Writing a welcome book
A good welcome book quietly prevents most of the messages you'd otherwise get mid-stay.
What it's actually for
Every message a guest sends you mid-stay is a question your listing or your property didn't already answer. A welcome book — printed, or a single shared digital page — closes that gap for the questions that come up on arrival rather than before booking.
The sections that earn their place
- Wifi — network name and password, printed large, on the first page
- How things work — the oven, the shower, the heating/AC, the TV remote, anything genuinely unusual in the property
- Checking out — what time, what to do with keys, bins and towels
- In an emergency — your number, nearest A&E/pharmacy, what to do about a lockout
- Nearby, briefly — two or three genuinely good places within walking distance, not a tourist-board list
- House rules, restated plainly — smoking, parties, quiet hours, pets — even if guests saw them at booking
Keep it short enough to actually be read
A single well-organised page beats a twenty-page booklet nobody opens. Put the two most-asked things — wifi and checkout time — where they're impossible to miss, and keep everything else to one line each.
Update it when the property changes
A new appliance, a changed bin day, a different parking arrangement — treat the welcome book as something you update the same day you notice it's wrong, not something you write once and forget.
See a filled-in example structure in our check-in checklist guide, which covers what to prepare before the guest even arrives.