How to write Airbnb check-in messages guests actually read

Most Airbnb check-in messages fail for the same reason: they try to say everything at once. Wi-Fi password, parking instructions, house rules, trash day, the neighbor's dog — all in one wall of text, sent the morning of check-in when the guest is already juggling directions, luggage, and a flight delay.

Guests don't read walls of text. They skim for the one thing they need right now, and everything else gets lost.

Split it into two messages, not one

Send the essentials the day before check-in: door code or key location, parking, and the address if it's not obvious. That's it. Nothing else competes for attention.

Send the extras after they've actually arrived and settled in — Wi-Fi password, trash day, quiet hours, your favorite coffee spot down the street. By then they're not stressed about logistics anymore, and they'll actually read it.

Put the one critical thing first, always

If there's a single detail that causes the most confusion — a gate code, an unmarked driveway, a building entrance that isn't the front door — that goes in the first sentence. Not paragraph three. The first sentence.

Skip the personality for logistics

Warmth matters, but not in the middle of directions. A line like "We're so excited to host you on your adventure!" between two steps of "how do I get into this apartment" is where guests lose the thread. Save the personality for the opening line and the closing line — keep the middle purely instructional.

A structure that works

1. One warm opening line.
2. The single most important logistical detail, alone, first.
3. Everything else needed before arrival, in short numbered steps.
4. One line about what to do if something goes wrong (a phone number, not "let me know if you need anything").
5. A warm closing line.

That's the whole message. Anything that isn't needed before they physically get inside can wait for the after-arrival message.

The test

Read your check-in message as if you're standing outside the building with a suitcase and a phone at 40% battery. If you'd have to reread it twice to find the door code, it needs to be shorter — not longer.