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Airbnb house manual template (free, copy and paste)

Updated 2026-08-25

Below is a house manual template you can paste into a note, a PDF, or a message. It has two parts: nine facts guests look up in their first ten minutes (door code, Wi-Fi, check-in and check-out times, address, parking, house rules, check-out tasks, contact, and one notice line), and seven sections for anything that needs more than a line. Fill in the brackets, delete what doesn't apply, and keep every entry as short as it can be while still answering the question.

A printed house manual open on a kitchen counter

Why is the template split in two?

Most of what a guest wants from a house manual is a value, not a paragraph: a four-digit code, a password, a time. They are usually reading it on a phone, standing at the door, with luggage. A manual that opens with a welcome message and the story of the neighbourhood makes them scroll past all of it to find the one number they need. So the template puts the values first, in a block that fits on one screen, and moves everything else below.

The second part exists because some things genuinely take more than a line. How the boiler works, what to do with the recycling on a Tuesday, what the extra-guest fee is and when it applies. Those go into seven sections with fixed headings. The headings are the same for every property, which is the point: a guest who has stayed in one place using this layout knows where to look in the next one.

What hosts report

The pattern above is not a theory. It is what hosts describe when they compare notes on Airbnb's own community forum.

A host in the Ask about your listing board (2020) opened a thread called "Guests Never Find Wifi Password": "I'm not sure if it's just my luck but 90% of my guests always ask for the WiFi password." The first reply, from another host: "We have the wifi details in the reservation on the website and app, in the printed guidebook, in the notebook in the hall and also on the front of the fridge... yet we still get the occasional message asking what is the wifi password."

In a longer thread on guests who don't read instructions, one host explained why: "90% of guests don't expand [the listing description and house rules] and have no clue what is written there. Even when I tell them to read house rules they say they did... yes, but just the top, generic part, nothing else. I know bc at the end of my house rules I have a code and nobody mention it." Another, writing as a guest this time, described a week in a house with "a large binder of rules and information. I could not digest, let alone, remember ALL the rules and I had to constantly reference the binder."

Airbnb's own hosting guide draws the same conclusion in two of its three highlights: "Keep it short and easy to understand" and "Include the wifi password first." A host quoted there says why: "They all want the wifi code, so that is my trick for having them open the house manual and hopefully read it."

Read together: guests read the top, they read for a value, and they stop. The template is built for that reader.

The template

Copy everything between the lines. Square brackets are the parts you replace.

=====================================================
[PROPERTY NAME] — House manual
=====================================================

THE ESSENTIALS

Notice          [One line. Only if there is something guests must know
                 today — e.g. "Water off 10:00–12:00 on Tuesday". Otherwise delete.]
Door code       [Building entrance: 1234*  ·  Unit door: 5678*]
                [When it applies: e.g. "Front door locks after 22:00 — use the code."]
Wi-Fi           Network: [NAME]      Password: [PASSWORD]
Check-in        from [15:00]     Check-out   by [11:00]
Address         [Street address as a taxi driver would need it]
                [Original-language line if the country's script differs from English]
Parking         [Where, how many cars, cost, and what to do if the space is taken]
House rules     [Three lines at most. No smoking indoors. Quiet after 22:00. Max 4 guests.]
Check-out       [Three lines at most. Strip the beds. Bag the trash. Leave the key on the table.]
Contact         [Number or app]   [When to use it: "Text first — I answer within 30 min, 08:00–23:00."]

-----------------------------------------------------

1. CHECK-IN GUIDE
   [How to get from the street to the door: which entrance, which floor,
    where the lift is, what to do with luggage before check-in time.]

2. FACILITY USAGE
   [One short block per appliance that needs it: heating, air conditioning,
    hot water, washer, hob, TV. Include the button sequence, not a description.]

3. HOUSE RULES
   [Only the rules that need explaining. Smoking, noise, pets, visitors,
    shoes indoors. If a rule has a fee, say so and repeat it under 4.]

4. EXTRA FEES
   [Deposit, extra guest fee, early check-in / late check-out fee, cleaning
    or damage charges. Amount, when it applies, how it is collected.]

5. TRASH DISPOSAL
   [Where the bins are, what is separated, which day. If your city sells
    designated bags, say where to buy them and which size.]

6. CHECK-OUT GUIDE
   [The full version of the check-out line above, plus where to leave the key,
    what to switch off, and what happens if they leave late.]

7. ETC
   [Anything that didn't fit. Emergency numbers, nearest pharmacy, how to
    reach the host if the number above doesn't answer.]
=====================================================

What goes where

The line between "essentials" and "sections" is length. If the answer fits on one line, it is a value and it goes at the top. If it takes a paragraph, it is a section.

Guests ask Put it in Example
"What's the Wi-Fi?" Essentials → Wi-Fi Network: Apt301 Password: seaview2026
"What's the door code?" Essentials → Door code 1204* and when the door locks
"How do I get in from the street?" Section 1 (Check-in guide) Which entrance, floor, lift, luggage
"How does the heating work?" Section 2 (Facility usage) Button sequence for the boiler panel
"Can I smoke on the balcony?" Essentials → House rules, detail in Section 3 No smoking indoors or on the balcony
"Is there a fee for a third guest?" Section 4 (Extra fees) Amount, when, how collected
"Where does the recycling go?" Section 5 (Trash disposal) Location, separation, collection day
"What do I do before I leave?" Essentials → Check-out, detail in Section 6 Three lines up top, full list below
"Who do I call at midnight?" Essentials → Contact Number and the hours you actually answer

What to leave out

  • A welcome message longer than one line. Guests skip it to find the code. If you want to write one, put it in the booking message, not the manual.
  • Neighbourhood recommendations. They belong in a separate guide (restaurants and cafés change; the door code doesn't). Mixing them in makes the manual long, and long manuals don't get read.
  • Anything you would be embarrassed to see quoted in a review. Rules written in capitals, threats about deposits, "we will know". State the rule and the fee once, in plain words.
  • Photos of everything. One photo of the boiler panel helps. Twelve photos of the apartment do not — the guest is already in it.

Where should you keep the house manual?

Any of these works. The trade-offs are about how guests reach it and how easy it is to update.

Format Guest reaches it by Updating Weak point
Airbnb's "house manual" field Airbnb app, after booking Edit in the listing Only Airbnb guests see it; long text is hard to scan in the app
PDF sent by message Attachment or link Re-export and re-send Old versions keep circulating; not searchable on a phone
Printed page or binder in the room On the table Reprint Guests read it only after arriving; the door code can't be in it
Web page with a QR code Scan the QR on the door or table, or open the link from the booking message Edit once, every copy is current Needs a signal at the door (print the essentials on the QR card as a fallback)

What hosts do to get it read, from the same forum: send a short message two days before arrival with the answers guests ask for most ("where to park, the wifi code, key lockbox code/location"), and a check-in message on the first morning that points back to the manual. The host who described that routine put the result plainly: "I would say 99% of my guests don't ever ask more questions." Another keeps "a binder on the kitchen table" with everything in it and sends nothing ahead. A third answers every "what do we do to check in?" with "Please read the house manual." All three work with the layout above, because the answers guests need first are on one screen, and the rest is where the headings say it is.

One line at the end

If you already have this written somewhere — a note, a message you copy to every guest, an A4 by the door — you can paste it into Sonnim and get the same layout as a page with a QR code, in your guests' languages.

Starting from a blank page? The free house rules generator turns twelve switches and a few details into rules guests actually follow, translated into five languages, ready to copy into Airbnb or print on A4.

Sources