Success story
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Founded by Will Asbury, Guesthoo is a UK-based short-term rental management company, managing properties across Cornwall and Devon through automation-first operations.
Location: Cornwall & Devon, UK
Number of listings: 60
Using Hostfully since: 2022
Favorite features: Automated messaging and triggers, central calendar with multi-channel distribution, integration ecosystem
Hostfully is the reason I could grow Guesthoo without hiring staff. At this scale, automation is not optional, it is the business.
Guesthoo started the same way many short-term rental businesses do, with a single property and a lot of hands-on work. Founder Will Asbury initially relied on traditional holiday rental agencies, but inconsistent guest quality pushed him to try Airbnb after a positive experience as a guest. The results were immediate. Revenue improved, properties were better cared for, and word spread quickly.
“As soon as people saw what Airbnb could do, owners started asking me to manage their properties,” said Will.
Within a short time, Will was managing four to five listings. But growth came at a cost. For nearly three years, Guesthoo ran on spreadsheets. Will tracked reservations, cleaner assignments, guest messages, income, expenses, and owner payouts manually. “It was manageable at first,” he said, “but once you get past five properties, the admin starts to take over your life.”
By the time Guesthoo reached ten properties, growth stalled. Will could not onboard new owners without sacrificing service quality. He tried a property management system that made it easy to build a direct booking site, but automation was limited. “Something as basic as sending a guest message felt clunky,” Will said. “It was clear the system would not scale.”
Friends in the industry pointed him toward Hostfully. After researching the platform, Will made the switch.
Within two years of signing up for Hostfully, Will scaled Guesthoo from five properties to sixty, without hiring a single full-time employee. “The only way that was possible was automation,” Will said. “There is no other explanation.”
Will started by automating guest communication. Instead of copying and pasting check-in instructions, Hostfully now sends guests a clear message as soon as they book, setting expectations about when they will receive arrival details. “Once guests know the information is coming at a specific time, they stop emailing,” Will explained. He estimates this single automation reduced the time he spends on guest messaging by more than ninety percent.
Next came cleaning and turnover. Before Hostfully, Will emailed cleaners manually for every booking change and kept track of who serviced which property. With Hostfully, reservation changes now trigger automatic emails to cleaners with check-in and check-out details. “That was a huge unlock,” Will said. “Cleaners manage their own schedules, and I only step in when needed.”
Pricing automation followed. Will integrated Beyond Pricing with Hostfully to eliminate manual rate updates. “I no longer think about seasonality or bulk changes,” he said. “Beyond Pricing sets the rates, and Hostfully pushes them everywhere instantly.”
With a reliable central calendar in place, Will expanded distribution beyond Airbnb to Vrbo and his direct booking site. Vacancy rates dropped immediately. “Once availability was synced automatically, multi-channel distribution actually became easy,” Will said. For standout properties, Hostfully also enabled custom standalone booking sites that feed directly into the same calendar.
“At sixty properties, it’s honestly hard to imagine how I ever ran this business manually,” Will said. “There is no version of Guesthoo at this size without Hostfully.”
Do Will’s spreadsheet headaches sound familiar? Let’s talk.
Automation did more than save time. With lower vacancy rates and optimized pricing, Guesthoo increased earnings without increasing workload. And because Hostfully supports layered automation, Will knows he can activate additional channels or tools as competition increases.
“My goal was never to build a big team,” Will said. “It was to build systems that let the business grow without burning me out. Hostfully made that possible.”
