Everything You Need To Know About Short-Term Rentals + Airbnb Guest Guidebooks - Including How to Create Your Own
Are you an Airbnb, VRBO or vacation, corporate and executive rental host wondering how to create comprehensive guest guidebooks for your short-term rental (STR) business? It all starts with a Guest Welcome Guidebook. Not only can a Guest Welcome Guidebook enhance the guest experience but it’s also a really effective way to market your vacation rental property, optimize the guest experience and grow bookings.
The Guest Welcome Guidebook you provide to your guests helps them understand and enjoy their stay at your vacation rental. You can print traditional paper guidebooks but a digital welcome guidebook can be accessible via smartphones, tablets, or computers, which means your guests get a more interactive and up-to-date experience that they can also share with friends.
Why use a digital guidebook?
There are so many great reasons to add a digital Guest Welcome Guidebook to your vacation rental marketing and guest experience strategy. For one, it lets your vacation rental guests access information anytime, anywhere. It’s also easy for short-term rental hosts to update and it can even be personalized to suit the preferences of each guest, giving them an experience they’ll never forget. Our Elevïn Hosted Stays Guidebooks and Templates for Short-Term and Vacation Rentals are created in Canva and are easily customizable with drag and drop layouts so rental hosts can quickly edit the pre-offered content (photos and listing descriptions), add their brand identify and send to guests prior to the reservation start date.
What goes into a SHORT-TERM and VACATION rental guest welcome guidebook?
A Guest Welcome Guidebook must be a comprehensive template package that provides example scripts describing the overview of a stay, all of the “high-level” selling points of the rental and a quick pick contact list. If rental hosts do it right, guest will be sending accolades and praise for providing the Guidebook when they enter the short-term rental stay.
In our Guest Welcome Guidebook for Short-Term and Vacation Rentals, we provide tips on what to say, recommendations on where to place photos and example scripts taken from our own rental Guidebooks. Add your own descriptions or get them from your property management team [they can be a perfect foundation to start your research].
Here are the must-have elements that we recommend for your guidebook.
Welcome message: This is your introduction and should be warm, friendly and inviting. It will be the first thing guests read and should set the tone and make your guests feel excited about their stay. Give an introduction to the property, something about you, why you’re sharing it as a hosted stay, what connected you to the property and what the guest can expect from a 5-star experience. It’s never too early to remind them, you want to deliver the best stay for them.
In the neighbourhood: Let guests know the vibe of the area, how friendly the people are and that you can promise it is secure. Describe what the environment looks like or how it feels to you, what’s walking or driving distance from the property and whether there are important seasonal events and attractions worth noting.
The amenities: Amenities are all that the property has to offer from common areas, spas, pools, fitness centres, lakes, games rooms, fire pit areas, etc. This is where you get your guests “excited” about all the extras.
Eat: List all the great places to eat (dine-in/take out), local markets, grocery and convenience stores. This section of your Guidebook might require a few pages, as we like to provide guests 6-8 great recommendations, including a single photo per place.
Exploration and activities: Show you’re a “local”. Guests expect top-tier hosts to have first-hand, “insider” knowledge of the best activities in your area. Share your wisdom on local experiences you want your guests to have.
Quick picks: Provide a comprehensive listing of recommended grocery stores, shops, pharmacies, gas/EV stations, hospitals and emergency numbers.
3 factors to consider when creating your guest Welcome guidebook
Upon creating your Welcome Guest Guidebook consider what type of information you have available, what you think is useful to your guests and how you want it to be presented to them.
It’s a good idea to look at your guidebook as an investment. It may require you to pay a little now (whether you create it from scratch or download our guidebook) for a a huge return in the future.
Here’s how we recommend approaching the development of your Guest Welcome Guidebook.
Lean on other creators: We’ve spent hundreds of hours mastering Short Term Rental + Airbnb Guidebook templates, graphic layouts and pre-written scripts so you don’t have to!
Created in Canva, our Guidebook templates are easy to use with drag and drop layouts so that creating your design is easy!
P.S. we wish when we started our short-term rental business in 2018 that we had access to graphic templates like these to “kick-start” us on our marketing development and guest experience strategy.
Gather content: Compile all necessary information including high-quality images and accurate descriptions of the listing and area. Within each section of our guidebook, we provide tips on what to say, recommendations on where to place photos and example scripts taken from our own rentals. Simply add your branding, customize the text and your Guest Welcome Guidebook is ready to use!
Design for accessibility: Make sure the guidebook is easy to navigate and read. Our guidebooks are designed with these considerations in mind.
Add your branding: Use colours, logos and styles that reflect the current look and feel of your marketing materials (signs, logos, etc). If you want an example of the signs and labels we use in our short-term rentals, view an example of our Sign and Label Guidebook Template for short-term rental hosts.
Add interactive elements: Include clickable links and maps that your vacation rental guests will be able to use during their stay. Also, ask your guests for recommendations and suggestions of what they liked about the stay in the area. Guests are your best critics when it comes to the information you provide in future versions of your guidebooks.
Test and get feedback: It’s okay if your guidebook isn’t perfect from the get-go. Share it with friends or family for feedback and make sure to ask your guests if it was helpful. That way, you can keep updating it to make sure it’s as useful as possible.
Your digital vacation rental guidebook is not just a tool for guest convenience; it’s also a huge marketing asset to optimize your rental growth and to become a 5-star Superhost, like us. Use your guidebook to promote upcoming events, special offers, or even up- services like late checkouts or extra cleaning.
Your guest welcome guidebook could mean more 5-star reviews
A beautiful and useful guest guidebook could significantly enhance your guests’ experience, leading to more positive reviews and repeat bookings. This dynamic marketing tool not only serves to inform and guide your guests into the 5-star stay you want them to have but it also acts as an extension of your short-term rental business’s service and brand. By investing time and effort into creating a detailed and user-friendly digital welcome guidebook, you’re investing in your guests’ overall satisfaction and your vacation rental business’s success.
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We recommend combining this download with our other Guidebooks to have a complete and comprehensive digital library of communication, operational and guest experience templates and guides for your rental properties. See our Elevïn Hosted Stays Digital Marketing Guidebooks + Templates for Short-Term and Vacation Rental Hosts.
About the Writer
Shawn Hernden
I’m one part of a sibling entrepreneurial partnership called The Superhost Mentors.
We’re twin brothers. One of us (me, Shawn) tours around the globe with Cirque du Soleil: a Canadian entertainment company renowned for its mesmerizing blend of circus arts, theatre and music. The other, Brad, has carved a path as a visionary entrepreneur in the world of real estate and design. Together, we co-own Elevïn Design Group and Hosted Stays and manage a portfolio of short-term rental and vacation properties that have become the cornerstone of our professional success.
We deliver aesthetically pleasing, comfortable interiors and provide exceptional guest experiences. We transform our properties into coveted destinations for travellers, earning the esteemed title of Superhosts on rental platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO.
In a short period, we have earned over 125 reviews, 5-stars, and have been awarded “Guest Favourite” in offering one of the most loved homes on Airbnb.
Beyond our individual pursuits, we find ourselves inexorably drawn back to each other by the bonds of family. A shared passion for real estate and design has served as the connective thread that weaves our lives together.
Want to reach out ? Contact us.
