Airbnb House Manual: Tips to Create a Welcoming Experience for your Guests
Providing your Airbnb guests with a house manual is one of the most important things you can do as a host. A good Airbnb house manual will make your life simple, improve the guest experience, and help you get a 5-star review. In this article, you’ll find some tips on what exactly you should include in a house manual to welcome your guests to a new place.
Providing your Airbnb guests with a house manual is one of the most important things you can do as a host. A good Airbnb house manual will make your life easier, improve the guest's experience, and help you earn a 5-star review.
When planning to write a welcome guide, consider whether to provide it in print or digital format. Our suggestion is not to limit it to one type. For example, you can send a digital welcome guide via Airbnb messages and leave a printed, well-designed copy in your home.
A digital house manual can be terrific, but we know not all guests are tech-savvy. Those guests will highly appreciate a printed house manual.
In this article, you'll find tips on what you should include in a house manual to welcome your guests to their new place.
Why Do You Need An Airbnb House Manual?
An Airbnb house manual is the first thing your guests will read when they enter your house. It helps you start their stay off on the right foot. You'll show that you are a helpful host who cares about their comfort and wants to make their stay pleasant and stress-free.
A house manual will help your guests navigate through your property and make the best use of it. Here, they will find all the information about your rental and house rules. You should also provide simple how-to instructions for using your amenities and local recommendations to make their experience memorable.
Most guests will appreciate your time and effort in creating a welcome guide. If done right, you'll be rewarded with excellent guest reviews. The more detailed your welcome guide is, the less likely your guests will message you with questions. And if they will, you should respond to their messages as quickly as possible. Being responsive won’t be a problem if you automate guest communication using vacation rental software like Hospitable.
You can use Inbox AI tools to craft tailored responses when you message guests manually.
Use Improve with AI to correct your own messages and make them warm and professional.
Use suggest with AI to quickly generate personalized responses to tricky guest questions based on the property and booking details, past replies, and the information that you’ve uploaded to the Knowledge Hub.
Enable instant auto replies to let the AI automatically respond to guest messages when you sleep or 24/7.
What to Include in Your Vacation Home Guest Book
There are many things you should consider including in your vacation home guest book. The more you share with your guests, the more grateful they will be.
The most reliable approach to improving your guest experience is to take out the possibility of human error. In simple terms, automate what can be automated. Our free guide on automation strategies for a STR business will come in handy.
So, let's discuss the crucial information that should go in the house manual.
Welcome Page
Start your house manual with a welcome letter. Think of it as a greeting you would use when you're there to greet each visitor in person and make them feel at home.
This section should also cover some other vital details, including
Access codes needed for the front gate
Wi-Fi password
Parking information
Check-in and checkout instructions
Contact information for emergency services
Make sure that this page has all the info your guests absolutely need to know.
Set of Rules
Although you should provide your guests with your house rules before they arrive, you should also include this information in your house manual. This way, your guests can access them at any time. That can help you avoid issues with guests who argue that they weren't aware of the rules. But make sure you present your house rules clearly and precisely.
How-to Instructions
This section should probably make up the bulk of your house manual, since you should address any potential problems your guests may have. Organizing this how-to information logically is crucial to make it easy to find.
Provide your guests with clear instructions on operating each appliance and home electronics, such as a thermostat, smart locks, washer and dryer, air conditioner, kitchen appliances, TV remote, Netflix, etc.
Local Transportation Information
Create a list of transport options available to your guests during their stay. It's especially important if your house is some distance from the center of your town. Include any information about local transportation in your area, such as maps, taxi and public transit schedules, etc.
Things to Do and Local Attraction Guides
Think about local attractions that make your area a unique and desirable destination and provide your guests with suggestions for favorite places to visit. Use this section to provide your guests with rich information, showcasing your hospitality and the city to help them have an authentic local experience.
Here are some suggestions of what to include:
Shopping centers and groceries
Restaurants
Tourist attractions (parks, museums, historical places)
Fairs and festivals (annual events, farmers' markets)
Day trip ideas (hiking, winery, hot springs)
Nightlife (bars, clubs, playhouse, live music)
Include a photo of each place you are recommending when possible. This way, you'll make your house manual more visual and engaging. You should also include the website and address of each recommended place or activity to help your guest find them.
The information you may want to include in your house manual is limited only by your imagination. Just organize it clearly and present it attractively so guests will read it. Store your house manual in a prominent location, such as a kitchen table, and don't forget to tell your guests where to find it.
Airbnb Guidebook Feature
Airbnb has a native feature that lets you create a guidebook for people to see when browsing for listings. This feature enables you to place pins on a map and write short descriptions of your favorite neighborhood spots. You can include restaurants, grocery stores, parks, entertainment venues, and other activities in your area.
The Airbnb guidebook is open to anyone who views a listing's map, which can boost your credibility with prospective guests. This Airbnb tool is absolutely free, but it has its limits.
Although it is powered by Google Places and is updated regularly, you can't customize your recommendations with an image of your choice. And you can't tailor this guidebook to make your property stand out.
Airbnb constantly develops new features and has become better at providing an excellent guest experience. Though using third-party tools, you may take this experience to the next level.
Vacation Rental Guest Book: Alternative Solutions
To create an authentic guest experience, add alternatives to the Airbnb guidebook. If you think making a vacation rental guest book with Microsoft Word is too simple for the 21st century, how about leaving your guests a video message?
You can make a video with detailed descriptions of everything you consider important for your guests. Then, you can send a link to this video to everyone who books your listing as an automatic message using Hospitable. You can set a specific time your guest should receive this message, for example, 24 hours before arrival.
You can upload your video to YouTube and set it to unlisted so it won't appear in search results. It will be available only via a direct web link that you will provide to your guests.
Create a Digital Guidebook
Today's tech-savvy travelers like digital guidebooks because they can easily access them online, even when on the go, so they can plan and enjoy their stays on their terms. That's why it makes sense to create a comprehensive web-based guidebook for your listing using third-party software tools to provide guests with all the information they need for their stay in one place.
For example, Hospitable integrates with such software tools, including an innovative guidebook platform, Touch Stay, and guest experience platforms, DACK, SuiteOp, and Charge Automation. So, Hospitable users can take advantage of any of these integrations and delight their guests with a beautiful, branded digital guidebook.
Each time you receive a reservation via a listing connected to a Hospitable property, a software tool of your choice will generate a reservation-specific link that you can share in your welcome letter. If you use the %guidebook% shortcode in your messaging rules, Hospitable will automatically send your guests the reservation-specific guidebook link.
Digital guidebooks allow hosts to save time on guest communication, since travelers can quickly find answers to many questions without bothering you, and they also offer opportunities for upselling.
The content in digital guidebooks can be easily updated in real time, which is essential for sharing the latest information about local attractions, events, and activities, changes in public transportation, and even new menu items at recommended restaurants.
Implementing Airbnb House Manual
You may consider making your Airbnb house manual available to your guests in several ways.
Add a house manual to your Airbnb listing to share day-to-day details—only guests who booked a stay will be able to access it. Click Arrival guide under Listing editor, and then click House manual and make your changes.
Add a guidebook to your listing to give your guests the local tour and suggest your favorite attractions, restaurants, parks, and stores. Everyone will be able to access your guidebook on the Airbnb website.
Create a beautiful, comprehensive digital guidebook for your listing using third-party software tools that have integrations with Hospitable.
Connect your Hospitable account to your account on the guidebook platform of your choice to automate the process of sending your digital guidebook to your guests.
Use the %guidebook% shortcode in your messaging rules to automatically communicate the reservation-specific guidebook link to your guests in your messages.
Final Thought
Whether you create a classic paper Airbnb house manual, go digital, make a video guidebook, or use your alternatives, your guests will be thankful for your efforts.
They will also be thankful for the excellent guest experience enabled by automation. Start investigating STR automation topics with our free guide. Download now!
Make sure you create a good house manual that offers value. You should proactively answer your guests' questions about your property and showcase your neighborhood's best attractions.
A useful Airbnb house manual will help you stand out from the competition. It will show that you are a communicative host with a great living space that delivers a perfect guest experience.
