One stay shouldn't live in six places.
Where it started
My wife and I have run AQ Homestay in Mukah, Sarawak, since 2023, and we're now growing to two properties. We do everything ourselves: the bookings, the payments, the guest questions and the cleaning between stays. Most guests find us on our Facebook page, and we close the booking on WhatsApp.
For us, a booking was never just a booking. It came with a chat thread, a bank transfer, a screenshot of the receipt, a note about the balance, a door code to send on the day, and a deposit to return after checkout.
The work around the booking
None of it was difficult. Checking a receipt takes a minute. Sending a door code takes a minute. But a busy month had dozens of those minutes, and each one lived somewhere different.
The questions were always the same. Has she paid the balance? Was that RM100 the deposit or the first payment? Did I send the house guide? Can I return the deposit yet?
“I didn't need more bookings. I needed to stop forgetting what each one still needed.”
I ran our bookings on a spreadsheet for a while. It helped, but it only remembered what I typed in, and I was the one who had to keep it up to date. So in June 2026 I built the system that aqhomestay.com runs on today. Aligned grew out of it.
What I chose not to change
Owners like us already have a way of working that guests trust, so Aligned fits around it.
Building it with you
I'm opening Aligned first to a small group of Malaysian homestay operators. I want to hear how you run your stays, what still slows you down, and what Aligned gets wrong.
You can start on Pay As You Go: RM1 when a booking is confirmed, and no monthly fee. If it doesn't save you time, you've lost very little finding out.
Thank you for reading.