Auto Property Groups
Written By Chad McGuire (Sparrow Intel)
Auto property groups are property groups that build and maintain themselves from the custom fields and tags on your listings in your PMS. Instead of hand-picking properties, you choose a custom field or tag to group by, and Sparrow Intel creates the groups and keeps their members up to date — properties that gain the field or tag join the group, and properties that lose it leave.
Note: Auto property groups are currently supported only for Guesty users. If your account is connected to a different PMS, the "New Auto Group" option will not appear. Support for additional integrations may come in the future.
Auto groups work everywhere regular property groups do — filters, rules, reports, Autopilot scoping, knowledge snippets and review widgets. If you want to build a group by hand instead, see Create a Property Group.
Create an auto group
In the Sparrow Intel interface, navigate to and select "Property Groups."
Click the "New Auto Group" button, next to "Create New."
In the "Property" field, pick any property that carries the custom field or tag you want to group by. The property is only used to browse its fields and tags — the groups you create will include every matching property on your account, not just this one.
Under "Select a Custom Field or Tag," choose what to group by. Custom fields are listed with the selected property's current value beside each name, and tags are listed below them in their own section.
If you selected a custom field, choose how many groups to create under "Groups to Create":
This value only — creates a single group of the properties whose field matches the value shown (for example, every property where "Region" is "Gulf Coast").
One group per value — creates a group for every distinct value of the field. New groups appear automatically as new values show up in Guesty.
Tags always create a single group of the properties carrying that tag, so there is no choice to make.
Name the group. For "This value only" and tag groups, a name is suggested in the "Property Group Name" field and you can change it before saving. With "One group per value," each group is named after the field and its value automatically — you can rename any of them later.
Review the "Preview" section. It shows every group the rule will create, with the number of properties in each — expand a group to see exactly which properties it will contain. A group marked "Already exists" was created earlier by the same rule and will be updated rather than duplicated.
Click "SAVE." The groups are created right away and appear under the Property Groups tab.
How auto groups stay up to date
Group members refresh automatically during the daily sync with your PMS:
Properties that gain the field value or tag in Guesty join the group; properties that lose it leave.
With "One group per value," a brand-new value creates a brand-new group automatically.
If no properties carry a value anymore, the group is kept — empty — so any filters, reports or widgets built on it keep working. Groups are only removed when you delete their rule.
Because updates ride along with the daily sync, a change made in Guesty (a new tag, an edited field value) is reflected in Sparrow Intel after the next sync rather than immediately.
Manage your auto group rules
Once you have at least one rule, an "Auto Group Rules" card appears on the Property Groups page. Each row shows the custom field or tag the rule is built on and how many groups it maintains. Expand a row to see the groups themselves, each with its property count — click a group's name to open it.
In the property groups list, groups maintained by a rule carry an "Auto Group" chip beside their name. You can open and rename an auto group at any time, but its members are managed automatically — to change who's in it, change the field or tag in Guesty.
Delete a rule
Click the delete icon on a rule in the "Auto Group Rules" card. Deleting a rule stops automatic maintenance of its groups, and the dialog lets you choose what happens to them:
Check "Keep groups as manual groups" to keep the groups with their current members. They become ordinary property groups you can edit by hand.
Leave it unchecked to delete the groups along with the rule.
Good to know
Custom fields and tags are loaded from Guesty during the daily sync. If you select a property and see "No custom fields or tags are available for this property yet," they will appear after the next sync. A tag newly added in Guesty likewise shows up in the picker after the next sync.
A rule can maintain up to 50 distinct values. If a field has too many distinct values to group automatically, you'll see an error in the preview — choose a field with fewer values, or use "This value only" instead.
Field values longer than 100 characters are not grouped, so free-text fields (like notes or descriptions) are not suitable for grouping.
Auto groups cannot be deleted directly from the property groups list — delete the rule instead, or keep the groups as manual groups and delete them individually afterwards.
Renaming an auto group is always safe: the rule keeps updating its members under the new name.