Your Flatmates tools
Getting notified about what matters most
The platform can notify you about a wide range of events, but being alerted about literally everything quickly becomes noise that's easy to tune out entirely - configuring your notifications deliberately means you catch what's genuinely important without drowning in constant, low-value alerts.
Review your full notification settings from your account preferences
Start by reviewing every available notification category in your account settings, since many hosts have never actually looked through the full list and are either missing something important or being alerted about far more than genuinely necessary.
Prioritise notifications tied to time-sensitive guest communication
New messages and booking requests are almost always worth immediate notification, since response speed matters enough to your hosting performance that these should rarely, if ever, be muted or delayed.
Enable alerts for payout events to stay on top of your finances
Notification of a processed payout keeps you informed of your cash flow in real time without needing to manually check the dashboard, which is a low-effort way to stay genuinely on top of your finances.
Set up alerts for anything touching safety or urgent property issues
Anything related to a genuine safety concern or an urgent property issue reported by a guest deserves immediate notification, since delay here can meaningfully worsen an already time-sensitive situation.
Consider muting lower-priority notifications during off hours
If your notification settings allow scheduling, consider muting non-urgent categories during your genuine personal time, while keeping truly urgent categories, safety, active guest issues, always fully enabled regardless of the hour.
Use a separate channel or app badge for the most critical alerts
If the platform supports distinguishing critical from routine notifications visually or through a separate channel, configure this distinction deliberately, so an urgent alert doesn't get lost among a larger volume of routine, lower-priority ones.
Review notification settings again after a change to your hosting setup
If you add a co-manager, add a listing, or change your hosting rhythm meaningfully, revisit your notification settings, since what made sense before may no longer reflect how you actually want to be alerted now.
Balance responsiveness against your own genuine need for downtime
Notification settings should support a sustainable hosting rhythm, not create a state of constant, low-grade alertness - deliberately tuning what genuinely requires an immediate response protects your own wellbeing over the long run.
Test your settings by observing how you actually respond to real alerts
After adjusting your notification settings, pay attention over the following weeks to whether you're catching genuinely important events promptly and not feeling overwhelmed by less important ones, adjusting further based on this real, observed experience.
Coordinate settings with a co-manager to avoid unnecessary duplication
If someone else also receives notifications for your listing, coordinate who's responsible for responding to which category, avoiding a situation where an important alert is either missed because both of you assumed the other would handle it, or duplicated unnecessarily.
Thoughtful notification settings are a small habit with an outsized effect
The few minutes it takes to properly configure notifications pays off continuously afterward, letting you stay genuinely on top of what matters most in your hosting without the constant background noise of alerts that don't actually require your immediate attention.
Revisit push versus email versus in-app preferences for each category
Many platforms let you choose the specific channel for each notification type, push, email, in-app, so think through which channel actually reaches you fastest for genuinely urgent categories versus which is fine to check later for anything lower priority.
Don't disable notifications entirely out of frustration with the volume
If notification volume feels overwhelming, the better fix is thoughtfully narrowing which categories are enabled, not disabling notifications altogether, since turning everything off risks missing something genuinely important alongside everything you were trying to filter out.
A quiet, well-tuned notification setup is a sign of a maturing hosting operation
Early on, many hosts leave every notification enabled out of general anxiety about missing something - as genuine experience and confidence grow, a more deliberately curated, quieter notification setup often reflects a host who's learned exactly what actually needs their immediate attention.
Revisit notification settings on a new device promptly after switching
If you change phones or reinstall the app, double-check your full notification configuration promptly rather than assuming every previous preference carried over automatically and correctly, since a missed setting after a device change is a genuinely easy thing to overlook.
Consider a brief daily or weekly digest for lower-priority categories
If the platform offers a digest option for less urgent notification categories, this can be a good middle ground, keeping you informed without the constant interruption of an individual alert for every single lower-priority event as it happens.
A well-tuned system ultimately protects your ability to host attentively
The entire point of thoughtful notification management is protecting your capacity to respond well to what genuinely matters, which is itself a quiet but real contributor to the overall responsiveness and reliability that guests consistently notice and appreciate.
Test your setup by simulating how you'd actually respond to a real alert
Occasionally imagine receiving a specific type of notification in the middle of something else you're doing, and honestly ask whether your current settings would actually reach you appropriately for that scenario, refining anything that doesn't quite match the response you'd genuinely want.
A brief seasonal review of notification settings is worth adding to your routine
As your hosting rhythm shifts with the seasons, busier periods, quieter ones, revisit whether your current notification settings still match how urgently you actually need to respond during that specific part of the year.
Getting this right is a small, quiet part of running a genuinely well-managed listing
Guests never see your notification settings directly, but the responsiveness they consistently experience is shaped in part by exactly this kind of unglamorous, behind-the-scenes configuration, done thoughtfully once and maintained consistently afterward.
A last, practical suggestion
Spend fifteen focused minutes going through every notification category once, deliberately, and you'll rarely need to think about this setting again beyond an occasional light review.
Consider how your notification setup changes when you're travelling
If you're ever travelling somewhere with limited connectivity or a significant time difference, think in advance about how you'll handle urgent notifications during that specific period, whether that means temporarily adjusting settings or arranging for a co-manager to cover for you.
Notifications are ultimately in service of the guest experience, not the reverse
Every setting discussed here exists to support faster, more attentive responses to guests, so whenever you're unsure how to configure a specific category, default toward whatever choice most reliably keeps a genuine guest need from ever going unnoticed for too long.
A brief closing thought worth carrying forward
Getting notifications right is ultimately about respecting both your guests and your own time equally, and a thoughtfully configured system genuinely honours both at once rather than sacrificing one for the other in either direction.
A last, simple reminder
Review it once properly, adjust it occasionally as things genuinely change, and trust the system to keep you appropriately and reliably informed without constant, unnecessary interruption throughout your day, week, and every single season of hosting still ahead of you in the years to come.
