Which manual sections guests actually open
We measured which parts of the manual people open in real guides. Check-in and wifi tie for first, and the rest tells you what to write first.
By Rodrigo Hernández
Co-founder of HostCompass. Builds the product with LatAm hosts: fewer midnight WhatsApps, better communication reviews.
In one sentence
Across guides published with HostCompass, sessions that open any section open 7.7 of them on average (not one) and the two most-viewed categories are check-in and wifi, tied; the sample is small, but it points to a manual that gets read through rather than consulted like an index.
What we measured, and why the sample is small
A digital manual leaves a trace: every time someone opens a section it is recorded, with no names and no contact details. That lets us answer a question hosts usually answer by intuition — what does a guest actually look at?
The numbers below come from 107 events, 16 distinct sessions and 4 guides, between April and August 2026. That is not much, and it is better said upfront than buried. One of those four guides also looks very much like an internal test rather than a real guest, so the margin of error is wider than the decimal point suggests.
I am publishing it anyway, because a small verified number says more than "after reviewing hundreds of manuals", which is what tends to get written when nothing has been measured.
The finding: it gets read, not consulted
Of the 16 sessions, 6 opened at least one section. Those 6 opened 7.7 sections on average. Not one of them stopped at a single section.
That contradicts the intuition that a manual is a reference you dip into with a specific question. It behaves more like something you go through end to end, most likely on the first night, and return to afterwards.
The practical consequence is immediate: writing the wifi section carefully and rushing the rest will not do. If a guest opens nearly eight, nearly eight need to be written.
What gets opened most
Grouping category views across those guides:
| Category | Views | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Check-in and checkout | 6 | 23% |
| Wifi | 6 | 23% |
| Appliances | 5 | 19% |
| House rules | 3 | 12% |
| Neighbourhood guide | 3 | 12% |
| Emergency | 2 | 8% |
That is 26 views in total: the six categories above add up to 25, and the missing one is a single view in a category with no name of its own. The percentages are computed against 26, which is why they do not reconcile against the left-hand column.
Check-in and wifi tie at the top, which is what anyone would have guessed. The surprise is third place: appliances get opened almost as often as rules and the neighbourhood combined. It is the section most hosts write in a hurry and the one most guests actually read.
The structure, ready to copy
Here is the skeleton I use, split by moment. Copy it into your guide and fill in the right-hand column: any row you leave empty is precisely the question you will get by chat.
Arrival and connection
| Section | What to put | What always gets forgotten |
|---|---|---|
| Access | Exact address, code or lockbox, floor and door | What to do if the code fails at midnight |
| Wifi | Network name and password, copyable as-is | Where the signal drops |
Inside the house
| Section | What to put | What always gets forgotten |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen | Coffee machine, oven, where the basics live | The pod format the machine needs |
| Climate | How it turns on and with which remote | That one remote controls the whole flat |
| Laundry | Recommended cycle and the detergent | How long the short cycle runs |
| Bins | Which day, which container, where | That food waste goes out twice a week |
Living there and leaving
| Section | What to put | What always gets forgotten |
|---|---|---|
| Rules | Quiet hours, pets, visitors, parties | The reason for each, in one line |
| Neighbourhood | Breakfast on foot, shop, pharmacy | Your own recommendation |
| Transport | Airport, parking, apps that work locally | Whether parking is paid |
| Checkout | Time, keys, sheets, windows | What NOT to do |
| Emergency | Your number and a local contact | Where the water stopcock is |
Eleven rows in total. Write all eleven and you have covered what the average guest opens, and then some.
What the data does not say
The limits are worth marking. These numbers say what gets opened, not what gets understood. A heavily opened section might be well linked, or it might be badly written and need a second visit.
They also say nothing about guides nobody opened. Maybe the guest did not need it, or maybe they never knew it existed — a different problem, fixed in the welcome message rather than in the manual.
And with 16 sessions, any of these percentages could move several points with one more guide. I will publish an update when the sample can carry a firmer claim.
What I would do with this
Write the first three rows of the table first (they account for 65% of views) and do not publish until they are complete. The rest can grow over time.
Then mind the writing: how to write a guide people read matters as much as which sections you include, because a section that is opened and badly written counts as opened in these numbers and as a failure in the review. Airbnb also recommends putting house rules in writing, and those are among the easiest to misread when the tone is wrong. Booking.com frames it the same way: rules set expectations before the booking, not after the friction.