What to put in a digital guidebook for a short-term rental

The short version

Guests do not read a guidebook from top to bottom. They open it three or four times during a stay, each time with one question. A good guidebook is ordered by those moments: getting in, getting online, using the place, and leaving. Everything else is optional.

1. Arrival: the part that gets read every time

Most messages a host receives arrive in the two hours before check-in. Put these at the very top, before any welcome text:

• The exact address and how to find the entrance. "Blue door to the left of the bakery" beats a street number.
• Parking. Where, whether it costs anything, and what to do if the space is taken.
• How the door opens. Key box location, code, and which way the lock turns. A photo of the key box saves a phone call.
• Check-in time, and whether early arrival is possible.
• Who to contact if something goes wrong at the door, and how.

Send door codes close to arrival, not at booking. A code sent three weeks early is a code that gets lost, and one that is valid longer than it needs to be.

2. Getting online

Wifi name and password, written exactly, with capital letters shown clearly. If the router sometimes needs a restart, say where it is. This single line is the most searched thing in any guidebook.

3. How things work

Write this section from the questions you have actually been asked. For most homes that means:

• Heating and air conditioning, including the thermostat that nobody understands
• Hot water, if there is a boiler switch or a wait
• The television and which remote does what
• The hob, oven and washing machine, if they are not obvious
• Bins: which one, which day, and where they go

One or two sentences per item is enough. If an appliance needs more than that, a photo with an arrow does the job better than a paragraph.

4. House rules, kept short

Rules that fill a page do not get read. Keep the ones that protect your neighbours and your property: quiet hours, smoking, pets, extra guests, and anything specific to the building. State them plainly and once.

5. Checkout

Guests want to leave the place right, and they cannot if they do not know what "right" means. Tell them the checkout time, what to do with keys, and the two or three things you want done, such as starting the dishwasher or taking out rubbish. Send this again on the last morning, because nobody remembers it from day one.

6. Local tips, last

A short list of places you would send a friend: a supermarket, a pharmacy, two places to eat, and how to get to the centre or the beach. Five good entries are more useful than fifty.

What to leave out

• Long welcome letters ahead of the arrival details
• Information that changes often and that you will forget to update
• Anything that is the same for every property and helps nobody, like general travel advice

Keeping it current

The guidebook that hurts you is the one with last year's wifi password. Keep one version per unit in one place, and change it there. A printed folder in the apartment and a PDF in your messages will drift apart within a season.

Quick answers

How long should a short-term rental guidebook be?

Short enough to scan on a phone. Arrival, wifi, how things work, rules and checkout usually fit in what a guest can scroll through in a minute, with local tips after that.

Should the guidebook be printed or digital?

Digital first, because guests need the arrival details before they are inside. A printed copy in the home is a useful backup, as long as it is updated together with the digital one.

When should I send the guidebook to a guest?

Send the link with the booking confirmation so they can plan, and again the day before arrival, when they actually need it.