What access does a remote hospitality desk actually need?
A remote desk needs enough to answer guests and coordinate turnovers, and nothing more: a scoped user in your property management system, messaging access on the channels you connect, the operating information for each unit, and your cleaner and vendor contacts. It should never need your bank or payout accounts, your platform account password, or unrestricted admin rights. Every account should be its own named login you can revoke in minutes.
Written by Jake Lee, founderUpdated
What the desk does need
The list is short and every item on it is there because a specific job cannot be done without it. If you are ever asked for access that does not map to a job you can name, that is the moment to push back, with us or with anyone else.
- A named user in your PMS, scoped to messaging, tasks and calendar
- Co-host or equivalent messaging access on the channels you connect
- The operating information per unit: check-in instructions, access codes, house rules, parking, wifi, quirks
- Cleaner and vendor contact details, and who is allowed to dispatch whom
- Your escalation rules: what wakes you, what waits until morning
What it should never need
This is the more important list. A support desk that asks for any of the following is asking for authority, not access, and those are different things.
- Your bank accounts, payout methods, or card details
- Your platform account password, as opposed to a co-host or team invite
- Unrestricted owner or admin rights in your PMS
- The ability to change pricing, payouts or cancellation policy
- Authority to approve refunds or file damage claims on your behalf
Named logins, never a shared one
The single most common security failure in this category is a shared login passed between people. It defeats every audit trail you have: when something goes wrong there is no way to know who did it, and when someone leaves there is no way to remove only their access.
Every operator on the Xenia desk gets a named user. When someone rotates off your account, that user is removed and the rest keep working. Shared credentials that do exist anywhere in the operating stack are rotated on a schedule and immediately when a person departs.
How to revoke everything
You should be able to end the relationship in an afternoon without a conversation, and you should confirm that before you start rather than after.
Remove the desk's users from your PMS, remove the co-host from each channel, rotate any shared codes the desk held, and reassign the email inbox. Nothing about the desk sits between you and your guests, your money, or your data, so there is nothing left to unwind.
- Remove named users from the PMS
- Remove co-host access per channel
- Rotate smart-lock and building codes the desk knew
- Reassign or reset the shared operations inbox
Frequently asked questions
Is it safe to give a remote desk co-host access?
Do you need my Airbnb password?
Can the desk see my payouts or banking?
What happens to access when an operator leaves your team?
How fast can I revoke everything?
Get your nights back.
Bring a portfolio, the hours you want covered, and your escalation rules. Thirty minutes is enough to tell whether the desk fits.