Manifesto
Written from a gravel road
We run cabins at the end of a gravel road on the Osa Peninsula. The power goes out here. The pump breaks. And the guests arrive at three.
Hotel software was never written for this place. It was written for chains: RevPAR dashboards, group blocks, six-month implementations. And it never learned to speak our language — Hacienda, WhatsApp, colones and dollars mixed together, the accountant asking the same questions every month.
So our lodge’s “system” ended up being this: a spreadsheet, a phone full of chats, a box of receipts — and one person, you, carrying all of it in your head. At eleven at night. In high season.
We built Staywarden because we were that person.
We believe five things
Admin is not your job. Hosting is your job.
Every hour in the spreadsheet is an hour you are not with your guests — and they came for you, not for your spreadsheet.
What can happen by itself should happen by itself.
A departure IS a cleaning task. A booking IS an invoice. Let the system draw the conclusions; you already knew them.
Being in good standing with Hacienda is dignity, not bureaucracy.
A formal business can grow, borrow, and sleep at night. That is why e-invoicing is built in, not bolted on.
Your number is yours. Your data is yours.
Your WhatsApp keeps ringing on your phone. And you can leave any day you want, with everything in one file. A system you cannot leave is not a system — it is a trap.
It runs at our lodge before it reaches yours.
Every feature goes live at our own lodge first, on real bookings and a real team. If it cannot handle a Saturday of turnovers with a broken pump, that is where we find out — and fix it.
We started with lodges because we are a lodge. But a large part of Costa Rica makes its living hosting — cabins, tours, transport, sodas (local diners) — and deserves tools that speak its language. We want to build them.
Come in. There is room under this roof.
— Alexander Lionett · Customer zero · Osa Peninsula