Host FAQ

A person on the Trailstack team reviews every new listing before it goes live, usually within 2 business days. We email you when it's live, or send it back with notes on what to fix.

On a live listing, changes to the title, activity type, photos, videos, description, location, capacity or number of units, site types (including campground rates), price unit or cancellation policy, or any rate or discount that cuts the price by more than half, are reviewed the same way. Your current listing stays live until the change is approved, and we email you either way. Dates, times, price increases and smaller cuts apply right away.

So what guests book matches what they get: accurate prices, locations, capacity, photos and the details guests rely on to stay safe.

Listing is free. When you're booked, you receive 88% of your listed rate; Trailstack keeps 12%. Guests pay a service fee on top of your rate, and promo codes are paid for by Trailstack, so you're paid on your full listed rate.

You choose per listing. Instant booking: the guest pays at checkout and the booking is confirmed right away.

Request to book: the guest's card is saved but not charged. You approve or decline in your host portal within 48 hours of the request, or before the trip starts if that's sooner. If you don't answer in time, the request expires and the guest isn't charged. Approving charges the card; if the charge fails, the booking isn't confirmed until the guest adds a new card and you approve again before the deadline.

In the Calendar tab of your host portal, block whole dates or single departures.

To avoid double bookings, paste a calendar link from Airbnb, VRBO or any iCal calendar and turn on “Keep synced automatically”. Busy dates are blocked here, and the link is checked daily, when you open your portal, and before each booking if it hasn't been checked in the last 3 hours. You can also add your Trailstack bookings to your own calendar app with your listing's calendar feed link.

Every confirmed booking opens a conversation between you and your guest, and guests can also message you from your listing before they book. Reply from the Messages tab in your host portal.

In Settings you can also write the automatic emails your guests get from you: a note when they book (sent with instant bookings), a reminder a few days before, and one the day before. You can turn off the booking note and the early reminder; the day-before reminder always goes out (unless your guest has turned off trip reminders), in your words or ours.

Activities with set departure times: your guest limit (Max Guests, Max Riders and so on) applies to each departure. Without departure times, it applies to each day.

Campgrounds: each site type has its own price, guests per site and number of sites, booked night by night. Cabins: how many you have, booked night by night. Rentals (kayaks, boards and the like): your fleet size and guests per unit, counted per day.

A minimum group size and a minimum age are optional; when set, they're checked at checkout.

Each booked item is paid separately: its payout becomes due the day after that item's date (a stay's check-in date), and the first daily payout run after that sends it through Stripe, so it can take up to another day to go out. It's 88% of your listed rate for that item. Connect your Stripe account in your host portal's Settings; payouts waiting on that go out once you connect.

Guests cancel item by item, and your cancellation policy decides each refund, all or nothing: Flexible, a full refund of your listing price up to 24 hours before; Moderate, up to 3 days before; Strict, up to 1 week before; Super Strict, non-refundable. The window is counted back from the item's start time: its departure time, or check-in time for a stay, or the start of its day if it has no time (Indiana time).

Inside your window the guest gets back the listing price they paid for that item, and you aren't paid for it. Outside it (including Super Strict) the guest gets nothing back and you're still paid your 88% for that item on the normal date. The service fee isn't refunded when a guest cancels.

Cancel from the booking in your host portal. You can cancel your own items that haven't started, even when the guest's trip includes other hosts; their items stay booked. Your guest gets a full refund for each item you cancel, including its service fee, whatever your policy, and you aren't paid for it. Items that have already started, or whose payout has already gone out, can't be cancelled from your portal; contact us and we'll handle it.

Send us a note from the contact form with the topic “Host support”, or email hello@gotrailstack.com. A real person reads every message.