This article covers how to feed the Auto Pilot agent the right knowledge — through Custom Instructions, the Knowledge Base, and Mr.GG guest-guide content. For the main Auto Pilot setup guide, see Hostify AI — Auto Pilot Mode.
Custom Instructions: what works well
This is the biggest customization knob. Anything in this field is loaded into the agent on every reply and overrides the agent's general defaults when the two conflict.
Use it for things like:
Granting authority to approve. "Early check-ins from noon are always free — approve them automatically." Without this, the agent escalates by default.
Documenting fees. "We charge €50 for late check-out up to 16:00. If the guest agrees, send them this Stripe link: https://… and confirm the booking is updated."
Pet / party / event policy nuances. "We allow small dogs (under 10 kg) for a €30 cleaning fee. Bigger pets always need approval."
Address privacy overrides. "Even after booking confirmation, only share the neighborhood until 24h before check-in."
Property quirks. "The hot tub takes 4 hours to heat — always tell guests this if they ask."
Don't use it for:
Per-listing facts — those go in the Knowledge Base (next section).
Long boilerplate templates — the agent writes its own message. For templated content use Auto Messages.
Anything that depends on guest data the agent already has (booking dates, guest count, total price, etc.).
Knowledge Base
The Knowledge Base (KB) is where you give the agent factual, listing-specific knowledge — door-code mechanics, parking instructions, where the air-con remote is, recycling rules, WiFi quirks, restaurants you actually recommend, etc. The agent reads the KB entries that apply to the current reservation's listing on every reply.
Where to find it: Integrations → Hostify AI → Knowledge Base. There's also a "Manage Knowledge Base" CTA on the Hostify AI integration page.
Anatomy of a KB entry
Topic — short label. The agent does see it, so phrase it like the question a guest would actually ask ("How does the door lock work?", not "DOOR_LOCK_v2").
Context — the actual answer. Rich text (bold, lists, links) is supported and preserved when the agent reads the entry.
Apply to all properties (checkbox) — when checked, the entry is offered to the agent on every reservation, regardless of listing. Use for account-wide facts (refund policy, brand voice, blanket rules).
Listings (multi-select, when "all properties" is off) — the exact listings for which this entry applies. The picker shows your parent listings only — see the multi-unit note below.
Multi-unit listings — important caveat
The KB picker only shows parent listings. When a reservation is on a child unit, a parent-only entry will not be visible. Two ways to handle this:
Mark the entry "Apply to all properties" if it's true for every unit — cleanest fix for things like "the building gym is on the ground floor".
Create the entry once per unit if the answer differs per unit (different door codes, different floor numbers, etc.).
Languages
KB entries are stored as a single piece of text — there's no per-entry language column. The agent translates on the fly, so an English entry is read perfectly well when answering a guest in Spanish, Portuguese, German, etc. Keep entries in one language (English is recommended for fastest agent reasoning, but the language you write in is the language the agent reads).
Best practices
Topic line as the guest would ask it. "How do I work the dishwasher?" beats "Appliances – Dishwasher Notes".
One topic, one entry. Don't bundle "WiFi password and router location and what to do if it's slow" — split into three. Smaller, focused entries help the agent pick the right thing.
Write answers like you would write to the guest. The agent paraphrases, but stays close to your wording. Sentence-style "The lockbox is to the left of the front door, code 4321" beats "Lockbox: location L of door, code: 4321".
Be explicit about negatives. "We do not allow smoking on the balcony" beats just listing what is allowed. The agent only knows "no" if you say "no".
Cover the questions you keep getting asked. Audit your inbox: what has your team answered three times this week? Those are the entries to add.
Time-bound information needs an explicit window. "Until November 1st, the elevator is under maintenance — guests should use the stairs." The agent reads the date from the entry; it has no other way to know it will become stale.
Keep house rules and safety in the KB. Channel listing descriptions are not loaded into the agent. If a rule matters, it lives in either the KB or Custom Instructions.
Prefer the KB over Custom Instructions for facts; prefer Custom Instructions for authority. Quick test: if the answer is "here's how it works" or "here's where it is" → KB. If the answer is "yes/no, and the agent has authority to commit on my behalf" → Custom Instructions.
Don't paste boilerplate the agent already does well (greetings, signoffs, "happy to help"). Just bloat.
Avoid duplicating reservation data (check-in date, guest count, total price, channel name) — the agent already has these.
Review entries when something changes — phone numbers, codes, neighbor contacts, supplier links.
The KB does NOT change escalation rules. Even with a great entry on "what to do for a broken washing machine", the agent will still escalate maintenance issues — that's intentional. KB tells the agent what to know, not what to act on.
Mr.GG: how the guest-guide data feeds the agent
When the Mr.GG integration is active, the agent's listing context is enriched with several extra fields that wouldn't otherwise be available — turning what the agent knows about a property from "channel description + KB" into "the full guest guide".
For setup of Mr.GG itself, see:
What changes for the agent when Mr.GG is active
Check-in instructions, House manual, Directions — resolved through your assigned Mr.GG templates, with placeholders substituted (rather than the plain text on the listing). If no template is assigned, the agent falls back to the listing field.
Area Guide — sent to the agent: the guide name, description, and a list of curated places (each with name, category, description, address).
Checkout tasks — list of checkout instructions from your Mr.GG checkout template.
Curated places vs. live Google Places
Mr.GG places = your recommendations. Curated, editorial. The agent prefers these when the guest's question matches.
Live Google Places = fallback. When the guest asks for something not on your list (e.g. "closest 24h pharmacy"), the agent falls back to a live search around the property's coordinates.
Multi-unit listings
All Mr.GG lookups use the parent listing id for child units. So a check-in / house manual / directions template, an area guide, or a checkout template assigned to the parent is automatically used for every child unit. This is the opposite behavior of the Knowledge Base picker (which only shows parents in the picker but matches by the reservation's actual listing id) — making Mr.GG the smoother fit for multi-unit setups.
Best practices for Mr.GG content (for AI consumption)
Templates beat per-listing free text. Even with one property, putting check-in instructions in a template makes them easier to update later.
Area guide place descriptions should sound like a recommendation. "Local family-run trattoria; the carbonara is excellent and they take walk-ins" beats "Italian restaurant, 4.5 stars on Google". The agent paraphrases your wording.
Categories are signal, not just labels. The agent uses category to match a guest's question to the right place. Use clean common names ("Restaurant", "Pharmacy", "Beach", "Coffee shop") rather than custom strings.
Address matters when the guest asks "how do I get there". Without an address the agent can describe the place but can't help the guest find it.
Curate, don't dump. A focused list of 10 great places beats 60 mediocre ones — the agent reads the whole list every turn.
Don't put house manual content in the area guide — different contexts. WiFi password is not a place.
Tags exist on places but are not sent to the agent — they're only for organizing the Mr.GG UI. Encode anything the agent should know in the place's description.
Mr.GG and the Knowledge Base are complementary: KB is short Q&A pairs, Mr.GG is structured property/area data. Both are loaded together; neither hides the other.