GetAll Guide vs Agoda's Arrival Guide
Agoda has a genuine arrival feature, and for getting someone to your door it works. It is built for the journey, not for the stay — and it stops at the moment the guest steps inside.
Agoda's YCS Arrival Guide: free, included in the partner portal · as published at the time of writing, September 2026
| Agoda's Arrival Guide | GetAll Guide | |
|---|---|---|
| Directions to the property | Yes, step-by-step | Yes, with a photo on any step |
| Check-in instructions | Yes, text | Up to 20 steps, photos, and a walkthrough video if you want one |
| Parking | Yes, including daily fees | A section of your guide |
| When it reaches the guest | Three days before check-in | When you send the link, with each section timed as you choose |
| WiFi password | Not part of the Arrival Guide | Network, password and a QR code that joins for them |
| Door codes | Not part of the Arrival Guide | Withheld by the server until the time you set, then gone at check-out |
| House rules | Not part of the Arrival Guide | A section, each rule marked allowed or not |
| Appliance instructions | Not supported | Sections with photos and video |
| Check-out steps | Not supported | A tickable list that rises to the top on the day |
| Guest registration | Not supported | On Pro, with a form that adapts to the document |
| Works for other channels | Agoda guests only | Any booking, any channel, including direct |
Credit where it is due
Agoda’s Arrival Guide is a real feature, and it is better than nothing by a wide margin.
In the partner portal you can set your check-in and check-out times — exact or flexible, with early and late options — write step-by-step check-in instructions, write step-by-step directions to the property, and describe parking including any daily fee. It shows on your property page or reaches the guest between booking and arrival, with check-in instructions going out three days before check-in.
It is particularly aimed at Agoda Homes properties, which is exactly the kind of host reading this page. If you have not filled it in, go and do that first — it costs nothing and it is where Agoda guests will look.
What it is built for
Read that list again and the shape becomes obvious. Times, check-in method, directions, parking.
It is a guide to the journey. Every field is about getting a person from wherever they are to standing inside your property. That is a genuinely hard problem and Agoda has picked the four things that solve it.
The documentation does not describe support for WiFi credentials, house rules, photographs or video. It is text, and it is logistics.
What happens after the door closes
Almost every message a host actually receives arrives after the guest is inside.
The WiFi password. How the heating works. Which switch does the immersion. Whether they can use the washing machine. Where the spare blankets are. What to do with the keys when they leave. Is there a bin day.
None of that fits in an arrival guide, because none of it is about arriving. So it goes into the message thread, where it is correct once and then scrolls away, and where the next guest asks the same question and you type the same answer again.
Three days is a fixed number
One practical difference worth knowing.
Agoda sends check-in instructions three days before check-in. That is a sensible default and you cannot change it.
Here, you decide per section. Your check-in steps can be visible from the moment you send the link, so guests read them while they are still packing. Your door code can stay out of the page until twenty-four hours before arrival — genuinely absent, not hidden — and then appear. After check-out the whole link stops working, code included.
If you use a keypad, that difference is the one that matters. A code in an Agoda message is a code that stays in that thread indefinitely.
The multi-channel problem
Most hosts do not only use Agoda.
The Arrival Guide reaches Agoda guests. A guest from Booking.com, a returning guest who came directly, a friend of a friend — none of them see it, so you end up maintaining your arrival instructions in two or three places and forgetting to update one of them.
The link we issue goes out in your own message, so it is the same guide for every guest whatever the channel. One place to correct, and every guest holding a link sees the correction immediately.
Use both
This is not an either-or, and pretending otherwise would be silly.
Fill in Agoda’s Arrival Guide properly — it is free, it reaches guests automatically, and it is where an Agoda guest looks for directions. Then send a link for the stay itself: the WiFi, the code at the right moment, how things work, and what to do before they go.
Agoda’s features were checked against their partner hub documentation at the time of writing and can change.
Choose GetAll Guide if
The questions you actually get come after arrival: the WiFi, the boiler, the washing machine, what to do with the keys. You use a keypad and want the code to appear near check-in rather than sitting in a message. You take bookings from Agoda and somewhere else and want one guide for all of them. Or you need registration details collected before anyone knocks.
Create your guideChoose Agoda's Arrival Guide if
Your properties are hard to find and easy to stay in. Once a guest is through the door there is nothing to explain — no keypad, no complicated heating, no rules worth writing down. The Arrival Guide is free, it is already in your partner portal, it goes out on its own, and for that job it does what it says. Fill it in properly whatever else you do.
- A real arrival feature, not an afterthought — check-in and check-out times, step-by-step check-in instructions, step-by-step directions, and parking with any daily fees.
- It reaches the guest without you sending anything, on the property page or automatically before arrival.
- Check-in instructions go out three days before check-in, so the guest has them in good time.
- Free, already in the partner portal, and nothing extra to maintain.