Good morning,

Here’s what’s going on in the vacation rental world this week:

Airbnb rolled out Earnings Protection for hosts and a new Extended Cancellation Option for guests, Sonder's founder has resurfaced and is building an AI travel agent, and AirDNA mapped out how the war in Iran and climbing gas prices could reshape summer travel plans.

Lets dive in. 

NEWS

Headline Roundup

• Airbnb rolls out Earnings Protection for hosts and a new Extended Cancellation Option for guests (The Host Report) 

• Sonder's founder is back, and he's building a new AI travel agent (The Host Report) 

• AirDNA breaks down how gas prices might affect summer travel (AirDNA) 

• Expedia research finds travelers want full trip planning, not just a booking (Expedia) 

• Key Data previews July 4th vacation rental performance (Key Data) 

• OTA marketing spend rose in Q1 2026 despite talk of AI-driven efficiency (PhocusWire)

INTERESTING INSIGHTS

How a printed QR code turns Airbnb guests into repeat direct bookings

The last couple of weeks I’ve written about a problem most Airbnb hosts share: getting direct rebookings from your past guests.

Today I want to introduce the product I built to fix that.

The idea behind it

Right now, the moment your guest checks out, they stop being yours. They go back to being Airbnb's. And you’re dependent on the Airbnb algorithm to show the guest your listing again the next time they travel to your city.

I think that’s wrong. 

Someone who stayed at your place and left you five stars is your guest. You should be able to stay in touch with them, and they should be able to book directly with you the next time they’re in town.

Every host should be able to do this. Not just large property managers with big marketing budgets, but the person with a single listing that helps pay the mortgage.

The problem is that collecting emails and getting rebookings means buying hardware, hiring a handyman, and learning to write marketing emails (or paying a marketing agency $2,400+ a year). So most hosts just don’t bother.

I built something different, and it’s way more simple for you.

Introducing GuestLink

GuestLink doesn’t ask you to buy hardware, wire it in, and pray your Wi-Fi survives the install. It doesn’t ask you to learn how to do marketing, hire an agency, or stare down a blank email template on a Sunday night.

It asks you to print a QR code and put it in your property. That's it.

How it works

You print the QR code and place it in your property. Your guests scan it, land on a simple page, enter their email, and get the wifi password.

Because guests have to scan to get on the Wi-Fi, you don't just get the email for the one person who booked the stay. Everyone who wants to get on the Wi-Fi will scan and enter their email, so a single booking can turn into several future rebookings.

The welcome screen does more than hand out the Wi-Fi. It greets your guest by name, shows key details for their stay, and gives them a place to reach you or book again. It's a small touch that makes you look like a polished, professional operation, without requiring a property management system or a direct booking site.

And no, it won't annoy your guests. They already do this every time they check in at a Marriott, Hyatt, or Hilton: connect to the Wi-Fi, a page pops up, you enter your info, you're online. It's such a normal part of traveling now that nobody thinks twice.

From there, GuestLink handles 100% of the follow-up work. It comes down to three main emails:

• A “welcome email” immediately after they access the wifi, to start the relationship.

• A short monthly “newsletter email”, to keep your place top of mind.

• And “come back and book direct" offers, strategically timed for when guests are most likely planning their next trip.

Every message is written and sent for you. You can preview each one before it goes out (if you're a little bit of a control freak like me), or you can forget the whole thing exists and just watch the bookings come in.

No hardware. No handyman. No risk to your Wi-Fi. No property management system. No website to build. No $2,400/yr agency.

This isn't new. It's just finally simple.

I want to be straight with you. There’s nothing groundbreaking about emailing your past guests. People have known it works for decades.

What was missing was something simple enough, and cheap enough, that a normal host would actually use it. So I didn't overbuild this with a ton of bells & whistles you don't need. 

My goal was to build something that delivers the highest value activities of a marketing agency, while cutting everything that would have pushed the price out of reach for a normal host.

Compare it honestly against the alternatives:

The existing collection tools capture the email and then abandon you at the hardest part, the sending. The agencies will do the sending, but only if you hand them an existing email list and thousands of dollars a year. Each one solves half the problem and leaves you holding the other half.

GuestLink does both. We do the whole job: collection and sending, all in one place, 100% done for you.

And here's the part I'm proudest of. It’s priced so that one rebooking pays for the entire year. One. Everything after that is yours.

The price

GuestLink is $250 a year. 

That's the special launch pricing for the first group of hosts. It'll be $299/yr after. 

In either case, one returning booking covers the year, and every booking after that is pure profit for you.

For many hosts, a whole year of GuestLink costs less than a single night's stay at their own property.

How to get started

I’m not opening GuestLink to everyone at once. I’m beginning with a small group of hosts, in a few markets, and onboarding each one personally, so that I can be certain you’re getting results.

The list is open now, and because you subscribe to The Host Report, you get first access. The special launch pricing mentioned above will go to the people on the list.

If you’re interested, let me know by clicking the button below.

MARKET INSIGHTS

Mortgage Rate Snapshot

Mortgage rates climbed to 6.68% this week, near 9-month highs, as a strong jobs report outweighed the Iran war news and undercut the case for Fed rate cuts.

Regulations Update

• Cleveland, Ohio passed STR rules 14-1, requiring a $150 annual license, capping rentals at 10% of homes per block, limiting stays to 30 days, and fining unlicensed operators $1,000 to $5,000

• Blue River, Colorado froze all new and lapsed STR license applications and renewals through December 31 while it rewrites its regulations

• Strasburg Township, Pennsylvania voted 3-0 to start drafting a zoning amendment that would prohibit new short-term rentals

See this weeks full regulations report here: (The Host Report)