Guestbook or guest book: which is correct?
Both are correct. Dictionaries such as Merriam-Webster and Cambridge spell it as two words, guest book, while the one-word guestbook is common online and is the form Wikipedia uses for its article.
So for a wedding, a funeral or a vacation rental, write guest book. For the page on a website where visitors leave a message, guestbook is the usual choice, and nobody will mark you down for either.
What the dictionaries say
Merriam-Webster lists guest book as two words and describes a book of blank pages that guests sign at events like weddings and funerals, or at places like art galleries. Its page for guestbook, one word, shows that same two-word entry.
Cambridge also has guest book as two words, with British and American pronunciations, and ties it to hotels: the book where guests write their names and addresses after a stay.
Wikipedia goes the other way. Its article is titled Guestbook and gives guest book as the second spelling, along with visitor log and visitors’ book.
What people type into Google
We pulled US search volumes from Semrush in November 2026 while planning this site. Guest book, two words, gets about 5,400 searches a month, and guestbook gets about 2,900. The split follows the setting:
| Search | US searches a month |
|---|---|
| wedding guest book | 9,900 |
| guest book | 5,400 |
| funeral guest book | 3,600 |
| guestbook | 2,900 |
| memorial guest book | 320 |
| guestbook ideas | 170 |
| website guestbook | 110 |
| guestbook for website | 90 |
| online guestbook | 90 |
The event phrases in our list are two words, and the website phrases are one word. Only “guestbook ideas” breaks the pattern. Even the question this page answers, “guestbook or guest book”, gets about 90 searches a month.
Which one to use
- For a wedding, a funeral, a memorial, a baby shower or a party, write guest book. It matches the dictionaries and the way people search.
- For a page on your website where visitors sign, guestbook is the common choice, though guest book is not wrong.
- For a product or a brand, copy the brand. Ours is Guestbook World, one word.
- In any one piece of writing, pick a spelling and keep it. Mixing the two is the only real mistake here.
We follow the same rule on this site. Our name is one word, our pages for a wedding guest book and a funeral guest book use two, and a guestbook for your website keeps the one word, because that is how people look for each of them.
What about guest-book with a hyphen?
Neither dictionary we checked lists a hyphenated guest-book, so leave the hyphen out. Before another noun, as in guest book table, the two words stay open as well.
Other names for it
Wikipedia lists visitor log and visitors’ book as other names. Funeral homes often say register book, which we cover in our guide on what to write in a funeral guest book.
Quick answers
Is guestbook one word? It can be. Dictionaries list two words, guest book, but guestbook is widely used, especially for websites.
Is it the same in British English? Yes. Cambridge gives guest book as two words with British and American pronunciations, so the advice is the same in the UK and the US.