Most check-in instructions are written by a host standing in the property, in daylight, with the keys in their pocket. They are read by a stranger in a taxi, at night, at 12 percent battery. That gap explains nearly every arrival-day message you get.
Below is a check-in message I actually use, with commentary. It is about 180 words. The version it replaced was 60 words and generated three or four questions per stay.
Hi Marcus — quick arrival note for Friday.
Name and date, first line. Guests get a lot of automated messages during a trip. A name and a date tell them within half a second that this one is theirs and is about the thing happening next.
Address: 14 Marden Street, Brighton BN2 1TR. If you're in a taxi, "Marden Street by the Co-op" gets you closer than the postcode — the postcode drops some drivers at the wrong end.
This is the single most useful sentence in the message and it took me two years to write it. Postcodes and ZIP codes cover an area, not a point, and any property near the boundary of one gets guests dropped a five-minute walk away with luggage. Test your own address in a mapping app from a cold start and see where the pin actually lands.
Check-in is any time after 4pm. There's nobody to meet, so arrive whenever suits.
Two facts. The second one is the one that stops the message "do we need to meet you?" — which I used to get on about half of all stays. Self check-in is so normal to hosts that we forget it is not universal. Say it.
Door code 4729, then press the tick key below the 9. Green door with a brass letterbox, set back behind the hedge between the white house and the corner shop.
The action sequence, then the visual confirmation. Note the order: code first, because that is what they are scanning for, and description second, because that is what they will need when the code doesn't work.
Bags earlier than 4pm: there's a covered side passage to the left of the porch — you're welcome to leave luggage there and go for lunch. It's not overlooked from the street.
Early arrivals are the most common awkward request in short-term rentals and the one hosts handle worst, usually by ignoring it until a guest asks. Answer it before it is asked. Even a "no, sorry, but the station has lockers on platform 2 for about £6" is a better answer than silence, because it lets the guest plan.
WiFi and everything else — bins, heating, the good coffee place — is in the guidebook: [link]
One link, placed after the things they need in the next ten minutes. If you put the link first, guests tap it, get absorbed, and lose the door code. Practical detail first, depth second.
I'm on this number all evening if anything's odd.
"All evening" is doing work. "Message me any time" reads as boilerplate and guests discount it. A specific window reads as a real offer, and guests use it, which is what you want — a small question at 7pm is much cheaper than a resentful sentence in a review.
What I cut
"We hope you have a wonderful stay!" Warmth belongs in the welcome message that lands after they are inside. In an arrival message it is noise between two facts.
The full list of house rules. Nobody absorbs eight rules while standing on a doorstep. They go in the guidebook and in the welcome message the next morning.
Parking. It matters enormously, which is the problem: it needs 150 words of its own, and those 150 words drown the door code. It goes in its own message to guests who told me they are driving, and in its own section for everyone else.
Three things worth adding if they apply to you
Lift or stairs, and how many. "Second floor, no lift, 24 steps" prevents a very specific and very bad review. Write the number.
What the building's front entrance looks like when it is dark. Many buildings are unrecognisable at night. If yours has an unlit entryway or a sensor light that takes a moment, say so.
The one thing that has surprised a guest before. Every property has one. A gate that latches from the inside only. A hallway light on a timer. A door that must be pulled toward you before the key turns. You know yours. It belongs in the arrival message, not buried three screens down.
The test
Read your check-in instructions out loud to someone who has never visited. Stop whenever they ask a clarifying question, and write the answer into the text. Two or three rounds of this and you will have a message that works, which is a different thing from a message that is accurate.