← Guide list

Airbnb check-in instructions: examples that guests actually read

Updated 2026-08-25

Check-in instructions get read when they are short, ordered the way the guest moves (street, building, door, inside), and carry one number per line with the code on its own line. Airbnb only shows detailed check-in instructions to guests 48 hours before arrival, so most hosts also send them once more, by message, the day before. Below are three examples you can copy, the five rules they follow, and the ways instructions break.

An apartment entrance with a keypad beside the glass door

Why do guests message you anyway?

The instructions are usually there. The guest hasn't seen them.

On Airbnb's community forum, a host described a guest who "asked for directions when on her way to our place last minute... it's clearly stated in her itinerary, which she obviously never looked at, or found, or opened, she didn't know the code to open the key safe (also in her itinerary)". Another host in the same thread put a number on it: "90% of guests don't expand [the description and house rules] and have no clue what is written there."

Part of that is timing. Airbnb's help centre states that guests "won't see the detailed check-in instructions until 48 hours before check-in." A guest who booked three months ago and re-read everything then did not see them. A guest who lands at 11pm and opens the app for the first time in the taxi is scrolling for a code, not reading.

Part of it is what the instructions say. In another thread, a host who had switched from a fixed lockbox code to a per-guest code in 2018 found in 2021 that a guest "got the new check-in instructions AND the old ones with her Airbnb app on her smartphone. She tried the old, fixed code, which did not work." The old text was hiding behind a photo caption in the app's editor. A reply from another host: "yes, this has happened to me also. updated our door code for the season and guests are still getting the old code."

So the instructions that work are written for a guest who is outside, tired, on a phone, and possibly looking at a stale copy.

Five rules the examples follow

  1. Order by movement. Street → building entrance → your door → first thing inside. The guest reads the next line when they reach the next place.
  2. One number per line. A code, a floor, a time. Never two codes in one sentence.
  3. The code on its own line, and sent the day before. A host in this thread changes the keypad code between stays and sends it "by message, about 24 hours before check in". Early enough to be found, late enough not to be forgotten.
  4. One photo per decision point. The lockbox on the wall, the keypad, the door among identical doors. Not the living room. If a guest could stand in front of it and hesitate, photograph it.
  5. The last line is what to do if it fails. Number, hours, and where the backup key is if you keep one. Airbnb's own smart-lock guidance describes backup entry instructions for exactly this case.

Three examples

Copy the one that matches your place. Replace the brackets.

A. Lockbox at the street door

CHECK-IN — from 15:00

1. [Street name 12]. Blue door, left of the bakery. (photo)
2. Lockbox: on the wall to the left of the door, at knee height. (photo)
3. Lockbox code: [4 digits] — press the digits, then pull the black lever down.
4. Take the key. Close the lockbox and scramble the dials.
5. Your door is 2nd floor, first on the right. Same key.
6. Inside: light switch is on your left. Wi-Fi is on the fridge.

If the lockbox won't open: text [+00 000 000 000], I answer 08:00–23:00.
Spare key: with the bakery downstairs until 20:00.

B. Keypad on the door, apartment building with a concierge

CHECK-IN — from 15:00

1. [Building name], [Street 45]. Say "Apartment 703" at the front desk if asked; they won't have a key.
2. Lifts are behind the desk. 7th floor.
3. Apartment 703 is the door facing the lift. (photo)
4. Keypad: touch the panel to wake it, enter [4 digits], press *.
5. Inside: shoes off at the entrance, slippers in the box. Wi-Fi is on the fridge.

If the code doesn't work: text [+00 000 000 000], I answer 08:00–23:00.
The desk cannot let you in.

C. Two codes: building entrance and unit door (common in apartment blocks in Korea, Japan and much of Asia)

CHECK-IN — from 15:00

1. [Building name] entrance B, [Street 8]. Under the sign that says B. (photo)
2. Building entrance code: [1234*] — press the digits, then the bell symbol.
   The door locks after 22:00; the same code works.
3. Lift to floor 12. Unit 1204 is the second door on the left. (photo)
4. Unit door code: [5678*] — the digits light up when you touch the panel.
5. Inside: pull the handle up to lock. Wi-Fi is on the fridge.

Two different codes: entrance [1234*], your door [5678*].
If either doesn't work: text [+00 000 000 000], I answer 08:00–23:00.

The two-code case is where most confusion happens, because a guest with one code will try it on both doors. Say "two different codes" out loud, once, at the bottom.

What to include, what to skip

Element Include Example Skip
Address Yes, as a taxi driver needs it, plus the original-language line if the script differs Mapo-daero 12, Mapo-gu + 마포대로 12 Directions from the airport (that's a map's job)
Landmark at the door Yes, one "Blue door, left of the bakery" A paragraph about the neighbourhood
Codes Yes, one per line, sent again the day before Lockbox code: 4821 Codes in a sentence with other numbers
Photos Yes, of the decision points Lockbox, keypad, your door among others Interior photos (they are already inside)
Check-in time Yes from 15:00 Rules about early arrival here (put them in the manual)
Fallback Yes, one line "If it won't open, text …, 08:00–23:00" "Contact me anytime" (they will, at 3am)
Welcome message One line at most "Welcome, hope the flight was easy." Three paragraphs before the address

How do check-in instructions break?

Each of these has come up on the host forum or in Airbnb's own guidance:

  • An old code that never left. The 2018→2021 case above. When you change a code, search every place it lives: the check-in instructions, photo captions, scheduled messages, the printed card by the door.
  • Code sent too early. A code sent at booking is a code sent to someone who will not open the app again until they are in the taxi. Send it the day before, and again on arrival day if you use scheduled messages.
  • The photo shows the wrong thing. A photo of the building from across the street is not a photo of the lockbox. Guests hesitate at hand height, not at 30 metres.
  • Instructions only inside Airbnb. Guests who booked through another channel, or who don't expand the app's sections, don't see them. The message copy is the one that gets read.
  • No fallback line. When the lockbox jams at 11pm, "contact host" is not an instruction. A number, hours, and a spare key location are.

One line at the end

If you'd rather paste your existing check-in text and get a page with a QR code out of it — in the guest's language, with the door codes on the first screen — that is what Sonnim does.

Want the three messages first? The free host message templates fill in booking confirmation, check-in and check-out messages from your property name and times, in five guest languages, no sign-up.

Sources