The holiday-let house manual checklist (what to include)

Most complaints in a holiday let are small things that the guest simply couldn’t work out. The shower that needs the lever pushed all the way up, the gate latch with the knack, the oven that defaults to the grill. A good holiday let house manual answers those questions before the guest has to text you at 9pm, and the best part is you only have to write it once.

This is a checklist for building that manual properly. Work through it in an afternoon, room by room, and you’ll have something you can reuse across every booking and, if you have more than one place, across the whole portfolio.

Start with the questions you already answer twice a week

Before you write a single section, think about the messages you actually get. Most owners send the same five or six texts on repeat: the Wi-Fi password, how to work the heating, when the bins go out, where to park, what time check-out is, and how to use that one appliance nobody can fathom.

Those repeat questions are your table of contents. If you cover them well, you remove most of the friction from a stay and most of the interruptions from your evening. Everything else is detail.

A digital manual has one advantage over the laminated folder on the kitchen table: it’s searchable and it’s always with the guest on their phone. With StayBinder, guests scan a QR code and the guide opens in the browser instantly, no app and no login, and there’s a guide-wide search so they can type “oven” and land on the right page. You can see the full features list, but the manual itself is the heart of it.

Appliances (and where a short video earns its keep)

Walk the kitchen and the utility room and list every appliance a guest will touch. For each one, write the plain version of “how do I turn this on and get the result I want?”

• The oven: how to set it to fan rather than grill, where the trays live, whether the clock needs setting before it’ll run
• The hob: induction, gas or ceramic, and which dial is which
• The dishwasher: where the tablets are and which programme to choose
• The washing machine and dryer: a sensible default cycle, not all twelve
• The coffee machine: the single most-photographed cause of confusion in any cottage kitchen
• The TV and any streaming: how to get back to live telly when someone’s logged into your Netflix

For the two or three genuinely fiddly ones, a short how-to video does what a paragraph can’t. A fifteen-second clip of you pressing the right buttons on the boiler or the coffee machine settles it instantly. StayBinder lets you drop those clips straight into the house manual, so the guest watches rather than guesses.

Write each appliance entry as if you’re texting a friend who’s standing in front of it. Short, specific, no jargon.

Heating, hot water and the temperature wars

Heating is the section guests read in the first hour and the one that generates the most messages if it’s vague.

Cover the basics clearly:

• How to turn the heating on and adjust it, and where the thermostat actually is
• Hot water: is it on demand, or does the immersion need switching on for the bath?
• Underfloor heating, if you have it, which is slow and bewildering to anyone who’s never met it
• A wood burner or open fire: how to use it safely, where the wood is, and what absolutely not to burn
• Any timer or smart thermostat, with the simple “leave it on this and you’ll be fine” advice

If there’s a setting you’d rather guests didn’t touch, say so kindly and explain why. People follow guidance far better when they understand the reason behind it.

The quirky bits, your secret weapon

Every property has its character, and character is just a polite word for the things that don’t behave as expected. This is where a good holiday let house manual quietly prevents bad reviews.

Write down the knack for each one:

• The temperamental shower that runs cold unless you nudge the lever past halfway
• The gate latch you have to lift and push at the same time
• The back door that sticks in damp weather and needs a firm shoulder
• The fuse box location, in case a hairdryer trips the lot
• The window that doesn’t lock unless you press it in first
• The water stopcock, the bin store key, the spare bulbs

None of this is glamorous, and all of it is the difference between a guest who feels at home and one who feels stranded. Naming the quirks honestly also signals care, which guests notice.

House rules, written warmly

Rules land better when they’re framed as looking after the place rather than telling people off. Keep them short and reasonable:

• Check-out time, and what you’d like done before they leave (start the dishwasher, strip the beds, or nothing at all)
• Whether the property is non-smoking, and where smokers can go if not
• Pets: allowed or not, and any patches of garden to keep them out of
• Noise, especially if you have close neighbours or it’s a terrace
• Maximum occupancy and no unregistered guests
• Parking: how many cars, where, and which spaces belong to the neighbour

A simple “before you leave” checklist near check-out does most of the work here, and StayBinder includes one as standard so guests tick off the bins, the heating and the keys on their way out.

Waste, recycling and the dreaded bin day

Bins are the single most confusing thing about staying in someone else’s town. Different councils, different colours, different weeks. A guest has no way of knowing that this Tuesday is recycling and next Tuesday is general, and getting it wrong means a full bin and an apologetic note.

Spell it out:

• Which bin is which colour, and what goes in each
• Where the bins live and where to wheel them for collection
• The collection schedule, ideally one that works out the next date for the guest rather than making them count weeks

StayBinder handles bin day specifically because it trips so many people up. The schedule is UK-aware and works out the next collection automatically, so the guide simply tells the guest “recycling goes out Thursday” without anyone doing the maths. It’s a small thing that saves a surprising number of messages.

Safety information you shouldn’t skip

This part isn’t optional, and it’s quick to do once. Include:

• Smoke and carbon monoxide alarm locations, and what to do if one sounds
• The fire blanket and extinguisher, if you have them
• Your nearest A&E, minor injuries unit and a local GP
• Emergency contacts and a one-tap way to call you, the host
• Gas and electrical shut-offs, and the water stopcock again because it matters twice

A useful-numbers directory and a one-tap call to the host mean a guest in a flap can reach the right person fast, which is exactly when you want the manual to do its job.

Build it once, reuse it everywhere

The real value of writing all this down is that you never have to do it again. Your manual becomes a living document you tweak when something changes, not a chore you redo every season.

If you let through Airbnb, the same content serves the listing and the on-site experience, and there’s specific guidance for Airbnb hosts. If you run a cottage with plenty of local character to explain, for holiday cottages covers the recommendations and journal side too. And if you manage several properties, a shared content library with content-drift detection keeps every manual consistent, which is the whole point of the tools for property managers.

A clear house manual quietly raises the standard of a stay. Guests feel looked after, you get fewer interruptions, and the small frustrations that sour a review never get the chance to happen.

You can build yours and try the whole thing free for 14 days, no card needed, the pricing is simply £9.99 a month for your first property, then £4.99 for each extra, and you can pause it out of season.