Free planner for short-term rental hosts
Winter Holiday Booking Planner: set your holiday rates and minimum stays before the rush.
A free Excel planner with the five busy windows from Thanksgiving 2026 to Presidents’ Day 2027, a 20-item Winter-Ready Checklist, and a short 2-page guide. Type in your own rates, see how many days each holiday is away, and tick things off as you go.
Get the free planner ↓Free. No price, no card. Just your name and email, further down this page.
What’s inside
- Holiday Planner (Excel): five busy windows from Thanksgiving 2026 to Presidents’ Day 2027, with a live “days away” column so you can see what is closest.
- Your own numbers: yellow cells for your normal rate, holiday rate and minimum stay, with the percent change worked out for you.
- Simple tracking: Y/N columns for rate set, listing updated and booked, plus a notes column for next year.
- Winter-Ready Checklist: 20 items in four groups (heat and pipes, safety, guest comfort, listing) with done, date and notes columns.
- 2-page guide (PDF and Word): the holiday table, a 5-step plan of about 15 minutes per holiday, and when not to raise your rate.
The five windows it covers
- Thanksgiving: Thu Nov 26 (window Wed Nov 25 to Sun Nov 29)
- Christmas: Fri Dec 25 (window Wed Dec 23 to Sun Dec 27)
- New Year’s Eve and Day: Thu Dec 31 (window Wed Dec 30 to Sun Jan 3)
- Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend: Mon Jan 18 (window Fri Jan 15 to Mon Jan 18)
- Valentine’s Day and Presidents’ Day weekend: Sun Feb 14 and Mon Feb 15 (window Fri Feb 12 to Mon Feb 15)
The windows are editable starting points, not data. Change them to fit your area and your own past bookings.
Who it’s for
- Hosts with one to three listings on any platform (Airbnb, Vrbo, direct or other) who have not set holiday rates and minimum stays yet.
- Hosts who want one place to note what they set and what happened, so next winter starts with their own notes.
Not for: anyone looking for software that changes prices for you. This is a planner. You decide the numbers and set them in your own platform.
Who made it
I’m James, a digital marketer with 15 years of experience. I don’t own or manage a rental. I build simple, free tools for short-term rental hosts and test which ones are actually useful. Replies shape the next version.
Quick questions
Is it really free? Yes. No card, no trial. The files are yours to keep.
Do I need special software? No. The planner opens in Excel, Google Sheets or LibreOffice. The guide is a PDF, with a Word copy if you want to edit it.
Will it tell me what to charge? No. It holds your numbers and shows the percent change. The guide also covers when not to raise your rate.
Get the free planner
How it works: Enter your first name and email below. We’ll send a confirmation email first. Click the link inside it, then download the planner, checklist and guide. Unsubscribe any time with one click.
Privacy: your email is used only to send the planner and a few related emails from James.
Planning tool, no booking or income guarantee. Holiday dates are checked against the 2026 and 2027 calendars; the busy windows are general planning ranges, not data. Not legal, insurance or safety advice. Platform settings vary, so check your own platform. Not affiliated with Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com or any booking platform.
General template only, not legal or safety advice. The maker does not own or manage rentals; check your own property, platform and local rules.
STR Turnover Notes · free printables for hosts and cleaners · 120 Mountain Ave, Randleman, NC 27317
Sign-up form below ↓