What to Include in an Airbnb Welcome Book: Complete Checklist

The hardest part of a welcome book isn't writing it — it's knowing when you're done. Hosts either under-build (a Wi-Fi card and a takeaway menu) or over-build (forty laminated pages nobody opens), and both fail the same test: does the book answer the questions this property's guests actually have?

This checklist is the complete inventory, organised by section, with each item marked for who needs it. Work through it once, skip what genuinely doesn't apply to your property, and you'll finish with a book that's complete without being bloated. (If you want the structure pre-built to drop these into, WelcomeFlo's free guide template mirrors this exact organisation.)

Section 1: Welcome and contact

• A short welcome note — two or three sentences of genuine warmth. Who you are, that you're glad they came, one line of personality.
• How to reach you — your preferred channel and realistic response times ("message me on Airbnb; I reply within the hour, 8am–10pm").
• Emergency contacts — local emergency number (not every guest knows it), nearest hospital or urgent care, and a backup contact if you're unreachable.
• The property address — restated in full. Guests need it for taxis, deliveries and emergency calls, and hunting through the booking app at those moments is misery.

Section 2: Arrival and access

• Directions with the local quirk — the turn satnavs miss, the entrance on the side street, the landmark that actually helps.
• Parking, precisely — which space, which streets are safe, permit rules, and a photo. Vague parking notes generate more arrival calls than anything except locks.
• Entry steps with photos — the building door, the floor, the apartment door, the lockbox or keypad, in order, each photographed. Build it for a tired arrival in the dark.
• Late-arrival notes — lighting, night-time wayfinding, quiet-entry requests for shared buildings.
• Luggage guidance — where bags can wait if guests arrive before check-in.

Section 3: The essentials page

• Wi-Fi network and password — formatted for copy-paste, or tap-to-copy in a digital guide. This is the single most-consulted item in any welcome book; treat it accordingly.
• Check-in and checkout times — stated once here, repeated in checkout.
• Bin day and recycling rules — which bin, which colour, which day, where. Oddly crucial, universally forgotten.
• Thermostat basics — the two-line version here; the full how-to lives in the manual section.

Section 4: How the house works

The house manual layer — one entry per appliance or system that has ever confused anyone:

• Heating and hot water — how to adjust, how long the water takes, any schedule.
• Kitchen appliances — the hob's quirk, the oven's real temperatures, the dishwasher's tablets, the coffee machine's ritual (guests care about this one disproportionately).
• TV and entertainment — which remote, which input, streaming sign-in etiquette.
• Washing machine and dryer — settings that work, where detergent lives.
• The quirks — the sticky door, the light switch in the odd place, the tap that runs cold for ten seconds. Naming quirks converts "broken" into "characterful".
• Spares and supplies — towels, linens, toilet paper, first-aid kit, fire extinguisher, torch: where each lives.
• Safety information — smoke alarm locations, gas shutoff, electrical panel, and any property-specific cautions (steep stairs, pool rules, balcony weight limits).

Section 5: House rules

The rules layer works best short, warm and reasoned:

• The core four — smoking policy, pets policy, visitors policy, quiet hours (with the why: "the walls are Victorian and the neighbours are early risers").
• Anything with consequences — the hot tub cover, the log burner protocol, the "please don't feed the seagulls" of your particular property.
• What you don't mind — one generous line ("help yourself to the pantry basics; the garden herbs are for using") balances the asks and sets the tone rules alone never achieve.

Section 6: Local recommendations

The section guests screenshot and reviews mention:

• Food, tiered — the special-occasion place, the reliable mid-week dinner, the best breakfast, the coffee that matters, the late-night fallback. One personal line each ("get the corner table; order the special").
• The everyday practicals — nearest supermarket (and the good one), pharmacy, cash machine, petrol station.
• Things to do — the walk you'd take a visiting friend on, the beach or park, the one museum worth the ticket, something for kids if your guests bring them.
• The rainy-day list — always consulted the evening before the rain arrives.
• Transport — taxi numbers that answer, the bus that matters, airport routes and honest durations.

In a digital guide, back these with live listings — photos, ratings, current opening hours pulled from Google — so the section maintains itself (WelcomeFlo's Flo Places can help you find nearby options worth reviewing, though the personal note stays yours to write); in print, date your recommendations so guests can calibrate trust.

Section 7: Checkout

• The time, unmissable, first line.
• Keys — exactly what to do with them, no ambiguity.
• The short task list — two to four items maximum (bins, dishwasher on, windows shut). Over-asking here is the classic goodwill killer.
• Luggage and late-checkout policy — what's possible and how to ask.
• A goodbye line — "it's been a pleasure; safe travels home" costs five words and ends the book the way you'd end a stay.

What to leave out

Completeness has edges. Skip: your life story (three sentences of welcome suffice), duplicated legal boilerplate from the listing, appliance manuals verbatim (link or photograph the relevant page instead), forty restaurants (curate twelve you'd defend), anything you can't commit to keeping current, and passwords or codes in printed books that outlive their rotation — print points at the digital guide for those.

Tailoring the checklist to your property

The inventory flexes by property type. City apartments weight arrival heavily: building access, buzzer protocols, parking reality, noise context. Rural cottages weight systems: heating with personality, water quirks, signal honesty, "the nearest everything" distances. Beach and pool properties add equipment protocols, sand rules, outdoor shower notes, tide or safety information. Family-oriented listings add cot and highchair locations, stair gates, plug covers, and the crucial "where the toys live". Run your property type's lens over each section and add the two or three items generic checklists miss.

Using the checklist: a working method

A checklist this size can feel like homework, so here's the method that turns it into a single productive session rather than a lingering project.

Gather before you write. Open three sources side by side: your saved message replies (every answer you've typed twice is a checklist item pre-written), your listing description (facts to restate, not rewrite), and your last month of guest questions (the items this property genuinely needs). Most of the book already exists in fragments — the session is assembly, not authorship.

Walk the property with the list. Phone in hand, room by room, photographing as you go: the entrance approach, the thermostat, the hob controls, the bin store, the stopcock. Each photo becomes a checklist item completed, and the walk surfaces the quirks you've stopped noticing — the ones guests haven't.

Fill the easy 80% first. Wi-Fi, times, addresses and appliance basics take minutes each. Momentum matters more than order; a book that's 80% live tonight beats a perfect book scheduled for next month.

Flag the 20% that needs input. The neighbour's parking arrangement, the boiler's service quirk, the restaurant you keep meaning to try — park them in a "to confirm" note and publish without them. Digital books make additions painless, so incompleteness is temporary by design.

One session, structured this way, reliably produces a live, better-than-most welcome book — and the checklist's remaining items become a pleasant trickle of five-minute improvements rather than a barrier to starting.

The bottom line

A complete welcome book is seven sections, honestly filled and ruthlessly skimmable — everything a guest needs, nothing they must wade through. Work the checklist once, photograph as you go, and give it a home that stays current: start your free WelcomeFlo guide and see it come together in an afternoon.