Why most Airbnb hosts never get past "I should start an email list"
You've heard it a hundred times. On the podcasts. In the Facebook groups. From me, honestly.
"Collect your guests' emails. Build a list. Get them to rebook direct." Everybody says it because it's true: the guest who already stayed with you is the easiest, cheapest booking you’ll ever get.
So you've thought about it. Probably more than once. And then most hosts don't do it.
Not because of laziness. Because you’re busy. And the benefits of rebookings: the repeat guests, higher nightly rates, and longer stays can feel so far away because the path to get there isn't simple.
So the whole thing slides back down to the bottom of the to-do list.
And honestly, I don't blame you. The current way to get rebookings is genuinely a pain. Let me show you what I mean.
Step 1: Just Collecting the Email
Here's what makes this harder than it should be:
You can't get the guest’s email from Airbnb. The platform doesn't share it, and you can't ask the guest for it inside the app either… That's the kind of thing that gets your account suspended (last week we talked about why Airbnb doesn't want you to communicate with past guests).
So if you want your guest's real contact info, you have to capture it yourself, at the property. The usual way is to lock your wifi behind a sign-in screen, so guests enter their email to get the wifi password. But the existing tools to do that require:
- Buying expensive hardware upfront ($300+)
- Getting a handyman to install it ($100+)
- Paying annual subscription fees ($300+/yr)
And to install it, you're messing with wifi that already works. If things go sideways during the install and the wifi’s down on check-in day, that's pretty much a guaranteed one-star review.
Step 2: Actually Sending the Emails
Here's what nobody warns you about: collecting the email was never the hard part. Consistent sending is.
"I’ll just send some emails" quickly balloons into a whole project:
- What do I even say in the first email?
- How often do I send after that? Weekly? Monthly?
- What's the right tone, so it doesn't look like a spammy marketing blast?
- And when, exactly, will I have time to write it? Between turnovers and guest messages?
- Is it good enough to send to my guests?
That's where most hosts quit. Not at the start. Right here, after they already paid for the hardware.
And because so many hosts hit that exact wall, marketing agencies appeared that will write and send the emails, fully done for you.
Sounds amazing, right? There’s only one problem: it’ll cost you $2,400+ a year…
That's a tough pill to swallow for a host with a couple of listings.
But think about it... The fact that these marketing agencies exist tells us that large operators are handing over thousands of dollars per year because the payoff sitting inside those past-guest relationships is real. Otherwise these agencies wouldn't be in business.
It's just not a realistic price to pay for a host with one or two listings.
Here's the part I can't let go of
The process works. Collect emails → Send emails → Get rebookings → Make more money.
But every path to do it is either too much work or too much money. The “cheap” way still costs you hardware, a handyman, and then another job you don't have the hours for. The easy way costs you hardware, a handyman, plus $2,400+ a year.
If you're managing 20 properties, that math pencils out. But that's not most people reading this.
Airbnb has 5.5 million hosts and 87% of them run just 1 or 2 listings.
So for ~9 out of 10 hosts, the hardware-plus-do-it-yourself path is too much effort to stay consistent, and the marketing agency path is too expensive to justify.
So most hosts do nothing. And every time a great guest checks out, leaves a five-star review, and disappears back into Airbnb's app, a little money walks out the door with them.
That's the part that bugs me. The benefit is real, and the everyday hosts pouring everything into a great guest experience are the ones with no good solutions.
It shouldn't be this hard.
I know because I've felt it myself. So I've been quietly building something to fix it (it's not more hardware, and it's not a $2,400 agency).
I'm not ready to show it yet. But it's close. And when I open it up, I'm starting with just a handful of hosts, because I want to work with that first group personally and make sure they’re getting rebookings.
Want me to make sure you don't miss it?
