Nearly 75% of Rental Add-On Bookings Happen Before Check-In

Almost three-quarters of bookings for short-term rental experiences, such as tours, transportation and other add-ons, are made before the guest ever checks in, according to new figures from digital concierge platform Localbird. The company says its data points to a pre-arrival window as the dominant moment for upsells, not the stay itself.

Why the pre-arrival window matters

Most property managers still treat in-stay upsell as the main event: a welcome folder in the unit, a QR code by the door, a concierge who calls once the guest has settled in. Localbird's figures suggest that by the time a guest arrives, most of the buying decision has already happened. If nearly three in four bookings close before check-in, offers that surface only after arrival are competing for a shrinking share of demand.

The company frames this as evidence that guests plan their itinerary the same way they plan their trip: in advance, often from a phone, days or weeks out from the stay. That tracks with how most travelers already research restaurants and activities before booking flights or accommodation. Localbird's case is that rental operators have been slower to move their own offers into that same window.

What operators should change

The practical shift is timing, not content. Confirmation emails, pre-arrival messages and digital guidebooks sent three to seven days out give guests a chance to book a tour or airport transfer while they're still in planning mode, rather than leaving it to a printed card on the kitchen counter. Hosts and managers who rely on automated pre-stay messaging sequences already have the infrastructure to test this; the question is whether experience links and booking prompts are actually built into those sequences, or added as an afterthought once the guest has the keys.

For managers running multiple properties, that argues for standardizing experience recommendations into the pre-arrival workflow itself, rather than treating it as a concierge add-on handled ad hoc by whoever is on shift when the guest checks in.

How solid is the number

Localbird is a vendor in the guest-experience booking space, and the figure comes from its own platform data rather than an independent survey, so it reflects the behavior of guests already using its booking flow, not the industry at large. It's a reasonable directional signal for operators already offering some kind of digital concierge service, but it isn't a substitute for an operator checking their own booking timestamps before rebuilding a messaging sequence around it.