There are indeed “several bots” that get “special treatment”*.
*By “special treatment”: They are very large programs that need a higher rate limit because of how many channels they manage (Which any developer can request to get as well). Whereas a small bot does not need to retrieve their channel information twice every second.
From my experience I believe that you don’t need to be logged into the broadcaster and chat bot account to receive the HOST notices in chat. Only that these chat messages get sent to the person doing the hosting and not the chat of the hostee. (I could be mistaken, but my bot doesn’t log in as the broadcaster and I recall seeing these notices)
So if you’re wanted to know when your channel hosts somebody and not when somebody else hosts you then simply refer to the following NOTICE documentation.
.
Host starts:
> :tmi.twitch.tv HOSTTARGET #hosting_channel <channel> [<number-of-viewers>]
Host ends:
> :tmi.twitch.tv HOSTTARGET #hosting_channel :- [<number-of-viewers>]