A better way to create Guidebooks: introducing new features from Airbnb

[Airbnb]

There’s a reason why millions of guests choose Airbnb: hosts like you—with your warm welcomes and unparalleled local knowledge. Many hosts already give their guests recommendations, from where to grab coffee to the best parks to secret spots. Instead of writing down tips for individual guests, Airbnb’s Guidebooks can help you save time and point guests in the right direction. And now, we’re reintroducing Guidebooks with new features that make it easier to use and more guest-friendly than ever.

The Guidebooks tool allows you to write about your favorite places, organize them by type, and share them with guests. To date, more than one million hosts have created 1.5 million Guidebooks on Airbnb. In the last few months, we’ve made changes to make Guidebooks easier to find, personalize, add to multiple listings, edit, share, and print.

“I clicked on my profile picture in the upper right, and saw ‘Your Guidebook’—excitement!” said Ann, a Superhost in New York City. “All of my Guidebooks are listed, and when I hover over each one, I can edit or share. Even better, I can now create one Guidebook for the area that will suit all three of my listings, and simply share it with every guest.”

Plus, guests will be able to access your Guidebook from your listing or by going to Trips, where it will automatically appear when the booking is confirmed. Creating a Guidebook once helps you optimize your time, and helps attract more potential guests.

Here’s how to make the most of Guidebooks, show off your city, and make your guests feel like they belong anywhere.

5 simple steps to create or edit a Guidebook

1. Find your Guidebook easily*

Go to Airbnb.com, and click on your profile photo. In the drop down menu, select “Your Guidebook.”

2. Create your new Guidebook

Click “Create.” For hosts who have already written Guidebooks, you’ll see them listed here**. Then, you can select “Create a list,” come up with a title, and add your recommendations.

3. Provide details

Once you add a recommendation, a window will pop up, asking you to share more details. When writing about your favorite places, think about what makes the place special, specify things to do and best times to go, use it as an opportunity to tell guests about the place’s history, and include any other important details they should know. These hosts offer up some great examples*** from their Guidebooks:

• Camellia is a superb place to try a simple Japanese tea ceremony. It's located in a beautiful old Japanese house just off Ninen-zaka, not far from Kiyomizu-dera. The host, Atsuko, speaks fluent English and explains the ceremony simply and clearly without making guests nervous.—Taka, Kyoto, Japan
• Mgarr is where the Maltese go to eat their favourite dish: rabbit. Talk-Ingliz Restaurant is our favourite place to have this delicious dish! Favourite menu: octopus and "bebbux" as starters, spaghetti rabbit as first dish and fried rabbit in garlic as mains...enjoy!!!—Martin, Rabat, Malta

Once you’ve added your recommendations, click “Save and Close”.

4. Personalize your Guidebook

Photos of your recommended places will appear automatically, so you won’t need to worry about taking photos of each place. However, you can customize your Guidebook by uploading your own cover photo and creating a title. Hosts recommend personalizing the title. For example:

• Ted & Eileen’s Guidebook - Wine, Dine & Things to Do!
• Most beautiful cities outside Riga
• Kylie’s Local Harlem Hot Spots

Then, choose the listing(s) you’d like the Guidebook to appear in. You can save time by using the same Guidebook for multiple listings.

5. Share your Guidebook with guests

When you publish your Guidebook, guests will be able to view your recommendations in a list and on a map, and they can access your Guidebook from your listing or by going to Trips. Plus, hosts and guests can share the recommendations via email or social media, and even print it out using the new buttons next to the Guidebook title.

Writing great recommendations can serve as another reason for guests to choose your listing. Every week, guests view Guidebooks hundreds of thousands of times. Recommendations from hosts also show up in “Things to do” and several other areas on Airbnb.com, which can bring even more eyes to a host’s listings. It’s also a great way to help support local businesses in your area.

With Guidebooks, hosts don’t have to be full-fledged tour guides. Instead, it’s a way to publish all of your favorite places and tips in one place, help your guests feel welcome and excited to explore your city, and lay the groundwork for a five-star stay.

______________________________________________________________________

*Hosts can also get to their Guidebooks by clicking here.

**Guidebooks are now linked to the primary host’s account, not to the individual listing. Guidebooks created before this change were not deleted; they were relocated and can be found under the user instead of the listing. To learn more about Guidebooks features, see What’s a Guidebook?

***Excerpts from Host Guidebooks have been edited for length and clarity.

[Deb61]

The guidebook is s good idea, but I won’t do it unless it can be printed easily by guests.  I can understand that Airb&b wants to be able to proof read & monitor what we write...but I email my guests a printable pdf and leave it in the cabin as well.  

[Karin334]

I always wondered where my guests could find my guidebook, it never seemed to appear anywhere. I hope they can see it now, with the changes made by Airbnb. 

But how do I edit and change things around? I created different sections like Shopping, Sightseeing, but some entries there are not in the right section. Thank you!

[Nikolia0]

Great opportunity. Thank you.

[Donald19]

I am having trouble editing my NEW guide book.

[Kojiro-And-Seanacey0]

I love the idea of making guidebooks more functional for the listings, the ability to create separate guidebooks for different purposes, etc. but I will hold off on creating additional guidebooks until functionality is added that allows hosts to: choose (or upload) a photo for each item in the guidebook, and reorder the items within a guidebook.  The current search function for adding additional items to a guidebook is also pretty difficult to use right now--it was showing me options in Tokyo and Osaka first (when searching for restaurants in Kyoto) and it would be great to have the option to select a location on a map if it's not coming up in the search function.  

[Kojiro-And-Seanacey0]

And now, looking at the existing guidebook that we had created before this "improvement" I see that some of the place names have automatically been changed to unintelligible bits of the location's address.... This is incredibly confusing for guests and it's giving me no option to edit the titles only.  It's looking like I'll need to delete the original guidebook completely and start over if I want the places to have actual names and not just random numbers.  I appreciate the efforts to improve the product but the fact that most new updates are super buggy is one of the most frustrating things about Airbnb.

[Lisa1911]

Thanks for sharing! I will certainly do my guidebook for Puerto Rico!

[Kit25]

When Guidebooks is selected, only one guide book comes up.  You have to click on the host to see

all the different quidebooks.  I would like to see all the guidebooks when I click guidebooks.

[Shawn216]

Guidebooks are a fabulous tool for those who are wanting to do something different out of the ordinary while vacationing and being away from their normal environment.

I created my own personal guidebook prior to opening our Airbnb and leave it as the center of attention on the coffee table. It is a 5 inch ring binder with brochures, maps and information I have typed up regarding desert plants in the area, wildlife,  places to see, eat, explore, etc...

I believe people appreciate being able to have something visually in front of them to enjoy thumbing through. I have found that very few guests spend time reading our entire listing, so I don’t believe they spend time to look at guidebooks on line for the most part. Most guests ask questions that are already found in our listing.

A lot of the reviews I receive have complimented us on the appreciation of our guidebook. I continually update it manually as new businesses open or I learn about new attractions to share with the guests.

I hope this is helpful to those in doubt about creating a guidebook online. I’m old fashioned and like visual representation in front of me. Therefore, our guidebook has been a useful tool in the vacation rental.

Maurice & Shawn Zimmerman 

Terlingua , TX

[Peter1654]

So where can I see the guidebook I’ve done? Can’t see in the app anywhere, nor is it mentioned. 

[Alison163]

I would like to create a guidebook, but it doesn't seem to be working for me. I now have "Alison's Guidebook" but can't add anything to it. I can search and find the places I want to add, but the "done" button is faded out so the only option open to me each time is "cancel". What am I doing wrong?

[Lauris-and-Gene0]

That's exactly what I am going through. I can write a description of a place but when I'm finished, my only choice is "cancel!" This thing is weird. I had not realized this guidebook thing was here before so when I recently discovered it, I thought I should make one. Wish it would work!

[Manu79]

Same here!

Guest most have a decent way to print all documents (check in, manual, rules and guides) with a one click option and get a good quality PDF, it will be a great feauture!

Manu

[Debbie596]

I am trying to create a guide book for Local Events. When I type in the event it doesn't come up. When I type in the event location, only the location comes up and not the event. how can I do this. For example; I want to put in the event, "Lookout Jazz Tucson Concert Series". The only options I get are add a place or add a neighborhood.