Fanal Holiday Homes' Guidebook Across 62 Properties

How Fanal Uses Touch Stay + Avantio

It's easy to manage, professional for guests, and brings all the essential information together in one convenient place.

— Brian, General Manager, Fanal Holiday Homes

With 62 units across Gozo, Malta and 850 guests a month, Fanal Holiday Homes was reprinting welcome folders every time it upgraded a property.

See how Brian's team swapped printed guidebooks for one digital guide per property, synced arrival data straight from Avantio, and cut four hours of repetitive guest questions out of every week.

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The challenge

Printed folders, constant refurbishments, and 850 guests a month

Fanal Holiday Homes manages 62 rental units in Gozo, Malta. 52 self-catering apartments and 10 villas, spread across Xagħra, Victoria, Għasri, Kerċem and Xewkija. The properties are owner-managed and constantly being upgraded, which is exactly where the old system struggled to keep up.

Every property carried a printed guidebook. Every refurbishment, appliance swap, or Wi-Fi change meant reprinting and redistributing folders across dozens of units. Guest communication ran in parallel: in person where possible, and by email and message everywhere else, with the same questions arriving day after day.

Challenges before Touch Stay

Printed material that couldn't keep up: "It was becoming impossible to keep up with all the printed material in all the properties when constantly upgrading."
Every update meant a reprint across 62 units.
Communication that didn't scale: The team spoke to guests in person wherever possible, and relied on emails and platform messages for the rest. This was workable at a handful of properties, not at 850 guests a month.
The same questions, over and over: Check-in details, directions, appliance instructions, and local recommendations came in repeatedly, pulling the team away from operations.
Information scattered across channels: Guests were piecing their stay together from booking emails, messages, and whatever folder happened to be current in the property.

Most Valued Features

One guide per property, updated once: When a Wi-Fi password or appliance instruction changes, Brian's team updates the guidebook once and every guest sees the current version - no reprint, no redistribution.
Arrival Info is the most-viewed section: Check-in time, driving directions, access codes, and early arrival suggestions sit together at the top of the guide, which is where guests go first.
About the Accommodation does the explaining: Property information, appliance instructions, and what to do inside and out. The section that used to generate the most messages now answers itself.
Booking Extras built into the guide: Pre-booked groceries, wine and prosecco selections, and coffee pods are all listed with prices inside the guidebook, so guests can arrange them before they arrive.
Eat & Drink and the local area guide: Gozo recommendations live alongside the practical information, so guests plan the stay from one place instead of asking.
Every feature in use: Asked which Touch Stay features the team actively uses, Brian's answer was "all of them."

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Seamless Integration: Touch Stay + Avantio

"Very seamless" setup: Brian's one word verdict on connecting Avantio to Touch Stay. The integration was live without a project plan around it.
Arrival date is the critical field: Names, emails, and mobile numbers sync across, but the date of arrival is the one that matters most because it drives when each guest receives their guide.
The right guide reaches the right guest: Booking data flows from Avantio into Touch Stay, so guides go out automatically instead of being sent by hand across 62 properties.
Chatbot on every guide: Guests who can't find an answer in the guidebook get an in-guide chatbot rather than a message to the team

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The Unexpected Impact

What surprised Brian most

Guests want to be self-sufficient: The team expected the guide to answer questions. What it actually did was change guest behaviour. People look things up rather than message, and the stay runs more smoothly for it.
The guide gets used mid-stay: 60,000 views from 10,000 visitors means guests return to it repeatedly, not just once before check-in.
Growth without hiring: The efficiency has let Fanal take on more properties without adding headcount.
More repeat and direct bookings: Brian reports a measurable increase since the guidebook went live.
Consistency across 62 units: Every property now communicates the same way, at the same standard, whether it's a one-bed apartment or a villa.

One place to update. One place to look.

Touch Stay gives Brian's team a single source of truth for all 62 properties, and the data to see how guests are using it. Instead of guessing which information guests need, the team can see which pages get opened and which ones guests mark as helpful.

60,000 views from 10,000 visitors across the Fanal guidebooks.
91% thumbs up on guidebook content, page by page.
Top four sections: Arrival Info, About the Accommodation, Booking Extras, and Eat & Drink. The same four that used to generate the most inbound questions.
4 hours a week returned to the team, redirected from repetitive enquiries into operations and guest experience.

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