Nobody reads the 30-page PDF. The fridge-magnet guide gets glanced at by 20% of guests. Yet almost every host prepares some form of "house manual" and then wonders why the same questions keep coming. Here's how to write one guests actually open.
First mistake: too much stuff
A good house manual doesn't explain "the entire property". It explains only the 15-20 things needed in the first 24 hours. Add the building's history, the rooms photos, the 8-page condo regulations, and the guest closes and never returns.
Rule: max 5 A5 pages. Everything else goes in links to the website or the bot.
The structure that works
Page 1 — Welcome + Wi-Fi
- 3 lines of welcome with the guest's name
- Wi-Fi name + password in big print
- Wi-Fi QR code (auto-connect)
Page 2 — Your room
- How to turn on the AC
- How to adjust heating
- How to use the coffee machine
- What NOT to do (e.g. "don't open windows with heating on")
Page 3 — Property services
- Breakfast hours + where
- Check-out time
- Parking (map or photo)
- Laundromat / supermarket nearby
Page 4 — The neighborhood
- 3 restaurant recommendations with cuisine + avg price
- Bar for breakfast/aperitif
- Essential public transport
- One "secret recommendation" (what the host would do on a weekend)
Page 5 — Emergencies + Contacts
- Phone to call (you or front desk)
- QR for AI chat / WhatsApp
- Local emergency numbers
Format: digital or paper?
Paper as a laminated A5 booklet: 30% of guests open it. Looks nice, expensive to update.
Digital via QR code in the room: 70% of guests look at it. Free updates. Major win: the QR can open an AI chat instead of a PDF, and guests ask exactly what they want without scrolling 5 pages.
The evolution: from PDF to chat
The real quality jump isn't improving the PDF. It's replacing it with a conversational chat. Guest scans QR, asks the exact question they care about, gets an answer in 5 seconds in their language. No browsing, no PDFs.
Tools like StayHelp turn your house manual into an AI chat. You enter your property info once, it replies to all guests in any language.
What to never include
- House history more than 3 lines (no one cares at check-in)
- Full condo regulations (just flag the 3 key points)
- Photos of the property (the guest is already inside)
- Partner ads (looks like spam)
- Review requests before stay end (awkward)
"I tossed the printed booklet that cost 80€/year. Replaced it with an A5 card with a QR opening the AI chat. Same info, 80% of guests use it, and updating the breakfast price takes 30 seconds instead of reprinting 12 booklets." — Lorenzo, 6-room B&B in Verona