Arrival, one step at a time

How it works

Add a check-in section and write the arrival as a list of steps. One action per step, in the order the guest will do them.

Each step can carry a photo. This is the part that does the real work: a picture of your green door between the pharmacy and the bakery answers a question that three sentences of description cannot.

You can move a step up or down until the order is right, and change any of them later. Every guest link points at the same guide, so a correction reaches everyone immediately — including the guest who is standing outside right now.

Write it for someone who has never been there

The most common mistake is writing directions from memory. You know the building, so you skip the bit that is obvious to you and invisible to everyone else.

A few things that are worth a step of their own:

Which entrance. Buildings often have more than one, and only one of them is yours. A photo taken from the pavement, facing the door, is worth more than the street name.

The bit that is not obvious. The handle you have to lift while turning. The lift that needs a fob. The gate that looks locked but is not. If you have ever had to explain it on the phone, it belongs here.

Where the light switch is. People arrive in the dark far more often than hosts expect.

What to do with the key. Where it lives during the stay, and what to do with it when they go.

The test is simple. Could someone follow this at 23:40, tired, in the rain, holding a suitcase, without calling you? If not, the missing step is the one worth adding.

A video, if you want one

You can put a short walkthrough at the top of the section — a phone video of you walking from the street to the front door, taking maybe thirty seconds. Use a YouTube or Vimeo link, or upload the file directly.

It suits properties that are genuinely hard to find. For most flats, clear steps with photos are faster to make, faster for the guest to skim, and much easier to correct when the front door gets repainted.

The same steps for your cleaner

If you use a cleaner link, you can show it this same check-in section. Your cleaner gets in the same way your guests do, from the same instructions, and you only maintain one copy.

That matters most with a new cleaner, or with a stand-in covering a week. Nobody has to be talked through the entrance over the phone.

Timing

Check-in steps normally sit in the guide from the moment you send the link, so guests can read them while they are still packing. That is usually what you want.

If a step contains something you would rather not hand over early — a key box location, for example — put that in a code section instead and set it to appear the day before, or at check-in time. The steps stay open; the secret part arrives when it should.

What this costs

Check-in steps, photos on steps, reordering and the walkthrough video are on the free plan. Sending the same section to a cleaner link is part of Pro.