Case Study: How Book Our Place Scaled to 40 Properties With StayFi + Guesty

How It All Started

During the pandemic, Jordan and Jennifer spent two months driving across multiple U.S. states, staying in a variety of vacation rentals. The experience opened their eyes.

“Some Airbnbs were great… others were shockingly bad. Hosts wouldn’t respond, the value wasn’t there, and the guest experience just felt off. We thought—why is this so hard?”

— Jordan Burns, Co-Founder, Book Our Place

This sparked the idea for Book Our Place: a management company committed to doing things better—with clear communication, consistency, and genuine hospitality.

They began managing their own homes, quickly saw results, and soon built a scalable model.

Why They Chose Guesty Early

From the outset, Jordan knew they needed a PMS that could support rapid growth.

They tested Hostaway, Hostfully, and others—but Guesty stood out for its features, reliability, and value.

“For the price, technology, and features, Guesty was the superior option. Getting onto Guesty early helped us scale smoothly.”

— Jordan

Favorite Guesty Features

• Unified Inbox
• Easy Property Distribution to different Channels
• Guesty Accounting and GuesyPay
• Automated communication workflows

Guesty became the backbone of Book Our Place’s operations as they expanded.

Introducing Direct Bookings—Rebranding for Growth

Direct bookings weren’t the original focus. Their first website was built primarily for owner acquisition.

But as Book Our Place rebranded in late 2024, direct bookings quickly became a natural extension—and a major revenue opportunity.

• First rental listed: June 2024
• Rebrand completed: October 2024
• Direct booking push began: Immediately afterward
• Result: Guests began booking directly without prompting

Jordan realized that to unlock faster direct booking growth, they needed one additional piece:

Guest data.

Why Book Our Place Adopted StayFi

As Book Our Place began scaling beyond their own properties and adding third-party homes, Jordan knew guest data would become increasingly important — especially with OTAs limiting access to real guest contact information.

After encountering StayFi repeatedly through podcasts, webinars, and industry conversations, he decided to take a closer look. 

The Key Reason They Adopted StayFi?

The captive WiFi login.

StayFi allowed them to collect guest emails reliably—something OTAs increasingly prevent.

“When Airbnb stopped providing guest emails and Booking.com uses relay emails, StayFi became essential. Guest data is everything.”

With StayFi in place, Book Our Place could continue growing their guest list automatically, even as OTA policies became more restrictive. Capturing emails at WiFi login ensured they weren’t missing future repeat-booking opportunities and gave them a long-term foundation for direct marketing — without adding operational overhead.

The Results: More Data, More Bookings

Book Our Place now has a guest database of around 5,000 contacts, built through StayFi’s WiFi capture + Guesty’s PMS sync.

And as soon as they send a newsletter?

“Every time we send a newsletter, we get 2–3 direct bookings. It’s incredibly consistent.”

Even without a dedicated marketer (they’re hiring one now), the impact is immediate and measurable.

Marketing Results

• Thousands of guest contacts captured
• 2–3 direct bookings per newsletter send
• Stronger repeat business across multiple properties
• Higher visibility for their high-end rentals

StayFi helped turn WiFi into an automated lead-generation engine.

Guesty + StayFi Integration

As Book Our Place scaled from just a few properties to managing dozens, having a strong property management system was non-negotiable. They transitioned early to Guesty for Pros to support multi-property operations, accounting, guest communication, and day-to-day visibility across their portfolio.

The integration between Guesty and StayFi helped unify operations and guest marketing in one workflow.

Guesty booking data syncs into StayFi, allowing Book Our Place to pair operational data with the guest contact information captured via WiFi. This connection supports automated guest messaging and ongoing email marketing without requiring manual data exports or workarounds.

Jordan noted that:

• The integration works smoothly and reliably
• Having PMS data connected to guest marketing tools is essential when scaling

By combining Guesty for operations and StayFi for guest data capture and marketing, Book Our Place has built a more scalable system — one that supports growth without sacrificing guest communication, follow-up, or long-term relationship building.

Lessons Learned & Advice for Other Operators

Jordan’s advice is simple—and powerful:

1. Start with the right systems early

“Starting on Guesty early let us grow without painful transitions.”

2. Capture guest data from day one

“We missed a lot of data before StayFi. If you’re serious about direct bookings, implement it early.”

3. Hospitality comes first

“There are so many bad operators. If you’re responsive, nice, and dedicated to good service, you’ll succeed.”

4. Don’t get into STRs just for the money

“This is hospitality. If you don’t actually enjoy it, guests and owners will know.”

5. And above all…

“Be good. Be nice. And don’t be stupid.”

Future Plans

Book Our Place is continuing to scale aggressively and is actively hiring marketing talent to supercharge their StayFi-powered direct booking engine.

They also plan to expand StayFi hardware across more properties as budgets allow—and are eagerly awaiting broader StayFi Express compatibility.

Final Takeaway

With the right systems in place—Guesty for operations and StayFi for guest data + marketing—Book Our Place transformed from two personal rentals into a thriving, scalable, 40-property management brand in less than two years.

Their journey reflects the blueprint for modern STR success:

Better operations, better data, better hospitality.