already run. Five gaps that show up at every multi-channel STR operation past 50 units, and what to ask vendors before you sign.
AI can handle most guest conversations, but revenue still leaks through weak handoffs, cleaning failures, rigid pricing, and missed upsell opportunities.
Short-term rentals may look like hospitality, but they operate as coordination businesses. This post explains why deploying AI in STR is far harder than in hotels, and where most operators break down.
Most hospitality AI looks impressive in a demo, but the real test happens at 3 AM, when a guest is locked out, stressed, and calling for help. This piece lays out four practical tests to separate polished chatbot demos from operational AI that can actually handle overnight guest problems.
An analytical overview of how Guesty integration improves Una’s performance across direct booking, guest messaging, escalation, and day-to-day hospitality operations.
PMS integration alone does not create a strong booking experience. This article examines why structure, content, and escalation rules matter just as much as live rates and availability.
Helge Capital, a serviced apartments operator with 200+ units, adopted UNA to improve response speed, support after-hours guest communication, and reduce time spent on unqualified inbound leads. The result was a more responsive front line, stronger team focus, and measurable support for occupancy.
Discover how the Una by Polydom and Guesty integration helps property managers automate guest communication, support direct bookings, reduce manual work, and improve guest experience.
Hospitality AI does not need more settings. It needs a trainer layer that lets operators coach behavior naturally, apply safe changes, and route deeper updates with governance.
In hospitality AI, the hardest question is not how the assistant should respond, but when it should stop helping. This piece explores why the real challenge is teaching AI to distinguish between helping, escalating, and politely refusing.
Why AI agents break when you add new channels. From email reply storms to voice loops and WhatsApp bans, every channel has its own failure modes, and omnichannel AI is really multiple products, not one.
AI in hospitality is shifting from copilots to autopilots. Hotels and short-term rental operators no longer need more recommendations, alerts, or dashboards — they need AI that can execute bookings, guest communication, housekeeping coordination, rate changes, and routine operations automatically. This article explains why legacy hotel software cannot support true automation and how Polydom’s Una is built for end-to-end hospitality operations.
What is Una by Polydom? This FAQ explains how Una goes beyond a hotel chatbot or virtual concierge by helping hospitality teams manage guest communication, booking workflows, task dispatch, and controlled operational execution across their existing systems.
Una by Polydom is an AI digital employee for hotels and vacation rentals—not just a chatbot. Learn how Una integrates with PMSs (Apaleo, Guesty, Mews, Hospitable, Clock PMS+, Profitroom, Zeevou), guest messaging channels, and task tools to handle bookings and requests end-to-end.
Una by Polydom is an AI digital employee for hospitality. She answers guest messages across phone, WhatsApp, web chat, and email—and can help automate bookings and operational tasks 24/7.
WhatsApp and web chat are essential—but they only become transformative when they’re connected to real execution. A simple bot can reduce a slice of FAQs. A digital employee can reduce operational workload and protect revenue by handling the work behind the messages.
A practical buyer’s guide to selecting an AI chatbot or virtual concierge for hotels and vacation rentals—what to look for, red flags, and why Una (AI digital employee) goes beyond chat.
Meet Una by Polydom—an AI digital employee for hotels and vacation rentals. Unlike typical “hotel chatbots,” Una doesn’t just answer questions: she operates your systems to handle guest messages 24/7, create/modify bookings in your PMS, and dispatch tasks to your team—then escalates only when human judgment is needed.
“Agentic booking” isn’t one model — it’s three fundamentally different architectures. From AI-assisted discovery inside consumer platforms to fully autonomous agent-to-agent execution, the future of hotel booking depends on which model you’re actually preparing for.
After analyzing 15,910 hotel phone calls handled by AI voice agents, we discovered that traditional IVR systems were hiding lost guests — and costing hotels bookings. Here’s what really happens in the first three seconds of a call.
Most AI tools for short-term rentals are chatbots focused on guest messaging. But running an Airbnb business requires more than conversation. Discover why Una is built as an AI automation system designed to reduce operational workload, not just improve replies.
In 2026, STR performance is increasingly tied to operational discipline. A practical look at how teams prevent routine guest touchpoints from becoming daily chaos.
Inspired by Viander Advisors' recent analysis on the unspoken AI workforce crisis, hotels face a brutal paradox: AI wipes out routine jobs while demanding rare experts that don't exist. The result? Stalled tech adoption, team burnout, and rivals stealing market share through seamless guest experiences.
If you operate a hotel or vacation rental business today, you already know how quickly guest expectations are changing. People want immediate answers, flawless accuracy, and service that feels personal — no matter the time zone, no matter the day, no matter the channel they choose to use. They want voice, text, WhatsApp, website chat, and phone calls handled with the same care and consistency as your best team member on their best day.
Imagine this: It’s autumn 2023, and Alexander Udalov, founder of UNA and Polydom Inc., faces a challenge all hospitality managers know all too well—finding, training, and retaining employees who can master a complex digital ecosystem from PMS to CRM. The catch? Each new hire takes weeks, sometimes months, to onboard. And when they leave, all that accumulated digital know-how walks out the door, dragging down guest service quality.
Property type: Extended stay hotelLocation: Orlando, Florida (US)House rules snapshot: quiet hours 10:00 PM–8:00 AMStay pattern: Weekly or monthly bookings
Last week, the hospitality industry came together to honor the dedicated professionals whose hard work behind the scenes keeps hotels pristine and guests comfortable—our housekeepers. Housekeeping Week is a reminder of the indispensable role these unsung heroes play in shaping every guest's experience. At Polydom, we proudly recognize their efforts and celebrate the ways our Una AI Agent supports and empowers housekeeping departments to work smarter and more efficiently.
In today’s fast-paced hospitality world, delivering seamless guest service and maximizing direct bookings requires cutting-edge technology. Una, your AI-powered digital receptionist and booking assistant, has been continuously evolving — now with powerful new updates designed to make your operations smarter, faster, and more guest-friendly.
Hospitality has always been about anticipating guest needs and creating memorable experiences. Today, that timeless goal is being reshaped by artificial intelligence. The rise of AI agents is quietly but profoundly changing how hotels and resorts operate — and how guests experience their stays.
In today’s hospitality industry, providing an exceptional guest experience is crucial for staying competitive. With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), hotels are undergoing a significant transformation in how they deliver services. At the forefront of this technological revolution is UNA Concierge, powered by Polydom and integrated with Apaleo PMS. This innovative solution offers an invisible yet omnipresent way to streamline hotel operations and enhance the guest experience.