Privacy

Effective Date: 5/17/2026

HostScout AI (“HostScout,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) provides AI-powered guest communication, property guide, reservation support, website chat, analytics, and optional upgrade tools for short-term rental hosts and property management companies.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect personal information when hosts, property managers, guests, website visitors, or team members use HostScout, Sandy, our guest app, public website chat widget, admin dashboard, or related services.

HostScout does not sell guest or host personal information. HostScout does not use guest messages, host content, reservation information, or property data to train public AI models. We use guest and host data only to provide, secure, support, analyze, and improve the HostScout service, including powering AI responses, guest support features, analytics, and product reliability.

1. Who This Policy Applies To

This Privacy Policy applies to:

  • Property managers, hosts, and their team members who use the HostScout admin dashboard.

  • Guests who unlock or use a property guest app.

  • Website visitors who interact with a public property chat widget.

  • People who purchase optional upgrades or add-ons through HostScout.

  • People who contact us for support, onboarding, billing, or account help.

2. Information We Collect

We collect information in the following ways.

Information from Hosts and Property Managers

When a host or property manager uses HostScout, we may collect:

  • Name

  • Email address

  • Company or property management company name

  • Team member information

  • Login and account details

  • Notification preferences

  • Billing and subscription status

  • Branding settings, such as logo, brand name, colors, and assistant avatar

  • PMS integration information needed to connect supported property management systems

  • Property records, property names, locations, IDs, and availability status

  • House manuals, guides, upgrade descriptions, and assistant configuration settings

Information from PMS or Property Management Integrations

If a host or property manager connects a property management system, such as Hostaway or another supported PMS, we may receive information needed to operate the service, such as:

  • Property details

  • Property address or general location

  • Property photos or listing metadata

  • Reservation IDs

  • Guest names

  • Guest phone number last four digits, where used for stay verification

  • Arrival and departure dates

  • Check-in and checkout timing

  • Reservation-related status information

We use this information to sync properties, verify guest access, personalize the guest experience, power the assistant, and support host operations.

Information from Guests

When a guest uses the guest app, verifies a stay, chats with Sandy, or purchases an upgrade, we may collect:

  • Guest name

  • Guest stay details, such as arrival and departure dates

  • Reservation ID or PMS reservation reference

  • Phone number last four digits for verification

  • Guest chat messages

  • Assistant responses

  • Guest mood, sentiment, and support signals inferred from chat messages

  • Upgrade purchase information

  • Payment status

  • Technical session data needed to keep the guest logged in or verified

Information from Public Website Chat Visitors

When someone uses a public property chat widget before booking, we may collect:

  • Chat messages

  • Visitor name and email, if provided

  • Session ID

  • Property associated with the widget

  • General website or domain information used to validate the widget

  • Assistant responses

Public website chat is designed for pre-booking questions. It should not be used to share private guest-only details such as door codes, WiFi passwords, exact access instructions, emergency contacts, or reservation-specific information.

Payment Information

When a guest or host makes a payment, payment information is processed by Stripe or another payment provider. We may receive limited payment-related details such as payment status, checkout session ID, transaction IDs, upgrade purchased, amount, currency, and related reconciliation data. We do not store full credit card numbers.

Location and Local Recommendation Data

HostScout may use property location information, such as city, state, latitude, longitude, or address, to provide local weather, local events, nearby recommendations, Google Maps links, and place results.

We may cache local lookup results for performance and reliability.

Technical and Usage Information

We may collect technical information such as:

  • Session cookies

  • Authentication state

  • Device/browser metadata

  • IP address or request metadata

  • Error logs

  • Usage events

  • Admin dashboard activity

  • Chat activity timestamps

  • Service health and diagnostic logs

3. How We Use Information

We use personal information to:

  • Provide and operate HostScout and Sandy.

  • Sync property, reservation, and PMS data.

  • Verify guests before showing stay-specific information.

  • Answer guest questions using property manuals, guides, and approved local lookup data.

  • Provide public website chat for pre-booking visitors.

  • Store and display guest conversations in the admin dashboard.

  • Generate support signals, sentiment, summaries, and analytics.

  • Process optional upgrade purchases and related payment records.

  • Help hosts improve manuals, guides, and guest communication.

  • Send account, billing, invite, support, or operational messages.

  • Maintain service security and prevent abuse.

  • Debug, improve, and monitor system performance.

  • Comply with legal, tax, security, and contractual obligations.

4. AI Processing

HostScout uses AI providers, including OpenAI, to classify guest intent, generate assistant responses, summarize chats, analyze guest sentiment, and help hosts improve guest communication.

Chat content, property instructions, guides, and relevant stay context may be sent to AI providers to generate a response or classification. We aim to send only the context needed to provide the service.

For OpenAI API/business services, OpenAI states that inputs and outputs are not used to train OpenAI models by default unless the organization opts in. HostScout does not intentionally opt in to model training for guest or host data.

AI responses may be imperfect. Guests and hosts should verify important information, especially safety, access, pricing, legal, medical, emergency, or time-sensitive details.

5. How We Share Information

We may share information with:

Service Providers

We use service providers to host, operate, secure, and improve HostScout. These may include:

  • Cloud hosting providers

  • Database providers

  • AI providers

  • Payment processors

  • Email providers

  • PMS/property management integrations

  • Local lookup, weather, maps, or events providers

  • Analytics, logging, and monitoring tools

  • GitHub or repository services used to store property configuration or content files

Hosts and Property Managers

Guest messages, stay-related details, support signals, upgrade activity, and assistant conversations may be visible to the host, property manager, or authorized team members responsible for the property.

Payment Providers

Payment-related information is shared with Stripe or other payment processors to process payments, prevent fraud, manage refunds, and support payouts.

PMS and Integration Partners

We may exchange data with connected PMS providers as needed to sync properties, reservations, guest verification data, and property records.

Legal, Security, and Compliance

We may disclose information if required to comply with law, enforce our terms, protect rights and safety, prevent fraud, investigate security issues, or respond to valid legal requests.

6. Cookies and Similar Technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies to:

  • Maintain admin login sessions.

  • Maintain guest verification sessions.

  • Remember the current guest session for a property.

  • Support security, routing, and basic service functionality.

  • Understand service usage and diagnose issues.

Some third-party services, such as payment providers or embedded widgets, may use their own cookies or tracking technologies according to their own policies.

7. Data Retention

We keep information for as long as needed to provide HostScout, support host operations, maintain records, resolve disputes, comply with legal obligations, and improve the service.

Examples:

  • Guest chat messages may be retained so hosts can review guest support history.

  • Reservation and verification information may be retained for operational, security, and support purposes.

  • Payment records may be retained for accounting, tax, dispute, and compliance purposes.

  • Logs may be retained for debugging, monitoring, security, and reliability.

  • Property manuals, guides, and configuration files may remain until edited or deleted by the host or property manager.

8. Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect personal information. However, no system is perfectly secure. Hosts and property managers should avoid placing unnecessary sensitive information in manuals, guides, public webchat notes, or assistant configuration.

9. Your Choices and Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to request access to, correction of, deletion of, or restriction of certain personal information.

To make a privacy request, contact us at:

Privacy Contact: hello@hostscout.ai

We may need to verify your identity before completing a request. Some information may be retained where allowed or required by law, such as for security, fraud prevention, transaction completion, legal compliance, or accounting records.

10. California Privacy Notice

If the California Consumer Privacy Act or similar laws apply to us, California residents may have rights to know, access, correct, delete, limit, or opt out of certain uses of personal information.

We do not sell personal information in the traditional sense. If we use advertising, analytics, or tracking technologies that are considered “sharing” under California law, we will provide the required notices and opt-out methods.

Categories of personal information we may collect include:

  • Identifiers, such as name, email, account ID, reservation ID, session ID, and phone number last four digits.

  • Commercial information, such as upgrades purchased and payment status.

  • Internet or electronic activity, such as chat messages, dashboard activity, and widget interactions.

  • Geolocation-related information, such as property location or approximate request metadata.

  • Professional or business information, such as property manager account and team data.

  • Inferences, such as guest mood, sentiment, support urgency, or suggested guide improvements.

  • Sensitive personal information only where necessary for account access, security, payments, PMS integrations, or service delivery.

We use this information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

11. Children

HostScout is not intended for children under 13. Guests, hosts, and website visitors should not submit personal information from children through the service.

12. Third-Party Links and Services

HostScout may link to or integrate with third-party services, such as PMS providers, Stripe, Google Maps, local event providers, weather providers, or booking websites. Their privacy practices are governed by their own policies.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The updated version will be posted with a new effective date. Continued use of HostScout after changes means the updated policy applies.

14. Contact Us

  • HostScout AI

  • Email: hello@hostscout.ai

  • Mailing Address: 15 Paradise Plaza, Unit 296, Sarasota, FL 34239