Daybook
Tutorials · 3 of 12

Import your past bookings and read your first Stocktake

Your history files, and what Daybook makes of them the next morning.

Why this mattersYour calendars only show what is coming. Your past bookings are what let Daybook compare this month with the same month last year, say what an empty night usually earns you, and write your first Stocktake: one page on what your records say about your business. You import them once. After that, your forwarded booking emails keep the figures current.

What you need

  • A history file from each site you use, saved as a CSV (a spreadsheet file). PDFs and Excel workbooks can't be read.
  • The Import panel says where each file lives. On Airbnb it is Earnings, then Paid, then Export CSV: include every listing and leave the optional extras off. Not Download reports, which gives a PDF.
  • A computer helps. On an iPhone, export from a desktop browser; Airbnb emails you the file. Save it, then come back to Daybook.

Import a file

  1. Open Import. On your board, tap Import at the top right. It looks the same on a phone and a laptop.
  2. Find Booking history. Scroll past Calendars to Booking history. A line for each site shows what Daybook already holds, for example Vrbo not imported.
  3. Pick the matching button. Import Airbnb history file, Import Vrbo history file, Import Booking.com history file, Import Direct bookings (your own spreadsheet of guests who booked with you), or Import an agent’s statement or something else.
  4. Choose the file. The button reads Importing… while Daybook reads it. Files up to 10 MB are fine; a history export is far smaller.
  5. Read the receipt. It starts Airbnb import landed · just now, then says what we did with it: for example ✓ 212 bookings added, · 14 already had and ✕ 9 cancelled or non-stay rows, not counted. Anything that fails a check is left out, never guessed at.
  6. Say which place, if asked. With two or more places, Daybook may ask 12 Airbnb stays in your files are under the listing “Garden Studio”. Which place is that? Tap the place. It remembers, and you can change it in Settings.
  7. Repeat for each site you use. Importing the same file twice does no harm: those stays show as already had.

Why this mattersEach site only knows its own bookings. Daybook can only describe the whole of your business once every site's history is in, so do each one before the first Stocktake is written.

If a file won't go in

  • A PDF, or an Excel or Numbers file, is refused with the steps to fix it: open it in Excel and choose File, then Save As, then CSV, and import that.
  • A spreadsheet laid out in a way Daybook doesn't read straight away gets a message saying so and what happens next. Nothing is guessed.

Read your first Stocktake

  1. Wait for the morning. After your first import, Today shows Your records, read: Your Brief will be ready at six tomorrow morning. Brief is what Today calls the Stocktake while you wait.
  2. Open it. The next morning, Today shows What I know about your place (your places if you have more than one). Tap the card, where it says Tap to read what I know →.
  3. Read it from the top. The page is called What I know. Each section appears only when your records hold enough to say it: What your business is, The kind of year, Your guests, How you price, How well you do, What to do about it, Your best ever months, Your money, Your channels, and last, What I can’t say yet.

Why this mattersEvery figure on the page comes from your own records, with the count it rests on. What to do about it shows what your empty nights were worth at your own rates as a ceiling, not a forecast, and the things you control. Daybook never tells you what to charge.

Read it again later

On the phone or computer you imported from, tap Import and, under the receipt, Open it as a page →. The page is worked out from your records each time, so a file you add later is folded in.

Try it on your own places

See your own morning in Daybook. You don't need a card.

£15 a month after the free trial, everything included. The first 50 hosts who pay become Founding Hosts and keep £15 a month for as long as they stay.

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