May 22, 2026
Airbnb House Manual Template: A Free Structure That Works on Any Phone
Airbnb calls it the "House Manual." Hosts call it the welcome book, the guest guide, the info pack. Whatever you call it, the goal is the same: the guest opens it once when they arrive, and never messages you about WiFi.
The official Airbnb House Manual field lives in your listing dashboard under "Arrival Guide." It is a single block of text. Two paragraphs in, guests stop reading. That is not a content problem. It is a format problem.
This post gives you a free template you can copy today, and a way to share it that works on any phone without a PDF, Word doc, or printed binder.
The free Airbnb house manual template
Copy this. Edit the parts in brackets. Paste it into Airbnb's House Manual field or your guest guide of choice.
WELCOME TO [PROPERTY NAME]
CHECK-IN
- Time: After 3pm
- Address: [Full address with apartment / floor]
- Lockbox location: [Front door / Side gate / etc.]
- Code: [4-digit code]
WIFI
- Network: [Network name]
- Password: [Password]
THE BASICS
- Thermostat is in the [room]. Set between 68 and 75 in summer.
- The dishwasher pods are under the sink.
- Coffee, tea, salt, pepper, oil. Anything else is yours.
- Trash day: [Day]. Bins live [where].
HOUSE RULES
- Quiet hours: 10pm to 8am
- No smoking anywhere on the property
- Please remove shoes inside
LOCAL FAVORITES
- Coffee: [Place]
- Dinner: [Place]
- Walk: [Place]
GETTING OUT
- Check-out by 11am
- Leave keys in the lockbox
- Trash and recycling go [where]
QUESTIONS
- Text me at [Number]
- I usually answer within an hour during the day
That is the entire template. Eight sections. About 150 words once filled in. Anything longer does not get read.
Why most house manuals fail
Most house manuals fail for one of three reasons:
- Buried in a wall of text. Airbnb's House Manual field is one big block. The WiFi password sits in paragraph 4. Guests give up at paragraph 2.
- Distributed as a PDF. PDFs open in a separate app on phones. They open blurry. They do not search. Guests close them within 10 seconds.
- Printed in a binder. Works until the guest is on the couch and the binder is in the kitchen.
The fix is the same in all three cases: share the manual as a simple link that opens in any browser, fits a phone screen, and shows the WiFi password before anything else.
What goes where
Some content goes in your Airbnb listing. Some goes in the manual. They are not the same.
| Field | Where it belongs |
|---|---|
| Listing description | Listing |
| Photos and price | Listing |
| Check-in instructions | House Manual |
| WiFi network and password | House Manual |
| Door code and lockbox photo | House Manual |
| House rules | Both (Airbnb requires it on the listing too) |
| Local recommendations | Manual, kept short |
| Your origin story | Listing only |
If you put a 2,000-word manual in your listing description, it never gets to the right guest at the right time. Save the listing for selling the stay. Save the manual for delivering it.
A better way to share it
We built Guest Guide because the Airbnb House Manual field, the PDF welcome book, and the printed binder all break in different ways on a phone. With Guest Guide you fill in the template above once, get one shareable link, and paste that link into your Airbnb booking confirmation message. The guest opens it on their phone the moment they need it.
You can also keep using Airbnb's official House Manual field for backup. They are not mutually exclusive.
If you want to see what the experience looks like for a guest, try the demo. It opens on a phone the same way a guest would see it.
Related reading
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