Most Airbnb house manual samples you will find are a list of headings. The headings are the easy part. What makes a manual work is which section comes first, what goes in each one, and what you leave out. That changes with the property: an apartment guest's first problem is the lobby door, a cabin guest's is the last mile of road.
Below are four sample house manuals, each shown in a different format: a phone guidebook, a printed binder page, a one-page fridge sheet and a directions-first guide. The layouts follow the questions our guests ask most across the 200 short-term rentals we manage. The properties, names and codes are made up.
How to read these samples
Each example is marked Sample and paired with notes. Read the notes more than the text: the wording is specific to each made-up property, but the reasons carry over to yours. If you want the full text to edit, the welcome book template has every section with blanks to fill in.
Inner-city apartment
A one-bedroom on the seventh floor, with garage parking and a lobby fob. Shown as a phone guidebook, because that is where city guests read it: in the car, looking for the garage entrance.
Welcome, Dana. You're all set.
- The door code gets the biggest type. It is the one detail guests look for in a hurry, often with bags in hand. It sits above everything else.
- Parking comes before Wi-Fi. City guests arriving by car need the garage entrance first. A bay number saves a lap of the block.
- The lobby is spelled out. Apartment check-ins stall at the street door, not the unit door. Say where the fob is and which door it opens.
- The password is in a monospace font. So nobody types a capital O for a zero, or an l for a 1.
- Rubbish is answered before it is asked. Chutes and bin rooms are hard to find, and the question arrives on day two.
Beach house
A three-bedroom house a short walk from the sand, with a printed manual in a binder on the kitchen counter. Shown as a page from that binder, with margin notes.
Arriving
The driveway is shared with No. 14. Park on the left, nose in, so they can get out.
The key safe is on the post beside the side gate. Your code is in your check-in message.
Names the shared driveway, because neighbors complain about it before guests do. The code stays off the printed page: it changes for every guest.
Wi-Fi
Network: SaltwaterHouse
Password: driftwood-44
The router is in the hall closet, top shelf.
Second section, first page. It is what guests open the binder for.
The beach
Take the sand path at the end of the street, about a three-minute walk.
Swim near the lifeguard tower to the north. Beach towels are the striped ones in the laundry, not the white ones in the bathroom.
Answers the three things every beach guest asks: how far, where to swim, which towels.
Sand and the outdoor shower
Please rinse off at the outdoor shower by the side gate before coming in. Hot is the left tap.
One polite line that keeps sand out of the beds. Saying which tap is hot saves a cold surprise.
Checkout
By 10:00 am. Hang wet towels on the deck rail, start the dishwasher, then lock the sliding door: lift the handle up first, then turn the key.
The sliding door trick is written down because it is the step guests get wrong.
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Family home with a pool
A four-bedroom house with a fenced pool, booked mostly by families. Shown as a one-page sheet for the fridge door, next to a fuller manual. Parents read it once on arrival and again when a child asks to swim.
- Wi-Fi · MapleCourt
- blue-otter-73
- Check-in / checkout
- 4:00 pm / 10:00 am
- Your host, Priya
- (555) 014-2290
APool
- The pool gate closes and latches on its own. Never prop it open.
- Pool hours are 8:00 am to 8:00 pm.
- No glass in the pool area. Plastic cups are above the sink.
- Pool towels are in the gray chest by the back door.
BFor little ones
- Portable crib and high chair: hall closet.
- Stair gate: already fitted on the top landing.
- Outlet covers: top kitchen drawer.
CQuiet hours
9:00 pm to 7:00 am. The backyard carries sound, and the neighbors have young kids too.
DEmergencies
Call 911. Nearest emergency room: 12 minutes by car, address on the back of this sheet. First aid kit under the bathroom sink.
- APool rules lead, and the gate rule comes first. It is the one rule with a safety reason, so it is the first line on the page, in plain words.
- BKid gear says where, not just whether. "Crib available" starts a message. "Crib: hall closet" ends one.
- CQuiet hours give a reason. Rules with a reason get followed more willingly than rules without one.
- DEmergency details sit on the same sheet. A fridge sheet is the one page every adult in the house will see.
Rural cabin
A two-bedroom cabin at the end of a gravel road, with no phone signal for the last few miles. Here the manual is mostly directions, so the directions come first.
There is no phone signal for the last 6 miles. Save or screenshot this page before you leave town.
- Turn onto Ridge Road at the general store. Last fuel and groceries. Open until 7:00 pm.
- Cross the single-lane bridge after 4 miles. Your signal drops here.
- Pass the red mailbox, then take the second gravel track on the left. Map apps send you down the first one. That is a neighbor's driveway.
- Close the farm gate behind you. There are cattle in the next field.
- Park by the woodshed. The key is in the lockbox on the porch post. The code is in your check-in message.
Wood stove
1. Open the air vent fully. 2. Paper, then kindling, then two small logs. 3. Light the paper, leave the door ajar for five minutes, then close it.
Water
Rainwater tank, filtered at the kitchen tap. Fine to drink. Short showers, please.
Wildlife
Deer at dusk, the odd possum on the deck. Keep food inside and the screen door shut.
| Section | Why it works |
|---|---|
| Signal warning first | Once the phone cannot load the page, the guidebook cannot help. Telling guests to save it before they lose signal fixes that. |
| Landmarks over street numbers | Map apps can be wrong on the last mile of a rural road. A red mailbox is not. |
| The wrong turn is named | Saying where the map sends people, and why it is wrong, is the most useful line in a rural manual. |
| Numbered stove steps | A wood stove is unfamiliar to most guests. Steps in order are easier to follow at night than a paragraph. |
| Water and wildlife | Both are things guests worry about quietly. A line each settles it. |
What every house manual needs
Whatever the property, these are the sections an Airbnb house manual example should include, in the order guests reach for them.
- Address, plus a landmark for the last turn. Map apps get guests close. The landmark gets them to the door.
- Check-in time and how to get in, door by door. Street door, gate, lobby and unit, in the order guests reach them.
- Parking. Where, which bay, and any permit or gate code.
- Wi-Fi network and password. In a font where 0 and O look different.
- Who to call. Your number, a backup contact, the local emergency number and the nearest hospital.
- Heating, cooling and hot water. Where the controls are and anything that takes time to warm up.
- Appliances with quirks. The TV input, the coffee machine, the oven that runs hot.
- House rules. Quiet hours, guest limits, smoking and pets. Short.
- Rubbish and recycling. Which bin, where it lives, and collection day.
- Your local picks. Coffee, groceries, dinner and one thing worth doing.
- Checkout time and steps. Five steps or fewer.
Common mistakes
- Writing it in the order you think of things. The history of the house is a nice page. It is not page one. Start with getting in.
- Printing a code that changes. An old printed code sends guests to the wrong lockbox and you to the phone. Keep rotating codes out of print.
- Rules that read like a lease. Twenty rules in legal language get skipped, including the three that matter. Keep the ones you would actually enforce.
- A checkout list that feels like a shift. Asking guests to strip beds, vacuum and take out recycling sets up a bad review. Ask for what saves your cleaner real time.
- Leaving it out of date. A closed restaurant or an old Wi-Fi password costs you trust and a message. Update it the day something changes.
Build yours
Pick the sample closest to your property and borrow its order. Then fill in the details:
- The free house manual generator turns a short form into a printable manual in a couple of minutes.
- The Airbnb welcome book template gives you every section as copyable text, plus Word and PDF downloads.
Or skip the typing. The HostOwls digital guidebook builds each guest their own manual from your reservations, with their door code, Wi-Fi and check-in time filled in. Free for your first property, then A$1.90 to A$3.75 per property per month. See pricing.