Map for my guidebook …

[Terrill0]

I have an “off the beaten path” location, central to ALOT but my guests do ding me on location. My solution was to create an amazing guidebook and recommend that guests look at with “map” selected so they could see where we are in relation to activities…This was working great but Airbnb has been slowly making the map impossible to find, and today I discovered my workarounds no longer work…

My current guest told me they spent one hour driving in one direction for breakfast only to spend 2 hours driving to their second activity …

this does NOT make sense… People need a map showing our location with all the “best-of’s” surrounding us. 

Has anybody created their own online map? 
Im just reading about something called Proxi which is a “vacation area rental guide”

I also saw that if you create a map online it can make your listing show up on other searches and I read other community chats who found that desirable…

[Joan2709]

@Terrill0 You have some great ideas! One thing some hosts do is create a Google map and add a text box to it with all the step-by-step instructions right in the map. Save it as a png file. Attach it to your check-in message. That seems to work fairly well.

You can also and the map to your Airbnb Host Guidebook.

Other hosts might have some other great ideas. 

[Terrill0]

Thanks @Joan2709 !

@how are adding it to the Airbnb guidebook?

[Joan2709]

Hi @Terrill0 

CAUTION....I would NOT put exact step-by-step instructions on the Airbnb Guidebook. The Guidebook is public on the listing. Anyone can look at it even if they haven't booked. You don't want them showing up on your doorstep if they don't have a reservation. We only put a general location on our map for the Host Guidebook so people can see where we are in relationship to popular attractions. They only get the step-by-step map in the checkin message one day prior to arrival.

Just go to your Guidebook and click add to Guidebook at the bottom. We added ours under "A Place". We just put in under the name of our town, or you could use your cabin name. Then simply upload your photo/jpg/png general map to the Guidebook. I believe you can add up to 3 photos to each entry. 

I think sending the guest your map with step-by-step instructions would be more helpful though. Many guests never look at our Guidebook. I would just send them the usual checkin message and attach your map to the message (see the picture icon next to type a message). Some hosts add their general map to their photos. That is a bit tricky, as I believe you cannot add text to your photos per Airbnb.

You can send guests your Host Guidebook by clicking the (+) sign next to a message, then share recommendations. We send our Guidebook with the Welcome message after booking and also with the checkin message.

Hope this helps! Let us know how it goes!

Guidebook

 

[Terrill0]

thank you Joan! 

[Emilia42 · Accepted solution]

@Terrill0 The map is very visually there when I click the link to your guide book on a laptop. On a phone, there is a glaring black button that says "show map." Could it be that your guest didn't do enough of their own research?  

[Joan2709]

Hi @Emilia42 

I agree! Guests need to do their own research on the area! Guests can also see popular attractions in relationship to the listing on the map view in search results. However, this is a new feature and many guests don't know what the icons are that appear in the map view search results (green/blue icons depict popular destinations).

I think @Terrill0 wasn't referring to the Airbnb Map on the Guidebook with map pins for the locations. I believe they were referring to guests always "dinging" them in reviews for their remote location and difficulty finding the cabin. They were wanting to provide their own map showing their location and where popular attractions are in relationship to their location. They also wanted to provide step-by-step directions for guests so they don't get lost when trying to find the cabin.

Cheers!