Guest Communication
Hostfully Guidebooks
Digital guidebooks that reduce guest questions and create upsell revenue
Best Value
Affordable guidebook tool that pays for itself through reduced messaging and upsell revenue
From $0/listing • No free trial
Comparison
Hostfully Guidebooks vs Touch Stay
Pricing, pros and cons, and buyer-fit side-by-side. Pick the one that matches your operation — or see why neither should.
Guest Communication
Touch Stay
Digital guidebooks that cut guest questions by up to 80%
Solid Option
Feature-rich digital guidebook platform with a premium price tag
From $8.25/listing • 14-day trial
✓Editorial verdict
Which should you pick: Hostfully Guidebooks or Touch Stay?
Pick Hostfully Guidebooks if you want a permanent free tier to start risk-free, built-in auto-translation in 16+ languages, and zero upsell commissions. Pick Touch Stay if you need a more complete platform with bundled email/SMS messaging, review collection popups, analytics, and deeper PMS integrations — and can commit to $8.25/listing/mo with no free tier.
Editorial perspective from the Hostfully Guidebooks side; factual claims about Touch Stay are drawn from its review.
Pricing side-by-side
Hostfully Guidebooks
Full pricing →From $0/listing • No free trial
Per listing
First guidebook free forever (freemium). Additional guidebooks $7.99/mo billed annually or $9.99/mo billed monthly. 1% commission on direct bookings. Enterprise pricing available for 10+ properties on request.
Touch Stay
Full pricing →From $8.25/listing • 14-day trial
Annual plan
$8.25/mo per property ($99/yr)
Per property
- Digital guidebook (PWA)
- Email and SMS messaging
- Upsell widget
- 5-star review popup
- Contact collection
- Analytics dashboard
- PMS integrations
Monthly plan
Higher per-property rate (exact pricing varies)
Per property
- All features in annual plan
What each tool does well — and where it falls short
What Hostfully Guidebooks does well
Automates up to 70% of guest messaging through comprehensive FAQ coverage
By documenting common questions and detailed answers in the guidebook, guests self-serve instead of contacting the host. Hostfully supports automated message sequences triggered at different booking stages.
Instant auto-translation in 16+ languages at no extra cost
Covers English, Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Danish, Dutch, Spanish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Vietnamese — enabling international guest service without manual translation.
Built-in upselling generates additional revenue per booking
Hosts can offer extra services and local experiences directly within guidebooks. Reviews confirm managers use this to create new revenue streams beyond nightly rates.
Permanently free single-guidebook tier removes adoption risk
Unlike competitors that gate features behind a trial clock, the free tier has no expiration. Hosts can fully evaluate the product on a real listing before scaling up.
What Touch Stay does well
Reduces guest questions by up to 80%
Thousands of hosts report significant time savings from automated responses and comprehensive digital guidebooks, with 92% of users reporting happier guests.
No-download progressive web app
Guests access guidebooks directly on their devices without downloading anything. They can optionally add to their home screen for offline access with a custom icon.
Extensive bundled features beyond guidebooks
Touch Stay bundles email and SMS messaging, an upsell widget, a 5-star review popup, contact collection, and an analytics dashboard — reducing the need for separate tools.
Where Hostfully Guidebooks falls short
Steep learning curve with confusing information architecture
Users report the Decks vs Cards vs Guidebooks concept hierarchy is unclear on first sign-in, and setup on the paid version requires reading documentation or waiting for email responses.
Tier-based pricing forces overpaying when your portfolio doesn't fill a tier
Users criticize being unable to pay per-guidebook — you must buy a tier (e.g. up to 5 or 10), paying for capacity you may not use.
Support limited to email with no live chat or phone option
There is no chat widget on the website and no phone line. For hosts hitting setup issues during their first guidebook build, this slows resolution significantly.
Where Touch Stay falls short
No permanent free tier
Touch Stay offers only a 14-day trial with no free plan, making it harder for small operators to test long-term before committing.
Higher cost than key competitors
Competitors like GoGuidebook offer similar digital guidebook functionality at roughly 25% lower cost, which adds up for larger portfolios.
Cumbersome multi-guide management
While you can duplicate and edit guidebooks, syncing changes between multiple guides for similar properties is tedious and error-prone.
Which should you pick
Pick Hostfully Guidebooks if
Property managers with 1-100+ listings who want to automate FAQ responses, reduce guest messaging volume, and create additional revenue through in-guidebook upselling.
Skip Hostfully Guidebooks if
You only manage a single property and are satisfied with basic welcome messages, or you prefer printed guidebooks over digital solutions.
Pick Touch Stay if
Larger vacation rental portfolios (10+ properties) already integrated with PMSs like Hostaway or Guesty who want comprehensive guest communication tools with upselling features.
Skip Touch Stay if
Small operators (1–5 properties) who prefer free options or don't need extensive PMS integrations — competitors like GuestIntro offer similar functionality at lower cost.
Where Hostfully Guidebooks and Touch Stay actually differ
- Hostfully's first guidebook is free forever; Touch Stay has no free tier — only a 14-day trial before requiring $8.25/listing/mo on annual plans ($99/year).
- Hostfully auto-translates into 16+ languages including Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese at no extra cost; Touch Stay's multi-language capabilities are not documented in the same detail.
- Touch Stay bundles automated email/SMS messaging, a 5-star review popup, guest contact collection, and an analytics dashboard; Hostfully offers automated messaging templates but lacks review collection, contact capture, and analytics features.
- Touch Stay integrates with 10+ named PMS platforms including Hostaway, Guesty, and OwnerRez; Hostfully Guidebooks has no verified third-party PMS integrations.
- At 5 listings, Hostfully costs ~$32/mo (1 free + 4 × $7.99); Touch Stay costs ~$41/mo ($8.25 × 5) — Hostfully is ~22% cheaper thanks to the free first guidebook.
Common objections
- Touch Stay bundles messaging, reviews, and analytics — doesn't Hostfully feel incomplete by comparison?
- Touch Stay does pack more features into one subscription. If you need review collection popups and an analytics dashboard alongside your guidebook, Touch Stay saves you from adding separate tools. But if your primary goal is reducing guest questions through a comprehensive guidebook, Hostfully's focused approach does that effectively — operators report up to 70% fewer messages, comparable to Touch Stay's claimed 80% reduction. Hostfully's 16+ language auto-translation is also a standout if you host international guests. You're choosing between a broader platform (Touch Stay) and a focused guidebook tool with a free entry point (Hostfully).
- Touch Stay has PMS integrations with Hostaway, Guesty, and OwnerRez — Hostfully doesn't. Won't I outgrow Hostfully?
- Possibly. At 1–10 listings, manually sharing a Hostfully guidebook link or QR code is simple and the free tier makes it essentially costless to start. At 15+ listings, the lack of PMS integration means you can't auto-deliver guidebooks per reservation, which creates real operational friction. If you're growing toward that scale and already use Hostaway or Guesty, Touch Stay's native integrations will save you time. Start with Hostfully's free tier to validate that digital guidebooks reduce your guest messaging, then evaluate whether Touch Stay's integration depth justifies the switch as you scale.
- Touch Stay's 14-day trial vs Hostfully's permanent free tier — does the free tier actually matter if I'm going to pay anyway?
- It matters more than you'd think. A 14-day trial pressures you to evaluate under a deadline — you might not have enough bookings in two weeks to see real impact on guest questions. Hostfully's free guidebook runs indefinitely on a live listing, so you can measure guest messaging reduction over a full booking cycle before spending anything. If the guidebook works, you'll scale up confidently. If it doesn't change your workflow, you've lost nothing. That zero-risk evaluation period is Hostfully's strongest advantage over every competitor that gates access behind a trial clock.
Keep digging
Hostfully Guidebooks
Affordable guidebook tool that pays for itself through reduced messaging and upsell revenue
Touch Stay
Feature-rich digital guidebook platform with a premium price tag