As an Airbnb host, providing a warm and welcoming environment for your guests is essential to creating a memorable stay. One effective way to achieve this is by crafting a well-organized and informative digital Airbnb welcome book. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the steps of writing the perfect guest welcome book and how a Touch Stay digital guest welcome book can help you create a remarkable guest experience.
Making a Lasting Impression
When it comes to providing a seamless experience for your Airbnb guests, a Touch Stay digital guest welcome book offers an intuitive, personalized solution. Touch Stay allows hosts to create a digital guestbook that not only offers a warm, personalized welcome to your guests, but also showcases everything your property and local area has to offer.
By using Touch Stay as your Airbnb welcome book, you can effortlessly provide key information, free up your precious time, and enhance your guests’ overall experience.
Another way to make a lasting impression is to provide an Airbnb welcome basket upon guests arrival!
Structuring Your Airbnb Welcome Book
Touch Stay’s structured, intuitive layout allows hosts to organize information under relevant sections to ensure guests can quickly navigate to the right section in their digital welcome book to find information and answers to any specific questions they may have – without having to repeatedly reach out to the host.
Touch Stay offers a huge range of welcome book templates to get you started, depending on what type of property you have – from traditional B&Bs and boutique hotels, to campsites and RV hire. Each template offers handy sections that hosts can quickly populate with info specific to their property.
Before Your Guests Leave Home
Your digital Airbnb welcome book can be shared with guests well before their arrival, giving them everything they need to know before their departure and time to think about their stay. In this section, hosts can add subcategories to their digital guidebook, such as:
Directions
However your guests are traveling, Touch Stay integrates seamlessly with Google Maps, allowing hosts to provide detailed directions to their property, including landmarks, public transport options or driving instructions, and enabling guests to navigate with ease.
Saving The Guidebook
This one’s important! A Touch Stay digital guidebook can be saved to a guest’s phone home screen, appearing and functioning just like an app. Even better, nothing needs to be downloaded and it even works offline, so your guests have all the necessary info at their fingertips throughout their stay.
Local Weather & Tide Times
Touch Stay digital guest welcome books include a handy built-in Weather Widget to provide weather updates and forecasts in real-time, helping your guests plan their activities accordingly. If your short term rental property is near the sea, your guests may have activities planned in or around the beach, so adding Touch Stay’s Tide Times widget lets guests check what the tide will be doing locally at any given point of their stay.
Contact Details
Supply your contact information, including any phone numbers and email addresses to let guests easily reach out for assistance if needed.
Airbnb Welcome Book Essentials
Touch Stay lets hosts populate their digital guest welcome book with all the information guests may need for their stay, saving time for both parties. Some essential sections to include:
Welcome
This is where you can provide a warm welcome by introducing yourself, sharing your ethos, providing a brief history of the property, and explaining what kind of information your guests can find in the digital guidebook.
Check-in/out Instructions
Here you can provide clear and detailed check-in instructions or procedures, including key pick-up procedures, access codes, or any other specific requirements for an effortless check-in experience. If a guest needs to check-in after hours, make sure they have instructions for finding their way in the dark!
All necessary check-out information can also be included, along with reminders for guests to close/lock doors and windows, to put any moved furniture back where they found it, or where to leave keys upon departure.
House Rules & Safety Info
In this section hosts can provide guests with detailed information on house rules to observe during their stay, including things like the property’s smoking policy, whether you allow pets and visitors, and what happens if anything gets broken.
Hosts can also explain where the property’s fire exits, fire extinguishers and flashlights are located, where guests can find the nearest hospital and/or police station, plus any emergency phone numbers.
WiFi Password
Everyone likes staying connected to the internet, especially if your property is located somewhere with little or no phone reception. Your WiFi password can be prominently displayed here, letting guests easily connect to the internet without having to root around in a printed folder.
Appliance Instructions
Hosts can provide clear, simple instructions for operating each appliance available in the property. You have the option to embed videos, include labeled photos, write out instructions, or simply include a link to the online PDF instructions from the manufacturer.
Local Amenities
This is where you really get to sprinkle your own personal touch on your Airbnb welcome book! Hosts can fully customize their guidebook and integrate it seamlessly with Google Maps to highlight popular points of interest, nearby attractions, local shops, beaches, activities, plus add personal recommendations (or places to avoid!) for local restaurants and bars for guests to make the most of their stay.
You can even include special discounts or offers from local businesses. By offering tailored suggestions, you can enhance your guests’ experience and support local businesses simultaneously.
Check out Paradise in Hawaii’s fantastic example of how much detailed local information (plus images, embedded videos and weblinks) can be added over time to your own Touch Stay digital guest welcome book…
Update & Share Info in Real-Time
Whether you need to make changes to your guidebook or include the latest recommendations, a Touch Stay digital guest welcome book offers the ability to update and share information in real-time. This is a great way to ensure your guests have access to the most up-to-date information throughout their stay.
This is one feature that a hard copy of an Airbnb House Manual cannot do! Having both will benefit you as the host and guests to stay up to date on pertinent house information.
Handy Features
Touch Stay has a range of other handy features, such as Memo, which allows hosts to automate guest communication and send messages for free via text or email (or both) at set times during your guests’ stay.
Another great feature is First Impressions, which can be added anywhere in your digital guest welcome book, and lets hosts collect data about specific aspects of the guest experience and act fast to rectify any issues.
TIP: Find short term rental sales when furnishing your short term rental or refreshing a space.
We know exactly how valuable great reviews are to your Airbnb business, so Touch Stay’s Ratings feature provides a simple way to continue collecting top reviews! The simple star rating format is easy and familiar for guests, and is effortless for hosts!
Turn Frequently Asked Questions into Rarely Asked Questions
Say goodbye to outdated printed booklets by transitioning your Airbnb welcome book to an interactive and user-friendly digital format like Touch Stay. A digital guest welcome book lets you streamline guest communication and provide prompt assistance when needed. This helps create a sense of trust and reliability, and leading to a more positive guest experience.
Creating the perfect Airbnb welcome book is a vital step in ensuring an exceptional guest experience. Adding a personalized touch and the ability to provide feedback at every stage of the stay demonstrates your commitment to providing a unique and memorable experience for each guest. And guests who leave happy are more likely to leave even better reviews, book another stay, and recommend your property to others.
By using Touch Stay as your digital guest welcome book, you can elevate your hosting game and provide a seamless, personalized stay for your guests. Try Touch Stay free for 14 days here.
Thank you to Touch Stay for contributing this article!
Hey, I’m Melissa… As an Airbnb Superhost and someone who is passionate about investing in real estate, I created Beach Life Bliss to share my experiences and help short term rental operators. I have been a landlord for over 10 years and started my first Airbnb property in 2019.
Creating a space with amenities that guests love, beautifully designed rooms, and providing exceptional hospitality will make your Airbnb business thrive.
I hope that all of my Airbnb hosting resources are helpful as you navigate the challenges and rewards of being an Airbnb host!