# Houstel owner and staff guide

> Public product instructions. No private account data, credentials, or access to dashboard actions.
Features depend on role, permissions, plan and availability. Screenshots use fictional data.
Use the dated guide to explain workflows; verify amounts and actions in the authorised account.

- [Guide](https://houstel.pk/guide)
- [Chapter catalog](https://houstel.pk/guide/catalog.json)

- [How Houstel.pk works for hostel owners](https://houstel.pk/guide/how-houstel-works.txt): Houstel.pk is two things in one account: a free advert that puts your hostel in front of people searching for a room, and software that runs the hostel once they move in.
- [Creating your Houstel.pk account](https://houstel.pk/guide/create-your-account.txt): Signing up takes two short steps and about a minute. You need a name, an email address, a phone number and the name of your hostel.
- [Adding your hostel](https://houstel.pk/guide/add-your-hostel.txt): Your hostel profile is what people see before they call you. Fill it in once, properly, and it works for you every day after that.
- [Approval, and getting your hostel live](https://houstel.pk/guide/approval-and-going-live.txt): Every new hostel is checked by our team before it appears publicly. Approval is only half of it. There are five things that must all be true before your advert shows on Houstel.pk.
- [Setting up floors, rooms and beds](https://houstel.pk/guide/rooms-and-beds.txt): Everything in Houstel.pk sits on top of your room list: availability, rent, the map, your public advert. It is worth half an hour to get right.
- [Photos and videos of your hostel](https://houstel.pk/guide/photos-and-videos.txt): Photos do more for your enquiries than any other single thing on your listing. A hostel with no photos does not appear publicly at all.
- [The free plan, the trial and what plans cost](https://houstel.pk/guide/pricing-and-plans.txt): You can run a hostel of up to 20 living residents free, for as long as you like. Above that you need a plan, and every plan starts with a 30-day free trial.
- [Adding residents and assigning rooms](https://houstel.pk/guide/residents.txt): A resident is a person; a booking is that person in a bed, for a period, at a rent. Adding someone and giving them a bed are two separate steps, and that separation is what lets people move rooms without losing their history.
- [Recording rent and payments](https://houstel.pk/guide/rent-and-payments.txt): Every rupee a resident hands you gets recorded once, against the month it pays for. Do that and the dashboard, the dues list and the receipts all take care of themselves.
- [Dues, overdue rent and reminders](https://houstel.pk/guide/dues-and-reminders.txt): The hostel decides when rent is due and how much lateness it tolerates. Once you have set that, the system can chase quietly on your behalf instead of you making the same call twenty times a month.
- [Security deposits, advances and refunds](https://houstel.pk/guide/deposits-advances-refunds.txt): Some of the money in your drawer is not income. It is money you are holding and will one day give back. Houstel.pk keeps that money separate so your profit figure stays honest.
- [Expenses, other income and profit](https://houstel.pk/guide/expenses-and-profit.txt): Rent in, costs out, what is left. Record your bills as you pay them and the profit figure on your dashboard is real rather than a guess at the end of the month.
- [Mess and meals](https://houstel.pk/guide/mess-and-meals.txt): If you serve food, publish the week's menu once and your residents stop asking. You also choose whether mess is part of the rent or billed on top.
- [Your dashboard and reports](https://houstel.pk/guide/reports-and-analytics.txt): The dashboard answers “how is the hostel doing right now”. The reports answer “what happened, and is it getting better or worse”.
- [Laundry and food for your residents on Houstel.pk](https://houstel.pk/guide/laundry-and-food.txt): Local laundries and kitchens, checked by Houstel, can sell to your residents in their app. Residents order and pay them directly; you choose whether they see it.
- [Importing residents safely on Houstel.pk](https://houstel.pk/guide/resident-imports.txt): Move resident records from a spreadsheet, review row errors, and control notifications after importing.
- [Room changes, checkout and resident requests on Houstel.pk](https://houstel.pk/guide/resident-requests.txt): Review resident requests, verify availability and payments, and complete the associated booking workflow.
- [Payment approvals on Houstel.pk](https://houstel.pk/guide/payment-approvals.txt): Review payments submitted for approval and understand when they enter the hostel’s books.
- [Billing periods, installments and rent reviews on Houstel.pk](https://houstel.pk/guide/billing-and-rent-reviews.txt): Understand charge periods, schedule payment commitments, and review rent changes without counting promises as payments.
- [Room electricity and resident charges on Houstel.pk](https://houstel.pk/guide/electricity.txt): Record room meter readings, review the split between residents, and collect electricity charges accurately.
- [Utility connections and bills on Houstel.pk](https://houstel.pk/guide/utility-bills.txt): Keep provider bills, due dates and payment records together, and recover when a provider lookup is unavailable.
- [Inventory and room assets on Houstel.pk](https://houstel.pk/guide/inventory.txt): Track hostel belongings, quantities, locations and condition so staff can reconcile what is in each room.
- [Bank accounts and wallets on Houstel.pk](https://houstel.pk/guide/bank-accounts.txt): Set up verified payment destinations, including business accounts and QR codes, decide what residents see, review changes to bank and wallet details, and handle banks recorded without saved details.
- [Enquiries, visits and reservations](https://houstel.pk/guide/leads-and-bookings.txt): When somebody on Houstel.pk is interested in your hostel, it arrives here. Speed matters more than anything else on this page, because the hostel that replies first usually gets the resident.
- [Reviews and ratings](https://houstel.pk/guide/reviews-and-ratings.txt): Reviews are the single thing a stranger trusts most about your hostel. You cannot write them, but you can ask for them and you can answer them.
- [Your public page, themes and announcements on Houstel.pk](https://houstel.pk/guide/listing-design.txt): Choose your listing’s appearance, share its link, and publish a time-limited announcement without exposing private resident information.
- [Admission leads and follow-ups on Houstel.pk](https://houstel.pk/guide/admission-leads.txt): Track prospective residents from first enquiry to a visit and admission, while avoiding duplicate leads.
- [Featured ad: put your hostel first on Houstel.pk](https://houstel.pk/guide/featured-ads.txt): Put your hostel first in its city and area, show customers your WhatsApp number, and see how many opened it. How to ask, pay, renew and what happens when it ends.
- [Staff accounts and who can see what](https://houstel.pk/guide/staff-and-access.txt): Give your warden and manager their own logins instead of sharing yours. You decide what each of them can open, and you can see who did what.
- [Messages, alerts and the notice board](https://houstel.pk/guide/messages-and-notifications.txt): Four ways to reach people, each for a different job: chat for conversations, the notice board for announcements, WhatsApp and email for things that must not be missed, and alerts to tell you something needs attention.
- [What your residents can see and do](https://houstel.pk/guide/resident-app.txt): Residents can see their own room, rent and receipts, contact the hostel, and use available community features. Private account records stay separate.
- [Connect your biometric attendance machine](https://houstel.pk/guide/biometric-attendance.txt): Connect the fingerprint or face machine at your door to Houstel and see who is inside, who is out, and who came back late. It takes about ten minutes and needs no computer in the office.
- [Hiring cooks, cleaners, guards and wardens](https://houstel.pk/guide/hiring.txt): Post the job on Houstel.pk, look through people who have already put their name down for hostel work, and keep the salary of whoever you hire in the same place as the rest of your costs.
- [Emails, templates and resident logins on Houstel.pk](https://houstel.pk/guide/email-and-logins.txt): Write and schedule resident emails, choose which automatic emails residents get, check delivery history, and help residents access their own accounts.
- [Resident complaints and the complaint box on Houstel.pk](https://houstel.pk/guide/complaints.txt): Review complaints privately, keep residents informed and separate hostel issues from software support requests.
- [Using Ask AI on Houstel.pk](https://houstel.pk/guide/ai-assistant.txt): Ask questions about the selected hostel’s records and verify the answer before making operational or financial decisions.
- [Hotel Eye guest reporting on Houstel.pk](https://houstel.pk/guide/hotel-eye.txt): Review guest-reporting records and submission results when Hotel Eye is enabled for your hostel.
- [Your hostel’s resident community on Houstel.pk](https://houstel.pk/guide/community.txt): Understand the owner’s community view and the moderation actions available for your own hostel.
- [Getting help](https://houstel.pk/guide/help-and-support.txt): If something is not working or not clear, there are three ways to reach a person, and one of them is WhatsApp.
- [Account security and privacy on Houstel.pk](https://houstel.pk/guide/account-security.txt): Protect owner and staff access, lock the dashboard with a PIN or fingerprint, review signed-in devices, and report suspicious activity without sharing secrets.