Good morning fellow VR/STR community. I decided to work on a solution from a post by @Michael Greenberg a few weeks back on email/communication automation tools.  Since I'm in the IT field I decided to try and come up with a 'hack' that those of us that have only a few properties could use and get by for free.  Here is the solution I came up with, Here are the high level steps, at some point, I will create a step by step document for all of this and share:

Google Calendar:  Create a dedicated Google Calendar just for your VR.  I already had this as I used it to auto-notify my hot tub and house keeping services.  You simply create an entry in the calendar as you received a new booking.  (once your automation is complete, this is will be the extent of your effort involved per booking)

> Put guest name in the Summary field

>Put check in and check out dates as date range

> Put guest's email address in the Description field

MailChimp:  I'm sure most of you know of MailChimp as it's one of the biggest names in email automation/autoresponders.  They allow up to 2000 free entries on your list. 

> Create a new list for your VR/STR

> Add 2 columns for Check in and Check Out Dates

> Create your email automations for whatever events you want to automate (pre-check in email, post check in email, post check out email, review request, etc.).  This part can take a lot of time but once you have it right, it's bullet proof. 

Automate.iO:  This is the secret sauce I found that will bring it all together.  This product is free to use for 5 bots (workflows) and 250 actions (calendar entries) per month.  If you need more than this then you are likely not looking for a free hack anyway. ;)

> Choose Mail Chimp and Google Calendar Apps from the App pool 

> Add Bot and map the Google Calendar fields as follows (see image)

>>Event Summary > Full Name

>>Event Description > Email Address

>>Event Begins > Checkin Date

>>Event Ends > Checkout Date (be sure to -1hr after 'Event Ends' if you notice your end date mapping your check out date one day later)

> Start your bot and run thru the test of your new automation

That's about it, I hope you find this hack useful and feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions or issues. 

Cheers!

~Jon