5 things short-term rental guests really care about in 2026
- May 19
- 5 min read
What do short-term rental guests actually care about in 2026? Not what the industry thinks they care about. Not what platforms reward. What guests, in 2026, will book – and will leave a five-star review for – when they walk through the door.
On the latest Host Planet Bitesize, Joseph Cox from Hostfully ran through the five things every host should be solving right now. None of them are surprises individually. The shift is that, in 2026, guests are quietly expecting all five at once – and the listings that deliver them are the ones taking bookings off everyone else.
Key takeaways: what short-term rental guests really care about
Smart technology and seamless automation – smart locks, fast Wi-Fi, climate control, and digital guidebooks. Friction at check-in is now a deal-breaker.
Total fee transparency – no surprise cleaning fees, no hidden charges at the checkout step. The price you advertise should be the price they pay.
Local authenticity – guests are moving away from generic stays. Stock the property with something the local area is known for.
Wellness as a baseline – top-quality mattresses, blackout curtains, water filtration. Restorative stays are no longer a luxury bracket.
Truth in advertising – listings that match reality. Real photos, real Wi-Fi speeds, a real workspace if one's promised.
1. Smart technology that automates the friction out of the stay
The first item on Joseph's list is the one most hosts already nominally do – but few do well.
"Guests don't want to have to hunt around these days, trying to find a key or get lost on the directions to the property. Smart locks, fast Wi-Fi, climate control, guidebooks – just being able to have that streamlined flow really well."
The point isn't novelty. It's removing the small frustrations that quietly destroy a stay before the guest has even unpacked.
Smart locks specifically come up twice on the episode for a reason. They solve a group-travel problem (no shared keys, no "who's got the code?" at 11pm) and a logistics problem (codes that activate at 3pm and stop working at 11am the next morning, with no human intervention).
This is also one of the cleanest places where Hostfully joins the dots: the Hostfully platform integrates smart lock devices directly into its digital guidebook, so the access code lives in the same place as the rest of the guest's stay information. One link, one experience, no scrambling on arrival.
2. No hidden fees – the price you show is the price they pay
Joseph's second point is the one with the longest history of damage in the industry.
"Guests used to get a full breakdown of so many fees and add-ons, and they were really wondering what those are. Whenever a guest gets right to the end at checkout and finds 'ah, there's another 10% fee on this' – that creates a lot of friction."
Cleaning fees were the most notorious offender. A guest believes they're getting a £120-a-night cottage for the weekend, runs through the checkout, and discovers a £200 cleaning fee that swings the per-night cost meaningfully. They abandon the booking and never come back.
Joseph's recommendation is simple: bake operating costs into the nightly rate, show the all-in price up front, and stop forcing guests to backtrack on a stay they'd already mentally committed to.
The good news, he notes, is that the industry has improved on this – Airbnb's pricing display changes have helped – but it's far from solved. Listings that lead with a clean, all-in price still convert better than listings that don't.
3. Local authenticity – what's this place known for?
The third thing guests are looking for in 2026 is the one most listings still under-deliver on.
"Guests are moving away from generic bookings, away from their usual trips, and looking for a bit more niche with their stays. Local things that really suit the property, so they go home and just say, 'yeah, had the full experience.'"
Practical translation: stock the property with something the area is genuinely known for. Joseph's example was Cheddar – providing local cheese to guests in a property near the source. Replace with whichever place applies: a small bottle of local gin in the Scottish Highlands; a bag of Yorkshire tea blend in Leeds; a local cookbook in Cornwall.
The pattern is the same: turn the property into a doorway into the place around it, not just a generic box with beds in.
This is one of the highest-leverage upgrades on the list because it costs almost nothing and is one of the things guests reliably mention in five-star reviews.
4. Wellness has quietly become a baseline expectation
Joseph's fourth point is where the bar has visibly moved over the last 18 months.
"Guests tend to be driven by experiences where, yeah, just full chill and a really good, relaxing time. Yoga experiences, blackout curtains, water filtration, top-quality mattresses."
A few years ago, a "wellness stay" was a niche listing category. In 2026, restorative basics are an expectation across the board.
That doesn't mean every property needs a yoga studio. It does mean:
A mattress good enough to actually sleep on (this is the single highest-leverage upgrade in the entire category).
Blackout curtains or blinds in the main bedroom.
A water filter at the tap, or a filter jug in the fridge.
Quiet – measured, not assumed.
Hosts who treat sleep, calm and recovery as core product features – rather than amenities – are pulling ahead.
5. Truth in advertising – especially the Wi-Fi speed
The fifth thing might be the most quietly important. With AI-generated images and overly-flattering staging now everywhere, the bar for trust has risen sharply.
"Guests just want full, transparent advertising. Photos matching what the actual rooms will be like. And one of the big ones — accurate Wi-Fi speed. I've discovered far too many 'fast Wi-Fi' properties where it isn't. The amount of times I've had to ask for a screenshot of the speed is insane."
The practical recommendation on the episode is specific and easy to implement: run a fast.com test in your property, screenshot the result, and put it directly in your listing. A confirmed 300Mbps reading is worth more to a digital nomad guest than three paragraphs of breakfast descriptions.
The same logic applies to the workspace. If the listing promises a desk, there should be a desk – not the corner of a sofa with a cushion.
Where Hostfully fits – and why it kept coming up
Joseph's five points don't sit in isolation. They're operational problems that need an operational stack behind them. That's where Hostfully enters the conversation.
Three Hostfully tools specifically map to the five guest priorities above:
Hostfully Digital Guidebook – solves Point 1 (smart tech / friction). Sends every guest a unique link with check-in details, smart lock codes, Wi-Fi credentials, local recommendations, AI-driven itinerary planning and upsells. It's the single tool that quietly answers most of the repetitive guest questions hosts get every week.
Hostfully Smart Lock integration – also Point 1. Pulls the access PIN straight into the guidebook so the code lives in the same place as the rest of the guest journey.
Hostfully PMS – supports Points 2 and 5. Workflow automation, an all-in-one booking + messaging dashboard, and the ability to keep pricing and listings consistent across channels so nothing surprises the guest at checkout.
There's a new product on the roadmap too – Hostfully damage waivers and deposit protection – which Joseph teased on the episode.
For property managers, the underlying argument Joseph keeps making is simple: get the operational stack right, and you free yourself up to deliver the human bits – the local cheese, the workspace, the silence – that guests actually remember.
Listen to the full episode
The full conversation with Joseph Cox is out now available across our channels, including YouTube, Spotify, or Apple.
To learn more about the tools mentioned in the episode – digital guidebook, smart locks, the PMS, and the upcoming damage-waiver product – visit Hostfully or get in touch with Joseph Cox directly: joseph@hostfully.com.
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