ProhostAI

What do they actually do

ProhostAI is a hosted app (web, iOS, Android) that automates day‑to‑day short‑term rental operations for Airbnb and small property managers. Today it handles AI‑driven guest messaging (including an optional “Autopilot” that can reply on your behalf), schedules and verifies cleanings with photo/checklist capture, creates maintenance tickets from messages/reviews, generates digital guidebooks and review replies, and offers simple upsells for gap nights—all in one dashboard prohost.ai, help center.

It integrates directly with Airbnb and several PMS tools (Hostaway, OwnerRez, Guesty, Hospitable) and supports Stripe for cleaner payments; the product is publicly available for sign‑ups and has mobile apps in the app stores integrations, prohost.ai. The founders operate their own portfolio (~9 Airbnbs) and use the product themselves, and the site advertises a free tier/trial to get started YC profile, prohost.ai.

Who are their target customer(s)

• Solo or part‑time host (1–3 listings): Struggles to keep up with guest messages and check‑ins during nights/weekends; spends time rewriting guidebook text, review replies, and checklists, leading to slow responses and burnout.
• Small portfolio owner or independent manager (several properties): Needs to scale without hiring a big team; coordinating cleaners, maintenance, and staff across properties is manual, error‑prone, and hard to track.
• Hosts using third‑party cleaners and contractors: Lacks reliable proof of work and clear workflows; photo/timestamp/checklist capture and payments are fragmented, with headaches when a cleaner cancels or no‑shows.
• Revenue‑focused hosts: Miss easy incremental revenue from gap nights and add‑ons because monitoring calendars and sending targeted offers is manual and inconsistent.
• New or multi‑platform hosts (Airbnb plus others): Spend time copying rules and messages between platforms and struggle to keep guest communications and guidebooks consistent across channels.

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Onboard the founders’ own listings and close friends/nearby hosts with 1:1 outreach and concierge setup; capture detailed before/after time savings and testimonials to form the first case study and playbook YC profile, help center.
• First 50: Post actionable templates/how‑tos in host communities, run a simple referral credit for early users to invite co‑hosts/cleaners, and partner with a few cleaner networks to pilot photo/checklist and payment flows prohost.ai.
• First 100: Publish migration guides/FAQs/templates for SEO and app‑store installs; launch a formal referral program; leverage PMS integrations (Hostaway, OwnerRez, Guesty) for joint outreach; add targeted ads and a couple of industry meetups to convert trials integrations.

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

Airbnb reports ~5M hosts and ~8.1M active listings globally, which is a practical anchor for ProhostAI’s addressable base; AirDNA’s tracked set is smaller and provides a conservative lower bound Airbnb newsroom, Business of Apps, CRS/AirDNA.

Bottom-up calculation:

Using comparable SMB tool pricing of ~$5–30 per listing/month ($60–360/year), 8M listings yield ~$0.48B–$2.88B/year; a U.S. slice (~2.25M listings) is ~$135M–$810M/year; a conservative 1.5M listings case is ~$270M/year at $180/listing YourPorter pricing ref, Guesty pricing ref, Business of Apps.

Assumptions:

• Pricing is per‑listing and falls in the ~$5–30/month SMB range based on comparable tools.
• Airbnb’s ~8M listings are used as the primary addressable base; other OTAs are excluded to avoid double‑counting.
• Revenue scales with listings (not hosts) because many hosts manage multiple listings.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Hospitable (formerly Smartbnb): Automated guest messaging with a unified inbox, scheduled/auto replies, reviews, and basic tasks—directly overlapping with ProhostAI’s messaging and light ops at a low cost Hospitable pricing/features.
• Guesty: Full PMS suite (including Guesty Lite) with automated messaging, task management, revenue tools, and payments—positioned for larger teams but overlapping on messaging and operations Guesty Lite.
• Hostaway: Channel manager plus operations tools for syncing OTAs, automations, task scheduling, and analytics—strong where deep integrations and scale matter Hostaway pricing/features.
• Turno (formerly TurnoverBnB): Cleaning/turnover specialist: auto‑schedules cleanings from bookings, captures photo/checklist proof, and automates cleaner payments—direct overlap on cleaner coordination Turno features.
• Hostfully: Known for polished digital guidebooks and a PMS with InboxAI and task management; overlaps on guidebooks, AI replies, and ops with a guidebook‑centric angle Hostfully guidebooks.