Oct 17 Written By Jesse Thomas

Email Marketing for Vacation Rentals: A Complete Guide for Property Managers

Online travel agencies are good at finding new guests. They are not built to help you keep them. Email is the channel that lets a property management company stay in touch with past guests, answer the questions of people still deciding, and bring bookings back to its own website.

This guide is written for vacation rental managers running a portfolio, roughly 30 to 70 homes, rather than a single listing. It covers who you are allowed to email, which automations to build first, how to plan a year of campaigns, how to reach the inbox under the current Gmail and Yahoo rules, how to set up Mailchimp, and how to measure what matters.

This guide explains the rules as published by the platforms and regulators we link to. It is not legal advice.

In short

Build your list only from people who booked or signed up through your own website, forms and offices. Airbnb’s policy prohibits using guest contact information for marketing, and Booking.com’s partner terms prohibit unsolicited commercial email to guests.
Keep service email (confirmations, door codes, check-out notes) separate from marketing email (offers, newsletters, rebooking invitations). Your PMS usually sends the first; your email platform sends the second.
Start with five automations: abandoned inquiry, welcome, pre-arrival, post-stay thank you, and stay anniversary. Add a monthly campaign on top.
Authenticate your sending domain with SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and keep spam complaints low. Gmail and Yahoo have enforced sender requirements since February 2024.
Judge results by clicks, direct bookings and repeat guests, not opens.

Why email matters for direct bookings and repeat guests

You own the list. A platform listing can drop in search results or be suspended. Your email list stays with you, and no algorithm decides who sees your message.

Past guests are your warmest audience. They know your homes, your area and your team. A guest who had a good week last July is a strong prospect for the same week this July, if you remind them at the right time.

Email fits how people plan trips. Families and groups often plan months ahead. Email keeps you present through that window: when they start planning, when a home opens up, and when their dates are about to go.

It supports the guest experience, not only sales. Pre-arrival and in-stay emails answer questions before they are asked.

For more on this, see The Power of Email Marketing.

Who you can email: consent and building your list legally

Getting this right protects your listings, your sending reputation and your guests’ trust.

What the booking platforms allow

Airbnb. Airbnb’s Off-Platform policy lists, among prohibited behavior, “selling, sharing, or using guest contact information for marketing communications or signing guests up for contact list.” It also prohibits asking guests for contact details before booking and soliciting their email address through Airbnb messaging after booking. Airbnb’s terms for hosts say personal information received through the platform should be used only as needed to manage reservations, comply with the law and deliver the host service. Airbnb also does not allow hosts to ask guests to review an Airbnb stay on a non-Airbnb website.

In practice, you will usually not have an Airbnb guest’s real email address anyway. Airbnb stopped providing guest email aliases to connected software in October 2023 (Rentals United’s notice dates the change to October 2, 2023), and Cloudbeds’ current help center states that Airbnb does not send guest email addresses for reservations.

Vrbo (Expedia Group). Expedia Group’s Off-Platform Booking Policy prohibits moving a reservation or payment off the platform and offering incentives to book off-platform. Vrbo hosts must not communicate outside Vrbo messaging until a reservation is confirmed, or include links, QR codes or contact details meant to redirect guests away from Vrbo. The policy does allow “general marketing (for example, opt-in mailing list offers) that is not used to move an active reservation or payment off-platform and that travelers have expressly agreed to receive.” The key words are “expressly agreed.”

Booking.com. Booking.com does not share guests’ private email addresses. Partners see an alias ending in @guest.booking.com. Its Business Partner Account Terms of Use prohibit using its services “to send unsolicited commercial emails to guests.” Booking.com also has a messaging security setting in the Extranet: only email addresses or domains you register there can reach guests through the platform. If your PMS sends operational emails to Booking.com guests, make sure its sending address is on that list.

Platform	Guest email you receive	Marketing to those guests	What is allowed
Airbnb	Not provided to connected software since Oct 2023	Prohibited	Stay-related communication; guests who later book direct or sign up on your site on their own
Vrbo	Platform messaging until confirmed	Only general marketing travelers expressly agreed to receive; never to move a reservation off-platform	Opt-in mailing list offers with express agreement
Booking.com	Alias @guest.booking.com	Unsolicited commercial email prohibited	Operational messages from registered addresses

The safe rule: your marketing list should come from people who booked direct or signed up through something you own. If an Airbnb guest later finds your website and joins your list there, that sign-up is theirs to make. Do not try to engineer it through Airbnb messaging. Airbnb’s policy does not specifically address printed sign-up cards in the home, so treat those as a policy risk for platform guests and check with the platform before using them.

Where a property manager’s list should come from

Your direct booking form. Add a separate, unticked consent box: “Send me occasional emails about open dates, new homes and local events.” Keep it apart from the box that accepts your rental terms.
Your inquiry form. People asking about dates are planning a trip. Answer every inquiry; add them to marketing only if they tick the box.
A website sign-up form in the footer and next to availability calendars, for visitors who are not ready to book.
A useful offer such as a local guide or a “new dates released” alert.
Phone and walk-in bookings where staff ask, and record, whether the guest wants marketing email.

Record the source and date of every sign-up in a “source” field so you always know where a contact came from. For more ideas, read Building an Engaged Email List and Welcome Emails for New Subscribers.

CAN-SPAM basics for US senders

The CAN-SPAM Act covers every commercial email, not only bulk email. According to the FTC’s compliance guide, each marketing email must:

Use accurate “From,” “To,” “Reply-To” and routing information.
Use a subject line that reflects the content.
Identify the message as an ad (the law gives leeway in how).
Include a valid physical postal address.
Explain clearly how to opt out, and honor opt-outs within 10 business days.

You cannot charge a fee or ask for more than an email address to process an opt-out, and you cannot sell or transfer the address of someone who opted out. Hiring an agency does not move the responsibility: the FTC says both the company being promoted and the company that sends the email can be held responsible. Each violating email can cost up to $53,088 (the FTC’s inflation-adjusted figure as of its January 2024 update).

Service email versus marketing email. The FTC uses a “primary purpose” test. An email that only confirms a booking or delivers the service a guest already agreed to is transactional, and is exempt from most of CAN-SPAM. Once the subject line or the opening of the email is promotional, it is a commercial message and all the rules apply. The practical takeaway: keep check-in instructions free of offers, and send offers as separate marketing emails to people who agreed to receive them.

Guests from Canada and elsewhere

Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) requires consent before sending commercial email. The CRTC explains that a past purchase creates implied consent for two years, and an inquiry for six months, after which you need express consent (an opt-in). Unsubscribes must be honored within 10 business days. The UK and EU have their own, stricter consent rules. The simplest way to cover all of these is the same practice above: an unticked opt-in box, a clear description of what people will receive, and records of when and how they agreed.

The guest-journey automations every manager needs

Automations are emails triggered by a guest’s action or a date, so they run without someone pressing send. Start with the five marked “Start here,” then add the rest.

Automation	Trigger	Suggested timing	Sent by	Type
Abandoned inquiry or booking (Start here)	Inquiry without booking, or a checkout started and not finished	A few hours later, then one follow-up 2 to 3 days later	Booking engine or Mailchimp	Marketing (only with consent)
Welcome series (Start here)	New subscriber	Immediately, then 3 to 5 days later	Mailchimp	Marketing
Booking confirmation	Direct booking made	Immediately	PMS	Service
Pre-arrival guide (Start here)	Upcoming arrival	7 to 10 days before, plus check-in details 1 to 2 days before	PMS (details) and Mailchimp (local guide)	Service, with no offers
In-stay check-in	Day after arrival	Morning of day 2	PMS	Service
Post-stay thank you and review (Start here)	Checkout	1 to 3 days after	Mailchimp or PMS	Service or relationship; keep the review ask clear
Stay anniversary (Start here)	Date of last stay	About 10 to 11 months later	Mailchimp	Marketing
Win-back	No booking in 12 to 18 months	Once, with a reason to return	Mailchimp	Marketing

The timings are starting points. Check your booking lead times in your PMS: if most summer guests book in January, the anniversary email for a July stay should land in December or January.

Abandoned inquiry. Someone asked about a home or started to book and stopped. A short, helpful follow-up (dates still open, a similar home nearby, a direct line to your team) is often welcome. Send it only if they opted in, or keep it strictly to answering their inquiry.

Welcome series. Deliver what the sign-up promised, introduce your company and homes, and set expectations about how often you will email. See Welcome Emails for New Subscribers.

Pre-arrival. This is one of the most read emails you will send. Cover the address, parking, check-in steps, what to pack, and a few local recommendations. Keep it free of promotions so it stays a service email. Our guide to pre-arrival emails has a full checklist.

In-stay. A short note on the morning after arrival (“Is everything working? Here is how to reach us”) catches small problems before they turn into a bad review.

Post-stay thank you and review request. Thank the guest, ask how the stay went, and for direct guests, invite a review on Google or your own site. Do not ask Airbnb guests to review an Airbnb stay somewhere else; Airbnb’s policy prohibits it.

Stay anniversary and rebooking. Remind guests of their trip and show availability for the same week next year. This is where repeat bookings come from.

Win-back. For guests who have not returned, one honest email with something new (a new home, a renovation, a local event) beats a string of discounts.

For the full picture, read The Guest Booking Journey and Automation Basics.

An annual campaign calendar

Automations handle individual guests. Campaigns go to a segment of your list on a schedule. Most property managers do well with one or two campaigns a month on top of automations. The right frequency depends on how much useful news you have; see How Often to Email.

Plan campaigns around when guests book, not when they travel. The calendar below assumes a destination with a summer peak; shift it to match your market and your own booking data.

Month	Main campaign	Notes
January	Summer planning: “Your week is open” for past summer guests	Peak planning time for many families
February	New homes for the year; spring break availability	Send new-home alerts to the segments that fit (size, location)
March	Last spring dates; early summer gaps	Short, single-home “postcard” emails work well
April	Summer availability by home type	Segment by party size
May	Local events and summer guide	Value first, availability second
June	Last-minute summer openings	Small segments, quick sends
July	Fall and shoulder season preview	Target couples, remote workers, empty nesters
August	Fall dates and local fall events
September	Holiday and winter availability	Thanksgiving and year-end groups book early
October	Shoulder season gaps; owner-referral reminder to your owner list
November	Year-end thank you; next-year dates released	Good moment for a returning-guest note
December	Year in review and next summer early access for past guests	Pairs with anniversary automations

Two emails belong in every year: a new home announcement whenever you add a property, and a re-permission email asking long-inactive subscribers if they still want to hear from you. Removing those who do not answer protects your deliverability.

Segmentation: send fewer, better emails

At 30 to 70 homes you have enough variety that one message for everyone wastes your best material. Useful segments for a property manager:

Consent and source. Direct guests, website subscribers and inquiries. This also keeps platform guests out of marketing.
Stay history. First-time vs repeat guests, last stay date, season of stay.
Home and location. Which home or area they stayed in, so you can announce a new home nearby or show their home’s open dates.
Party type and size. Large family groups, couples, pet owners. A six-bedroom home and a one-bedroom condo appeal to different people.
Booking window. Guests who book months ahead vs last-minute bookers.
Engagement. Recent clickers vs people who have not engaged in a year.
Owners. Keep homeowners in a separate audience or group. They need performance updates and company news, not guest offers.

Map which PMS fields will flow into your email platform before you build segments. More in Email Segmentation and The Role of Personalization.

Deliverability: reaching the inbox

A good email that lands in spam does nothing. Deliverability depends on authentication, sending to people who want your email, and making it easy to leave.

SPF, DKIM and DMARC in plain terms

SPF lists the servers allowed to send email for your domain.
DKIM adds a digital signature that proves the email came from your domain and was not changed in transit.
DMARC tells inbox providers what to do with email that fails those checks, and can send you reports. To pass, the domain in your “From” address must match the domain that passed SPF or DKIM.

The Gmail and Yahoo sender rules (since February 2024)

Google’s sender guidelines require all senders to Gmail accounts to set up SPF or DKIM, have valid forward and reverse DNS, use TLS, and keep the spam rate in Postmaster Tools below 0.3%. Google recommends staying below 0.1%. Senders of more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail must also set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC (a policy of “none” is acceptable), align the From domain, and support one-click unsubscribe with a visible unsubscribe link in the body.

Yahoo’s requirements are similar: SPF or DKIM for everyone, and for bulk senders SPF and DKIM, a DMARC policy of at least p=none, one-click unsubscribe, a visible unsubscribe link, and unsubscribes honored within 2 days. Yahoo also asks senders to keep spam rates below 0.3%.

Most property managers will not send 5,000 emails a day to Gmail. Set everything up anyway: it costs nothing and protects your domain from impersonation.

Do not send marketing email from a free address like @gmail.com. Mailchimp explains that free email domains cannot be authenticated by the sender and that Gmail’s DMARC policy causes such mail to be rejected when sent through other services. Use your company domain.

Habits that keep you out of spam

Only email people who opted in. Never buy or rent lists.
Use a consistent From name and address your guests will recognize.
Remove hard bounces and run a re-permission campaign for long-inactive subscribers.
Make unsubscribing easy. Mailchimp says its emails include one-click unsubscribe automatically.
If you have a Gmail-heavy list, set up Google Postmaster Tools to watch your spam rate.
Design for phones first; see Designing Mobile-Optimized Emails.

More detail in Avoiding the Spam Folder.

Setting up Mailchimp for a property management company

We run every client program in Mailchimp, so this is the setup we use and recommend. The steps work whether you are starting fresh or cleaning up an existing account.

1. Choose the right plan. Mailchimp’s Free plan covers up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, with basic features, so most property managers outgrow it quickly. According to Mailchimp, Essentials includes automation flows with up to 4 steps and A/B testing, and Standard adds expanded automation flows and advanced segmentation. If you want the full guest-journey program above, Standard is usually the better fit. Check Mailchimp’s pricing page for current prices.

2. Verify and authenticate your domain. In Account and billing, Domains, verify your sending address and then start authentication. Mailchimp can set the records up automatically through Entri, or you can add them by hand: two CNAME records for DKIM and one TXT record for DMARC. Validation can take up to 48 hours.

3. Use one audience, organized with tags and groups. Mailchimp counts contacts across all of your audiences, so a guest in two audiences counts twice. One guest audience with tags (source, home, season) and groups (interests a subscriber chooses, such as “pet-friendly homes”) keeps things simple. Owners can sit in a separate audience if you prefer a hard separation.

4. Add the fields you will segment on. Typical custom fields for a manager: last stay date, last home stayed, number of stays, arrival date of the next booking, party size, and source. Decide which PMS fields map to which Mailchimp fields.

5. Connect your data. Depending on your PMS, that may be a native integration, a connector service, or a scheduled export and import. Whatever the method, only sync guests who gave marketing consent into marketing segments, and keep platform-booked guests out.

6. Build forms with clear consent. Embed Mailchimp forms or connect your booking engine’s opt-in box. State what people will get and how often. Google recommends confirming each subscriber’s address, and Yahoo recommends confirmed opt-in, so consider turning on double opt-in for website sign-ups.

7. Build the automations. Start with the welcome series and the stay anniversary, since both run entirely on Mailchimp data. Add abandoned inquiry and post-stay flows once your PMS data is flowing.

8. Create a branded template and footer. Use one template with your logo, colors and a clear layout, and make sure the footer shows your correct postal address and an unsubscribe link.

9. Test before every send. Check links and images on a phone and confirm the segment.

KPIs: what to measure

Metric	Why it matters	Where to find it
Click rate	The clearest sign people found the email useful	Mailchimp reports
Direct bookings and revenue from email	The result you care about	Booking engine plus GA4, using UTM-tagged links
Repeat guest rate	Shows whether retention emails work	PMS reservation data
List growth by source	Tells you which sign-up points work	Mailchimp audience reports
Unsubscribe rate	Rising rates mean frequency or relevance problems	Mailchimp reports
Spam complaint rate	Must stay below 0.3% for Gmail and Yahoo; aim for under 0.1%	Mailchimp reports, Google Postmaster Tools
Bounce rate	High bounces point to old or bad addresses	Mailchimp reports

Why not open rate? Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection downloads remote email content in the background when a message arrives, whether or not the person opens it, which makes many Apple Mail recipients look like they opened. Google notes that it does not track open rates and that low open rates are not necessarily a sign of deliverability problems. Watch opens for big changes, but make decisions on clicks and bookings.

Add UTM parameters to every link so GA4 can attribute website sessions and bookings to email.

Common mistakes to avoid

Importing platform guests into marketing lists. It breaks Airbnb and Booking.com rules and risks your listings.
Mixing offers into service emails. It can turn a transactional email into a commercial one under CAN-SPAM and buries the information guests need.
Sending from a free address or skipping authentication. Your emails will struggle to reach Gmail and Yahoo inboxes.
Emailing everyone the same thing. A last-minute deal on a studio means nothing to a family of ten.
Going quiet for months, then sending a burst. Inconsistent sending hurts engagement and inbox placement. Weak subject lines do too; see 6 Tips to Boost Open Rates and Curiosity.
Discounting by default. Repeat guests usually respond to early access and familiar homes. Save discounts for real gaps.
Judging success by opens. Track clicks and bookings.
Never cleaning the list. Inactive subscribers drag down engagement and raise complaint risk.

Frequently asked questions

Can I add Airbnb guests to my email list?

No. Airbnb’s Off-Platform policy prohibits using guest contact information for marketing or signing guests up for contact lists. Since late 2023 Airbnb also does not pass guest email addresses to connected software. Build your list from direct bookings and sign-ups on your own website.

Can I email Vrbo or Booking.com guests?

Vrbo allows general marketing, such as opt-in mailing list offers, only when travelers have expressly agreed to receive it and never to move a reservation off-platform. Booking.com shows partners an alias email address and prohibits unsolicited commercial email to guests. In both cases, the safe path is an opt-in on your own website.

Do I need consent to send marketing emails in the US?

CAN-SPAM does not require prior consent, but every marketing email needs accurate sender details, an honest subject line, your postal address and a working opt-out honored within 10 business days. Gmail and Yahoo also expect you to email only people who signed up, and guests from Canada are covered by CASL, which does require consent.

How often should a vacation rental company send marketing emails?

Most property managers do well with automations plus one or two campaigns a month. Send more only when you have useful news, such as new homes or open dates, and watch unsubscribes and complaints.

What is the difference between a transactional and a marketing email?

A transactional email completes or confirms something the guest already agreed to, such as a booking confirmation or check-in instructions. A marketing email promotes a stay, offer or event. Under the FTC’s primary purpose test, a promotional subject line or opening makes it a marketing email.

What do SPF, DKIM and DMARC do?

They prove your emails really come from your domain. SPF lists approved sending servers, DKIM signs each message, and DMARC tells inbox providers how to handle mail that fails. Gmail and Yahoo require at least SPF or DKIM for all senders, and all three for bulk senders.

Is Mailchimp a good platform for vacation rental managers?

Mailchimp works well for property managers who want automations, segmentation and reliable delivery without custom software. The Standard plan includes expanded automation flows and advanced segmentation. The main work is connecting your PMS data so you can segment by stay history and home.

Which email metrics matter most?

Clicks, direct bookings and revenue from email, repeat guest rate, list growth by source, and spam complaint rate. Open rates are unreliable because Apple Mail Privacy Protection loads emails in the background.

Want help putting this in place?

Everything in this guide can be done in-house with time and a clear plan. If you would rather have it built and run for you, that is what VRM Engage does: we set up Mailchimp, build the automations and monthly campaigns, and report on what brings bookings back. You approve every campaign before it sends. Learn more about our vacation rental email marketing services, or book a free 30-minute call to talk through your list and where to start.

Sources

All sources were checked on October 17, 2026.

Jesse Thomas