How to Make a Welcome Book for Your Airbnb or Vacation Rental (Plus a Free Canva Template)
As someone who regularly stays at different accommodation, I always appreciate when hosts leave a welcome book with all the information I need in one convenient location.
If you’ve been meaning to make a welcome guide book for your Airbnb, bed & breakfast, motel etc., here are some things to consider.
I’ve also created a template you can download from the free printables library to make it even easier!
What to include in your welcome book
This really depends on how much effort you’re willing to put in. The main things to focus on would be answering FAQ’s like the wifi password, netflix password, bin day, check out process, where to find extra blankets etc.
Some things you may want to address in your welcome book:
- Information about their host (you!)
- House rules
- Helpful info (rubbish collection days, the netflix password, parking information, where to find extra blankets, how to change the temperature on the air conditioner, local grocery shops)
- Contacts (local hospital, taxi, plumber, pharmacy, emergency services)
- Wifi password
- Netflix password
- Check out instructions
If you want to be a bit ‘extra’, here are some more things to include in your welcome book:
- Good to know (e.g. is the tap water safe to drink, have you provided power adapters for international guests, dates that daylight savings starts and ends, local festivals and events, items your guests may use e.g. the board games, where to find spare batteries for the remotes)
- A photo of the TV remote with a markup explaining what each button does
- Things to see and do in the local area (including opening hours)
- Restaurant and Cafe recommendations
- Feedback form
Some tourist brochures / information you may want to include:
- Menus for your favorite restaurants
- Coupons & vouchers if you’re partnering with local tour companies
- Brochures for popular tours or activities in the local areas
- A local map (if you want to be super extra, you could circle things you recommend visiting)
Click here to download the Welcome Book template
How to organize the information in your welcome book
Rather than cramming all of this information into 1 page with a tiny font size, I prefer when hosts split out one thing per page so I can easily flick and find what I need. The bigger the font, the better. Big font is also helpful for the older generation! Dot points are easier to read than long paragraphs.
I also find it helpful when hosts frame the wifi and netflix password so it’s super easy to find.
As for displaying the welcome book, you could use a display folder or a binder. Keep the pages in plastic sleeves to protect them from getting dirty. You could laminate the pages to make them more durable, but that requires extra effort, plus a laminating machine and laminating pouches are expensive. If you really want the welcome book to last, print the pages onto thin cardstock, rather than regular printer paper.
If you have more than 15 pages, I’d include a table of contents. Alternatively, arrange the welcome book to be ‘2 in 1’. By this I mean include the information about your Airbnb at the front, and when the guest flips the book over to the back, that becomes more of the ‘tour guide’ section with restaurant recommendations, menus, vouchers etc.
How to make a welcome book template
It doesn’t have to be fancy, you can keep it simple with an ink friendly black and white only template.
You want your welcome book to be easy to read. From seeing dozens of these over the years, the ones that were the best (from my point of view as a guest), were the ones that included graphics and icons relating to a topic. E.g. if I’m searching for information on how to use the TV remote, an image of a TV remote with arrows on the page pointing to and explaining what the various buttons means, grabs my attention much faster than a bunch of words. Similarly, a wifi icon instead of just words makes it easier to find the wifi password.
If you want to save time, download my template here. You can use it as is, or edit it however you like (change colors, font style, font size, add pictures etc.
There are 11 pages, plus front and back cover templates. You can replace the existing pre-filled information with whatever is applicable to your Airbnb. If you don’t need some of the pages (e.g. if you aren’t going to include a restaurants recommendations page), then you can just delete that page.
- Cover page
- Helpful Info
- Good to know
- Food recommendations
- Things to see and do in the local area
- Contacts
- Netflix password
- Wifi password
- Checkout instructions
- Feedback form
- Thank you page
Get this template and access to the rest of the free printables library here
It only takes a few minutes to set up a welcome book and it could save you time not having to answer the same questions from guests over and over again.
I hope you find the template helpful!
Travel Planning tips
- Travel Planning: 50 Things to consider when planning an itinerary
- How I plan and make travel photobooks (plus download my workflow printable)
- 115 Things to Google before your next vacation
Graphic design tutorials
- Making printables in Affinity Publisher: how to set up your document and choose page size
- How to make planner stickers – creating perfectly proportioned shapes in Silhouette Studio (video tutorial)
- The Process Behind Making a Printable Planner
Found this post helpful? Pin it!
