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Would anyone be willing to share the contents of your guest book? Not the book for guests to leave reviews, but what you include in your book you leave, detailing house rules, maybe local restaurants, etc.
If you have something you are proud of and would like to share, you could scan and email me at davidwdanz@gmail.com.
I’d LOVE to see what you do different!
Mine is available online but I’m not quite sure why you want us to share?
Everyone tailors their book to their own place; but in general you want a list of nearby restaurants you’ve actually eaten at and can recommend; local event history, sightseeing and activity flyers/brochures; printed house rules; emergency phone number (911/999 whatever) and cross road information; WiFi name and password; and your cellphone number (for emergency contact only).
I use the www.coral.life.com guidebook and both send it to our guests and print it out in our book. I added a welcome sheet with basic info right up front and a Safety Card detailing location of fire extinguishers, first aid kit, and emergency numbers. Also a floor plan with exits marked in - color coded for recommended exits (green/best, yellow/caution rose bushes out side the window!, and red/Not an exit) The Coral book didn’t print our well, so when I have time I’ll probably redo it but I like all their categories.
In the desk drawer I have local maps, bike maps, and brochures of the most popular things to do all of which I have multiple copies so I encourage guest to keep what they like.
Coral GuideBook Categories:
Welcome Page: Welcome, Directions, Parking Info, Key and Entry, Wifi
Important: Rules, Safety, Recycling, Check Out , Additional Info (I talk about our pets here)
Amenities: Photos of rooms and special features of each
Local: Places to Eat, Play, Essentials, Transportation
I think that folks tend to carefully guard the contents of their guest books, given how much time they spend on them and how highly personal they are. I recently put mine together and looked for other samples as a guide and didn’t really find any - likely for the reason above. Mine is three pages, has a small logo at the top (the name of my property on Air, matched with a bit of clip art illustrating the city). I have the following blurbs: about me; contact info; house rules; wifi; transport; restaurants; groceries and alcohol; how to use the technology; three quick things I love to do in my city (from the best donuts to the best bike ride); about the neighborhood; about the space itself and why I picked it; house quirks; and a word on the unusual plan of the city and a small map illustrating it. I try to keep it useful/accurate, succinct, and inoffensive - but at the same time, say it all in my voice. It wasn’t easy and I spent a lot of time on it.
Same in that mine’s personal, too. I made a Google Map as my guidebook, and one layer is titled, “my life as an AZ native” and points out all sorts of details and stories about what it was like growing up in the Valley.
I’m still working on mine since I have about 100 restaurants, 50 hiking trails, 25 museums, historic districts, important monuments and landmarks, etc. But it’s a lot of fun to make! I think a map is surprisingly intuitive as a guidebook. I never thought I’d learn more about my home city while being continents away!
There is an app for that “Criton” so you don’t have to make an actual one.Has anybody tried it?
The problem with sharing guidebooks is that they typically contain lots of private information, such as telephone numbers, address, wifi password etc, so people generally prefer not to share them other than with their guests (including me.)
However, I’ve included some screenshots so you can get an idea of what it looks like and the categories that I’ve included. Hope that’s helpful!
Hello there! Full disclosure, I do work for criton. Thanks for mentioning us.
Just to add a precision, we actually have an app builder that lets you turn your guest welcome book into a mobile app (or create one). It’s free to try it: critonapps.com
Feel free to ask me if you have any question!
Thank you SOOOO much!
I have a copy of my guest book on Google Drive. I don’t send it to Airbnb guests ahead of time since the Air platform senda such a great detailed confirmation email but I do include it in my email to VRBO and HomeAway guests and that where I get the majority of my guests these days.
EDIT: Rather than send a link I can include a couple screen shots. It does include passwords and passcodes.
'Thanks for the information. I previously tried ‘‘the coral life’’ after creating my first guestbook, the paged disappeared. I have been saving my progress but, I wasn’t been able to recover the book. I panicked and changed all the access code information that I put out on this digital book. I tried checking it afterward and the site never worked for me. I get IP address isn’t found a message. I liked everything about this app but, looked too good to be true.
