Operator resources

1. Weemzy for operators

1.1 What Weemzy is

Weemzy is a furnished apartment marketplace for Nigeria. Guests search, book and pay online for stays from a few nights to a few months, and the apartments they book are run by operators: the companies and individuals who handle housekeeping, check ins, maintenance and guest care.

Weemzy is built operator first. The platform assumes your inventory already exists and is already being run well. Its job is to make that inventory findable, bookable and payable, and to keep one calendar where you used to keep three.

1.2 What you get

• One inventory, sold everywhere. The same apartments are sold on Weemzy and, when you choose, on Airbnb and Booking.com. A booking from any of them takes the unit off sale everywhere else.
• Payments handled. Guests pay Weemzy by bank transfer to an account number issued for their booking. You never chase a transfer or reconcile a screenshot.
• The tools for the day. A reservation calendar, an arrivals list, a housekeeping schedule, a maintenance queue, and a queue for the rare day a channel sells a room that is not free.
• Owners, when you want them. Weemzy works with property owners who need someone to run their apartments, and matches suitable properties to operators with the capacity and the coverage to take them on.

1.3 How you earn

Every stay paid through Weemzy is split between the property's owner, its operator and Weemzy. The split is agreed per building, so one you brought yourself and one Weemzy introduced you to can be on different terms. Your share is recorded when the guest checks in and paid in the next payout run (chapter 8).

A stay sold and paid through Airbnb or Booking.com is settled by that channel directly, and does not pass through Weemzy's payouts.

1.4 Your dashboard at a glance

Some items carry a count. A gold count is the day's work (arrivals, cleans due). A wine count is something that needs clearing (overbookings, new maintenance issues). Overbookings disappears from the menu entirely when there are none.

2. Getting set up

2.1 Registering and approval

Register at weemzy.com/register/operator, or accept the invitation you were sent if an owner named you as their operator. You can explore the dashboard and build inventory straight away, but nothing you run is offered to guests until Weemzy approves you. You will receive an email either way.

One account can hold more than one role. If you also own property, or book stays yourself, you switch between the Operator, Owner and Guest Dashboards from the account menu, and you sign in to whichever you used last.

2.2 Your account settings

Settings holds five sections.

• Personal info. Your name, email and phone number.
• Security. Your password.
• Identity verification. Optional. Upload a government ID to show you are who you say you are.
• Bank details. The account your payouts are paid into.
• Housekeeping. Your default cleaning interval (section 7.4).

2.3 Changing sensitive details

Your name, email address, phone number and bank account change only behind a code, sent to the email address already on your account. This protects you: someone who has got into your session still cannot move your payouts or take over your email.

• An email change needs both inboxes: a code sent to the old address, then a link sent to the new one.
• After any change, your old address is told. If it was not you, contact Weemzy straight away.
• Once your identity has been verified, your name is locked to the one on your ID.

2.4 Your bank account

When you add a bank account, Weemzy checks the account number with your bank and shows you the account holder's name before asking for a code.

Two protections apply to payouts:

• A replaced account waits 48 hours. If you change an account that was already verified, payouts to the new one are held for 48 hours, so the real account holder has time to act on the email telling them about the change. Adding your first account starts no wait.
• The name has to match. The account holder's name must match your name, or your company's registered name. A mismatch is not refused: the account goes to a Weemzy team member for review, and payouts to it wait until it is approved. A joint account or a trading name is usually approved quickly.

3. Building your inventory

3.1 Buildings, unit types and apartments

Inventory has three levels, and they are built in this order.

• A building is the property: its name, address, location, check in and check out times, and house rules.
• A unit type is a kind of apartment in that building: "2 Bedroom", "Deluxe Studio". It carries the description, photos, amenities, maximum guests and price.
• An apartment is one physical unit, identified by its unit number.

Guests book a unit type, not an apartment. A guest books "a 2 bedroom in Zonner Court", and Weemzy assigns the apartment. The assignment can change right up to check in, including to make room when two bookings would otherwise collide. This is how hotels sell rooms, and it is what lets a building with ten identical units sell ten stays without anyone choosing which door they get.

3.2 Setting up a building

Add a building from Apartments, Add apartments. You will need:

• Name and address. The address is placed on the map automatically; drop the pin yourself if it lands in the wrong place.
• Check in and check out times. The check in time matters more than it looks: it decides when same day bookings close (section 9.1) and when the cancellation window turns.
• House rules. Shown to every guest before they book, and required for Airbnb and Booking.com.
• Description. Optional. The property as a whole, which Booking.com shows above the rooms.
• Directions and access instructions. Optional, and valuable. How to find the building and how to get in: the turning off the main road, the gate, the front desk. They are sent to the guest on the morning of arrival (section 6.8). Keep them about the building, not a specific apartment, because the apartment can change.

3.3 Unit types

Each unit type has:

• Category (studio, 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom and so on) and an optional display name ("Deluxe Studio"). Two unit types can share a category, and the display name is how guests tell them apart. With no display name, the category is shown.
• Description. What a guest gets. Leave it blank or write at least 100 characters: the booking channels reject a description that says almost nothing.
• Amenities. Tick what a guest gets. Power is described as the guest experiences it: 24/7 power, backup generator, inverter backup, solar power. Tick every one that applies.
• Maximum guests.
• Default rate. The price, and weekly and monthly discounts, that a new rate plan starts from (section 4.1).
• Default minimum stay. Optional.
• Cleaning interval. Optional. Blank inherits your default from Settings.

Changing a unit type's name, category or guest count updates it on Airbnb and Booking.com too.

3.4 Apartments and unit numbers

Add apartments to a unit type in a block. Numbering continues from the highest unit number anywhere in the building, padded the way you already pad (001 to 005 offers 006), so a second unit type cannot collide with the first. You can type your own numbers, including ones like "PH" or "3A".

If a number is taken, Weemzy tells you where and suggests the next free one: "Apartment 101 already exists in Zonner Court (under 2 Bedroom). Try 106 or another number."

You can renumber all of a unit type's apartments at once, including swaps, from the unit type's edit page.

3.5 Photos

Up to 10 photos per unit type, each up to 5 MB, in JPEG, PNG or WebP.

• The first photo is the cover and is marked as such. Drag to reorder, or use the arrows.
• A failed upload does not stop the rest. It is marked, the others carry on, and you can retry it on its own.
• Three photos per unit type is the minimum for the booking channels. More sells better.

3.6 Publishing

A building, and each apartment within it, is either published or unpublished. Only published apartments in a published building, run by an approved operator, can be booked. Publishing a building is also what moves an owner's property to live on their side.

3.7 The apartments list

The Apartments page groups your units by building and, inside each building, by unit type. Each row shows a status:

A cleaning badge rides alongside, because "is it dirty" is a different question from "is it occupied".

Bulk actions work on a selection: mark clean, publish or unpublish, block dates, unblock dates. One booked unit in a selection of twenty does not stop the other nineteen; it is reported as skipped. An action only ever applies to the rows you can see, so a unit hidden by a filter is never changed without you seeing it.

Each row's ⋯ menu renames, deletes or publishes that one apartment, or calls the guest staying in it.

A unit type with no apartments yet is listed under its building as "Unit types with no apartments", where you can add apartments to it or delete it.

4. Rates and availability

4.1 Rate plans

Every unit type has a Standard rate plan. It is the price guests pay when they book on Weemzy, and it is what the booking channels receive unless you add more.

You can add further plans (up to ten per unit type) from the unit type's edit page, for example a "Non-refundable" or "Long stay" rate to offer on the booking channels. Each plan is independent: it has its own nightly price, its own weekly and monthly discounts, its own rate periods, promotions and restrictions. A new plan starts from the unit type's default rate with an empty calendar and copies nothing from Standard.

A plan other than Standard can be switched off. It closes on every channel and keeps its setup, so switching it back on sells again.

4.2 Prices

Pricing is set on the Rates page, for the unit type and plan you choose. A night's price is built from:

• The plan's nightly price.
• Any rate period covering that date: a dated adjustment such as "Christmas +20%" or "set to a fixed amount on Fridays and Saturdays". Two periods on the same plan cannot overlap.
• Any promotion covering that date: a percentage off, which you can switch on and off without deleting it.

The plan's weekly and monthly discounts apply to a whole stay of that length. A guest is quoted whichever works out cheaper for them: the stay-length discount or the night-by-night price, never both at once.

Typing a start date into a rate period or promotion moves the calendar to that week, so you can see what you are changing.

4.3 Restrictions

Two restrictions decide which stays can be sold:

• Minimum stay. A unit type's default applies to every date; override it on specific dates. A "Weekend minimum stay" button sets one minimum on every Friday and Saturday for the next year.
• Stop sell. Closes a date to new bookings. There is no default, only dates you close.

To edit: click a date, shift-click a second to cover a range, or type the dates. Weemzy applies restrictions strictly. On Weemzy, a three night minimum over a holiday means every night of the holiday, not only arrivals on it. A stop sell set after a booking was made never stops that guest leaving early.

4.4 The calendar

The calendar shows a rolling two week window rather than a calendar month, so a stay crossing the end of a month is still one bar. Page by week, jump to a date, or return to today.

• A stay is one bar carrying the guest's name. Back to back stays are two bars, so the changeover day is always visible.
• A unit that needs cleaning is marked on today only; it can still be sold for the days ahead.
• Filter by booked, available, blocked or needing cleaning. A row counts as booked if it has any stay in the window you are looking at.

4.5 Blocks

Block an apartment for your own reasons: the owner is staying, the unit is being repainted, a stay is being arranged privately. Block dates include both ends: block the 30th alone by choosing the 30th as both start and end.

Unblocking a range trims a block rather than deleting it. Clearing 10 to 15 September from a block covering the whole month leaves the two remainders in place. You cannot block dates a booking already holds.

5. Selling on Airbnb and Booking.com

5.1 How distribution works

Weemzy connects to Airbnb and Booking.com through a channel manager. You keep one set of apartments, prices and restrictions in Weemzy, and Weemzy keeps the channels in step: availability, prices and restrictions go out; reservations come back in. A booking on any channel takes the unit off sale everywhere else within moments.

Everything is set per building, under Distribution, Manage.

5.2 The readiness checklist

Before a building can go to the channels, it needs:

• House rules, and check in and check out times.
• At least one unit type with apartments.
• For each unit type you offer: a description of at least 100 characters, a nightly price, a maximum guest count, at least three photos and at least one published apartment.
• At least three photos across the building.

The checklist opens itself when something is missing and folds away when everything passes. Each item links to the place you fix it.

5.3 Switching on

1. Enable OTA Distribution. This registers the building with the channel manager and sends its content. It turns on no channel yet. The panel goes green when the checklist is clear.
2. Choose your channels, Airbnb and Booking.com, and set a markup for each if you want one. The row shows what a guest will pay per night on that channel as you type.
3. Connect each channel with the Connect button. It opens the channel's own connection page inside Weemzy. You sign in to Airbnb, or enter your Booking.com property ID, yourself, and Weemzy never sees your channel login.

5.4 Connecting a channel

Connecting is where most setups stall, so each channel shows what is left to do:

• Airbnb lists only published Airbnb listings for mapping. Publish them on Airbnb first, with one rate each, then map each listing to a Weemzy rate plan.
• Booking.com needs your hotel ID, rooms and rates already created in the extranet, and Channex.io accepted as your connectivity provider. Then map each room and rate to a Weemzy rate plan.
• A channel with nothing mapped cannot be activated.

A channel shows as Connected once it is live. Weemzy checks when you close the connection page, when you open the Distribution page, and every fifteen minutes. Your building moves from "In review" to "Active" when every channel you switched on is live.

5.5 Choosing what each channel sells

Per unit type, you can:

• Switch it off for the channels. The channels are told it has nothing available; everything stays set up, so switching back on sells again straight away. It still sells on Weemzy.
• Set a channel quota. The most units of that type the channels may hold on any night. With a quota of 3, once the channels hold three bookings on a night, they are offered nothing more on it, while Weemzy keeps selling the rest.

5.6 What stays in step

Prices, restrictions and availability are sent within about a minute of any change, and every date for the next 500 days is sent in full every night as a safety net. Editing a description, photos or house rules updates the channels. Renaming a unit type or building re-registers it so the new name reaches them too.

Channel reservations arrive already confirmed. Weemzy never refuses one, because the guest already holds a confirmation from the channel. If nothing is free, the booking is placed and flagged as an overbooking for you to resolve (section 7.6).

5.7 Calendar sync

Separately, you can subscribe to a building's bookings from Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook, under Distribution, Calendar Sync. The feed shows stays as all day events, with unpaid holds marked tentative, going back twelve months.

It is read only and one way. Blocking a date in your calendar app does not reach Weemzy. The link itself is the password: anyone holding it can read your bookings. If it leaks, regenerate it, which stops the old link working everywhere it was subscribed.

6. Bookings

6.1 How guests book and pay

A guest on Weemzy chooses one of two ways to book:

• Pay now. The whole stay, by bank transfer.
• Reserve with a deposit. A small deposit now, and the balance on the day of arrival.

Either way, Weemzy issues an account number for that booking and the guest pays into it from their banking app. A guest can pay in more than one transfer, and a booking confirms only once the money received covers what was asked for. The booking is held while the guest pays. If the payment does not arrive in time, it is cancelled automatically and the unit returns to sale.

Wallet credit a guest has earned on Weemzy can pay for part of a stay. It makes no difference to what you are paid.

6.2 Booking statuses

A deposit booking whose balance has not arrived by the end of the arrival day is cancelled automatically.

6.3 What you can see about a guest

Until a stay is paid in full, you see the guest's first name only. Their full name, email and phone number appear once it is paid, and Weemzy guest services is shown as the contact in the meantime. A deposit is not a commitment to turn up.

6.4 The building's address

The street address is not shown on public listings. A guest is given it the day before check in, once their stay is paid or confirmed. Until then, listings show the area and a map without a pin. Your own dashboard and emails always show the address.

6.5 Bookings you create

You can create a booking yourself from Bookings, Create, for a guest who contacted you directly:

• External payment. The guest has paid you. The booking is marked as paid to the property.
• Payment link. Weemzy emails the guest an account number to pay into, as it would for a booking made on the site.

6.6 Changing a booking

From a booking's page, Change dates or guests lets you move the dates or change the number of guests on a confirmed or checked in stay.

• Before arrival, the stay can move to another apartment of the same unit type if its own is taken. Once checked in, only the check out date can change, and the guest never moves.
• Nights the guest keeps keep their original price. Nights added are priced at today's rate. Nights removed are refunded under the cancellation terms.
• If the change costs more, choose how the difference is collected: a payment link, already paid to you, collected at check in, or waived.
• Minimum stay and stop sell apply to added nights. If a change would need an apartment that is not free, Weemzy support can make it.
• Guests can change their own stays too. A change that costs more waits until they have paid for it.

Bookings from Airbnb and Booking.com are changed on the channel, and the change comes through to Weemzy.

6.7 Cancellations

The same terms apply to every building:

• More than 24 hours before check in: a full refund.
• Inside 24 hours: a partial refund for a stay paid in full. A deposit reservation forfeits its deposit.

If you cancel a booking, the guest is refunded in full. A guest who has checked in cannot cancel the whole stay, but can leave early by shortening it.

Cancelling any room of a multi-room Airbnb or Booking.com reservation cancels every room in it. Weemzy does not tell the channel, so cancel it on the channel as well.

6.8 What guests are sent

Weemzy emails the guest at each step: confirmation, payment receipts, a reminder the day before arrival (with the address), check in details on the morning of arrival (your directions and access instructions, once the stay is paid), a check out reminder, and a thank you afterwards with a request for a review.

Guests who booked through Airbnb or Booking.com hear from the channel instead. You are told about every booking, whichever channel sold it.

7. The day to day

7.1 Arrivals

Arrivals lists:

• Overdue check in. Arrival date passed, not yet checked in. Check them in, or cancel the booking.
• Upcoming arrivals. The next seven days, including today.
• Pending payment. Bookings on hold, not yet paid.
• Active stays. Guests currently checked in.

7.2 Checking in

Check in from Arrivals, the calendar, or the booking's own page. A booking can be checked in only once it is paid in full. A deposit booking whose balance is outstanding shows why it cannot.

Identity. If the guest's identity has not been verified, check in stops and asks you to resolve it on the spot:

• Approve the ID document they already uploaded.
• Verify a new one, by typing in the document number.
• Override, recording why you let them in without verification. The reason must be at least 20 characters. If the guest's document was previously rejected, you also choose a category and write at least 50 characters. An override clears this stay only, and Weemzy reviews every one, so write the reason for someone reading it later.

Confirm guest matches ID. On a guest's first stay you are asked to confirm that the person in front of you matches their ID. Weemzy does not check this automatically; your confirmation is recorded against your name.

7.3 Checking out

Check out from the booking or the calendar when the guest leaves. A guest who was never checked in cannot be checked out.

7.4 Housekeeping

Confirming a booking creates its cleaning schedule automatically:

• A turnaround clean on the departure day.
• Mid-stay cleans at the unit type's interval, counted from the last clean. They never fall on the arrival day or the departure day.
• Daily cleaning, if you switch the booking to it. Any charge for it is between you and the guest.

Housekeeping shows the schedule by day or week. Mark a clean started, done (which marks the unit clean) or skipped. If a guest asked for a clean you skip, give a reason: they will read it.

Guests can request a clean from their booking page, for any day of their stay except the arrival day, the departure day and today. It goes straight onto your schedule and you are emailed. A guest can have one request open at a time.

Changing an interval rebuilds the schedule for every stay it applies to, but never removes cleans you added yourself or ones already done or skipped.

7.5 Maintenance

A maintenance issue is a conversation on a booking: the guest, you and Weemzy read the same thread. Guests report issues by type, such as power, water or air conditioning, and can attach photos.

You can log an issue yourself from a booking's page, or from Maintenance by choosing the stay first. The guest can read and reply to it, so write it as you would to them.

Move an issue through reported, in progress, completed and closed. Each status change carries a message saying why. The Maintenance count shows issues still waiting on you.

7.6 Overbookings

Very occasionally, a channel sells a night that has just been sold elsewhere. The booking is never refused. It is placed on the apartment with the fewest clashes and flagged.

You are emailed straight away and reminded daily, and Overbookings appears in the menu until it is cleared. Resolve each one by moving a booking to a free apartment of the same unit type, or mark it handled once you have sorted it out another way.

7.7 Reviews

After a stay on Weemzy, the guest can review it within 14 days: an overall rating, optional ratings for cleanliness, accuracy, check in, and power and water, and a comment. Reviews appear on the building's listing, and an average is shown once a building has three. Stays booked through Airbnb or Booking.com are reviewed on that channel.

You are emailed about each new review of a stay you hosted, and can post one public reply, which you can edit at any time. Write it for every future guest who will read it. Reviews stay with the operator who hosted the stay, even if the apartment later changes hands.

8. Getting paid

8.1 When your share is recorded

Your share of a stay is recorded when the guest checks in, as a pending payout, and is paid in the next payout run into your verified bank account. Your share of a deposit booking is recorded once the balance has been paid.

Payouts lists every payout with its status, and exports to CSV.

8.2 What affects the amount

• Refunds. If money is refunded to a guest, your share is worked out on what Weemzy kept. A refund after your payout was recorded but before it was paid adjusts that payout.
• Wallet credit. Credit a guest spends is funded by Weemzy, so you are paid on the full value of the stay.
• Changes. When a guest adds nights and pays for them, your share is topped up.
• Channel bookings. A stay paid through Airbnb or Booking.com is settled by the channel with you directly, and has no Weemzy payout.

8.3 What can hold a payout

• A bank account changed in the last 48 hours.
• A bank account whose name is under review, or was rejected.
• A deposit booking whose balance has not arrived.

A held payout is not failed. It stays pending and goes out in the first run after the hold ends. If a transfer fails at the bank, Weemzy follows it up with you.

9. Rules worth knowing

9.1 Same day bookings

A guest can book to arrive today until 6 PM, or your building's check in time if that is earlier. After that, the earliest arrival Weemzy offers is tomorrow. Bookings from the channels are not affected.

9.2 The rules in brief

Appendix A: Glossary

Apartment. One physical unit, identified by its unit number. Guests do not choose it; Weemzy assigns it.

Block. Dates you have taken an apartment off sale for your own reasons.

Channel. An outside booking site Weemzy sells your inventory on: Airbnb or Booking.com.

Channel quota. The most units of one unit type the channels may hold on any night.

Deposit booking. A booking reserved with a deposit, with the balance paid on the day of arrival.

Markup. A percentage added to your price on one channel.

Overbooking. A booking placed on an apartment that already has a stay on some of the same nights, flagged for you to resolve.

Override. Checking a guest in without verifying their identity, with a recorded reason. It covers one stay.

Payout run. The regular batch in which pending payouts are sent to bank accounts.

Rate period. A dated adjustment to a rate plan's price.

Rate plan. A price list for a unit type. Standard is the one guests on Weemzy pay; others are for the channels.

Restriction. A minimum stay or a stop sell on a date.

Stop sell. A date closed to new bookings.

Unit type. A kind of apartment in a building. What guests book.