RentalHost-Master – Short-Term Rental Strategy Game

RentalHost-Master

A guided introduction to your short-term rental simulation

1Region
choose

2Target audience
choose

3Allocate
starting budget

📖 Game guide ↗

Step 1 · Choose region

Start with the location of your property

In this business simulation, you can test how direct bookings, seasons, different marketing activities and prices affect your profit. The region determines when demand peaks: coastal locations boom in summer, mountain regions often in winter and during the hiking season, while city locations are more consistent.

🗺️ Choose region

Below you can immediately see how your choice can affect demand, seasonality and a sensible pricing strategy.

Coastal vacation rental by the sea

Coastal location

Summer peak · quiet winters

Vacation rental in a mountain ski region

Mountain region

Ski winter + hiking summer

Modern city vacation rental with skyline

City location

Steady demand

Countryside vacation rental with petting zoo

Countryside location

Niche · strong guest loyalty

📖 Game guide ↗

Step 2 · Choose target audience

Decide who your property is especially attractive to

Your target audience affects booking behaviour, length of stay, price acceptance and expectations. Families often book more predictably, premium guests pay more but also expect more quality, and workation guests can strengthen the low season.

🎯 Choose target audience

Choose a positioning. Later, you can refine it with upgrades, rules and marketing activities.

Family in front of a vacation rental

Families

longer stays · predictable

Premium and wellness guests on a terrace

Premium & Wellness

higher prices · high expectations

Workation guests with a laptop in a vacation rental

Workation

long stays · low season

Pet-friendly vacation rental with a dog

Guests with dogs

Niche · loyal guests

📖 Game guide ↗

Step 3 · Set your starting budget

Set starting prices, furnishings and liquidity

You start with €10,000. Better basic furnishings improve your rating, and a marketing budget helps you get started – but too little liquidity can become risky later. Pool, sauna, terrace and other extras are deliberately purchased later in the game as upgrades.

💶 Base prices (per night)

These prices are your starting point. Later in the game, you can adjust them manually or use dynamic pricing.

❄️ Low season

55 €

🌤️ High season

110 €

🔥 Peak season

180 €

💰 Allocate your €10,000 starting budget

Furnishing quality3.000 €

Starting budget for channels & marketing2.000 €

Remaining liquidity for operations & later upgrades:5.000 €

This game is an independent simulation. Platforms, fees, rankings and marketing channels are deliberately simplified to illustrate typical mechanics of short-term rentals. There is no affiliation with real platform operators. powered by webdesign-hotel.de & RentalPage Studio
© 2026 RentalPage Studio / bioculture GmbH. All rights reserved. Idea and concept: Robert Klosko. Game concept, text, design, graphics, logic and code may not be copied, published, modified or reused without permission.

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RENTALHOST-MASTERShort-Term Rentals

🏆 Year / Week

Year 1 · W1/52

📅 Season

–

–

⭐ Rating

–

☆☆☆☆☆

📊 Occupancy

–

🏘️ Properties

1

Property

🐷 Platform fees saved

0 €

Total saved

💰

Cash balance

0 €

Year 1 target: €30,000

📖 Game guide 🏆 Leaderboard

4

Step 4

Annual planning: schedule blocked dates

Private use, maintenance and special cleaning days are distributed in red on the calendar.

🏡 Private use14 days

🔧 Maintenance5 days

🧽 Cleaning/Renovation3 days

Total planned blocked days22 days/year

5Tuning & Strategy

Booking mode

~65% occupancy · full control

Pricing strategy

−

90 €

+

📡 Distribution channels & website marketing

A

RentalPortal A

approx. 15% platform fee

B

TravelPortal B

approx. 18% platform fee

🌐

Own website

€25/mo · 0%

📅 Rules & Risk

Minimum
stay

Arrival
days

Cleaning
buffer

Cancellation

Minimum stay and cancellation policy affect enquiries, cancellations and occupancy.

Cleaning & maintenance

Condition100%

Vacation rental in Winter

🏠 Level 1 – Vacation rental

Week 1/52

Booked via platform

Direct booking

Blocked / repair / private use

Available / not yet booked

6Tools & Marketing

✨ One-time investments

📸

Professional photos

One-time €500 · +8% occupancy

📝

Listing optimisation

One-time €150 · +5% occupancy

📦 Individual tools

🔄

Channel Manager

Inactive · €15/month

📊

Dynamic Pricing

Inactive · €15/month · +8% revenue

💬

Automated communication

Inactive · €15/month · −damage risk

📱

Digital guest guide

Inactive · €10/month

🖥️ PMS system – all-in-one

Includes Channel Manager + Dynamic Pricing + automated communication.
€35/mo instead of €45/mo – you save €10/month!

🖥️

Activate PMS

Inactive · €35/month · all-in-one

📢 Advertising

📢

Search advertising

Inactive · freely adjustable

Weekly budget50 €

7Financing & Geldfluss

🤝

Family loan

One-time €5,000 · interest-free

8Upgrades

🏆 Results & Performance

🌍 Market & competition

📊

Normal market

No unusual market movement.

📤 Platform fees

RentalPortal A (approx. 15%)0 €

TravelPortal B (approx. 18%)0 €

Total platform fees0 €

Direct bookings reduce platform costs

📊 Occupancy by month

🏅 Platform rankings

ROI overview

Revenue (YTD)0 €

of which direct0 €

Platform fees0 €

Costs (YTD)0 €

Profit (YTD)0 €

ROI–

⚡ Action menu

Take action & decide here

👥 Guest enquiries 0

Start game

🎲 Instant booking

Instant booking disabled

⚀

⚃

✨ Event

📅

New week

Close out the week

✅ Close week

Apply settings and move to the next week.

📂 Load

Independent simulation: platform names, fees, rankings and marketing channels have been deliberately neutralised and simplified for gameplay. powered by webdesign-hotel.de & RentalPage Studio
© 2026 RentalPage Studio / bioculture GmbH. All rights reserved. Idea and concept: Robert Klosko. Game concept, text, design, graphics, logic and code may not be copied, published, modified or reused without permission.

Legal notice·Privacy