What to put in an Airbnb welcome book

Use three different documents, and do not put the same secrets in each one. Airbnb’s house manual is for day-to-day details of the home, and only a confirmed guest can open it. Airbnb’s guidebook is a public page of places and city advice. A short printed book in the home can repeat the manual’s facts for a guest who is standing at the boiler with no signal. Leave a door code you change between stays out of the paper and out of the guidebook.

The pages below were checked on 27 October 2026. This guide is not legal, safety, or medical advice. It does not say which local rule applies to the property. How to write Airbnb check-in and checkout instructions is the page for the door, the timing of those messages, and checkout tasks. This page stays on the book a guest uses after they are inside.

Three documents, three audiences

Adding a house manual: once the listing is complete, you can create a house manual and share day-to-day details. The page’s examples are how to turn on the hot water heater, and where to find an extra blanket. Only guests with a confirmed reservation can access the manual.

On desktop, the page says:

1. Click Listings and select the listing.
2. Under Listing editor, click Arrival guide.
3. Click House manual and make your changes.
4. Click Save.

What info is shared when a booking is confirmed lists the house manual with the check-in method and the checkout instructions. Those arrival-guide details are available to a confirmed guest in the Trips tab as soon as the reservation is confirmed. The confirmation email on that page includes your contact number and the full address. It does not say the email includes the house manual.

A printed book on the kitchen counter is not that field. Saving the manual does not print the book, and printing the book does not save the manual. If the two disagree, the guest has two sets of instructions. Write the manual first, then copy the lines that still help on paper.

Add a guidebook is a different feature. After the listing steps are done, you can suggest restaurants, stores, parks, and attractions. On desktop, the page says to open Listings, select the listing, open Arrival guide, click Guidebooks, edit the title and cover photo, choose which listings the guidebook is associated with, and click Add to guidebook for places, neighborhoods, and city advice.

The same page says home co-hosts do not have access to new guidebooks, and that guidebooks are connected to an individual hosting account, not to a listing. It also says host guidebooks are public and everyone can access them on Airbnb. Share makes a guidebook reachable outside the Airbnb website. Preview and print makes a hard copy to leave for guests. The page points hosts to the house manual as a separate step. A printed guidebook is still a public document. It is the wrong place for a code, a password, the full address, or your phone number.

What to write, and what to keep short

Airbnb’s own examples for the manual are the hot water heater, an extra blanket, and, on the guidebook page’s description of the manual, how the TV works. Getting started as a host says check-in instructions should include contact information, Wi-Fi passwords, your neighborhood guide, the house rules and requests that are on the listing, and anything else the guest needs on arrival. Those lines belong in the check-in instructions. The manual and the printed book can point at them. They should not be a second, longer version that drifts.

A practical split on this page, which is not a menu Airbnb publishes, is:

• How to reach you, in one line, the same number as the check-in instructions and the emergency card.
• Check-in and checkout times that are already in the arrival guide, without the door code.
• Where the Wi-Fi card is.
• Where the house-rules sheet and the quiet-hours sign are.
• Kitchen and appliances, one line each, in the style of the hot-water and TV examples.
• Trash and parking as locations, when the guest needs them, not as a new rule.
• Where the emergency card is.
• A few local notes you have checked, or a pointer to the guidebook if you made one.

Keep each of those to a line a guest can use while holding a towel or a trash bag. A paragraph about the neighborhood belongs in the guidebook or in the short neighborhood note inside the check-in instructions, not as a chapter in the book. What to put on your Airbnb Wi-Fi sign and guest welcome info already treats local notes that way: only a place you have confirmed, in your own words, and a blank line rather than a guess. This site does not look up businesses and does not suggest places to visit.

House rules stay in the listing’s House rules and requests section. How to set house rules says house rules are the expectations guests are required to follow, and that extra detail goes in requests. The page’s examples of requests are asking guests to remove shoes indoors and limiting daytime visitors. What rules are allowed says this policy applies to reservations booked on or after November 20, 2026. Rules and requests have to be in the designated section at booking. The page says hosts may not introduce new rules or requests in another part of the listing, or after booking, including by message, by a sign in the home, or in person.

The same page says hosts are generally not allowed to ask guests for work a cleaner would usually do. The examples are stripping the bed, taking trash offsite, and washing and putting away dishes. Those chores stay on the Airbnb turnover cleaning checklist, which is for you or the cleaner. A welcome book that assigns them is a new request the guest did not see before booking.

How to write Airbnb house rules is the longer page on quiet hours, the guest limit, pets, smoking, parties, and the times. The book can say “house rules are in the listing and on the sheet by the door” when that sheet matches the listing. It should not restate a rule the listing does not already have.

Print, the manual, and the codes

Paper is the right copy for a fact that is still true next week: which door is the exit, which cupboard has the blankets, which switch is the water heater. Digital is the right copy for a fact that changes with the reservation.

Safety expectations say keys or access codes should be provided for the main entrance, that lockboxes and entry codes must remain secure, and that hosts should change codes between reservations. Ground rules for homes say hosts should give guests a way in at check-in and throughout the stay. The page’s examples are correct directions and an updated keycode.

Add check-in instructions says guests will see the check-in method, such as a smart lock, keypad, or lockbox, and that they will not see the detailed check-in instructions until 48 hours before check-in. That is the copy that can name the code for this stay. The house manual is one text for the listing, not a code made for one reservation. What info is shared when a booking is confirmed says confirmed guests can open the arrival guide, including the house manual, as soon as the reservation is confirmed. That is earlier than the detailed check-in instructions. A rotating code in the manual is the same text for every confirmed guest until you edit it. A number printed in a book that you do not swap every turnover will be wrong after you change it, and anyone who later opens the book can read the old one. How to write Airbnb check-in and checkout instructions covers that 48-hour timing, and the different schedule when a smart lock is connected to Airbnb. Leave the current code off the paper. The backup, if you have one, belongs in the instructions for this stay as well.

The Wi-Fi password is a different kind of secret. Getting started says to include it in the check-in instructions when you offer Wi-Fi. It changes less often than a door code. The house manual is limited to confirmed guests, so the same password can live there. The printed card is the in-home copy. Put the book and the card inside the home, out of a listing photo, and out of sight of the street or a shared hall. Anyone who can see the card can join the network. The Wi-Fi card generator prints the network name, the password or a line that there is no password, an optional welcome line of at most 80 characters, and a QR code. The code contains the password as readable text. The Wi-Fi QR generator makes the same code as a PNG. Neither tool stores the network name or the password, and neither one drafts the welcome line. If you also type the password in the book, change the book when you change the card and the check-in instructions. A guest with three different passwords has no way to know which network is the right one.

Do not put that password in the guidebook. The guidebook is public.

The other sheets

The welcome book generator prints that paper copy in the browser, on US Letter or A4, with as many pages as the sections need. The property name is required and holds at most 64 characters. The sections are a welcome note, arrival, Wi-Fi, parking, house rules, appliances, the kitchen, trash and recycling, local notes, emergency contacts, checkout, and other notes. Each section starts turned on and empty. Turn one off, or leave it blank, and it stays out of the book. Arrival can include an address, check-in and check-out times, and check-in steps you type. Leave a door code you change between stays out of those steps. Wi-Fi is optional. A blank network name leaves it out. The QR code, when you include it, uses the same connection text as the Wi-Fi card, and the code contains the password as readable text. Local notes and the emergency number are only what you type. The page does not suggest a place, and it does not fill in an emergency number. Nothing you type is sent to bnbutils or to Airbnb. Printing the book does not save the house manual.

The book should point at the one-page sheets, not replace them. Each sheet is words you type. None of them updates the listing, and none of them is legal, safety, or medical advice.

The house rules generator prints one page. The property name is required and holds at most 64 characters. Check-in and checkout are optional, each at most 40 characters. Quiet hours are optional, and if you fill either time you fill both, each at most 40 characters. The sheet shows them as start – end. A guest limit, smoking, parties, pets, a parking note, a trash note, and extra lines are optional. Six example lines start turned off. The sheet includes one only after you turn it on, and you can edit it, up to 100 characters. A property name alone is not enough to print. The hours and the other lines you print have to be the ones already on the listing. How to set quiet hours and a noise policy for your Airbnb is the page for those hours.

The quiet hours sign generator prints the start and the end in large type on their own page. Both are required, and each field holds at most 40 characters. A property name, a short message, an occupancy number, a note for questions, extra lines, and the example lines are optional. The example lines start turned off. The sign says the words are yours. It does not claim the hours meet a noise ordinance.

The emergency card generator prints the address and the emergency number you type. Both are required. The number field starts empty. This site does not insert 911, 112, 999, or any other number. A hospital, your contact, the extinguisher, the first aid kit, the shutoffs, the exits, and a note are optional, and a blank line is left off the card. What emergency information to give Airbnb guests walks through those lines. The book should say where the card is. It should not copy a second phone number that the card does not have.

The New Airbnb host checklist is the wider list for the first stay, including alarms and the listing’s safety section. The book does not complete that list.

Sizes for those sheets are US Letter, 8.5 by 11 inches, and A4, 210 by 297 millimeters, except the Wi-Fi card, which is a table tent, a half-page sign, or an A5 sign. Each preview is built in the browser. Nothing you type is sent to bnbutils or to Airbnb. For a PDF, open Print and choose Save as PDF. Set margins to none, scale to 100 percent, and turn headers and footers off.

Help center pages checked on 27 October 2026

• https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1255 for the house manual, who can open it, and the desktop steps.
• https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/249 for guidebooks, including that they are public, and for Preview and print.
• https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/4116 for the house manual as an arrival-guide detail a confirmed guest can open.
• https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1189 for contact information, Wi-Fi, a neighborhood guide, and house rules in the check-in instructions.
• https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/472 for house rules, requests, and where a rule has to be saved.
• https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/4168 for the house-rules policy on reservations booked on or after November 20, 2026, including signs and cleaner chores.
• https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2904 for keeping lockboxes and codes secure, and for changing codes between reservations.
• https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2895 for access at check-in, including an updated keycode.
• https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1926 for detailed check-in instructions at 48 hours before check-in.