Friday, January 23, 2026
Inxtruc vs Touch Stay: Which Guest Guidebook Tool is Right for You?
A head-to-head comparison of Inxtruc and Touch Stay for vacation rental hosts. Different tools built for different problems - here's how to know which one fits your needs.
Two Different Approaches to Guest Guides
Inxtruc and Touch Stay both help vacation rental hosts communicate with guests. But they solve different problems in different ways.
Touch Stay is a comprehensive digital guidebook platform. You build detailed guidebooks with property information, house rules, local recommendations, and area guides. It's designed to be a full guest resource - everything they need in one branded package.
Inxtruc is a visual guide tool focused on step-by-step instructions. You create short guides for specific things - how to use the thermostat, how to work the lockbox, how to connect to WiFi. It's designed for the moment when a guest is standing in front of something confusing.
Neither is objectively "better." They're built for different use cases. This comparison will help you figure out which fits your situation.
Quick Overview
| Inxtruc | Touch Stay | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary focus | Visual how-to guides | Comprehensive guidebooks |
| Creation style | Mobile-first, on-site | Desktop, detailed setup |
| Content type | Photos, video, audio with steps | Text, images, sections |
| Local recommendations | No | Yes |
| Branding/customization | Minimal (intentional) | Extensive |
| PMS integrations | No | Yes |
| Offline access | Yes (30 days) | Yes |
| QR codes | Built-in | Available |
| Time to create | Minutes per guide | Hours for full guidebook |
| Starting price | Free (3 guides) | ~$8/month per property |
What Touch Stay Does Better
Comprehensive guidebooks
Touch Stay is built for hosts who want a complete guest resource. You can include:
- Property information and house rules
- Check-in and checkout instructions
- Appliance guides
- Local restaurant recommendations
- Nearby attractions and activities
- Transportation info
- Emergency contacts
- Custom sections for anything else
If you want guests to have one place to find everything about the property and the area, Touch Stay is designed for that.
Local area content
Touch Stay has strong features for local recommendations. You can add restaurants, attractions, beaches, hiking trails - whatever's relevant to your area. Some hosts see this as part of the hospitality experience, giving guests curated local knowledge.
Inxtruc doesn't do this. It's focused on property instructions, not local guides.
Branding and customization
Touch Stay lets you customize colors, add your logo, and create a branded experience. If your rental business has a brand identity and you want your guidebook to reflect that, Touch Stay supports it.
Inxtruc intentionally doesn't offer heavy customization. Every guide looks the same - clean, simple, functional. This is a design choice (consistency for guests, simplicity for hosts), but it means you can't match your brand colors or add logos.
PMS integrations
Touch Stay integrates with property management systems like Hostaway, Guesty, Lodgify, and others. If you want your guidebooks connected to your booking workflow, Touch Stay can do that.
Inxtruc is a standalone tool with no PMS integrations currently.
What Inxtruc Does Better
Speed of creation
This is the core difference in philosophy.
Touch Stay assumes you'll sit down and build a comprehensive guidebook. That takes time - hours to do it properly. Most hosts set aside a block of time to create their guidebook, then update it periodically.
Inxtruc assumes you'll create guides on your phone, on-site, while you're looking at the thing. Walk up to the thermostat, snap a photo, type "turn the dial to the snowflake," done. A guide takes minutes, not hours.
If you want something fast that solves immediate problems, Inxtruc is faster to get started.
Visual, step-by-step format
Inxtruc guides are built around photos, video, and audio - not text sections.
When a guest is confused about your Nespresso machine, they don't want to read a paragraph. They want to see the machine and know which button to press. Inxtruc guides show exactly what they're looking at with numbered steps.
Touch Stay supports images, but it's fundamentally a text-based guidebook format. You can add photos to sections, but it's not built around visual step-by-step instructions the same way.
Made for the moment of need
Inxtruc is designed for a specific context: guest is standing in front of something, phone in hand, needs help now.
The guides are short, scannable, and visual. Paired with QR codes placed at the property (next to the thermostat, inside the cabinet with the coffee maker), guests get answers without searching.
Touch Stay guidebooks are more comprehensive, which means guests need to navigate to find what they need. That's fine for browsing, but slower when you just need to know how to turn on the hot tub.
Simpler guest experience
Inxtruc guides require nothing from guests - tap a link, scan a QR code, see the guide. No app, no account, no navigation through sections.
Touch Stay is also no-app-required, but the guidebook format means more content to navigate. For some guests, that's great. For others, it's more than they want.
Offline access built around guides
Both tools offer offline access, but in different ways.
Inxtruc works as a PWA (progressive web app). Once a guest views a guide on their device, it's available offline for 30 days. This is designed for properties with spotty WiFi or no cell service - guest loads the guide once, then has it available whenever.
Touch Stay also offers offline access, but it's tied to their app/PWA experience for the full guidebook.
Pricing Comparison
Inxtruc:
- Free forever for your first 3 guides
- Paid plans for more guides and features
- No per-property pricing - pay for guide capacity
Touch Stay:
- Starts around $8/month per property
- Volume discounts for multiple properties
- Free trial available
For a single property, Touch Stay costs roughly $96/year. Inxtruc's free tier might be enough for simple properties, with paid plans available if you need more.
For multiple properties, both scale differently. Touch Stay charges per property. Inxtruc charges for guide capacity regardless of how you organize them.
Who Should Choose Touch Stay
Touch Stay is the better choice if:
- You want a comprehensive guidebook with property info, house rules, and local recommendations all in one place
- Local area content matters - you see restaurant and activity recommendations as part of your hospitality
- Branding is important - you want guidebooks that match your business identity
- You need PMS integrations - your workflow requires connection to booking systems
- You're willing to invest time upfront - you'll set aside hours to build a proper guidebook
Touch Stay is particularly good for hosts who see the guidebook as a hospitality differentiator - part of the guest experience, not just a utility.
Who Should Choose Inxtruc
Inxtruc is the better choice if:
- Your main problem is repeat questions about how things work - thermostats, locks, appliances, WiFi
- You want something fast - create guides in minutes on your phone, not hours at a laptop
- Visual instructions matter - your property has things that are easier to show than explain
- You like QR codes - you want to place guides at the property next to the thing they explain
- Simplicity over comprehensiveness - you'd rather have short focused guides than a full guidebook
- You don't need local recommendations - guests can find restaurants on Google, you just need them to stop texting about the thermostat
Inxtruc is particularly good for hosts with properties that have non-obvious things - smart locks, complex thermostats, hot tubs, specialty appliances - where a visual guide prevents the midnight "how does this work" message.
Can You Use Both?
Yes. Some hosts do.
You could use Touch Stay for your comprehensive guidebook with local recommendations and house rules, and use Inxtruc for specific appliance guides with QR codes placed at the property.
The guidebook handles general information and browsing. The Inxtruc guides handle the "I'm standing in front of this thing right now" moments.
Whether that's worth managing two tools depends on your needs and how often guests actually get stuck on specific appliances versus wanting general information.
The Bottom Line
Touch Stay and Inxtruc aren't really competitors - they're different tools for different problems.
Touch Stay is a guidebook platform. It's comprehensive, brandable, and full-featured. It takes time to set up but gives guests everything in one place.
Inxtruc is a guide tool. It's fast, visual, and focused. It's for the specific problem of guests not knowing how things work.
If you're not sure which problem you have, look at your message history. Are guests asking for local recommendations and general info? Touch Stay might help. Are they asking how to work the thermostat and connect to WiFi? Inxtruc is built for that.
You can try Inxtruc free - your first 3 guides cost nothing, forever. That's enough to test whether visual guides reduce your repeat questions.