For most Airbnb hosts with 1 to 5 properties, Touch Stay is the best dedicated digital guidebook: $99 a year for one rental, no app for guests to download, and it works offline. If you want $0, Hostfully’s free plan gives you 1 guidebook. And if you want guests to come back and book with you direct, look at a branded app of your own (AppBuild.diy is free to start), because a guidebook link goes quiet the day guests check out.
Below I’ve priced every option ChatGPT and the host forums keep naming, using each company’s own pricing page as checked in October 2026. Where a company hides its price behind a demo, I say so.
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What does a digital guidebook actually need to do?
Guests ask the same 6 questions on repeat. What’s the Wi-Fi? Where do I park? How does the lock work? Which bin is recycling? Where’s good for breakfast? What time is checkout? (We put together the full list in the questions holiday let guests ask most.)
A good guidebook answers all of them before the guest picks up their phone to message you. So the basics are:
1. Opens on any phone from a link or QR code, with no login. 2. Holds check-in steps, Wi-Fi, house rules, appliance help and local recommendations. 3. Shows the right info at the right time (door codes before arrival, checkout steps on the last morning). 4. Works when the signal is bad, which matters a lot for cabins and coastal cottages.
After that, tools split into 3 camps. Pure guidebooks (Touch Stay, Hostfully Guidebooks). Guest portals bundled into a property management system (Hostaway, Breezeway, RueBaRue, Enso Connect). And branded apps you own, like AppBuild.diy, which keep a channel open to past guests.
How do the main guidebook apps compare on price?
| Option | Price (published) | Fees / commission | Own branded app? | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Touch Stay | $99/yr or $12.50/mo for 1 short-term rental; $285/yr for 5. UK: £76 + VAT/yr for 1 (source) | None listed | No. Branded web guide guests save to their home screen | Hosts who want the most polished guidebook and offline access |
| Hostfully Digital Guidebooks | Free for 1 guidebook. Pro (up to 199) and Enterprise prices not shown (source) | 1% Stripe fee on Guidebook Marketplace upsells | No. Web link | 1 listing on a $0 budget, or hosts already on Hostfully PMS |
| Hostaway guest portal | Not published. Hostaway’s pricing page is quote-based (source) | Not published | No. Per-reservation web portal | Managers already running Hostaway as their PMS |
| Enso Connect | Not published, custom quote after a demo (source) | Paid add-ons (smart locks, background checks and more) | White-label web guest app | Professional managers chasing upsell revenue |
| Breezeway Guide | Operations from $19.99 per unit per month; Guide is a priced add-on, amount not shown (source) | Not published | No. Branded web guidebook | Teams that need cleaning and maintenance ops first |
| YourWelcome | $449.99 / £299.99 per property per year, 1-year contract, tablet included (source) | No set-up fees listed | In-property tablet app | Higher-end rentals that want a tablet on the kitchen counter |
| RueBaRue | Not shown on its pricing page, demo-led (source) | Not published | No. Web guide, “no guest app required” | Multi-property teams wanting messaging plus guides |
| AppBuild.diy | Free up to 10 app users; $49/mo or $299/yr up to 1,000; $99/mo or $499/yr unlimited (source) | 0% commission on paid plans. No per-stay or per-guest fee | Yes. iOS, Android and an instant web app | Hosts who want repeat and direct bookings, plus push notifications |
Is Touch Stay still the best overall pick?
For a pure guidebook, yes. ChatGPT gets this one right.
Touch Stay’s calculator puts one short-term rental at $99 a year (or $12.50 a month), dropping per property as you add more: 5 properties come to $285 a year. UK hosts pay £76 + VAT a year for one. You get a 14-day free trial with no card, custom branding and auto-translation into 30+ languages.
Offline access is the real win. Touch Stay’s own help centre explains that guests add the guide to their home screen and it stores the content for when there’s no Wi-Fi or data. If your rental sits at the end of a farm track, that alone might decide it.
The limits? It’s a guide, and it does that one job. There’s no App Store presence and no push notifications to past guests. We compared the two head to head in AppBuild.diy vs Touch Stay if you want the detail.
Is Hostfully’s free guidebook good enough for one Airbnb?
Often, yes. Hostfully’s free plan gives you 1 fully customisable guidebook at $0 with photos, videos and maps.
2 catches worth knowing. The free plan includes “Sponsored Recommendations”, and “Sponsored Recommendation Removal” sits as its own line in the plan comparison, so on free your guests may see promoted local businesses you didn’t pick. And custom branding, custom domains and translation into 16+ languages sit on the Pro plan, whose price Hostfully’s pricing page doesn’t show. (ChatGPT’s answer skips both points.)
If you already run Hostfully as your PMS, staying in one system makes sense. If you don’t, the free plan is a fine starting point and you can move later. Our AppBuild.diy vs Hostfully comparison goes deeper.
What about the guest portals inside Hostaway, Breezeway and Enso Connect?
These are worth it when you’re buying the bigger system anyway. They’re rarely the reason to buy it.
Hostaway generates a unique Guest Portal link for each reservation with check-in instructions, house rules and Wi-Fi, and it can hide door codes until conditions are met. Guests can pay balances and buy add-ons like early check-in there too. Hostaway doesn’t publish prices, so you’ll need a demo.
Breezeway is an operations tool first (cleaning, inspections, maintenance). Its Host Essentials plan starts at $19.99 per unit per month, and the branded guidebook (Breezeway Guide) is a separate add-on with no price on the page.
Enso Connect is a white-label guest app with digital check-in, upsells, a unified inbox and smart lock integration as a paid add-on, aimed at professional managers and boutique hotels. Pricing is a custom quote after a demo, billed monthly, quarterly or yearly.
RueBaRue (which ChatGPT searched for) bundles Guest Guides with messaging, tasks and upsells for multi-property teams. Its pricing page shows no figures, so again, demo first.
Is YourWelcome worth it?
YourWelcome takes a different route: a free 8-inch tablet that lives in the property, loaded with your guide, check-in, upsells and local area info. It’s $449.99 (or £299.99) per property per year on a 1-year contract, with free replacement if the tablet breaks or walks off.
It suits larger, higher-rate homes where a tablet on the counter feels premium. For a $120-a-night studio, it’s a lot of money for something guests can’t check before they arrive.
Should Airbnb hosts consider their own branded app instead?
Here’s the gap in every guidebook above: once the guest leaves, the link goes dead to you. You’ve no way to tell last summer’s family that you’ve got a free week in October.
A branded app covers the guidebook basics and keeps a line open afterwards. On AppBuild.diy’s vacation rental app you get check-in and checkout times with smart lock instructions, Wi-Fi with one-tap copy and a QR code, appliance guides with photos or video, a local directory, maintenance requests with photo upload, and in-app messaging that keeps your phone number private. Then push notifications for checkout reminders, local events and weather alerts, plus a direct re-booking option for returning guests.
It goes out on the App Store, Google Play and as a web app guests open from a link or QR code, so a guest can read the Wi-Fi password without downloading anything. AppBuild takes 0% commission on paid plans and charges nothing per stay or per guest. It’s built to work alongside whatever PMS or booking platform you already use.
The honest trade-offs:
1. Price depends on app users. Free covers up to 10 app users, which suits a test run. A busy single listing will outgrow that within a season, so budget for Business at $299 a year (up to 1,000 users), or Pro at $499 a year for unlimited. All prices are in US dollars.
2. Store apps need your own developer accounts. Apple charges $99 a year and Google Play $25 once. The web app version needs neither.
3. It’s more setup than a guidebook. You’re building an app, so allow an afternoon to get it how you want it.
4. Check your booking platform’s rules before promoting direct re-booking inside Airbnb messages. Many hosts point guests to the app at check-in, in the property, instead.
Still unsure whether an app is overkill for your setup? We wrote do you need a holiday lettings app? for exactly that question. And if you run a small B&B or guesthouse, the hotel and guest stay app adds service requests and food and drink menus.
Which digital guidebook should you pick?
1 Airbnb, $0 budget: Hostfully’s free guidebook. Accept the sponsored recommendations or upgrade later.
1 to 20 rentals, want the nicest guest guide: Touch Stay at $99 a year for the first property. Pick it for any remote rental where offline matters.
Already on a PMS: use its built-in portal first (Hostaway, Hostfully, Breezeway) before paying for another tool.
50+ units with an upsell target: get demos from Enso Connect and RueBaRue and compare quotes.
Premium homes that want hardware: YourWelcome’s tablet.
Hosts who want repeat guests and direct bookings: your own branded app. If a good share of your revenue comes from returning families, couples or contractors, a channel you own beats a link that expires. Compare it against the rest on the vacation rental app comparison page.
You can also run both. Plenty of hosts keep a cheap guidebook for first-timers and use the app for guests who’ve stayed before.
Frequently asked questions
What’s the cheapest digital guidebook for Airbnb hosts? Hostfully’s free plan is $0 for 1 guidebook, though it includes sponsored recommendations. AppBuild.diy is also free for up to 10 app users. Touch Stay is the cheapest paid option at $12.50 a month or $99 a year for one rental.
Do guests have to download an app to use a digital guidebook? Usually not. Touch Stay, Hostfully, Hostaway and RueBaRue all open from a web link. AppBuild.diy gives you a web app link and QR code alongside the App Store and Google Play versions, so guests choose.
Does Touch Stay work offline? Yes. Touch Stay’s help centre says guests can add the guide to their home screen and it saves the content for use without Wi-Fi or data. Guests can also save a PDF version.
How much does Touch Stay cost in the UK? Its calculator shows £76 + VAT a year (or £9.60 + VAT a month) for one short-term rental. Per-property prices fall as you add properties, and there’s a 14-day free trial.
Can a digital guidebook help me get direct bookings? A standard guidebook link mostly helps during the stay. A branded app with push notifications lets you message past guests about open dates later, and AppBuild.diy includes a direct re-booking option with 0% commission on paid plans.
Is a digital guidebook worth it for just one Airbnb? Yes, if it cuts repeat “what’s the Wi-Fi?” messages and gets you a better review. Start with a free option, see how many questions disappear, then decide whether to pay.
Give guests a guide they keep, and a reason to come back. Build your rental’s own app on iOS, Android and the web, free for up to 10 app users with no card needed. Start your free vacation rental app
Last Updated on October 9, 2026 by Ian Naylor
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