The Holiday Let Guest Guide: What to Include (Complete Checklist)
From the key safe to the bin schedule to the beach at low tide — the complete checklist for a holiday rental guest manual that guests actually use.
HIOZ Editorial23 August 20263 min read
What should a holiday let guest guide include?
A complete holiday let guest guide covers arrival and access, parking, Wi-Fi, heating and hot water, every appliance guests will touch, house rules, bins and recycling, safety information, local recommendations and checkout instructions — plus contact details. The best guides deliver this digitally with video demonstrations, translations and secured codes.
Key takeaways
- Weekly changeovers multiply every gap in your guide by fifty-two — completeness pays.
- The quirks (boiler tricks, gate timing, water pressure) are the highest-value content.
- Bin schedules and local knowledge are what separate an adequate guide from a great one.
- Recording a walkthrough is the fastest route to a complete guide — AI drafts the sections from what you say.
Holiday lets live and die on changeover day. Every Saturday (or Friday, or Monday) a new set of guests meets your property for the first time — and every gap in your guest information becomes a phone call, repeated weekly, forever. Here's the complete checklist.
Before they arrive
- Directions — the route that actually works, satnav quirks, what the entrance looks like.
- Parking — exactly where, for how many cars, any permits.
- Check-in time and access — key safe or lockbox location and code (secured behind a PIN), gate codes, which door.
The first hour
- Wi-Fi — network and password, router location, the restart trick.
- Heating and hot water — thermostats, timers, the boiler's personality, immersion backup.
- Lights and power — anything non-obvious, fuse board location.
Daily life
- Kitchen appliances — hob, oven, dishwasher, washing machine, coffee machine. One short demo each.
- TV and entertainment — inputs, streaming logins policy, the soundbar.
- Log burner or fireplace — laying, lighting, the damper, where wood lives.
- Bins and recycling — which bin, which colour, which day, where they go out. Guests genuinely want to get this right; help them.
- Outdoor — barbecue, hot tub or pool routines, garden furniture, gates.
Rules and safety
- House rules — occupancy, smoking, pets, noise, parties.
- Safety — emergency numbers, first aid kit, fire extinguisher and blanket, water/power/gas shut-offs, defibrillator location in the village.
- Rural extras — septic tank do's and don'ts, well water notes, mobile signal reality.
Your area
- Eat and drink — your honest favourites with one-line reasons ("book the terrace at sunset").
- Beaches, walks and days out — including the local-knowledge details: tides, parking, the early-morning trick.
- Practical — nearest shop, fuel, pharmacy, taxi numbers, market day.
Leaving
- Checkout time and the short list: dishwasher on, towels where, windows shut, heating down, keys back, dials scrambled.
- A thank-you — the last thing they read before the review.
The fast way to build all this
Reading that checklist as a writing assignment is daunting — which is why most information folders are ten years old. The alternative: walk your property once and say it all out loud. HIOZ turns that walkthrough into a structured digital guide — sections drafted automatically, each linked to the video moment, translated into your guests' languages, with codes secured and QR codes for the hallway. The checklist above becomes an afternoon, not a project.
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