Stayfarer/Guides
Field guides for independent stays
Everything here is the actual method — the same thinking our paid work runs on, written out properly. Each guide carries its sources with dates, and a margin showing how to check the claims yourself. Read them in any order; if you're new to all of it, start where it hurts.
⊕ Library opened 18 Jul 2026 · guides are re-plotted when the facts move — each page shows its date
How AI engines choose which stays to recommend
The pillar guide. What feeds a ChatGPT or Gemini answer about your town, what we found running George Town's real queries, and the five moves in order. If you read one thing here, read this.
⊕ Plotted 18 Jul 2026
Google Business Profile for stays, done properly
The most valuable free asset a property owns and the most commonly half-done: claiming, categories, photos, the review system that compounds, and the honest truth about free booking links.
⊕ Plotted 18 Jul 2026
The direct-booking playbook
The four points where a direct booking leaks — found, verified, contacted, paid — and the working fixes: WhatsApp discipline, written reasons to book direct, repeat-guest capture, and when a booking engine earns its keep.
⊕ Plotted 18 Jul 2026
Does your stay actually need a website?
From people who build them for a living: not always, and not first. The threshold framework, the signals that flip the answer, and what a stay's site must actually do when it's time.
⊕ Plotted 18 Jul 2026
The Position Check
Eighteen questions, fifteen minutes, a score and a fix list in working order. Free, no email wall, and your answers never leave your browser.
⊕ Instrument · runs in your browser
Ask the engines yourself
Our full engine-checking protocol, published: twelve queries, the 0–3 rubric, a printable scoresheet. The same instrument our paid audits use — the method was never the secret.
⊕ Protocol · about 45 minutes
Next on the drawing board: the review engine in depth, and structured data for stays (the machine-readable layer, for whoever runs your site). If one of these would help you this month, say so — requests genuinely reorder the queue.
Reading is the slow way to find your own gap.
Every guide here answers one part of the picture. The Position Check answers which part is yours — eighteen questions, fifteen minutes, a score and a fix list in the order that pays. Then the guide you need is the one it points you at.
Free means free — no email wall, no call booking. Your answers never leave your browser.