Voice Assistant Local Guide

Your guests landed at 11pm. They unloaded the car in the dark, fumbled the keypad code twice, and finally collapsed on the couch. The next morning at 8:30, they’re standing in the kitchen, half-caffeinated, asking each other: “Where do we even get coffee around here?” Your beautiful 600-word “things to do” email is sitting in an inbox they have not opened since the Lyft ride. The printed binder is in the entryway closet. They open Yelp instead and end up at a Starbucks two miles away.

A voice assistant local guide solves exactly this awkward moment — the guest just asks the Echo Show 8 on the counter “what should we do today?” and gets your actual recommendations back in 20 seconds, in your voice. No app, no inbox dive, no Yelp roulette. This walkthrough covers the gear, the routine setup, the script, and what to tell guests so they actually use it.

Why a voice guide beats a printed binder

Printed house manuals get flipped through once on arrival, then forgotten. Digital guidebook tools like Touch Stay or Hostfully are slightly better but still require the guest to remember the link, find their phone, and tap through. Voice is the lowest-friction interface in your house. The guest does not have to remember anything except the trigger phrase — and you can put a small printed card by the Echo Dot 5 that lists those phrases.

The other quiet benefit: voice scales your warmth. The same guest who would never read three paragraphs about your favorite tacos will happily listen to 15 seconds of “the cafe two blocks over does the best cortado in town — tell them you’re staying at the green house and they’ll know.” Voice is intimate by default.

If you have not yet built the written counterpart, draft it first using the airbnb things to do message template — the voice version is just a 30-second compression of that message.

What you need

Keep it minimal. You do not need a smart-home empire to make this work.

An Echo device. An Echo Dot 5 is fine and runs about $50. An Echo Show 5 or Echo Show 8 is better — the screen displays photos and maps to go with the audio. Place it in the kitchen or living room, not a bedroom.
An Amazon account dedicated to the property. Use the property’s address. Do not log in with your personal Amazon — you’ll cross-contaminate purchase history and shopping lists.
The Alexa app on your phone for routine setup. You only need it during configuration.
A small printed card next to the Echo with the four or five trigger phrases.

That is it. No subscription. No third-party skill development. Alexa Routines do all the work.

Setting up your voice assistant local guide as Alexa Routines

The trick is one routine per topic, with a short trigger phrase and a custom announcement that reads your recommendation out loud. Open the Alexa app on your phone, tap More, then Routines, then the plus icon to create a new one.

Tap “When this happens” and choose Voice. Type the trigger phrase: what should we do today.
Tap “Add action” and choose Alexa Says > Customized.
Paste your script (see examples below). Keep it under 250 characters — Alexa cuts off long monologues.
Set “From” to the Echo Show 8 or Echo Dot 5 in the property.
Save. Test it by saying the trigger phrase out loud near the device.

Repeat for each topic. Realistic minimum: five routines for five categories. Bigger properties or longer-stay rentals can do eight to ten. The full annotated routine pattern is in the alexa local recommendations script walkthrough.

Sample scripts

Use these as the starting point. Keep each one specific. Names of places. One menu item or feature. A walking-distance estimate when relevant.

“Alexa, what should we do today?”

“If the weather’s good, head to Cedar Ridge Trail — it’s a 12 minute drive and the loop takes about an hour. The lookout at the top is worth the climb. If it’s raining, the Pearl Street Bookstore and Cafe is open until eight and has the best chai in town. Ask Alexa what’s for dinner when you get hungry.”

“Alexa, what’s for dinner?”

“Three picks. Casa Luna for tacos — the chorizo is the move, walk-in friendly, six minutes on foot. Hearth and Vine if you want a real dinner with a wine list, reservations recommended. Or for late night, the Owl & Anchor serves their full menu till 11 most nights.”

For the longer written version of these dinner picks, hand guests off to the airbnb restaurant recommendations template in your house manual.

“Alexa, where’s the best coffee?”

“Two blocks down on Maple Street, you’ll find Drift Coffee. They roast on site. Order the cortado or, if it’s a slow morning, the cardamom latte. Open from seven to two. Pastries usually sell out by ten.”

“Alexa, what’s open late?”

“After ten, your options are the Owl & Anchor for full kitchen, Bar Sonora for cocktails until one, or Lucky Wok if you want takeout, open until midnight Friday and Saturday. Everything is within a ten minute walk.”

“Alexa, what should we do if it’s raining?”

“Go indoor. The Marshall Museum has a rotating exhibit and a great cafe. The Pearl Street Bookstore has cozy reading chairs and that chai I keep recommending. Or hit the Saturn Theater — they show indie films and serve real popcorn with butter, not oil.”

What to tell guests so they use it

The single biggest reason a voice assistant local guide goes unused is guests do not know it exists. Solve that with three things:

A printed card next to the Echo Show 8. Half-page, four to five lines. Title it “Just ask Alexa.” List the trigger phrases. Done.
A line in your welcome message. “There’s an Echo on the kitchen counter — ask it ‘what should we do today’ and it’ll give you our actual local picks.”
One line in the house manual. Same content, in case the printed card walks off.

The full hand-off pattern (printed card wording, welcome-message line, manual entry) is in the echo local guide for guests walkthrough.

Privacy and the smart speaker question

Disclose the Echo in your listing. Airbnb requires it for any device with a microphone. Place the device in common spaces only — never in bedrooms or bathrooms. In the Alexa app, turn off voice purchasing and disable Drop In and Communications so guests cannot accidentally call your contacts. Some hosts also enable a guest mode that wipes the device’s session on a checkout-day routine; if you want that level of privacy hygiene, look at the related setup guides on this site.

Cameras with microphones inside the home are a different matter and are not part of this setup — the Echo’s built-in mic exists only to listen for the wake word, and Amazon’s recordings can be reviewed and deleted in the Alexa app under Settings > Alexa Privacy. Be transparent and you will be fine.

Maintenance — keep it from going stale

The fatal failure mode is a routine that recommends a restaurant that closed eight months ago. Schedule a quarterly check — pull up the Alexa app, open Routines, and re-read each one out loud. If anything has changed, edit the script. Fifteen minutes every three months keeps your voice guide current.

Also do a quick check after every cleaning turnover that the Echo is plugged in and online. The Alexa app shows device status — one glance, done. For multi-property operators, the short-term rental local guide automation walkthrough covers how to script those checks across a portfolio.

Frequently asked questions

Will guests find a voice assistant local guide creepy?

Not if it is positioned as a tool, not surveillance. The Echo Show 8 is in a common space, the guest triggers it actively, and the device’s only purpose is recommendations and weather. Guests who would feel watched by a smart speaker tend to mention it before booking. Disclose it in your listing and the rest sorts itself out.

Should I use Alexa or Google Home?

Either works, but Alexa Routines are easier to set up than Google Routines for this specific use case. Echo Show 8 also has a better display for adding photos than the Google Nest Hub. If your property is already deep in the Google ecosystem (Nest thermostats, Nest doorbell outside), Google Nest Hub is fine. Do not mix — pick one and standardize.

How many trigger phrases should I create?

Start with five. Coffee, dinner, things to do, late night, rainy day. That covers the 80 percent of guest questions. If you find guests asking the same question repeatedly that you do not have a routine for — “what about hiking?” or “is there a grocery store?” — add another. Do not add more than ten or guests stop remembering them.

What if a guest asks Alexa something my routine does not cover?

Alexa falls back to its default behavior — usually web search or “sorry, I don’t know that one.” That is fine. Your routines are an enhancement, not a replacement for the assistant. The fallback is graceful.

Can I record my own voice instead of using Alexa’s voice?

Not natively in Routines. You can build a custom skill if you want a bespoke audio experience, but it is overkill for most hosts. Alexa’s voice reading your script is more than fine — guests focus on the content, not the voice.

Next steps

Set up the first three routines tonight — coffee, dinner, things to do. Print the trigger card. Add the line to your welcome message. You will have a working voice assistant local guide on the Echo Show 8 before you go to bed. For the broader welcome flow, the airbnb local guide template ties the voice setup, the printed binder, and the pre-arrival message into one consistent guest experience.