WhatsApp Link Preview: How Your Guest Guide Link Shows Your Photo and Property Name

When you paste your guest guide link into WhatsApp, the chat shows a small card before the guest taps anything. That card is the WhatsApp link preview. Guest Guide now fills it with your own cover photo, your property name and your welcome message, so the guest can see which place the link is for before opening it.

Before this change, every guide link showed the same card: the Guest Guide logo, the title "Guest Guide" and the line "Everything you need for your stay, in one link." It was correct, but it looked the same for every property.

Here is how the preview is built, what to put in each field, and how to check it before you message a guest.

What a link preview is made of

WhatsApp, iMessage and most chat apps build a link preview by reading a few tags in the page's HTML. The tags come from the Open Graph protocol, and three of them do most of the work:

Tag	What the guest sees
og:title	The bold line at the top of the card
og:description	One or two lines of text under the title
og:image	The photo

According to Meta's WhatsApp link preview documentation, WhatsApp shows the title in bold on up to two lines, and the description on one or two lines. You don't have to edit any of these tags yourself. Guest Guide writes them for you from the fields in your guide.

Where Guest Guide gets each part of the preview

Part of the preview	Where it comes from in Guest Guide	If the field is empty
Title	Property Name (the guide title in the editor)	"Guest Guide"
Description	Welcome Message (the subtitle in the editor)	"Everything you need for your stay, in one link."
Photo	Property Image (the Cover Image in the editor)	The Guest Guide logo

Each field falls back on its own. A guide with a name and a photo but no welcome message still shows your photo and name, with the generic line underneath.

A live example: the guide at guestguide.cc/g/ad522k9c now shows up in chats as Tiny Studio BCN, with the host's photo and the first line of the welcome message, "Newly renovated mini studio in Badalona."

A few details about how this works:

• Both kinds of link get the same preview. Your permanent guide link and the time-limited links you create for each stay (how share links work) show the same photo, name and welcome message.
• The preview uses the published guide. If the guide is saved as a draft, the permanent link shows the generic preview. The editor doesn't save automatically, so click Publish Guide after changing the name, welcome message or cover photo (building your guide).
• Guide pages stay out of Google. The page is still marked noindex, so a nicer chat preview doesn't make your guide appear in search results.

Pick a cover photo that works as a WhatsApp link preview image

The photo takes up the most space in the card, and it's also the part most likely to go wrong.

Size and file weight

Meta's documentation asks for an image under 600 KB, at least 300 px wide, with an aspect ratio no wider than 4:1. If the image doesn't meet those requirements, WhatsApp may show a small preview instead of the large one, and Meta says that fallback isn't guaranteed. Apple's guide to rich previews in Messages suggests images at least 900 px wide and says images under 150 px may be ignored.

A photo that fits both:

• JPEG, landscape
• About 1200 px wide
• Under 600 KB

Guest Guide uploads your photo as you send it, without resizing or compressing it. A full-size photo straight from your phone can be well over 600 KB, so export a smaller copy with any photo editor before you upload it.

Leave text off the photo

Apple recommends avoiding text in preview images, because the card already has a title and description. A clean photo of the living room or the view reads better at chat size than a photo with your listing name typed over it.

Changing the photo later

Meta's sharing guide for webmasters explains that images are cached by URL and won't update unless the URL changes. Guest Guide gives every uploaded photo a new URL, so replacing the cover in the editor (Upload photo, then Publish Guide) creates a new image address instead of reusing the old one.

Write a name and welcome message that read well in a chat

The property name is the title

Meta's documentation says the title doesn't need branding, and Apple suggests leaving the site name out of the title. Guest Guide already adds "Guest Guide" as the site name separately, so the name field can be just the property: "Tiny Studio BCN" works better than "Guest Guide for Tiny Studio BCN | Airbnb".

If you're unsure what to call the place, use the name guests already know from your listing. Our listing description guide covers how to write the listing title and description.

Put the useful part of the welcome message first

WhatsApp shows only one or two lines of the description, and Meta says around 80 characters is enough. Your welcome message can be longer than that inside the guide, but the preview will only show the start. Lead with what helps the guest recognize the place, such as the type of stay and the area, and leave the rest for further down.

For ideas on tone, see our Airbnb welcome letter guide.

Keep private details out of the welcome message

The preview only uses three fields: the name, the welcome message and the cover photo. Door codes, the WiFi password and your address are not part of it, and on time-limited links the guide itself hides them outside the guest's stay window.

The welcome message, however, is shown to anyone who sees the link in a chat, including if a guest forwards it. Apple's guidance makes the same point for pages that need a login: the preview should be useful without revealing sensitive content. Write the door code and the exact address in their own sections, never in the welcome message.

How to check your WhatsApp link preview before guests see it

1. Publish your guide.
2. Copy your guide link, or create a share link for the stay.
3. Open any WhatsApp chat and paste the link into the message box. Don't send it yet.
4. Wait about 10 seconds. Meta's documentation says the preview should appear above the message box. If it doesn't, check that the guide is published and that each field has content. If you only get a small preview, check the photo's size and weight.
5. Delete the message, or send it if it's meant for a guest.

For Facebook, Meta's Sharing Debugger shows which title, description and image Meta reads from a link, and lets you ask it to read the page again.

WhatsApp link preview not showing? Common causes

What you see	Likely cause	What to do
No preview at all	Disable link previews is turned on in your WhatsApp privacy settings	Turn it off. WhatsApp's help page explains the setting. It's off by default and only affects links you send
Generic preview, or none, for your permanent link	The guide isn't published yet	Click Publish Guide in the editor
Small preview instead of a large photo	The photo is over 600 KB or has an unusual shape	Upload a landscape JPEG under 600 KB
Generic "Guest Guide" text or logo	One of the three fields is empty	Fill in the name, welcome message or cover photo, then publish
Old photo after a change	The change wasn't published.	Click Publish Guide and paste the link again. For Facebook, re-scrape the link in Meta's Sharing Debugger.

WhatsApp builds the preview itself, and Meta's documentation says it may relax its image requirements or fall back to a small preview, with no guarantee of the large one.

Where to use your guide link

The preview appears wherever you paste the link: in your booking confirmation message, a few days before check-in, and when guests ask for directions or the WiFi. Our Airbnb message templates and check-in instructions guide include ready-to-use messages with a spot for the link.

Set up Guest Guide

1. Sign up and create your property (creating a property).
2. In Step 1, add the Property Name, a Property Image under 600 KB and a short Welcome Message.
3. Publish the guide and paste the link into a WhatsApp chat to check the preview.
4. Create a share link for each stay (sharing with guests).

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FAQ

How do I show a preview of my guide link in WhatsApp? Publish the guide with a property name, a welcome message and a cover photo, then paste the link into a chat. WhatsApp builds the preview from those three fields. If no preview appears, check that Disable link previews is turned off in your WhatsApp privacy settings.

Why isn't WhatsApp showing a preview of my guide link? The most common reasons are the Disable link previews setting on the sender's phone, an unpublished guide, or a photo over 600 KB, which can produce a small preview instead of a large one.

Can I change the photo in the preview? Yes. Open your guide in the editor, use Upload photo in the cover image section, and click Publish Guide. Then paste the link into a chat again to check the new preview.

Does the preview show my door code or WiFi password? No. The preview only uses the property name, the welcome message and the cover photo. Keep codes and the full address out of the welcome message, since that text appears in the preview.

Do share links show the same preview as my permanent link? Yes. Both link types use the same name, welcome message and photo from your guide.

Related reading

• Airbnb Message Templates
• Airbnb Check-In Instructions
• Airbnb Welcome Letter
• How to Make a Digital Guidebook
• Sharing with guests (docs)

Sources

• Meta for Developers. Link Previews (WhatsApp)
• WhatsApp Help Center. How to disable link previews
• Apple Developer. TN3156: Create rich previews for Messages
• Meta for Developers. A Guide to Sharing for Webmasters
• The Open Graph protocol. ogp.me

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