Markets › Muskoka
Muskoka hosts run about C$465 a night at 52% occupancy across roughly 2,400 active listings. That is around C$14,100 per unit per year handed to the platforms. This page covers the licensing rules that apply here, the guest-capture setup that works with your existing router, and the three emails that bring Muskoka guests back direct.
The short answer
Capture every guest's email at the WiFi sign-in — not just the booker — tag them by property and season, and send a return offer timed to July and August carry the year. In Muskoka the guests worth emailing are overwhelmingly GTA families, booking 6–10 weeks ahead and returning to the same lake.
Seed estimate — replace with AirDNA/municipal data before batch 2. Last reviewed 2026-09-09. Fee load assumes a blended 16% guest + host commission.
Rules are municipal, not regional: Huntsville, Bracebridge, Gravenhurst and the Lake of Bays each run their own STR licence with an annual fee and an occupancy cap. Check the specific township before listing.
Licensing here is the reason a guest list matters: when a cap or an inspection takes a unit offline for a season, the hosts with an email list rebook the guests they already have. Everyone else restarts on the OTAs.
Season here: July and August carry the year; the whole game is filling June, September and the fall-colour weekends.
Sent the moment they join the WiFi. Local picks for Lake Muskoka, Lake Rosseau, Lake of Bays — specific enough to be useful, which is what earns the open on the next two.
One question, one tap. Catches the problem while you can still fix it, and lifts review scores before the review is written.
Muskoka demand is seasonal, so time this to the guest's own booking month and offer the same unit before they reopen the app.
Every adult in the party signs in to the WiFi, so the list includes the people who came but did not book — in group markets like this one, that is three to five times the contacts a booker-only list gives you.
Rules are municipal, not regional: Huntsville, Bracebridge, Gravenhurst and the Lake of Bays each run their own STR licence with an annual fee and an occupancy cap. Check the specific township before listing. Rules change yearly — confirm with the municipality before you list, and re-check at renewal.
At C$465 average nightly rate and 52% occupancy, one unit grosses about C$88,300 and gives up roughly C$14,100 a year in blended guest and host platform fees. Every repeat guest who books direct is that fee back.
Hosts who capture guest emails and run a repeat-guest sequence typically move a meaningful share of returning stays direct within two seasons. Under 5% almost always means no capture is happening at all — the booker's email from the platform is not a marketing list.
Yes in most cases. UniFi, TP-Link Omada and OpenWrt routers work with software alone. Deco, eero, Google/Nest and ISP-supplied routers need a $79 plug-in gateway box that keeps the same network name and password.
Nearby markets: Haliburton Highlands · Parry Sound & Georgian Bay · Kawartha Lakes · how we compare to StayFi
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