Revamp Academy

The books, articles, reports and courses on hospitality worth your time, picked and summed up by the Revamp team. Read why here, then go to the original.

Learning paths

• Starting out as a host: For your first months: how short stays work, how to set up and run a rental, and where the business came from.
• A five-star welcome: Four books on hospitality that guests remember, from New York restaurants to Disney, and what a host can take from each.

• Unreasonable Hospitality — Will Guidara (2022). Book · Guest experience. How the team at Eleven Madison Park in New York won guests over with small, personal surprises, and how any host can make a stay feel made for one guest.
• Setting the Table — Danny Meyer (2006). Book · Guest experience. The New York restaurateur behind Union Square Cafe and Shake Shack on "enlightened hospitality": look after your team first, and they will look after your guests.
• Be Our Guest — Disney Institute (2001). Book · Guest experience. How Disney plans every part of a guest's day, from the welcome to the small details, and how to bring the same thinking to your own service.
• The Heart of Hospitality — Micah Solomon (2016). Book · Guest experience. Lessons on great service from well-known hotels and restaurants, gathered by a customer service consultant.
• Short-Term Rental, Long-Term Wealth — Avery Carl (2021). Book · Running the business. A practical guide to finding, buying, setting up and running a short-term rental, from choosing a market to managing it from afar.
• Revenue Management for the Hospitality Industry — David K. Hayes, Allisha A. Miller (2010). Book · Pricing & revenue. A textbook introduction to pricing by demand: forecasting, setting rates for busy and quiet dates, and measuring the results.
• Hospitality Marketing — David Bowie, Francis Buttle (2004). Book · Marketing. An introduction to marketing for hotels and restaurants: understanding guests, pricing, promotion and building loyalty.
• The Airbnb Story — Leigh Gallagher (2017). Book · Industry & trends. How three founders turned air mattresses in a San Francisco flat into Airbnb, and what that change means for anyone who rents out a home.
• The Shift from Long-Term to Short-Term Rentals — Hospitable Academy (2025). Course · Running the business · Free · 6 chapters, 18 lessons. A guided course for owners thinking of moving a long-term rental to short stays: choosing the property, running it day to day and growing from there.
• Independent Host Academy — Lodgify. Course · Guest experience · Free · sign-up needed. Free lessons and recorded talks for independent hosts: building a rental guests remember, pricing, the guest journey and simple automation.

Host glossary: ADR, RevPAR, lead time… the words hosts use, in plain language.

We link to the original and don't sell anything here. Book covers come from Open Library.