A welcome book only helps if the guest opens it. However good the contents are, the whole thing depends on the guest getting to it in the first ten minutes, usually while standing in your entryway with a bag in one hand. A link and a QR code are how you close that gap.
Two ways to share, and use both
- The link, in your check-in message. Paste it into the message you already send through Airbnb, Vrbo, or your own email a day or two before arrival. This reaches the planners, the ones who read ahead. One link works the same for a guest who booked on any platform.
- A QR code, at the property. This reaches everyone else, the guest who did not read the message and is now looking for the wifi. A code on the fridge or by the door turns a wall into the front page of your book.
The two cover different guests, so it is worth doing both rather than picking one.
Where to put the QR code
Put it where the question gets asked. A few spots earn their place:
- By the entry. The first thing a guest sees, for arrival steps and the wifi.
- On the fridge. The most-passed surface in any rental. A small card here is the one guests come back to all week.
- Next to the router or the TV. Where the wifi and how-it-works questions actually happen.
A single card that joins the wifi and opens the book on one scan does double duty in the kitchen, which is why a printable wifi card is worth having alongside the plain book code.
Per-section codes, if you want them
One code for the whole book is enough for most hosts. If you want to go further, a code per section lets you point a guest straight at the thing: a checkout code by the door, an appliance code on the machine itself, a rules code by the hot tub. It is optional, and a single book-level code is a perfectly good place to start.
When the link changes, reprint the code
A printed QR code points at whatever link it was made from. If you ever reset or change your book's link, the old printed codes go stale and need reprinting. This is the one maintenance note worth remembering, and it is a good reason to keep the link stable once guests and printed cards are relying on it. If you do need to rotate it, reprint the cards the same day.
For what goes inside the book those codes point at, see what to put in an Airbnb welcome book, or copy the welcome book template to get started.