TL;DR: A great welcome letter answers every question guests will have before they ask it. Make sure to include check-in instructions, Wi-Fi and access codes, house rules, emergency contacts, and 3–5 local recommendations. Send it 24 hours before arrival. Hosts who nail this format report cutting guest messages in half — and earning better reviews.
When you’re managing a single listing, you can handle the guest messages. Three listings, you’re copy-pasting the same check-in instructions all week. Five listings, something has to give.
Most guest questions stem from anxiety. “How do I get in?” “Where do I park?” “What’s the Wi-Fi password?” These messages flood your inbox because your pre-arrival communication left gaps. Every question a guest has to ask is a small friction point — and friction points become one-star deductions.
A well-structured welcome letter eliminates that friction before it starts. But it does something else too: it’s the first real touchpoint where guests experience your brand — not your listing photos, not your automated confirmation, you. The tone, the details you anticipate, the local insight you share. That’s what turns a smooth check-in into a memorable one.
Here’s how to build a welcome letter that handles both.
Start with what guests need first
Your welcome letter isn’t a greeting card. It’s an instruction manual with personality. Lead with logistics, not warmth.
The opening 50 words should cover:
- Property address (with a note if GPS is unreliable or the entrance is hard to spot)
- Check-in time
- Exactly how to get inside — door code, lockbox location, key handoff details, etc.
Everything else is secondary. Guests scrolling on their phones while circling the block need the door code immediately, not three paragraphs about how excited you are to host them (although one line is nice).
The six sections every welcome letter needs
1. Access and arrival
Door codes, gate codes, parking instructions, lockbox locations. If you use smart locks, confirm the code is specific to their reservation — and that it actually works. Include backup instructions: “If the code doesn’t work, call me at [number].”
Does your property have quirks? A tricky thermostat, a finicky deadbolt, a light switch that controls the wrong outlet? Mention them here. Every “how do I…” text you’ve received is a gap in your welcome letter.
2. Wi-Fi and connectivity
Network name and password, formatted so they can copy-paste on mobile. This is the first thing guests look for after they drop their bags.
3. House rules — the ones that matter
Skip the legal boilerplate. Highlight the three to five rules guests actually break: quiet hours, no smoking, pet policies, trash protocols, checkout procedures. Frame them as expectations, not threats.
If there are local rules guests wouldn’t expect — street parking restrictions, off-leash dog policies, noise ordinances — flag them here.
4. Emergency and contact info
Your phone number (and realistic response-time expectations), plus local emergency services and the nearest urgent care. Guests rarely need this — but when they do, they need it fast.
One detail most hosts miss: 911 isn’t universal. International guests may not know the local emergency number. Spell it out.
5. Local recommendations
Three to five spots: coffee, dinner, groceries, one thing that feels like a local secret. Specific beats generic. “Blue Bottle on Oak Street, five-minute walk” lands better than “lots of great restaurants nearby.”
If you know something about your guests, use it:
“If you’re looking for somewhere to celebrate Mary’s birthday, Brown’s Diner does a free meal for the birthday guest — cupcake and song included.”
“For a quiet anniversary evening: Lake Tahoe is five minutes away, and the sunsets are unreal.”
This is where your personality shows.
6. Checkout instructions
Strip the beds or don’t? Load the dishwasher? Where do towels go? Gather trash by the door or leave it?
Clear expectations mean guests don’t stress their last morning — or leave the place trashed because they assumed cleaning was handled.
Personalization without the effort
You don’t need to write a custom letter for every guest. You need a solid template with slots for the personal details.
Sometimes you only have a name:
“Hi, Bob and Sue! We hope you find our city a great place for whatever kind of trip you need — fun, relaxation, or just a reset.”
Sometimes the booking gives you more to work with:
“Hi, Smith family! We hear Mary’s celebrating a birthday this week — hope the trip makes it a memorable one.”
“Congratulations on 25 years, Chris and Tina!”
Small touches. Big signal that you’re paying attention.
Timing and delivery
Send your welcome letter 24 hours before check-in. Earlier than that, guests forget the details. Later than that, they’ve already started texting you questions. For same-day bookings, send immediately.
You can also leave a printed copy in the property — some guests prefer paper, and it’s there if they lose the email. Do both if you want to be thorough.
For hosts managing five or more listings, manually sending welcome letters doesn’t scale. Scheduled messaging templates let you write once and automate delivery, pulling in reservation-specific details like guest name, check-in date, and property-specific access codes without copy-paste errors.
Pro tip: If you’re a Guesty user, set your welcome letter workflow to trigger 24 hours before check-in, with a condition to send immediately for same-day bookings. The message queue shows you exactly what’s scheduled for each reservation — pause or edit before it sends if something changes.
What separates good welcome letters from forgettable ones
Specificity. Generic templates feel like form letters. Templates with the guest’s name, their check-in date, and property-specific details feel personal — because you wrote them that way once, and now they send automatically.
Write like you’re texting a friend who’s staying at your place. Short paragraphs. One piece of information per section. No corporate pleasantries.
And if guests keep asking about the same thing — parking, check-in, the thermostat — your welcome letter isn’t doing its job yet.
How to automate your welcome letters (without sounding like a robot)
Writing a great welcome letter once is the easy part. Sending it to every guest, customized for each property, timed perfectly — that’s where most hosts break down.
Automation solves this, but only if you set it up right. Guesty’s messaging workflows let you build once and send forever — with enough flexibility that “automated” never means “generic.”
The core workflow
Build a welcome letter template for each property. Not one generic template you customize — a dedicated message with that property’s specific quirks baked in. Then set your trigger: send 24 hours before check-in. The message goes out automatically for every reservation, pulling in the guest’s name, check-in date, and any property-specific access codes through dynamic fields.
You write once. Every guest gets a message that feels personal.
What to automate beyond the welcome letter
Most property managers start with three messages and expand from there:
Booking confirmation handles the immediate anxiety guests feel after clicking “reserve.” Send it at confirmation with a thank-you, your contact info, and a note about when they’ll receive check-in details.
Pre-arrival instructions — your welcome letter — go out 24 hours before check-in. This is the heavy lifter that cuts your inbox volume.
Checkout and review request goes out the morning of departure. A simple “thanks for staying, we’d love your feedback” while the experience is fresh lifts review rates noticeably.
From there, add messages based on where guests still ask questions. Mid-stay check-ins for longer bookings. Early check-in availability confirmations. Local event alerts for holiday weekends.
Channel-specific delivery
Airbnb guests expect messages through Airbnb. Booking.com guests often prefer email or SMS. Direct booking guests want a more personal touch.
Build channel-specific versions of your core messages — same structure, adjusted for platform norms — and set conditions to route the right version, automatically.
Pro tip: Guesty’s unified inbox pulls Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, WhatsApp, email, and SMS into one view. Filter by check-in date, reservation status, or channel — so Saturday arrivals get your attention first, and aren’t buried under mid-stay chatter.
Conditions that make automation smarter
Basic automation sends the same message to everyone. Useful, but limited.
Conditional automation lets you match the message to the booking: one-night stays get a condensed version (they’re not reading 600 words). Week-long rentals get local recommendations for groceries and laundry. International guests receive messages in their preferred language, pulled automatically from the booking platform.
Set conditions for advance notice, too. A guest who booked six months ago needs a “reminder: your trip is coming up” message a week before arrival. A guest who booked yesterday doesn’t.
Pro tip: Guesty’s “guest preferred language” condition auto-imports language settings from Airbnb, Vrbo, and Expedia. Build translated versions of your welcome letter once, and the right version sends automatically — no manual tagging per guest.
When guests still message you
Automation cuts volume. It doesn’t eliminate it. Guests will still ask questions — sometimes ones you already answered.
Saved replies let you respond in two clicks instead of retyping the same parking explanation for the fortieth time. Better yet, AI-suggested responses can draft replies that match your tone, pulling from your property details and reservation info. You review, edit if needed, and send — without starting from scratch.
The goal isn’t zero inbox. It’s an inbox where every message actually requires your attention, not your copy-paste skills.
Pro tip: Guesty’s ReplyAI suggests responses for incoming messages matched to your tone. It reads sentiment, too, so a frustrated guest receives a more intentional message than a quick logistical response. Simply review, tweak, then send. Inbox time drops, and guests get a more personal interaction that doesn’t sound automated.
The bottom line
Whether you’re managing three listings from your phone or thirty from a dashboard, the goal is the same: guests get what they need, you get your time back. The right automation setup makes that possible without losing the personal touch that earns five-star reviews.
Guesty’s automated messaging workflows and unified inbox give you both: structure that scales and flexibility to make every guest feel like your only guest.
FAQ
Long enough to answer every predictable question, short enough to scan in two minutes. Most effective welcome letters run 400–600 words.
Build channel-specific versions. Airbnb restricts external links, and guest expectations vary by platform. Same structure, adjusted for each channel’s norms.
A good welcome letter still reduces your inbox volume significantly, and lets you reply with “I included that in your welcome message” instead of rewriting the same instructions for the hundredth time.
Yes. Property management tools with scheduled messaging let you set delivery timing and use dynamic fields to personalize each message automatically. Worth the setup time if you’re juggling more than a few listings.
Guesty’s talented marketing team is comprised of passionate professionals who share insightful industry knowledge and shape brand narratives. By bringing a diverse blend of expertise to the table, we are the visionary architects behind the Guesty brand and innovative campaigns that help people understand our product.
