Is Airbnb quietly testing its own loyalty program?

Some hosts are now seeing an offer:

Provide a 20% discount, and Airbnb will boost your visibility and promote your listing to “top rated guests.”

But here’s what makes this different.

“Top rated guests” aren’t defined by how much they spend — they’re defined by behavior. Guests with 4.8+ ratings and multiple completed stays.

In this episode, we unpack:

• Why this looks like pay-to-play ranking

• How it differs from Booking.com’s Genius or Expedia’s OneKey

• Why Airbnb’s two-way review system gives it unique behavioral data

• Whether this is a short-term experiment — or the beginning of real loyalty infrastructure

• What this means for hosts funding the discount

If you manage short-term rentals, this could reshape how visibility, guest targeting, and pricing strategy work in 2026.

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In this episode, we break down the 10 biggest takeaways from Airbnb's Q4 2025 earnings call and what they really mean for professional short-term rental managers.

From the likely end of the 3% split fee model… to rising cancellation rates under “Book Now, Pay Later”…to 500,000+ low-quality listings being removed…to Guest Favorites now driving nearly half of all bookings…

Airbnb is clearly optimizing for one thing: reducing guest hesitation and increasing platform-wide conversions.

But what does that mean at the property level?
Are hosts absorbing more uncertainty?
And how should managers adapt in 2026?

We also unpack Airbnb’s global growth trends, hotel expansion, event-driven supply spikes, and the company’s long-term AI strategy.

If you manage short-term rentals, this episode will help you understand where the platform is heading — and how to stay ahead of it.

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Many property managers don’t fail — they stall.
And for a lot of STR operators, that stall happens around 100–200 units.

In this episode, we go inside GuestReady’s latest acquisition in Spain, its 12th to date, to unpack why that bottleneck exists — and how M&A is increasingly being used as a growth engine, not an exit.

🎙️ Lorenzo Ritella, Country Manager for Spain at GuestReady, joins RSU to break down:

• Why so many PMs hit a ceiling at ~200 units

• What GuestReady actually looks for when acquiring a company (hint: not tech)

• Why multi-unit buildings are becoming the future of STR operations

• How regulation is quietly reshaping acquisition strategy in Spain

• Why selling isn’t the end — but often the start of the next growth phase

If you’re a property manager thinking about scaling, partnerships, or long-term survival in a regulated market, this episode is for you.

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