Airbnb message templates, checkout instructions and review examples

Six scheduled messages cover a whole stay: booking confirmation, three days out, check-in morning, mid-stay, checkout eve, and the review request. Set them once in Airbnb's scheduled messages and you stop writing the same four sentences forever. Below are the six, plus checkout instructions and review templates you can paste today.

Copy them, then change one thing in each so they sound like you. A message that reads as a template gets read as a template.

How to set up scheduled messages on Airbnb

Open your inbox, go to scheduled messages, and create one per trigger. Airbnb fires them automatically on the timing you pick.

The triggers worth using are booking confirmed, a set number of days before check-in, check-in day, a day after check-in, the day before checkout, and a day after checkout. Six covers everything. Hosts who set up twelve end up muting half of them.

Use the shortcodes rather than typing names. Airbnb substitutes the guest's first name, the dates and the listing name, and a message with the guest's actual name in it gets answered.

Quick replies are the other half. Those are saved snippets you send by hand: parking, late arrival, the Wi-Fi again, an extension request. Keep four or five and no more.

The six messages, ready to paste

1. Booking confirmed

Hi [Guest first name], thanks for booking [Listing]. You are all set for [Check-in date] to [Check-out date].

I will send door codes and Wi-Fi three days before you arrive, so nothing to do now. If you are driving, tell me and I will send parking details early.

[Your first name]

2. Three days before arrival

Hi [Guest first name], your stay starts [Check-in date]. Here is everything in one place: [welcome book link]

Inside: how to get in, Wi-Fi, parking, trash day, and where I actually eat around here.

Check-in is any time after [Check-in time]. Text me if you land early and I will tell you if the place is ready.

3. Check-in morning

Hi [Guest first name], the place is ready for you.

Address: [Address] Door: [Access instructions] Wi-Fi: [Network] / [Password]

Everything else is here: [welcome book link]. Text this number if anything is off.

4. Day after arrival

Hi [Guest first name], hope the check-in went smoothly. Anything you cannot find?

Thermostat is [location], and the trash goes out [day] if you are here for it.

5. Day before checkout

Hi [Guest first name], checkout is [Check-out time] tomorrow.

Before you go: start the dishwasher, bag the trash and leave it [location], leave used towels in the tub, lock the door behind you. Leave the keys [instructions].

That is all. Do not strip the beds, the cleaner prefers to do it.

6. Day after checkout

Hi [Guest first name], thanks for taking care of the place. I have left you a five-star review.

If the stay worked for you, a review helps more than you would think. Takes two minutes: [review link]

That last one gets the most pushback from hosts who feel awkward asking. Ask anyway. Reviews are the ranking signal that matters most, and guests who had a good stay almost always say yes when asked once.

Message five is the one hosts rewrite most often, because what you ask for there lands on the cleaner and on the review at the same time. Which five requests are worth making, which ones cost you a star, and what Airbnb puts in its own field: that is a page of its own, and it is our guide to Airbnb checkout instructions.

Host review templates

Reviewing your guest is not a courtesy, it is how the next host decides. Keep three versions and edit one line.

Great guest

[Guest first name] was a pleasure to host. Clear communication, left the place spotless, followed the house rules without being asked. Welcome back any time.

Fine, unremarkable

[Guest first name] was easy to host. Communication was straightforward and the place was left in good order. Happy to host again.

Problem, stated factually

[Guest first name] communicated well, but the checkout time and the occupancy limit were not respected. I would ask a future host to confirm both before accepting.

The third one is the one hosts get wrong. Write what happened, not how you felt about it. A factual review is useful to the next host and much harder to contest.

And leave the review before you read theirs. Airbnb reveals both at once, so waiting to react just delays your own.

What belongs in a message and what does not

Messages are for timing. The welcome book is for everything else.

The door code goes in the message, because it changes and it is needed at a specific moment. How the coffee maker works does not, because a guest looking for it at 8 AM will not scroll back through a thread from four days ago.

The arrival message is the one worth templating properly, since it carries the details that change between stays. The check-in instructions generator builds message three from the property, the access and the Wi-Fi, and writes the checkout version from the same form.

Put the reference material in a welcome book and link it from three messages. Then your scheduled messages stay short, which is the only reason they get read.

Same for the rules. Those live in the listing and in the house rules, not in a message that arrives after the booking, when the guest has already agreed to something else.

Frequently asked questions