General house rules sheet

When to use

Use this sheet inside the home, where a guest will see it on the first evening: the fridge, the back of the entry door, or the first page of a booklet. It is a reminder of {checkin_time}, {checkout_time}, {quiet_hours}, {guest_count}, and the four policy lines. It is not the place you invent a rule that was missing from the listing when they booked. If {smoking_rule} on the paper is stricter than {smoking_rule} on the listing, change the paper or change the listing before the next stay, and do not surprise the current guest.

{property_name} belongs at the top so a cleaner who services two homes does not hang the apartment sheet in the cottage. Tick a box when that line is true for this property. Cross the line out, in ink, when it does not apply. An unticked “pets” line that contradicts a pet-friendly listing is worse than no sheet.

The house rules generator prints a tighter sign from fields you type in the browser. Nothing you type there is uploaded. Use that tool when you want the designed sheet. Use this page when you want a text you can edit line by line and reprint anywhere. The words should still match.

Timing tip

Print it before the first stay, and reprint it when you change {quiet_hours} or {guest_count} on the listing. A stack of old copies in a drawer will migrate back onto the fridge. Date the bottom in pencil if you go through drafts, and throw out the draft that lost.

Replace a stained or marked-up copy at turnover when a guest has written on it. Their notes are not your rules. {trash_spot} in particular goes stale when the city moves a bin day or a dumpster code changes. Walk to {trash_spot} once a season and confirm the sentence.

Do not hand the sheet over in the thread as a PDF full of new conditions after booking. The message templates can point at rules that are already published. This paper lives in the home for people who are already there.

Common mistakes

Writing rules you do not mean to enforce is the first one. If you will not speak to a guest about shoes, do not put shoes on the sheet. {party_rule} should be a sentence you would say out loud at 11pm. Vague lines (“be respectful”) do not help, and they start arguments about tone. The checkboxes are for concrete limits.

The second is crowding the page until it stops being one page. This sheet is the short list. Pool rules, the grill, and a long pet addendum are other pages if you need them later. If you cannot tick the lines without shrinking the type to fine print, you have too many lines. Move the extra detail to the guidebook and leave the door-level rules here.

The third is a legal tone. This is not a lease, and it is not legal advice. It does not create a fine. If your city requires a registration number or a posted occupancy limit, put the fact your local process told you to post, in the words they gave you, and do not treat this template as that compliance step. {guest_count} should match the listing and, if you have a separate legal maximum, it should not exceed what you are actually allowed to host.

How a guest should read it

They should be able to finish it while the kettle boils. {parking_spot} and {trash_spot} are the lines people get wrong, so they sit in the second group where the eye lands before checkout. If your trash line needs a diagram, use the trash sign and keep this line to a place name.

Read the finished sheet against the live listing once, out loud. Every ticked box should be a sentence you can find, in substance, where the guest already agreed to stay.