Checkout Tasks

Every listing carries one checkout list: the things you ask guests to do before they leave. Guests see it in their Guest Portal as a "Before you leave" checklist they tick off, during the stay and on checkout morning. You manage it the same way you manage check-in tasks — one ordered list, switches for the built-in items, and your own tasks added wherever you like.

Where it lives

Open the listing editor, go to the Arrival tab, and open Checkout & tasks. The sheet has two parts, laid out like Check-in & tasks:

Checkout tasks — the list itself.
Checkout details — the checkout time and free-form notes shown beside the list.

The list

The list starts with five built-in tasks: gather used towels, take out the trash, turn off lights and A/C, lock up, and return keys. Each has a switch. Off means it leaves the guest's list; on puts it back.

Add your own — click Add checkout task, give it a name ("Run the dishwasher", "Strip the beds"), and optionally add details. Guests see the details directly under the task's name, in the guide, the printed guide and the checkout reminder email. Shortcodes work in both fields.
Reorder — drag the handle on any row. Built-in and custom tasks share the list, so your task can sit between two built-in ones.
Turn off without deleting — every custom task has its own switch, so a seasonal task ("Close the pool cover") can rest until you need it again.
Edit or remove — the pencil and trash icons on each custom row.

Different lists for different booking channels

A guest who booked on Airbnb has usually been given Airbnb's own departure instructions; a direct guest has only yours. Every row therefore carries a channel pill — it reads All channels until you change it. Open it and switch off the channels whose guests should not be asked for that task.

The channels are Haven site (booked through your Haven website), Direct (a direct booking in your PMS, or one you entered by hand), Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and Other channels. Those Haven has actually seen reservations from, across your account, are listed first and marked Bookings seen.

Hiding a task on a channel removes it everywhere that guest would have met it: the "Before you leave" card, the Checkout tile, the checkout reminder email, and the reservation's own checkout sheet. Guests from the other channels are unaffected. A channel you begin selling on later shows every task until you decide otherwise, so connecting a new channel never silently shortens a list.

Custom tasks have the same switches inside Add checkout task and the pencil editor, under Who sees it. When the wording itself has to differ by channel, add one task per channel and leave a single channel switched on for each.

Check-in tasks work identically. See Guest Portal for what each guest sees.

Nothing on this list locks a guest out of anything. It is a courtesy checklist, unlike check-in tasks, which can hold back Wi-Fi and door codes.

What guests see

During the stay the Home tab shows a "Before you leave" card with the checkout time, a progress line, and the tasks as tickable rows. Each task's details sit under its name inside the same row, and tapping the task ticks it.
On checkout morning the same card leads with "Checkout is today at 11:00 AM" so the time is unmissable.
The Checkout tile opens a sheet with your checkout time, notes, and the same tickable list — ticks made in either place stay in sync.
The checkout reminder email, the reservation drawer, and the guest AI assistant all read the same list, in your order, custom tasks included.

Ticks are per stay. A guest who reopens the guide sees what they already ticked; the next guest starts fresh.

The checkout message guests get

Haven sends every guest a checkout message the day before they leave. It carries the checkout date and time, key return, and the list as that guest's booking channel sees it. The email also prints a heading Checkout instructions and the paragraph under it. That heading and paragraph are your Checkout notes, edited only at Edit Listing → Arrival → Checkout & tasks → Checkout details, in the field labelled Checkout notes (if it is tucked away, + Checkout notes). It is on for every host from the start; there is nothing to set up.

It has its own row, Checkout, under Communication → Message automations. Its text and WhatsApp legs start on (on direct bookings they reach guests who agreed to texts or WhatsApp; PMS-synced guests, and guests on a reservation moved to Haven from a PMS, get the text at the number their PMS shares, and no WhatsApp), and its PMS thread leg starts on once a PMS that can post into booking conversations is connected. Opening that row changes the email heading, when it sends, and the email, text, WhatsApp, and PMS thread switches. Rewriting the Checkout row or pasting a new template does not change that paragraph.

Bookings made on your Haven site always get it.
Bookings synced from your PMS or an OTA get it once the stay is opted into Haven's guest messages — you auto-send the guide to OTA guests, or turned on guest verification or Screen & Protect for them — and Other stay messages is on under Guest communications. When the PMS gives Haven no guest email, Haven posts the message into the guest's booking conversation through the PMS thread leg instead, unless you switched that leg off.

Watch it in the Arrival simulator

The Arrival simulator at the top of the Arrival tab walks the phone preview through a reservation. The Checkout step is checkout morning: the guide shows your checkout list exactly as the guest gets it, and you can tick items to try it (ticks in the simulator are never saved). Choose OTA bookings and a channel beside it to see the list that channel's guest receives. The final Stay over step shows the guide once access has ended. Edit the list, click Checkout again, and the preview reloads with your change.

Turn your notes into tasks

If your checkout steps are written as paragraphs in Checkout notes or Additional notes, click Turn into tasks next to Checkout details. Haven's AI reads both notes and shows you a review before anything changes:

New checkout tasks — each step as its own task, with your wording kept as the task's details. Untick any you don't want; unticked text stays in your notes.
Already on your list — passages that repeat a task you already have. They're removed from the notes so guests don't read the step twice. Untick one to keep it in the notes.
What stays in your notes — anything that isn't a step, such as late-checkout rules. A note left empty is cleared and tucked away.

Click Add tasks and the new tasks join the end of your list, where you can drag them into place. Anything with a door code, lockbox code or password stays in your notes.

If Checkout notes syncs from Guesty, turning it into tasks moves that field to Haven, so Guesty no longer overwrites it. Clicking Re-sync from Guesty on the field later brings Guesty's text back.

The same button sits beside Check-in steps under Check-in & tasks. There every step becomes a check-in task, one per step. The one exception is a step with a door code, lockbox code or password: it stays in Check-in steps, because guests see the task list before check-in details unlock. If nothing is left afterwards, Check-in steps is tucked away behind a + Check-in steps button.

Checkout details

Below the list:

Checkout time — defaults to 11:00 AM. A guest who bought a late checkout sees their own time here, not the listing default.
Checkout notes — free text shown above the list (where to leave the key, how to reach you on the way out).
Additional notes — free text shown under the list. Guests can't tick these off, so anything that is a step for the guest belongs on the list itself. If you moved notes into task details, clear them here too, or guests read each step twice.

An empty note is tucked away behind a + Checkout notes or + Additional notes button. Click it to write one.