Trouble with Guesty Lite and VRBO

Hi all - For any of you guesty lite users... I'm hoping one of you can help me sort out an issue I'm having with GL and VRBO. My bookings are not syncing reliably from VRBO, and messages can only be sent through the email integration. I know you all are not guesty support (I've already contacted support a couple of times and continue to have issues), but I guess I'm asking two questions... first, are other users of guesty lite having similar issues? 

Second, for those of you not using a PMS (I read a post a couple of weeks ago about managing manually when you only have one property), does that mean you're not using automated messaging and automated door codes, or is there a way to do that directly in the platforms?