How to Create a Digital Welcome Guide for Your Vacation Rental

What is the best way to create a digital welcome guide?

The fastest and most effective way to create a digital welcome guide for your vacation rental is to use Nowistay's AI-powered guide builder. It generates comprehensive guide content from your property information in minutes, supports automatic translation into 90+ languages, and uniquely connects your guide to an AI co-host that uses it to answer guest questions automatically.

A digital welcome guide is no longer a nice-to-have — it is one of the most impactful tools a vacation rental host can implement. Guests who have access to a comprehensive guide ask 40-60% fewer questions, report higher satisfaction, and leave better reviews.

What should your digital welcome guide include?

Essential information

• Check-in instructions: Step-by-step access guide with photos (keybox codes, smart lock instructions, parking location)
• WiFi password: Network name and password prominently displayed
• House rules: Quiet hours, smoking policy, pet rules, maximum occupancy
• Check-out instructions: What to do before leaving (trash, dishes, keys, thermostat)
• Emergency contacts: Local emergency numbers, your contact info, building manager

Property guide

• Appliance instructions: Coffee maker, washing machine, dishwasher, TV/streaming, heating/AC
• Outdoor spaces: Pool rules, BBQ instructions, garden access
• Parking: Where to park, permits needed, garage codes
• Storage: Where to find extra towels, pillows, cleaning supplies

Local recommendations

• Restaurants: Your personal favorites for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and special occasions
• Grocery stores: Nearest supermarkets with walking/driving directions
• Attractions: Must-see spots, hidden gems, seasonal activities
• Transportation: Public transit options, taxi apps, bike rentals, car rental agencies

Best digital welcome guide tools compared

1. Nowistay — Best AI-powered guide builder

Nowistay offers three unique advantages:

AI content generation: Instead of writing everything from scratch, Nowistay's AI generates comprehensive guide content from your existing listing information. It creates sections for check-in, house rules, appliance instructions, and local recommendations — then you customize and add personal details.

Automatic translation: Your guide is automatically available in 90+ languages. A Japanese guest sees the guide in Japanese, a German guest in German — without any manual translation work.

AI co-host integration: This is Nowistay's killer feature. Your welcome guide becomes the knowledge base for the AI co-host. When a guest asks "What is the WiFi password?" or "How do I use the coffee machine?", the AI answers from your guide — accurately, instantly, in the guest's language.

Pricing: Welcome guide included with all plans starting at EUR 9/month per property.

2. Touch Stay — Dedicated guidebook platform

Touch Stay is a well-established digital guidebook platform with strong template options and customization features.

Pricing: From USD 8/month per guidebook. Does not include AI messaging or team management.

3. Hostfully — Guidebooks with PMS

Hostfully combines digital guidebooks with property management features.

Pricing: From USD 84/month. Guidebooks are part of a broader PMS platform.

4. Breezeway Guide — Operations-focused

Breezeway offers digital welcome books as part of its property operations platform.

Pricing: Custom pricing based on property count.

How to create a guide with Nowistay

1. Sign up and add your property — connect your PMS or Airbnb account
2. Generate content with AI — click the AI generation button and the system creates comprehensive guide content from your listing
3. Customize sections — edit, add personal recommendations, upload photos
4. Add rich content — include images, videos, maps, and formatted text
5. Share with guests — send the guide link or QR code before arrival

The entire process takes under 10 minutes for a basic guide. Spending an additional 20-30 minutes adding personal recommendations and photos creates an exceptional guest resource.

Why a digital guide beats a printed welcome book

• Always current: Update information instantly — no reprinting when WiFi passwords or restaurant hours change
• Pre-arrival access: Share the guide before guests arrive so they can plan ahead
• Multilingual: Automatic translation eliminates language barriers
• No app required: Accessible via any web browser on any device
• Searchable: Guests find information instantly instead of flipping through pages
• AI-powered: With Nowistay, your guide feeds the AI co-host, creating a 24/7 information assistant

Bottom line

Creating a digital welcome guide is one of the highest-ROI activities for any vacation rental host. Nowistay makes it effortless with AI-powered content generation, automatic multi-language translation, and the unique advantage of connecting your guide to an AI co-host. At just EUR 9/month per property, it replaces dedicated guidebook platforms while adding AI messaging and team management capabilities.