Airbnb Local Guide Template

You sit down Sunday night to update your check-in message. You meant to also write a proper neighborhood guide six months ago. Instead you have a Google Doc with three coffee shops, a half-typed paragraph about the farmers market, and a note that says “mention the trail!” Meanwhile your last guest left a four-star review with a kind little jab: “Would have loved more local tips.” Fair.

The fix is not writing a novel about your town — it is having a tight, reusable airbnb local guide template you can drop into any property, swap a few names, and send. This page gives you that template in three flavors (short, warm, luxury), tells you where to actually put it so guests read it, and shows you how to keep it current without becoming a part-time travel writer.

Who this is for

You manage one to ten short-term rentals, you live somewhere else (or you are just busy), and you are tired of typing “there is a great Thai place on Main Street” into the message thread for the eighth time this month. You do not want a 40-page PDF. You do not want a paid app you have to maintain. You want a single document that lives in your messaging templates, your Hostfully or Touch Stay guidebook, and maybe gets read aloud by an Echo Dot 5 on the kitchen counter.

The template below is built around how guests actually use these things: they skim on a phone five minutes before they walk out the door. If you want voice to do part of the heavy lifting, the voice-assistant local guide that turns an Echo or Google Nest into a concierge covers that side; this page focuses on the written script.

When to send it (and when not to)

Send the local guide twice. First, attach it to the booking confirmation message about a week out — that is when guests are mentally planning dinner reservations. Second, drop the link into the day-of check-in instructions, after the door code and Wi-Fi password but before the trash schedule. Do not front-load it before they have booked, and do not bury it inside a long welcome wall of text.

If you have an Echo Show 8 or Echo Dot 5 in the kitchen running a custom Alexa routine, you can also have it read a short version when a guest says something like “Alexa, what’s good around here.” The exact routine wording lives in the Alexa local recommendations script that hands guests three picks per category.

The short version (90 seconds to read)

Use this when guests are arriving late, only staying a night or two, or when you suspect they are not the “explore the town” type. Strip it to one line per category, no commentary.

Coffee: [Cafe Name], [street]. Opens 7am.
Quick dinner: [Restaurant], walkable, no reservations needed.
Nice dinner: [Restaurant]. Book ahead on weekends.
Groceries: [Store], [distance] away.
One thing to do: [Park / trail / landmark], [how to get there].
If it is raining: [Indoor backup — museum, bookstore, brewery].

That is the whole thing. Six lines. Guests can screenshot it. The big mistake hosts make with the short version is sneaking in extras — if it grows past eight bullets, it stops being the short version.

The warm version (the workhorse)

This is the one most hosts should use as their default. It sounds like a friend who lives there texting you tips. About 350-450 words. Here is the skeleton — copy it, paste it, change the brackets:

Hey [Guest first name] — here are the spots we actually send our friends to when they visit.

Morning. [Cafe name] is two blocks down on [street]. Their [specific drink or pastry] is the move. They open at [time] and get a line by 9 on weekends, so go early or after 10.

Casual lunch or dinner. [Restaurant name] does [type of food] and they do not take reservations — just walk in. If it is packed, [Backup spot] across the street is solid too.

Date night or treat-yourself dinner. [Restaurant] is the one to book ahead, especially Friday and Saturday. Ask for a table on the [patio/back room/bar]. [Optional dish recommendation.]

Coffee shop with Wi-Fi if you need to work. [Cafe], on [street]. Outlets along the back wall.

If you have a free morning. [Trail / park / market], about [time/distance] from the house. [One sentence about what makes it worth it.]

If it rains. [Indoor option — museum, brewery, bookstore, movie theater].

Groceries and basics. [Store] is the closest, [bigger store] is [distance] if you need a real run. There is a [pharmacy/hardware store] in the same plaza.

Have a great stay — text me if you want a recommendation for something specific.

That last line does a lot of quiet work. It tells the guest you are available without making them feel like they have to bother you, and it pre-empts the “is there a good sushi place?” message that always comes at 6:47pm.

The luxury version (for higher-end stays)

If your nightly rate is over a few hundred dollars, your guests expect editorial polish, not bullet points. Same content as the warm version, but written in full sentences, no exclamation points, no “hey” opener. Replace category labels with prose: “For an unhurried morning, [Cafe] on [street] roasts in-house and is two minutes on foot.” Pair each recommendation with a why — the chef, the setting, the dish — not just an address. Drop in one or two off-the-beaten-path notes a guidebook would not have: the Tuesday wine night, the back patio that opens in May, the bookshop with the good poetry section. That is the entire luxury difference: specificity and restraint.

How to customize it without rewriting it every time

Pick six categories that actually matter for your area. Beach town? Add a beach access note. Ski town? Add gear rentals. Skip categories that do not apply.
For each category, name two places — a primary and a backup. The backup line is what makes the guide feel insider rather than tourist-board.
Add one detail per place that you could not find on Yelp: the regular order, the best table, the day they are closed, the trick to getting a seat.
Once a quarter, pick three places on the list and verify they are still open and the hours are right. Restaurants close fast.
If you have multiple properties in the same city, share one master document and only swap the “closest to the house” lines per listing — the same logic that powers the short-term rental local guide automation that handles five units from one source doc.

If you want help adapting the tone, paste your filled-in template into ChatGPT or Claude with a prompt like: “Rewrite this in the voice of a [warm/professional/playful] host for a [type of property] in [city]. Keep all the place names exact. About 400 words.” Read the output, fix anything off, then ship it. Do not let AI hallucinate restaurant names — it will, and a guest showing up to a place that does not exist is a one-star review.

Where to actually put it

Saved message in Airbnb or VRBO. Title it “Local picks” and send it 5-7 days before check-in.
Digital guidebook. Hostfully, Touch Stay, or just a Google Doc with a short link — the link should be obvious in your check-in message. The digital guidebook automation for Airbnb that auto-fills city, neighborhood, and check-in details is the cleanest way to keep it consistent across listings.
Printed card on the counter. One page, double-sided, in a small frame. Guests who do not open the app still see this.
Echo Dot 5 or Echo Show 8 in the kitchen. A simple Alexa routine triggered by “Alexa, local recommendations” can read the short version aloud — the Echo local guide for guests with the routine wording you can paste in covers the setup.

FAQ

How long should an airbnb local guide be?

Aim for one screen on a phone — about 350 to 500 words for the main version, six bullets for the short version. Anything longer gets skimmed and forgotten. If you have got more to say, split it into themed mini-guides (food only, outdoors only, rainy day only) and link them so guests can jump to the one they need. The Airbnb restaurant recommendations template that splits picks by meal and price is the food-only spinoff most hosts add first.

Should I include affiliate links or partner discounts?

Real partner discounts at local businesses are gold and guests love them. Affiliate links to OpenTable or generic booking platforms feel cheap and erode trust. If a coffee shop will give your guests 10 percent off with a code, mention it. If you are just trying to monetize the guide, do not — the goodwill loss is not worth the few dollars in commissions.

How often do I need to update the neighborhood guide?

Quarterly is the right cadence. Restaurants change hours, close, or change owners constantly — once a season, walk past your three top picks and check that hours and vibe match what you wrote. Tag the document with a “last updated” date so future-you can see at a glance when it is due. A stale guide that sends guests to a closed restaurant is worse than no guide.

Can I just use ChatGPT to write the whole thing?

No. AI is fine for tone polish on places you already know, but it will confidently invent restaurants, get hours wrong, and miss the local context that makes a guide useful. Do the legwork on the actual recommendations yourself, then use AI to tighten the writing. Always cross-check any place name and address the model gives you against Google Maps before it goes to a guest.

Next steps

Copy the warm version above, fill in your six places, and save it as a template in your booking platform tonight. Once it is in place, you can build out the voice-assistant version using the Echo local guide walkthrough, or adapt the same template into a focused restaurant recommendations template — same source, different shape.