Airbnb house rules template (free printable)

House rules tell guests what you expect while they stay: when they can arrive, how many people can sleep over, and whether you allow parties, smoking or pets. Our free template puts those rules on one printed page and adds a second page of checkout instructions. Fill in your own times and limits, tick the boxes that apply, then frame the page by the door or slip it into your welcome book.

What is in the download

House rules. Check-in and checkout times, quiet hours and the most guests who can stay overnight sit at the top. Under them are tick boxes for parties and events, smoking and vaping, pets and visitors, lines for parking and for trash and recycling, room for your other rules and a line for your phone number.
Before you leave. A checkout list with six common tasks and two blank lines, a “No need to” box where you can tell guests what to skip, a line for lost property and a spot for your guest book QR code.

Both pages print on US Letter or A4. Nothing on them mentions Airbnb, so they work for any vacation rental.

What Airbnb already asks of guests

Airbnb has its own ground rules for home guests, which apply to every stay. Guests should respect “the approved number of overnight guests,” no smoking rules, quiet hours and no pets rules, and they should check out by the time you set. The same article says “hosts can also add additional rules to their listing page.”

So the printed sheet does not replace the rules on your listing. Guests read the listing before they book, and the sheet in the home reminds them once they arrive. Keep the two the same, because a rule that only appears on paper in the home comes as a surprise.

A “no pets” rule does not cover service animals. Airbnb’s accessibility policy says guests “can generally be accompanied by a Service Animal,” and hosts may not charge pet fees for one. Emotional support animals are treated differently, but hosts in some places, such as California and New York, must accept them for home stays.

How to write house rules guests follow

Use times and numbers. “Quiet hours are 10 pm to 8 am” is easier to follow than “Please be quiet at night.”
Give the reason when it is not obvious. “Please put nothing but toilet paper in the toilet; the house is on an old septic system” gets a better response than the rule alone.
Keep it to one page. If a rule belongs to one thing in the home, such as the hot tub or the fireplace, put a note next to that thing as well.
Write the way you would talk to a guest at the door. A list of bans in capital letters reads as if you expect trouble.

House rules examples you can copy

Check-in and checkout: “Check-in is after 4 pm and checkout is by 10 am. If you need another time, ask us and we will try to make it work.”
Quiet hours: “Quiet hours are 10 pm to 8 am. Sound carries to the houses next door, so please keep music inside.”
Overnight guests: “Up to six guests can stay overnight, and only the guests on the booking.”
Parties: “No parties or events, please.”
Smoking: “No smoking or vaping inside. You are welcome to smoke on the back porch.”
Pets: “Dogs are welcome, up to two. Please keep them off the beds and the sofa.”
Parking: “Please park in the driveway, not on the street. There is room for two cars.”
Trash: “Bins are by the garage. Pickup is Tuesday morning, so please put the bins out on Monday night if you are here.”
Shoes: “Shoes off inside, please. There is a rack by the door.”
Hot tub: “The hot tub closes at 10 pm. Children must have an adult with them.”

Checkout instructions

Checkout instructions are the last part of the house rules. Airbnb’s own advice for hosts, A clear and simple checkout, says hosts add their requests in the Before checkout section under Requests in the Listing editor, and that “Airbnb automatically sends notifications to guests with checkout time and instructions.” Guests rate the checkout, too, and the article warns that “Listings with repeated low ratings from unreasonable requests may be removed from Airbnb.”

That is why the printed list stays short. Turning off the lights, locking up and putting the towels in one place take a minute each. Leave the cleaning to your cleaner, and if you would rather guests did not strip the beds or start the laundry, say so in the “No need to” box. Put the same list in the app, so the reminder in the home matches what guests were sent.

Where to put the house rules

Frame page one and hang it by the front door, or put it on the fridge with a magnet.
Add a copy to your welcome book. Our Airbnb welcome book template has a shorter house rules page, and this one can replace it.
Leave the checkout page by the door or on the kitchen counter, where guests see it on their way out.

If you are not sure what belongs in the welcome book and what in the guest book, our guide to the Airbnb guest book vs welcome book puts them side by side.

Airbnb also has a house manual in the listing’s Arrival guide, for details such as how the heating works. Its help article notes that “only guests with a confirmed reservation can access your manual,” so put anything a guest should know before booking in the house rules on the listing instead.

The guest book spot

The checkout page ends with a space for a QR code. Stick the code of your guest book there, and guests can leave a note for you and for the next guests from their phones before they go. Our vacation rental guest books are free, and the Airbnb guest book template has paper pages if you would rather keep a book in the home.

Quick answers

What should Airbnb house rules include? Check-in and checkout times, quiet hours, the most guests who can stay overnight and your rules on parties, smoking, pets and visitors. Add parking and trash, plus anything particular to your home, like a hot tub or a septic system.

Are house rules the same as checkout instructions? No. House rules cover the whole stay, and checkout instructions cover what to do before leaving. The template has a page for each.

What are reasonable checkout instructions? A few quick tasks: lights and heating off, windows closed, doors locked, towels in one place, trash in the bins and keys returned.

Can I use this template for Vrbo or another rental site? Yes. The pages do not name any platform.

Is the template free? Yes. Print and copy it as often as you need.