Local recommendations: get the AI to suggest your places, not the usual ones
By GuestChat Team ·
"Where should we have dinner tonight?" is one of the most common questions in any stay. A generic answer does the job, but nobody remembers it. Your recommendation, from someone who knows the neighborhood, is part of what guests value about staying with you and not in a hotel.
Where you write them
In the property profile, in the Services & Policies section, you'll find the Host's local recommendations box at the end. Whatever you write there, the AI uses first, before generic recommendations, when a guest asks about the area.
What to include
- Where to eat: your real favorites, with what you'd order and when to go ("always packed at two, better to go earlier").
- Where to grab a drink and where to have breakfast.
- The everyday stuff: the nearest supermarket, the bakery, the late-night pharmacy, where to buy bread early in the morning.
- Special days: the street market, the neighborhood festival, what's best avoided on certain days.
- Areas to avoid at night or because of traffic.
- Hidden gems: the empty cove, the viewpoint that isn't in the guidebooks.
How to write them so they help
- One recommendation per line, starting with the type of place: that way the AI finds the one that fits the question.
- Walking distances, not kilometers: "a five-minute walk" is easier to picture.
- The detail that makes it yours: "order the croquettes", "ask for the table by the window".
- Opening hours if they're unusual: if it's closed on Mondays or only open at lunchtime, say so.
What the AI adds on its own
Your recommendations are the foundation, but the AI can also help with other things about the area: how to get from one place to another, or what the weather will be like. Whatever it doesn't know, it will look up using general information, always giving priority to what you wrote.
Keeping them up to date
Places close, change owners or go downhill. An outdated recommendation is worse than none: the guest finds the shutters down and remembers who sent them there. Review the list every few months and remove anything you wouldn't recommend anymore.
Recommendations by type of guest
If you host very different guests, you can group them: "with kids", "for a couple's getaway", "if you're coming by car". The AI will know how to pick based on what guests tell it. And if a guest is celebrating something, having a special place written down makes all the difference.
Common mistakes
- Copying a guidebook's list. The guest has already seen it. What they want is what you know and the guidebook doesn't.
- Only restaurants. The most useful questions tend to be practical ones: where to buy water at ten at night, where to park on the weekend.
- Endless lists. Ten good recommendations go further than fifty. If you're unsure about one, cut it.
Where to start
Write five lines today: where to have breakfast, where to have dinner, the supermarket, the pharmacy and one special place. With that, the AI will already answer the most common question of the stay the way you would.