Airbnb message templates for hosts: pre-booking, welcome, check-in, checkout and review request

Most guest questions are the same five questions, asked at the same five moments. What's the Wi-Fi. How do I get in. Can I check in early. Where do I leave the keys. Did you like us. A host who answers each one before it's asked gets fewer messages, better reviews and a calmer turnover day. That's the whole point of message templates: not to sound automated, but to be in the guest's inbox with the right answer before the question forms. Here are the five we use, why each one is shaped the way it is, and when to send them.

Key takeaways

• Five messages cover a stay end to end: pre-booking, booking confirmation, check-in instructions, checkout instructions, and a review request. Everything else is a reply, not a template.
• Timing matters more than wording. Check-in instructions the night before land; check-in instructions at booking time get lost under three weeks of other email.
• Write once, personalise with placeholders. Guest name, dates, door code and property name should fill in on their own. If you're retyping them, you'll eventually send the wrong code to the wrong guest.
• Templates handle the predictable half. The unpredictable half, "is the pool heated", "we're running two hours late", is where AI replies earn their keep, and where a template can't help you.
• Keep every template short enough to read on a phone in a car. That is where guests read check-in messages.

Where we're coming from

We run our own portfolio on ProhostAI and hold a 4.99 rating across more than 3,000 reviews, and ProhostAI has sent well over 260,000 guest messages for the hosts on it. Before that I spent years on Airbnb's hosting team, close to the data on what hosts and guests actually say to each other. The pattern is boring and reliable: the busiest message hours are the day before check-in and checkout morning, and the messages that get a reply are the short ones. The templates below are written for that reality, not for a brochure.

A note before the templates: Airbnb itself supports scheduled quick replies that fill in the guest's name, dates and listing details, so you can run these natively if Airbnb is your only channel. The wording is the hard part, and the wording is what follows.

1. The pre-booking message

Airbnb shows this one to guests who book with Instant Book, before they confirm. It's the most-searched template of the five and the most misused. Hosts treat it as a screening form, guests read it as a wall. The job is to set two or three house facts that would otherwise cause a cancellation, ask one question, and get out of the way.

Hi [guest first name], thanks for choosing [listing name]. Two quick things so the stay fits: the home is on a quiet residential street, so we don't host parties or events, and check-in is self-service from [check-in time] with a door code we'll send the day before. Could you tell me who's travelling with you and what brings you to [city]? Looking forward to hosting you.

What makes it work: the rules are framed as facts about the home, not warnings to the guest. The single question ("who's travelling") is the one that catches most mismatched bookings, and it's friendly enough that people answer it.

Leave out: a full house-rules list, a deposit lecture, and anything about reviews. Those belong later.

2. The booking confirmation (welcome) message

Send it within minutes of the booking confirming. Its job is to make the guest feel the decision was right and to tell them what happens next, so they don't message you for the itinerary.

Hi [guest first name], you're booked at [listing name] from [check-in date] to [check-out date]. We're glad to have you. Here's how the next few weeks go: you'll get a message from us the day before you arrive with the door code, directions and parking. Until then, our guidebook has everything from the Wi-Fi to our favourite coffee on the block: [guidebook link]. Reply here any time; we answer quickly.

What makes it work: it promises the check-in message and names the day it arrives, which removes the "when do I get the code" message almost entirely. The guidebook link gives the eager planners something to do.

Leave out: the door code. Sending it three weeks early is how codes end up on screenshots.

3. Check-in instructions

Send this the evening before arrival, or the morning of for same-day bookings. It is the message guests read standing outside the door, on a phone, often with luggage. Every sentence has to be a step.

Hi [guest first name], tomorrow's the day. Here's everything for arrival at [listing name]:

Address: [address] ([map link]) Check-in: from [check-in time] Parking: [parking instructions] Getting in: the keypad is on the front door. Enter [door code] then press the check mark. The code works from [check-in time]. Wi-Fi: network [wifi name], password [wifi password]

If anything's unclear on the way, message me here. Have a great trip in.

What makes it work: the bolded labels let a guest scan for the one thing they need. The code comes with the exact moment it starts working, which prevents the "the code doesn't work" message from someone who arrived at noon.

Leave out: house rules, the checkout procedure, and local recommendations. Anything that isn't about getting through the door goes in the guidebook.

4. Checkout instructions

Send it the evening before checkout. The aim is a clean, on-time departure with the least possible list, because every extra chore you ask for is a line in a review about "chores".

Hi [guest first name], we hope [city] has treated you well. Checkout is at [check-out time] tomorrow. Before you go: leave used towels in the bathtub, put dishes in the dishwasher, and pull the door shut behind you (it locks on its own). That's it. If you'd like a later checkout, reply here and I'll tell you right away whether the calendar allows it. Safe travels, and thank you for staying with us.

What makes it work: three tasks, each one a sentence, and an explicit invitation to ask for late checkout. Hosts who don't mention late checkout still get asked; they just get asked at 9 a.m. on turnover day.

Leave out: threats about fees. If the cleaning fee covers cleaning, say nothing; if it doesn't, the house rules already did.

5. The review request

Send it the afternoon after checkout, once the cleaner has been through. Guests have 14 days to review, and the ones who are going to do it usually do it early, so this message is a nudge, not a campaign.

Hi [guest first name], thank you for staying at [listing name]. We've just left you a review, and if you have a minute, we'd be grateful for one back. Honest feedback is how we keep the place worth coming back to. And if anything during your stay wasn't right, tell me here first so I can fix it for the next guest.

What makes it work: it mentions that you've reviewed them, which is both true (you should have) and the strongest single prompt for reciprocation. The last line gives an unhappy guest a private channel, which is where you want that conversation to happen. If you want the fuller picture on review rates, we wrote it up in how to get more 5-star Airbnb reviews.

Leave out: "five stars" in any form. Asking for a rating reads as pressure, and Airbnb's review policy treats pressure as a reason to remove a review, which is not the kind of removal you want.

When to send each one

| Message | Trigger | Timing | |---|---|---| | Pre-booking | Guest starts an Instant Book | Automatic, set once in Airbnb | | Welcome | Booking confirmed | Within minutes | | Check-in instructions | Day before arrival | Around 6 p.m. local time | | Checkout instructions | Day before departure | Around 6 p.m. local time | | Review request | Day after checkout | Afternoon, after cleaning |

The timing column is the part hosts get wrong most often. Everything sent at booking time is forgotten by arrival. Everything sent on the day is read.

What to automate, and what not to

The five templates above are predictable, so they should send themselves. In ProhostAI they're scheduled messages: a rule per message, tied to the booking event, with placeholders for the guest's name, dates, property details and door code, and per-listing versions where the parking or the checkout differs. Airbnb's native scheduler covers the same ground for a single channel.

What a template can't do is reply. "Is the pool heated in October", "we're landing at 11 p.m., is that a problem", "the TV remote isn't working". Those are the messages that actually cost hosts their evenings, and they're the ones AI messaging is for. ProhostAI learns your listings and the messages you've already sent, drafts a reply in your voice, and with Autopilot on it sends the ones you've said it can. The templates set the guest up; the AI handles what the guest says back.

How ProhostAI helps today

• Scheduled messages with booking, check-in and checkout triggers, hours-or-days offsets, and placeholders that fill from the reservation, so the right code goes to the right guest.
• Per-listing rules, so the beach house and the city flat each send their own parking line without a second set of templates.
• AI replies in your voice to the questions no template anticipates, drafted from your listing details and your own message history.
• Autopilot to send those replies automatically once you trust them, with rules for when to hand the conversation back to you.
• AI guidebooks for the Wi-Fi, house manual and local tips, so the check-in message can stay short and link out.
• AI-written guest reviews posted on time, which is what makes the review request above honest.

FAQ

Do I need software to use these templates? No. Copy them into Airbnb's scheduled messages, replace the placeholders with Airbnb's own detail fields, and they'll send on the triggers above. Software matters when you have more than one channel, more than a few listings, or you want the replies handled too.

Should I include house rules in the welcome message? A line or two at most. Guests agreed to the rules when they booked; the welcome message is for making them feel welcome. Put the full rules in the guidebook, where the guest who needs them can find them.

When should I send the door code? The day before arrival, with the time it starts working. Never at booking.

Is it fine to ask for a five-star review? Ask for a review, not a rating. Airbnb's policy treats pressure for a particular rating as grounds to remove the review, and guests find it off-putting anyway.

What about a message during the stay? Optional. A one-line check-in the morning after arrival ("Everything as expected? Message me if not.") catches problems while you can still fix them. Keep it to one line, and don't send it at 7 a.m.

The takeaway

Five short messages, sent at the moment the guest needs them, will remove most of the routine questions from your inbox and set up the review before the stay is over. Copy the templates, cut anything that isn't a step or a fact, and put them on a schedule. Then spend the time you get back on the messages only you, or an AI trained on you, can answer.

What's next

We're publishing the companion pieces hosts search for alongside these: an Airbnb house rules template, and a guide to writing the guest review itself. If you'd rather not write any of it, ProhostAI connects directly to Airbnb and comes with the schedule, the placeholders and the replies built in.