No launch fee sounds too good to be true. What is the catch?+
We are in it for years, not months. We take ten percent of the new revenue, another ten percent goes into a Growth Fund that pays for your platform and then your growth, and we ask to be your only growth partner while you stay. There is no fixed term: you can leave any time from your dashboard or by email. For our founding partners the $2,000 launch fee is waived: five spots, because our first partners help shape the platform with their feedback. We can offer it because we build the system once and run it for many properties, so each new partner builds on work that is already done.
What do I actually pay each month?+
The software is free. You pay for hosting and usage: one base fee of $99 a month, on secure dedicated hardware powered by renewable electricity, covers everything we host: your website, booking engine, channel connection, database, dashboard, web app and the whole GROWTHSTAR suite, for any number of rooms and users, with 1 TB of storage and a $15 AI allowance inside. Storage beyond 1 TB is $20 per TB. AI usage beyond the allowance is metered from your fund at our cost plus 33%. All of it is paid from your Growth Fund before any growth spend, each shown as one line, and the fund keeps at least next month’s fees in reserve. At setup you pay $500 into your own Growth Fund: it pays your first month, holds the next, and leaves about $300 for your first growth pick. Your ten percent of new revenue keeps it topped up.
What happens if I leave early?+
There is no fixed term. Leave any time: submit your exit in your partner dashboard, or by email; your full data export is emailed to you at once, and we contact you within 7 days. Pointing your domain back to your old site is free and instant, and you tell us when to switch our services off, within 30 days of asking to leave. You never pay a waived launch fee from your own pocket. If you leave before it is earned, the unearned part comes out of what is left in your Growth Fund, never beyond it. Our 10% continues only on bookings made before you left, and on repeat bookings from guests and groups we found for you, for 24 months. Your $500 deposit went into your own Growth Fund, so it follows the fund: whatever is unspent, after exit costs, comes back to you within 30 days of your services being shut off. There are two ways out. Leaving on your own is free: you move what you need and repoint your domain yourself, and from then on you choose and pay for your own channel manager, Channex or another such as Hospitable. Or choose the full-service buy-out (one and a half times the last 12 months of our 10%, at least US$10,000): we do the whole move within 60 days, give you your own copy of the code and the whole GROWTHSTAR app suite branded in your own name, and help you set up your own Channex and your own Hostinger hosting, which you then pay directly, and your copy of the code is yours to do anything with. Without a buy-out, what we built stays with us. The agreement states it all before you sign.
I have just rebuilt my website. Do I have to start again?+
No. Your site keeps its look and its words. We rebuild it on our platform so booking, enquiries and tracking work inside it, it stays on your domain, and you see it working before you decide.
What counts as new revenue?+
Only bookings on the channels we open for you: your own booking engine, new booking sites, host weeks and months, and network placements, each counted in full. Every channel you already sold on before we started stays one hundred percent yours, including any growth on it. If your own website already takes bookings, we set its baseline from its own last twelve months, month by month, so high season carries a higher bar; only bookings above it count, and a booking that came from one of your ads counts in full. We only earn on channels we open for you. A booking site we add is revenue you would not otherwise have made: it comes through the channel manager that is free with your $99 hosting, and on it that site takes its own fee first, then you pay our 10% and put 10% into your own Growth Fund from what reaches you. We only earn on money that reaches you. The monthly statement shows the working.
What does the Growth Fund pay for?+
Your platform first: your growthstar.app access and your AI usage. Then growth: search and AI search, Google, Meta, TikTok, WhatsApp, content and your guest app. You pick each growth step on your board and I approve it. Each month you see every line, what it bought and what it cost: ad budgets at cost, and our markup on anything else disclosed up front. It is your own fund account on your dashboard: you see the balance go down when a spend is picked or charged, and up when your ten percent is credited.
What if a month has no new revenue?+
Then we earn nothing and nothing new is credited to your Growth Fund. Its balance keeps paying your $99 and any storage beyond 1 TB, and you keep at least next month’s fees in it, so your systems stay paid without touching your card on file.
Do I have to use your tools?+
No. Tool by tool, you choose: keep what works, switch to ours, run both side by side, or add ours for something new. Email too: we manage your current provider, host your mail with us, or both. If you move, we take your team across one tool at a time, with a guide for each in GROWTHSTAR Learn.
Who looks after my guests and my retreats?+
You and your team, as you do now. We do not run operations. We sell, market and keep the systems running, and our AI drafts guest replies for your team to approve.
You work with other properties. Will you send my leads somewhere else?+
A lead that comes through your channels is worked for you first. We offer it to another partner property only when it cannot book with you: you have no availability, the budget or needs do not match, the guest asks for alternatives, or three follow-ups over seven days have not brought a booking. Always with the guest’s consent. It runs both ways: leads from across the network that fit your property come to you. Your confidential information never goes to another property.
Is there a free way to start?+
Yes. Every conversation starts with a free property audit: your site, your listings, your reviews and how enquiries are followed up. It is yours to keep whether or not we work together.
How soon will I see results?+
The systems go live in 30 days. Retreat groups book six to nine months ahead, some a full year, so the retreat weeks we sell early land in the season after. Direct bookings and faster replies can move sooner.
What happens to my data if we part?+
It leaves with you in full: guests, bookings, files and mail. Your domain, your site’s words and photos, your guest list and your reviews were always yours, and your ad, payment and channel accounts are already in your name.
Can I get my own app?+
Your web app installs from the browser and is included. An app of your own in the App Store and Google Play is US$600 once, published on your own developer accounts, then $199 a month on top of your $99, $298 a month in all. The guest app comes with it, and so do the GROWTHSTAR work apps as they reach the stores; until then you use them in the browser. Without a store app, the guest app is a growth step you can pick from your fund.
Do I have to leave Airbnb?+
No. Airbnb stays one channel among many on the same calendar. The goal is that more of your bookings arrive direct over time, where the 15.5% stays in the business, less the card processor’s fee.
Does AI speak for me?+
Only in drafts. Nova and the agents draft; a person on your team approves every message that leaves and every payment. You set the voice and the rules.
What are the agents, and are they running today?+
Eight agents, each with one job: finding guests and groups, answering new leads, onboarding, reporting, reviewing sales calls, content, support and the fund’s books. Nova’s reply queue runs today. The rest of the team is being built now, and each one is marked on this page as it goes live.
How do retreat leaders and hosts fit in?+
Our host pages bring retreat leaders, studios, community builders and residency hosts to partner properties. They are matched to open windows at least three months out, your floor is paid first, and the dates come back to you 60 days before arrival if it is not met. Your blackout dates are never held.
How often are office hours?+
One hour a week, group style, open to every partner and your team. Each session is recorded, so you can catch up on any you miss.
What happens to money left in the Growth Fund if we part?+
Any unspent Growth Fund balance first pays your exit costs: spend already committed before you asked to leave, and the unearned part of a waived launch fee (earned evenly over your first 24 months). The rest is returned to you within 30 days of your services being shut off. Nothing beyond the fund’s balance is ever billed to you. The agreement states it before you sign.
If a lead books at another partner, does money change hands between us?+
No. The guest gets a stay they wanted instead of no stay at all, and neither property pays the other. It works the same way when a network lead books with you.
I am not ready to sign. Can I take anything with me from the call?+
Yes. Everyone who books a call keeps one of our tools, and the free property audit is yours either way. Partners get every tool.
What if the Growth Fund runs low?+
It always keeps next month’s $99 and storage in reserve. If a quiet month takes it below that, you get five days’ notice, and then the card on file tops it up to the reserve. Nothing else is charged to your card.
Who helps when something breaks?+
Ask your own AI first: it reaches your platform through GROWTHSTAR Connect and the answers in our help library. If it cannot fix it, it files a ticket for you, our AI works on it, and a person on our team takes over if it is still not fixed. This path is set up for you during your first 30 days.
Can I buy out your share?+
Yes. The price is one and a half times the last twelve months of our ten percent, with a minimum of US$10,000. It is also the price of the full-service way out if you leave: we do the whole move, and you get your own copy of all the code, plus the whole GROWTHSTAR app suite branded in your own name, set up with your own Channex and your own Hostinger hosting, which you then pay directly. After that it is yours to change and have anyone work on. The agreement sets out how and when you can choose it.
Do you want equity in my business?+
We do not ask for equity or a retainer. Your business stays yours. The software stays ours and is licensed to you for as long as we work together.