What goes in a short-term rental welcome book

Guests ask the same dozen questions at every stay. A welcome book that answers them in the order they come up saves the host a phone call and the guest an anxious first hour.

Hosting · Updated 5 October 2026 · 3 minute read

A welcome book has one job: to answer a question before the guest has to send it. Hosts who keep track of their messages find that almost all of them are the same few questions, asked at the same points in a stay. A good book is organised around those moments and not around the rooms of the house.

Put it in the order a stay happens

1. Arriving

This is the page a tired guest reads in a car outside. It should stand alone and be sent ahead as well as printed.

The full address, and anything a map app gets wrong about finding the door.
Where to park, in words: which space, which side of the street, what the signs mean, and what happens on street-cleaning day.
How to get in, step by step. If there is a keypad, say whether to press a button first and what the lock does when the code is accepted.
Check-in time, and whether an early arrival is ever possible.

2. The first ten minutes

The WiFi network name and password, printed large and exactly as typed, with capitals marked.
How the heating and cooling work, including where the thermostat is and a sensible setting.
Where the light switches are that nobody can find.
Where the extra towels, blankets and pillows are kept.

3. Living in the place

The television: which remote, which input, and which streaming services are signed in.
The kitchen: how the stove lights, how the coffee maker works, what basics are supplied and welcome to be used.
The laundry, if there is one, and where the detergent is.
Rubbish and recycling: which bin takes what, and where the bins go on which day.
Anything with a trick to it. Every house has a door that sticks or a shower with the taps reversed. Naming it turns a complaint into a detail.

4. House rules

Keep this to the rules that matter and give each a reason. "Quiet after 10 pm, because the bedrooms next door share this wall" is followed far more often than "No noise". Cover the usual ones: the number of guests, visitors, smoking, pets, parties and anything specific to the building. A long list of prohibitions reads as distrust, and guests stop reading it.

5. If something goes wrong

How to reach the host, and how quickly to expect an answer.
The address written out again, because it is what an emergency operator asks for first.
Where the fire extinguisher, the first-aid kit and the breaker panel are, and how to shut off the water.
The nearest urgent care, hospital and late-opening pharmacy.

6. The neighbourhood

This is the section guests remember and mention in reviews. Aim for a short list of places you would send a friend, each with one line saying why: the coffee within walking distance, the place for a good dinner without a booking, the grocery store, a park, one thing to do on a rainy day. Five recommendations with opinions are worth more than thirty copied from a map. Say how far each is on foot.

7. Leaving

Checkout time, stated once and clearly.
The two or three things you would like done, and no more: perhaps start the dishwasher, take out the rubbish, and leave used towels in the bath. A long chore list on the last morning is one of the most common complaints in reviews.
What to do with the key, and how to lock up.

What to leave out

Anything that changes weekly and that you will not keep up to date. A wrong opening time is worse than none.
Appliance manuals. Put those in a drawer and say which drawer.
Maps of any kind when listing on platforms that review photos. Directions in words travel better and are never rejected.
The owner's private details beyond the contact you want guests to use.

Making it easy to use

Write short sentences in the second person. Use the guest's words for things, not yours: the guest does not know that you call it the mud room. Put the WiFi password and the checkout time where they can be found without opening the book, such as on a card by the door. Print the book in a size that can be read without glasses, keep a copy in a sleeve so it survives a spilled drink, and send the arrival page by message the day before.

Then read the questions your next three guests still ask. Each one is a line the book is missing.