Test the guide in the order a guest needs it. Start outside the property, with a phone in your hand, and follow every instruction without filling in the gaps yourself.
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Start outside, not on the welcome page#
Imagine a guest arriving at a property with two gates, a narrow street and a number that is hard to spot after dark. You know which driveway belongs to the property; they do not. That difference is a useful place to begin a guide review.
An arrival test is a rehearsal. Open the guide on your phone at the point where a visitor would first need it. Follow the directions literally, from finding the property to settling in. Whenever you use knowledge that is not in the guide, write it down. That is a gap to fix.
If you cannot visit, ask someone unfamiliar with the property to read the arrival section and explain each step back to you. You can still catch an unexplained entrance, an ambiguous photo or a missing instruction without pretending the desk review replaces a visit.
Put the information in arrival order#
Organising a guide by room can make sense once someone is inside. Before then, a short sequence is easier to follow: get there, park, find the entrance, open it, then get connected. Keep the detail close to the step that needs it.
| Moment | What the guest needs | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Find | The right address and entrance | Does the map pin lead to the guest entrance? Can the guest distinguish it from a neighbouring gate? |
| Park | A clear place to stop | Is the allocated space identifiable? Explain any unloading step before asking the guest to move the car. |
| Enter | A usable access instruction | Does the photo show the actual door or lockbox? Is the action described in the right order? |
| Connect | The correct Wi-Fi details | Check the network name and password exactly, including capitals and punctuation. |
| Settle | The next useful thing | Can the guest find heating or cooling instructions and a way to contact you? |
Write the action, then show the landmark#
A useful instruction tells someone what to do and how to recognise that they are doing it in the right place. “Use the side entrance” still leaves them looking for a side. Name the visible landmark and add a photo taken from the direction they will approach.
From the street, follow the path to the blue door on the left of the garage. The lockbox is mounted beside that door, below the porch light. Your arrival message contains the access details. If the door or lockbox does not match the photo, contact us before trying another entrance.
This example is deliberately specific, but it is not a property instruction to copy unchanged. Replace every landmark with something that exists at your property. Avoid relying only on colour: a label, position or photograph gives the reader another way to recognise the entrance.
Test the first night as well#
Once inside, stop reading the guide from top to bottom. Try to find a single answer instead. Where is the heating control? How does the cooktop turn on? What should someone do if the Wi-Fi network does not appear? A guide can contain all these answers and still make them difficult to find.
- Use headings a guest would recognise, such as “Wi-Fi” or “Heating and cooling”.
- Test photographs and text at a normal phone size. A diagram that needs repeated zooming may need a closer crop.
- Check appliance instructions against the exact model at the property, rather than a similar-looking appliance.
- Put the contact route near troubleshooting instructions. A guest should not have to read the whole guide to ask for help.
- Ask whether the information still works with an unreliable mobile connection. Keep an appropriate fallback in your arrival process.
Make one correction, then repeat the step#
Treat a guest question as a clue, not proof that they failed to read. Check whether the answer was missing, hard to find or unclear. Those are different problems: adding another paragraph will not necessarily solve a navigation problem.
After replacing a lock, changing parking arrangements or updating an appliance, repeat the relevant part of the test. Keep a small review record with the section, the change and who checked it. You do not need to give the entire guide a new date for a minor correction.
- Walk the arrival route with the guide open.
- Record the points where you had to guess or use local knowledge.
- Fix the instruction, photo or heading that caused the uncertainty.
- Repeat that step with someone who did not write it.
- Check the guest-facing version, rather than assuming an editor preview is the final result.
Sources & editorial note
- EvryStay: Connect Hostaway guide
Product reference for reviewing guest-guide information after an import. The arrival test above is an original editorial checklist, not a claim about measured customer outcomes.
Prepared with AI assistance. Product references were checked against the linked sources and current marketing-site code. Examples are illustrative; no customer outcomes, testimonials or first-hand field testing are claimed.