AI front desk · built for South Africa

The front desk that never closes.

The guest landing at midnight, the tenant on rent day, the plumber at the gate — all met at one desk that's never unmanned. In your voice, in any of 9 SA languages.

Answering across 3 time zones right now
NNaya
Naya · The Vines Guesthouse
online · replies in seconds
Hi, we land at 23:40 — is late check-in still okay?23:02
No stress at all — your door code is 4471 and it works from 23:00. I've switched the entrance light on and left the braai pack in the fridge. Safe flight! 23:02 ✓✓
Legend. Is there parking?23:03
Same question — switch the persona, watch the voice change
POPIA compliant Hosted in South Africa Your data stays yours View-only access Human handover, always
The problem

Right now, you are the front desk.

Every message lands on you — and a slow answer quietly costs a booking, a renewal or a five-star. After hours, it costs all three at once.

14h
Gone every week
Answering the same questions by hand — roughly two working days a week you'll never get to bill for.
1 in 4
Books with whoever's first
Enquirers message three places and take the first real answer. After hours, that's almost never you.
2am
And nobody's on the desk
The burst geyser, the locked-out guest, the load-shedding panic — all arriving when there's no one awake to catch them.
Ready out the box · yours to reshape

Meet Naya. Then meet the cast.

StayDesk ships with a full roster of trained front-desk personas. Deploy one as-is, rebrand it, or build your own — same engine underneath, every time.

NNaya
Ships as your default

Naya — ready on day one

Warm, quick, unflappable. Knows hospitality and SA rental rules out the box, so you're live in days. Keep her as-is, rename her, or pick another from the roster — change one thing or all of it:

name → anything tone → warm / formal / cheeky languages → 9 SA + 40 more avatar → your logo rules → your SOPs
TThandi
Thandi
upbeat & chatty
Airbnb & short-stay hosts
Any nice breakfast spots near the flat?
Yesss 🙌 Jason Bakery, 4 min walk — get the croissant. Want me to book you a table?
PPieter
Pieter
calm & precise
Long-term letting agencies
My rent debit didn't go off this month.
The 1st was a public holiday, so it runs tomorrow — no penalty. I'll confirm once it clears.
LLerato
Lerato
patient & reassuring
Student & residential blocks
I'm new here and locked out 😩
Don't worry, it happens! Caretaker's on the way, ~10 min. Wait by the main entrance 💛
BBongani
Bongani
efficient & ops-first
Maintenance-heavy portfolios
Aircon in 7A is dripping water.
Logged urgent. Tech dispatched, ETA 40 min, gate code attached. Closing once verified.
AAyesha
Ayesha
polished & concierge-grade
Luxury villas & estates
Could you arrange a private chef for Saturday?
Certainly. I've held our chef for 19:00 — a five-course Cape tasting menu. Add a wine pairing?
+
Build your own
Your name, your tone, your rules — trained on your past chats & SOPs. We build it with you during onboarding.
How the desk works

It doesn't just reply. It runs the whole job.

Anyone can answer a message. A real front desk takes the problem off your plate — start to finish. Here's one geyser, after midnight, handled without you waking up.

Tenant · Unit 12B 00:02
"There's no hot water and the geyser's dripping 😕"
StayDesk
Triages it: urgent · geyser · after-hours. Pulls the warranty status, finds the nearest on-call plumber and books the job — no human touched it.
Contractor · on-call 00:03
"Job: geyser, Unit 12B, urgent. Accept?" — "On it. ETA 25 min." Address, gate code and photos already attached.
Tenant · Unit 12B 00:04
"A plumber's on the way — about 25 minutes. I'll let you know when he's verified the fix 👍"
In your weekly digest
Geyser, 12B — resolved in 31 minutes, contractor verified, paid on sign-off. Your time spent: none.
Guests, tenants and contractors — one desk, talking to all of them at once.
Features

Everything you'd want from a duty manager.

Speaks the whole building

Answers in whatever language the message arrives in — 9 SA tongues fluently, and 40-odd more besides.

Never clocks off

Midnight check-ins, 4am leaks, Sunday rent queries — the desk is staffed while you sleep.

Sounds like your house

Learns your tone, your house rules and your sign-off, so every reply reads like your best receptionist wrote it.

Runs the maintenance desk

Logs the fault, picks the right tradesman by job, distance and rating, then sends the gate code and photos along with it.

Knows the rule book

STR by-laws, the Rental Housing Act and POPIA sit behind every answer, so nothing it says lands you in hot water.

Asks at the right moment

Reads the mood of a stay and only asks for a rating when it can feel a good one coming.

Knows when to fetch you

A complaint, a refund, a real judgement call — it pulls a person in, on the rules you set, per property.

Hands you the shift report

One weekly read: how fast it replied, what it resolved, which tradesmen delivered, and what it earned back for you.

White label

Your brand on the front desk. Always.

Guests, tenants and contractors only ever see your name, your tone, your number. StayDesk runs quietly underneath — the engine, never the face.

Make it yours
Getting started

From sign-up to staffed in under three weeks.

You bring your stack and your house style. We bring a front desk that already knows how to talk to your people.

01

Wire it up

We plug into your PMS and channels with view-only access. Nothing's copied out, nothing's shared — it all stays inside your own system.

NIGHTSBRIDGEGUESTYHOSTAWAYWHATSAPPEMAIL
02

Brief the desk

We feed it your past chats, policies, SOPs, leases and house rules — so it sounds like you before message one.

CONVERSATIONSPOLICIESLEASES
03

Open for service

The desk handles WhatsApp, SMS and email — pulling in your team only when confidence drops or policy calls for a person.

WHATSAPPSMSEMAIL
Pricing · in rands

Simple. Per door.

No tiers, no feature gating. Every door gets the whole front desk — all personas, all channels, every feature.

R199per door / month
Monthly

Each active door, fully covered — guests, tenants and contractors, day and night.

R20,000once-off
Implementation

White-glove setup: PMS connection, voice training, persona build and go-live.

R7,960/ month
  • All 6 personas + build-your-own
  • Guests, tenants & contractors
  • WhatsApp, SMS & email
  • 9 SA languages
  • Maintenance desk & dispatch
  • POPIA & by-law guardrails
  • Human handover
  • Weekly analytics
  • Full white-label
FAQ

Questions, answered.

Most operators are live in 2–3 weeks. We white-glove the first import: PMS connection, voice training on your past conversations, and contractor onboarding.

Yes. Your portfolio, leases and chat history stay in your own ring-fenced environment, hosted in South Africa, with a person kept in the loop and consent handling built in.

That's the point. Start with Naya out the box, then change the name, tone, avatar and rules — or build a persona from scratch. Your people only ever see your brand.

9 South African languages tuned for hospitality and rentals, plus 40+ more auto-detected per message.

It flips the thread to a human in one tap. Handover rules are tunable per persona, per property and per topic, with adjustable confidence thresholds.

Yes. StayDesk learns your current vendors first, then optionally widens coverage when an SLA slips.

Book a demo

See StayDesk handle a real thread.

A 20-minute call. Bring one conversation from last week — we'll show you what StayDesk would have replied, in your voice and the right language.

Opens your email to send — or write to hello@staydesk.chat directly.