Forwarding OTA booking emails so bookings enter your software

HostBooking · Updated Oct 28, 2026 · 8 min read

Whenever a guest books through Booking.com, Agoda, Airbnb, Traveloka, Trip.com or Expedia, the OTA emails you a confirmation. Set one filter in Gmail or Outlook to forward those emails to your homestay’s own HostBooking address: an email proven to come from the OTA becomes a booking with guest name, price and OTA code; anything uncertain waits for your review.

Email adds to iCal

Use both. The iCal calendar holds the room even when an email is late or lost; the email turns a blocked date into a full booking. A booking made from an email takes the place of the iCal block for the same stay rather than blocking it twice. For that, set the Channel (Booking.com, Agoda…) on each connected calendar; HostBooking usually guesses it from the link, and you can change it.

Getting your forwarding address

1. In the admin, open Calendar, click Sync OTAs (iCal) and go to Booking emails from OTAs.
2. Click Create address. It is a private 20-character code ending in @dat-phong.staycation.com.vn.
3. There is one address per brand. Change address stops the old one at once, so update your filter.

Setting up a Gmail filter

1. Open Gmail on a computer, in the account that receives OTA emails. Gear icon → See all settings → Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab → Add a forwarding address.
2. Paste your address, press Next, then Proceed. Gmail sends a confirmation code to that address; within seconds the code and link show at the top of the Booking emails from OTAs section in HostBooking. Open the link and press Confirm.
3. On the Forwarding tab, keep Disable forwarding selected: the whole mailbox is not forwarded, only OTA emails, by the filter in the next step.
4. Filters and Blocked Addresses tab → Create a new filter. In the From box, paste the list of OTA domains HostBooking gives you (there is a copy button and a link that opens the filter already filled in).
5. Press Create filter, tick Forward it to, choose the address from step 2 and press Create filter. Google may ask you to verify it is you.

The filter forwards only emails that arrive after it is created. If you are signed in to several Google accounts, switch to the one that receives OTA emails first.

Setting up an Outlook rule

1. Open Outlook on the web → Settings → Mail → Rules → Add new rule.
2. Add a condition on the sender (From) and paste the list of OTA domains HostBooking gives you.
3. For the action, choose Redirect to if offered, paste your address, then Save.

Redirecting sends the original email on unchanged. A plain forward may wrap the email as one of yours, which loses the OTA’s signature, and then it can only go to the review queue.

Company mail (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365) may have forwarding outside the organisation turned off by an administrator. If the filter will not let you pick the address, ask whoever runs your email.

When an email arrives

• New booking, certain: the email carries a valid DKIM signature from the OTA itself, the booking code, check-in and check-out can be read, and the room type is known. A confirmed booking is made with the guest name, party size, phone when the email has it, the OTA’s price and commission. The room is checked and held as for a booking taken at the desk.
• Cancellation or date change: recognised from the email’s subject and applied to the booking with the same OTA code.
• Uncertain: no signature, forwarded by hand, unknown room type, no room left, a stay rule in the way, check-in already passed… The email goes to Needs your look, and the bell tells the manager.
• Duplicates: the same email twice, or a booking that already has this OTA code, creates nothing new.
• Not a booking: promotional emails and ordinary messages are ignored.

Reviewing an email

The review card shows what was read: OTA code, check-in and check-out, guest name, phone, adults, children, the OTA’s total and the room type. Correct anything wrong, then press Create booking or Dismiss. Leave the total empty to use your own price.

The room type is preselected in this order: the type you matched to that OTA room name before; your only room type if you have one; or the type whose name matches the OTA’s exactly. Tick Remember for next time so later emails with the same room name go in by themselves.

If a card says the email could not be verified as sent by the OTA, create the booking only after you have seen it on the OTA’s site.

Safety and retention

• A booking goes in by itself only when the OTA domain’s DKIM signature verifies and covers the subject and the whole body. An automatic filter forward keeps that signature.
• Pressing "Forward" by hand removes the signature: the email is still read, but only reaches the review queue.
• Anyone who learns your address can only add emails to the queue, never make a booking. Mail to an address that does not exist is dropped without a reply.
• The original email is stored encrypted and deleted after 30 days; what was read from it, and the booking, stay.

Which plan

Booking emails are part of OTA sync, together with pulling iCal calendars: included from the Basic plan, or as the OTA sync add-on on the Free plan (see pricing). Without it, OTA emails still reach your inbox as usual; they just do not become bookings.