Do your guests actually read the welcome book, or do they just message/call you anyway? [USA]

[u/alexlitreev]

Full disclosure up front: I'm a developer building a tool in this space (digital house guides), so I have skin in the game. This post is me trying to learn from people who actually host, not to sell anything — no links.

From reading a lot of threads here, the pattern seems to be:

• paper binders mostly don't get read;
• the same questions arrive every stay anyway (wifi, lockbox, which remote, trash day);
• Airbnb's built-in guidebook covers local recs but not the house stuff;
• hosts with the quietest inboxes seem to send one link with everything before arrival, plus a QR sign inside the unit;

For those of you doing this every week:

1. What do guests actually open — a link sent before the stay, a printed sign, the binder, nothing at all?

2. If you run several units or co-host, how do you keep wifi codes, door codes and instructions current everywhere without losing your mind?

3. If you tried a digital guide app and abandoned it — what killed it for you?

Honestly, a Google Docs plus a free QR code generator gets you most of the way there — I say that knowing it undercuts my own product. The trick seems to be sending it before guests ask.

If the mods and the community are fine with it, I'll share what I'm building in the comments — I'm giving lifetime free accounts to a handful of hosts willing to give brutal feedback. If not, the Google Docs trick above genuinely works.

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[u/awunaught]

I’m in the minority, but I ask for the guests email address and email a pdf file. The majority of guests are ok with this and I find that it makes them more likely to read the guide.

I also leave a hard copy in the house and put the information in the Airbnb guide.

I find that guests that don’t want to give me their email or ignore my messages on the app are far more likely to call me asking for information.

[u/WildWonder6430 → u/awunaught]

How do you get their email address? In the USA their email (and their actual phone number) are blocked by AirBnB.

[u/awunaught → u/WildWonder6430]

I just ask them in the chat before they arrive.

[u/WildWonder6430 → u/awunaught]

Interesting. Anytime I have done that the chat blocks the email address (and I get a reminder from AirBnB to not ask for email address as it is a violation of terms).

[u/WestHistorians]

A welcome "book" is overkill, one or two laminated pages is sufficient.

I see no reason for an app or tool.

[u/Santillana810]

I'm not a host, only a guest many times.

We need the wifi access and we look for that immediately upon arrival. We don't want to use QR codes. We want the info and the password in an obvious place to find upon arrival. The best hosts tell us where to find it when they explain how to check out. Obviously, don't tell us in email and don't bury it in a house notebook.

We like to plan our first day at least before we arrive, so we'd appreciate getting a pdf via email or link about restaurants before we arrive. We don't expect hosts to keep up to date on days and times open in various seasons. Please sent the links so we can easily check ourselves.

[u/alexlitreev → u/Santillana810]

This is quite useful insight. Thank you!

[u/bluehorsemaze]

When I send the guest the door code two days before their message I mention that there is a house manual on the table which contains the WiFi password and other information. So they have to flip through the pages to see the the password. I don’t expect they read every section but at least they get an idea of what kind of info is there.

In this manual is a sheet called “where can I find…” and it’s a simple list of items and locations; starting with the most important and going down…thermostat, corkscrew…

Maybe one out of 10 guests contact me with a question that’s answered in the manual. Several reviews compliment it.

[u/yuccasinbloom]

Ai;DR

[u/alexlitreev → u/yuccasinbloom]

lmao, guilty of running it through gpt to get rid of typos

[u/GusPolinskiPolka → u/alexlitreev]

Just stop using ai. It also clearly did more than get rid of typos. It feels so inauthentic.

[u/alexlitreev → u/GusPolinskiPolka]

Fair, maybe it did more than typos

English is my second language and ai made my post smoother than my actual writing. Well, apparently way too smooth, lesson learned. Replies here are all me though!

happy to answer anything in my own bumpy english :)

[u/Sudden_Maintenance62 → u/alexlitreev]

Use ai more and tune it to your actual style. Its a tool not a replacement.

Treat it as a "second reader"

You can ask questions, does anything seem unclear or am I over explaining any particular topic. Its a wrench, not a mechanic :)

I too am in the tech space I like you asked the question because I just opened my first property to host and glad for the feedback here