How to add a video to the welcome guide?

Sometimes it’s very useful and convenient to convey your explanations to the guest using videos. This allows you to really show your property and all of the details that are sometimes hard to explain using text: how to open the key box, how the heating works, where to park.

You can do that very simply. Here are the steps:

1. Record your video
2. Upload your video to YouTube and make sure to publish it as “Unlisted”. This makes sure that the video cannot be found by anyone in the YouTube search but at the same time keeps it public so that it can be viewed by anyone once the person has the link. Private videos won’t play in the guide.
3. Copy the YouTube video share link. Regular videos and Shorts both work.
4. Go to your welcome guide on Nowistay and paste the link at the location in the page where you want it to appear.
5. Add a short text block below the video that says what the video shows. The AI co-host doesn’t watch videos, so this text is how it knows their content (see below).

You can also click the ”+” button in the welcome guide page editor, choose Youtube Video, paste your link in the field (Paste a YouTube URL…) and click Add.

Done! Your video is now loaded with the player and available for your guests to see when browsing the welcome guide.

The video in other languages and in the PDF

• When you translate the guide with Automatic translation, the video stays in place in every language and its caption is translated. You only need one video, unless you want to record it in several languages.
• When a guest or you download the guide as a PDF, each video becomes a QR code: the guest scans it with their phone to watch the video.

The AI co-host doesn’t watch videos: add a text summary

The AI co-host uses the welcome guide as its source of knowledge when it answers guests. It reads the text of your pages, but it doesn’t scan YouTube videos: neither what is said nor what is shown.

So if a guest asks “How do I open the key box?” and the answer is only in a video, the AI co-host can’t give it. The fix is simple: below each video, add a text block that sums up what the video explains. Guests who can’t play the video benefit from it too.

You don’t have to write it yourself. Let an AI assistant such as ChatGPT turn the video’s transcript into a ready-to-paste text:

1. Open your video on YouTube.
2. Expand the description and scroll until you see the Show transcript button, then click it.
3. Select the whole transcript and copy it.
4. Open ChatGPT (or another AI assistant) and ask, for example: “Here is the transcript of a video for my holiday rental’s welcome guide. Write a clear text block for the guide, ready to paste, that gives guests every practical detail of the video in short steps.” Then paste the transcript below your request.
5. Read the answer, fix any detail it got wrong, then paste it in a text block right below the video in your welcome guide.

Example: your video shows how to open the key box. The text block below it says: “The key box is on the left of the front door. Slide the cover down, enter the code we send you on the day of arrival, then pull the lever.” The AI co-host can now answer the question, without ever sharing the code, which stays in your private instructions.