A welcome guide earns its place by answering the questions guests would otherwise message you at nine in the evening: how do I turn the heating on, where do the bins go, what is the WiFi password, what do I do if something goes wrong. The holiday let welcome guide checklist below lists what to cover, section by section, with the safety information guests must be able to find quickly. Below you'll find the checklist to copy or print, what to say about safety and a simple way to keep the guide short enough to be read.
What you get from the holiday let welcome guide checklist
- A guide that answers questions before guests ask them, so fewer messages reach your phone.
- The safety information in the right place, so guests can find it quickly if they ever need it.
- A calmer first evening for you and the guest, and a better chance of a good review.
The holiday let welcome guide checklist
- Address, parking and how to find the front door
- How to get in: key safe, keypad or smart lock instructions
- Check-in and checkout times
- Who to contact on arrival, with your mobile number
- WiFi network name and password
- Heating and hot water: how to turn on, boost and adjust
- Oven, hob, dishwasher and washing machine: anything that works differently from the usual
- TV and streaming: which remote does what
- Where the spare towels, bedding and cleaning supplies are kept
- Quiet hours and house rules, in plain wording
- Bins and recycling: which bin, which day, where to leave them
- Hot tub, garden or outdoor furniture: how to use it safely
- Nearest shop, pharmacy, takeaway and pub, with how far each is
- Local walks, places to visit and anything seasonal
- Fire action notice and escape route plan
- Where the smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are
- Fire extinguisher or blanket, if you provide them, and where they are
- Gas emergency number, and where the gas shut-off is
- Where the stopcock and fuse board are
- Emergency services number: 999
- Nearest hospital or urgent care
- Your emergency contact for problems in the property
- What to do with keys or the lock
- Anything you want switched off or closed
- What to do with rubbish, towels and the dishwasher
- How to tell you if something was damaged or broken
- A line asking for a review, if you want one
A filled-in example EXAMPLE ONLY
- Address, parking and how to find the front door
- How to get in: key safe, keypad or smart lock instructions
- Check-in and checkout times
- Who to contact on arrival, with your mobile number
- WiFi network name and password
- Heating and hot water: how to turn on, boost and adjust
- Oven, hob, dishwasher and washing machine: anything that works differently from the usual
- TV and streaming: which remote does what
- Where the spare towels, bedding and cleaning supplies are kept
- Quiet hours and house rules, in plain wording
- Fire action notice and escape route plan
- Where the smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are
- Gas emergency number, and where the gas shut-off is
- Where the stopcock and fuse board are
Once a section is ticked, it should read like this. This is the heating section from the example, written for a guest:
The heating comes on automatically at seven each morning and evening. To warm the house at another time, press the boost button on the hallway thermostat once; it runs for one hour. Please do not set the temperature above twenty-two degrees, as the boiler will not heat the water properly. If the radiators are cold, check that the boiler pressure gauge in the utility room is between one and two, and message us if it is not.
What to say about safety
Put the safety information near the front of the guide, not at the end. GOV.UK guidance for small paying guest accommodation in England says guests should be given a fire action notice and an escape plan, and that the escape routes should be in the guest information pack. That guidance covers England, so check what applies in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. Keep the wording plain: where the alarms are, what to do on hearing one, which way out and where to meet outside.
For gas, HSE lists National Grid's Gas Emergency Freephone number as 0800 111 999 for Great Britain, and nidirect lists 0800 002 001 for Northern Ireland. Include the one that applies to your property, and say where the gas shut-off is if the property has gas. If it does not, leave the line out. For fire and other life-threatening emergencies the number is 999.
Your own contact number belongs on this page too, with what you can help with and how fast you reply. Do not make the guest search for it. The renewal dates behind these safety items live in your holiday let compliance renewal tracker, and fire safety for holiday lets and the responsible person explains what the record should show.
Keeping the guide short enough to read
Most guests read a few lines, not a handbook. Put what everyone needs in the first screen: how to get in, the WiFi and who to call. Put the rest under clear headings so a guest can jump to the bins or the heating without scrolling through the walks. Cut anything the guest could work out unaided, and anything that only matters to you.
Test the guide by reading it as a stranger. Better still, ask a friend to find three things in it without help. The sections they cannot find quickly are the ones to rewrite. The full method is in how to write a holiday let welcome guide that guests read, and the free holiday let guest information checker shows what your guests currently see.
Print or digital
Keep a printed copy in the property in a clear folder, and send the digital version before arrival. The printed one is for the moment the phone has no signal or the battery is dead. The digital one lets you update a detail without reprinting. When you change a code, a password or a bin day, change both on the same day and note the date on the printed copy.
Mistakes that make the guide useless
The first is putting everything in one long block with no headings. The second is out-of-date details, which are worse than no details because guests trust them. The third is leaving out the safety information because it feels formal. The fourth is writing rules as a list of prohibitions, which sets a cold tone before the stay begins. State what you would like guests to do, and say why in one line.
Write your guide this week
Copy the checklist, work through the sections for your property and write each in two or three lines. Print one copy, send the digital version with your next arrival message and update it whenever something changes. The holiday let pre-arrival message checklist helps you make sure what you send around it is right.