Features
Everything a phone-first front desk needs — and nothing it doesn’t
Ostler was built with a working cottage resort, around the way small hotels actually book: over the phone, held with a deposit, heavy on repeat guests.
The front desk
The phone-call screen is the heart of the app: dates in, price out, one click to hold.
Availability finder & instant quote
Dates and party size in, every open unit with its live price out — seasons, weekly rates, extra-guest fees, minimum nights, and check-in-day rules all applied. One click creates a quote or a hold.
Holds with a clock
A phone reservation holds its dates while the deposit is on the way — for exactly as long as you allow. Expired holds release themselves and send the guest a polite note. Nothing is sent until you confirm.
Whole-family bookings
One reservation can span several cottages with different dates and guest counts in each — one confirmation, one bill, one deposit schedule. Moving a stay to another unit is a single action that re-prices if rates differ.
Double-booking is impossible
Availability is enforced by the database itself, not just the calendar view — tested under simultaneous writes. When dates clash, Ostler offers the nearest comparable unit or dates instead of a dead end.
Blocks & imported calendars
Block dates for a closure, maintenance, or an owner stay in seconds — or paste your Airbnb/Vrbo calendar link once and those bookings block themselves. Overlaps raise an alert, never a silent conflict.
Waitlist
A guest wants sold-out dates? Note them. When a cancellation frees matching dates, the desk is alerted to phone them — first come, first called.
Money
Exact numbers, integer cents, and a paper trail for every change.
Deposit schedules
Preset schedules — say 30% at booking, balance 14 days before arrival — applied automatically and editable per reservation. Reminders go out before each due date; past-due deposits surface on the dashboard.
Checks and cash, first-class
Plenty of deposits still arrive by mail. Record a check with its number and the reservation confirms and sends its receipt, with every payment on a paper trail.
Taxes that match your books
Each charge category decides which taxes apply — occupancy tax on the room rate but not on dock fees, for example. Per-reservation exemptions print with a reason, never silently.
Security deposits done honestly
Tracked as a liability, never revenue. Withholding any part requires a reason that becomes a line item. Cancellations never move money by themselves — a person confirms every refund, with paid-to-date shown.
Branded PDFs
Confirmation and receipt PDFs carry your logo and colors, attach to the emails automatically, and print from the reservation.
Email — the heartbeat
Professional, branded email from your own address, working in about fifteen minutes — that is the product’s proudest feature.
A setup wizard that actually finishes
It asks one question — “what do you use for email today?” — and walks Gmail, Outlook/Microsoft 365, or your website host’s email with screenshots. Outlook and Microsoft 365 need no password at all: you sign in with Microsoft and allow Ostler to send as you. It isn’t done until a test email has landed in your inbox.
A ready starter set
Confirmation, payment link, reminder, receipt, welcome (a week before arrival), quote-expired, cancellation, and post-stay review request — pre-written in a calm voice, editable with live preview and real sample data.
An outbox that tells the truth
Every message shows queued, sending, sent, or failed — with a plain-language reason and a retry button. A failed payment reminder raises a dashboard alert, because a silent failure is a lost deposit.
Couples get both copies
Every email on the guest profile receives every message. When two people share the booking, both inboxes have the confirmation.
Catch-up on launch
Reminders and welcomes are due at fixed times; a computer that slept through them sends each exactly once at next launch — and skips anything that no longer applies.
The daily rhythm
The dashboard answers “what needs me today?” before coffee.
Today dashboard
Arrivals with one-tap check-in, departures, same-day turnovers, holds expiring within 48 hours, past-due deposits, and any email that failed — plus a one-click printable day sheet for the desk.
Housekeeping status
Every unit is clean or dirty; check-out flips it automatically and one tap clears it. The housekeeping report lists each day’s turnovers, flagging the same-day ones.
Maintenance log
Log an issue with a photo, a priority, and a cost; link it to a unit block if the room must come out of service. The third fridge repair in a year gets flagged — replace, don’t repair.
Phone-call forms
Build simple forms — boat registration, early check-in requests — that staff fill during the call. Responses live on the reservation, printable, with every edit attributed.
Guests & records
Heavy repeat business deserves a real guest book.
Guest profiles
Both names on the booking, mailing address for the check, every email and phone, stay history, and internal notes. Flags for VIPs and — when needed — a caution or ban that requires a manager to override.
Nine reports, honest numbers
Housekeeping, pending deposits, reservations, payments, revenue, sales, night audit, maintenance, and occupancy with prior-year comparison — filterable, exportable to CSV and Excel. The exports carry every column your bookkeeper needs, including for a QuickBooks import.
Every change on the record
Modifications re-price through the same engine, recompute the balance, and write a revision — who, when, before, after. After any guest-visible change, one click sends the updated confirmation so the guest’s copy is never stale.
Trust the machine
Software an innkeeper can bet the season on.
Backups as a feature, not a chore
Automatic rolling backups, one-click backup to a USB drive or synced folder, a tested restore flow, and an automatic snapshot before every update — an update can never eat your database.
Staff accounts & real permissions
Owner, manager, and staff roles enforced by the app itself — refunds and rate changes stay with the people you choose, and it’s enforcement, not just hidden buttons.
Works offline
Booking, checking in, printing, reporting — all local. The internet is only needed to send email, take card payments, and pull your Airbnb/Vrbo calendars.
What Ostler Desktop doesn’t do
No online booking widget, no two-way OTA sync, no texting, no multi-computer use — yet. Those need servers, and Ostler Desktop’s promise is that it never depends on ours. The pricing page lists every gap honestly, next to what’s included.