How to Create a House Manual for Your Airbnb
A simple, no-nonsense way to write a digital house manual that answers the questions Airbnb guests really ask — Wi-Fi, entry, check-out, rules and local tips.
Start with the six questions
Almost every guest asks the same six things in the first hour: What is the Wi-Fi? How do I get in? What time is check-out? Where do I park? What are the house rules? Where should I eat tonight? Write your manual around those six answers first — everything else is a bonus.
Skip the paper binder
Binders get lost, spilled on and never updated. A digital house manual lives at one link, opens on any phone, and can be edited in seconds when your lock code changes or a favourite restaurant closes. Guests scan a QR on the fridge and they are in — no app, no login, no download.
Write like a friendly local, not a lawyer
House rules written like a rental contract feel cold. The same rules written the way you would tell a friend feel like hospitality. 'Quiet after 10pm — the walls are thinner than they look' reads better than 'Section 4.2: Noise policy.'
Include what is not obvious
Where the coffee is. Which drawer holds the corkscrew. Which switch turns on the shower. Which bin is recycling. These are the small frustrations that quietly cost you a star — and the easiest ones to solve with two lines of text.
Make it findable at 11pm
Guests arrive late. Put the link in your Airbnb pre-arrival message, print the QR code on a small card by the door, and add it to your booking-platform automated messages. If a tired traveller can find it half-asleep, you have done your job.