Short-term rental platform reviews can't tell you who's actually coming — the fear of retaliation kills honest reviews. Kithly is the private host-only network where pro hosts share aggregate ratings of the guests they've hosted, so the next host can see what the last host actually thought before they confirm.
If you've hosted on the major short-term rental platforms for any length of time, you already know the review systems are functionally broken:
Every host effectively starts from zero with every booking. The information exists — every host has opinions about every guest they've hosted — but the platforms can't surface it without the retaliation problem killing the signal.
Kithly fixes the incentive problem by making ratings private to verified hosts, aggregated rather than individual, and portable across platforms.
Two clicks in your Hostaway dashboard. Kithly imports your past 90 days of bookings and starts watching for new ones in real time.
When a booking request hits — across any channel you list on — Kithly surfaces the guest's aggregate rating instantly. You see the number; you never see who rated them.
Ten seconds after checkout: 1-5 stars plus four quick categories. Your rating is anonymous within the aggregate.
Every rated guest carries their reputation across every platform. The rating itself becomes the trust passport.
Kithly runs in the background of your existing workflow. It surfaces signal at three moments that matter, and stays out of your way the rest of the time.
Your phone buzzes — a Kithly notification. Aaron J., requesting four nights at your downtown loft. Kithly rating: 2.4 ★★☆☆☆ across 3 prior stays. Cleanliness 1.7. Would host again 33%. You decline through your PMS in seven seconds.
Two weeks later, that same guest is in the local hosting Facebook group as a horror story. You dodged it.
Three guests checked out yesterday — rate them in 30 seconds, four sliders each. Three new guests arriving today: two with strong ratings, one without. Five inquiries pending: two are easy yeses, three need your usual judgment.
Real signal where the platforms only give you platitudes.
You don't have to switch apps. The integration writes private notes back to Hostaway, so when you're responding to a guest message or checking the calendar, the rating context is right there inline. Click the badge to open the full breakdown.
Lives in your existing stack. Nothing new to learn.
70% of bookings now show a rating. You've had zero party-house incidents this year. Your insurance carrier offers a premium discount for Kithly screening. The product is invisible most days — indispensable when it matters.
From interesting tool to infrastructure.
One-directional ratings (host rates guest), and rater identity is hidden inside the aggregate. Guests can't retaliate against people they can't identify.
Connects to Hostaway from day one. Guesty, Hostfully, and OwnerRez integrations follow. No browser plugins, no email forwarding, no extensions.
Same rating works whether the guest booked on any major platform, or direct. The reputation travels with the guest, not the platform.
Kithly is a trust product, so privacy is fundamental to how we operate — not an afterthought. Plain English, no fine print. These are commitments, not aspirations.
Hosts see a guest's average score and category breakdown. They never see individual ratings, who left them, or what stay they're tied to.
Ratings are visible only to verified hosts who connect their PMS account. Not public, not indexed by search engines, not available to anyone outside the member network.
Email and phone numbers are hashed before storage — we use them for matching but can't read them back. PMS credentials are encrypted with strong ciphers.
Any guest can email us to request what we have on them, dispute an outlier, or ask for deletion. We respond promptly in plain English and will be expanding this into a self-service portal as the product grows.
Not to advertisers, not to data brokers, not to anyone. Founding hosts get free access for life. Beyond that, our revenue comes from hosts paying for software — never from advertising or data sales.
The product is designed so no one sees individual ratings — not other hosts, not guests, not used in marketing or shared with partners. Only the aggregate is ever shown.
When v1 ships we're opening 1,000 founding-host spots for pro hosts using Hostaway. Founding hosts get the full product free for life and help shape the product. Join the waitlist now to be first in line.