Airbnb house manual template: the welcome book guests actually read

A three-unit host in Split gets the same message every Friday night: "Hi, what's the wifi password?" It arrives at 11pm, after a full day of turnovers, and it's the fourth time that week. The password is taped to the router. Nobody looked. That's not a guest problem. That's a manual problem — and it's the cheapest one you'll ever fix.

A house manual is the single document that answers a guest's questions before they think to ask them. Done well, it turns a stream of small interruptions into silence. Done badly, it's a wall of text nobody reads. The difference is structure, not effort. This is the template we'd hand a host who's tired of repeating themselves.

What should an Airbnb house manual actually include?

A good house manual covers six things: getting in, connecting to wifi, running the appliances, the house rules, local recommendations, and how to leave. Everything else is optional. Those six answer roughly 90% of the messages a guest would otherwise send.

Order matters more than you'd guess. Guests read a manual in the sequence they need it, so lead with arrival information. Someone standing at your door in the rain does not want to scroll past a paragraph about the best bakery to find the lockbox code. Put check-in and wifi at the very top. Bury the sightseeing tips near the bottom where a relaxed guest will actually enjoy them.

Keep each section short and scannable. Bold the thing that matters — the code, the number, the address — so a guest skimming on a phone can grab it in two seconds. If a section runs longer than a short paragraph, it's probably two sections pretending to be one.

Here's what each block should carry:

• Check-in: exact address, entry method, lockbox or smart-lock code, parking, and what to do if something goes wrong. If you use a keyless system, walk through it step by step. Our self-check-in guide covers the full arrival flow if you're setting one up from scratch.
• Wifi: network name and password, in bold, near the top. Add a line for what to do if it drops (restart the router — point to where it is).
• Appliances: short how-tos for anything non-obvious. The dishwasher, the coffee machine, the heating, the induction hob that half your guests have never used. One or two lines each.
• House rules: quiet hours, no parties, smoking policy, pets, extra guests. State them plainly. A rule buried in a friendly paragraph reads as a suggestion.
• Local recommendations: three or four genuinely good spots within walking distance. Not twenty. Curation is the value.
• Checkout: time, where to leave keys, what to strip or start (dishwasher, bins, windows). A short checklist beats prose here.

Digital or printed: which house manual works better?

Run both, but make the digital version the source of truth. A printed booklet gets found the moment a guest walks in; a digital link gets read before they arrive and can't be lost, stained, or walked off with. The strongest setup is a printed one-pager for the essentials and a full digital manual for everything else.

The two formats fail in different ways, so pairing them covers the gaps:

Update the digital copy and reprint the one-pager whenever something changes. A manual that tells guests the old checkout time causes more confusion than no manual at all, because they trust it. Treat it as a living document, not a set-and-forget PDF.

One more thing about tone: write it the way you'd explain the place to a friend. Warm, specific, a little personality. The same voice you use in your welcome message templates should carry through the manual — a consistent voice makes the whole stay feel considered rather than automated.

The full Airbnb house manual template

Copy the block below and swap the bracketed placeholders for your details. It's ordered the way a guest reads it — arrival first, relaxation last.

Welcome

Welcome to [property name]. We're glad you're here. Everything you need for a smooth stay is below — arrival details first, local tips at the bottom. If anything's unclear, message us any time.

Getting in

• Address: [full address, with the door or floor if it's not obvious]
• Entry: [lockbox / smart lock / key from concierge]
• Code: [entry code — remind them it changes each stay if it does]
• Parking: [where, and any permit or time limit]
• Trouble getting in? Call or message [name] at [number].

Wifi

• Network: [network name]
• Password: [password]
• If it drops: the router is [location] — unplug it, wait 30 seconds, plug it back in.

The essentials

• Heating / AC: [how to adjust, and any range to stay within]
• Hot water: [always on / switch location]
• Coffee: [machine type, where pods or grounds are]
• Dishwasher: [pod location, which cycle]
• Washer: [detergent, cycle, anything to avoid]
• Rubbish & recycling: [where bins are, collection day, sorting rules]

House rules

• Quiet hours: [times]. Please keep noise down for the neighbours.
• No parties or events.
• [Smoking policy].
• [Pet policy].
• Registered guests only — [max occupancy].

Nearby, and worth it

• Coffee / breakfast: [one spot, one line on why]
• Dinner: [one spot]
• Groceries: [nearest, with hours]
• Getting around: [nearest stop / how to reach the centre]

Checking out

Checkout is [time]. Before you go:

• Start the dishwasher if it's full.
• Take rubbish to [location].
• Close all windows and lock the door.
• Leave keys [where].

Safe travels — and if you enjoyed the place, a review means the world to a small host like us.

How does a house manual cut repetitive guest messages?

A complete manual removes the reason for most guest messages, because the guest already has the answer in hand. Fewer questions means fewer late-night interruptions and fewer five-minute replies that add up across a busy weekend.

Think about what actually generates messages. Wifi passwords. Checkout times. How the coffee machine works. Where to park. None of these need you personally — they need a document. We've watched two-property hosts in Zagreb cut their per-stay message count roughly in half just by moving those six answers into one link, then pinning it in the pre-arrival message and taping the one-pager to the fridge.

The manual also protects you when things go sideways. If your rules are written, dated, and delivered before arrival, a dispute over a party or a late checkout has a paper trail. Airbnb's own hosting resources push written expectations for exactly this reason — a clear rule stated up front is far easier to enforce than one you mention after the fact. If the concept of hands-off arrival is new to you, the self-check-in glossary entry breaks down how keyless entry and a good manual work together.

There's a limit to what a manual fixes, though. It handles the repetitive, predictable questions — the ones that don't need a human. It won't handle a broken boiler or a genuine emergency, so keep your contact details prominent and reachable. The goal isn't to disappear. It's to stop answering the same four questions forever so you're free for the ones that actually need you.

Once the manual is doing its job, the next bottleneck is usually your calendar — juggling messages, dates, and channels across units. That's the part software should carry, not you. BookBed keeps every unit's availability synced with 60-second iCal polling and direct APIs for Airbnb and Booking.com, so the time you claw back from repeat questions doesn't get eaten by double-booking cleanup instead.