A bed and breakfast welcome book has to do one thing an Airbnb welcome book never does: manage the fact that you and your guests are under the same roof. Breakfast at a set time. A shared parlour. A host who might be pouring coffee twenty feet from where someone's reading the paper. Copy a generic vacation rental template and you'll cover the WiFi password and miss the three things that actually make or break a B&B stay.

I've read a lot of these guides. Most of them are the same eight-section checklist dressed up for whatever property type the headline promises. Fine for a self-check-in flat. Wrong for a guest house where the whole appeal is that a real person lives there and cooks you eggs.

So this is the B&B version. What belongs in yours, why the breakfast section deserves more space than everything else combined, and a template you can lift and fill in tonight.

What should a bed and breakfast welcome book include?

A B&B welcome book should cover: a warm welcome message, breakfast details (times, how to flag dietary needs, where it's served), shared-space etiquette, how and when to reach the host, your room's quirks, house rules, local recommendations, safety and emergency info, and checkout. The breakfast and shared-space sections are what set it apart from a standard Airbnb guidebook.

That's the skeleton. Now the parts that matter.

Why a B&B welcome book isn't an Airbnb one with a new cover

Think about what's different when you host a B&B versus letting an entire property.

Your guest doesn't have the place to themselves. They're sharing a breakfast room with strangers, a hallway with you, and maybe a bathroom down the corridor. They can't just work it out from the space itself, because the space doesn't tell them when breakfast is, whether they're allowed in the garden, or if that closed door is a private study or a second lounge.

An Airbnb guest can poke around and figure most things out. A B&B guest can't, and won't try, because poking around in someone's home feels rude. So they'll do the polite thing instead: sit in their room, unsure, and message you to ask. Or worse, guess wrong and end up somewhere they shouldn't be.

The welcome book is how you replace all that uncertainty with confidence. Done well, it does the same job as the tour you'd give at the door, except it's there at 11pm when they've forgotten half of it. If you've ever built a proper house manual for a vacation rental, the bones are similar. The emphasis is completely different.

The welcome message: short, warm, and specific to a shared home

Two or three lines. Thank them, tell them you're glad they're here, and set the tone that this is a home, not a hotel.

Where B&B differs: name yourself. Guests want to know who's cooking their breakfast and who to wave at on the stairs. A line like this works:

"Hi, and welcome to Rosewood House. I'm Marta, and I live in the cottage just off the back garden. Breakfast is my favourite part of the day, so I hope you're hungry. Anything you need, I'm never far. Make yourself at home."

Notice it does two jobs. It's warm, and it quietly answers "is the host going to be hovering?" by telling them where you actually are. That question is on more guests' minds than they'll ever admit. If you want more phrasing to borrow, my Airbnb welcome message templates work here with light edits.

Breakfast: the section that earns the "and breakfast"

This is the one. Spend more words here than anywhere else, because breakfast is the reason someone booked a B&B instead of a Travelodge, and it's the single most common source of confusion.

Cover all of it:

When. State the serving window plainly. "Breakfast is served 8:00 to 9:30, Monday to Saturday, and 8:30 to 10:00 on Sundays." If you take breakfast orders the night before, say so and say how. If guests can choose a time slot, tell them the slots and how to pick one.

Where. The breakfast room, the conservatory, the kitchen table. Add a line about whether they can take a tray back to their room, because someone will want to and won't know if it's allowed.

What. Give the format. Continental spread they help themselves to? Cooked-to-order menu you'll bring out? A fixed two-course thing at 8:30 sharp? Guests plan their morning around this. A walker wants an early cooked breakfast before a hike; a couple on a lie-in wants to know they won't miss it.

Dietary needs and allergies. This is not optional and it's not a footnote. Tell guests exactly how to flag a gluten intolerance, a nut allergy, a vegan preference, and by when. "Let me know your dietary needs by 8pm the evening before and I'll sort it" removes a genuinely stressful unknown for anyone with a restriction. It also protects you.

Here's the thing most hosts get wrong: they treat breakfast as a nice-to-have detail and give it one line. Then every single guest asks the same three questions by text, and the host wonders why their inbox never quiets down. Front-load breakfast properly and you delete an entire category of messages. The same logic runs through my piece on the complete timeline for guest communication: answer it before they have to ask.

Shared spaces and the rhythm of the house

B&Bs have common areas, and common areas have unwritten rules that are obvious to you and invisible to a guest.

Walk them through it. Which rooms are theirs to use, and when. The guest lounge, the garden, the honesty bar, the terrace. Is the sitting room open all evening or does it become your private space after nine? Can they make a cup of tea in the kitchen or is the kitchen off-limits? Where do they hang wet coats and muddy boots?

Then the rhythm. Quiet hours matter more in a shared house than in a standalone rental, because sound carries and your other guests are trying to sleep through the same walls. Spell out quiet hours and be honest about thin floors or an old staircase that creaks. Guests would rather know than find out at 2am when the couple upstairs comes back from the pub.

If your B&B sits in a residential street, add the neighbour angle too: where to park, which spots are yours, and a gentle note about noise on arrival and departure.

How and when to reach the host

The most delicate section, and the one Airbnb templates completely skip because Airbnb guests rarely meet their host.

Your guests need three things spelled out. How to reach you (mobile number, a WhatsApp, a bell at the front desk, a knock on the specific door). When you're around and when you're not. And, crucially, permission to actually contact you, because British guests especially will suffer in silence rather than "be a bother."

Say it directly:

"I'm usually about in the mornings and evenings. If you need anything at all, text me on 07xxx or knock on the green door by the kitchen. Honestly, ask. I'd much rather help than have you wondering."

Also tell them what's private. "The door at the end of the landing is our family space, so that one's off-limits, but everything else is yours." One sentence, and you've prevented an awkward wrong turn.

Your room: the small stuff that trips people up

A short, room-specific section beats a generic one. Old buildings have quirks, and B&Bs are often old buildings.

The radiator that takes an hour to warm up. The shower that runs cold for thirty seconds then turns lovely. The window latch with the knack. The light switch for the ensuite that's inexplicably out in the hall. Guests fiddle with these things, feel stupid, and sometimes break them. A line each saves everyone the trouble.

If you run several rooms, give each its own page or card so the Blue Room guest isn't reading about the Garden Room's temperamental skylight.

Check-in and arrival

Even when you greet guests in person, put the arrival details in writing, because plans slip and people arrive when you're mid-breakfast-service for someone else.

Cover check-in time, what to do if they're early (is there somewhere to leave bags?), and the late-arrival plan. B&Bs live and die on the late arrival. A guest whose train is delayed until 11pm needs to know whether there's a key safe, a code, or a sleepy host who'll wait up. If you do offer a key safe for late arrivals, the same care that goes into good self check-in instructions applies: photos, a clear code, and a backup if the box jams.

House rules that actually fit a B&B

Standard rules apply, but a few carry extra weight in a shared home. Smoking (where, if at all). Guests bringing visitors back. Shoes in the house. Whether the front door locks automatically and how to get back in after an evening out. Pet policy, both for guests' pets and your resident cat who will absolutely try to join breakfast.

Keep the tone friendly. Rules in a home read very differently from rules on a corporate booking page, and a warm "a few house things to keep us all happy" lands better than a numbered list of prohibitions. If you want a structure to start from, adapt my Airbnb house rules template and soften the language for a guest-house setting.

Local recommendations from someone who lives there

This is where a B&B should crush a hotel, and most welcome books waste it on a list of the same TripAdvisor top ten.

You live here. Use that. The café that does the good sourdough but only until they run out. The walk that locals take and tourists never find. The pub with the fire versus the pub with the quiz. Name them, say why, and add the small detail only a resident knows: "book the Tuesday tasting menu a day ahead, it sells out." Guests remember the recommendation that felt personal far longer than the one that felt googled.

Group them so they're easy to scan: food and drink, walks and outdoors, rainy-day options, and getting around. A guest deciding on dinner at 6pm doesn't want to read three paragraphs.

Safety and emergency information

Never skip this, however cosy the setting. Fire exits and the assembly point. Where the extinguisher and first-aid kit live. How to turn off water and gas in a leak. Emergency services number, and the nearest A&E or urgent-care with its address. Your own number, again, because in a panic nobody scrolls back three pages.

In a multi-room house, a small evacuation note per room, showing the nearest exit from that room, is worth the five minutes it takes to write.

Checkout

Keep it short and kind. Checkout time, where to leave keys, whether to strip the bed or leave it, and where used towels go. B&B guests are generally tidy people who want to do the right thing, so tell them what the right thing is. My checkout instructions template covers the wording; for a B&B, drop the "take the bins out" tasks and add a warm goodbye.

Then, gently, the review ask. B&B guests who had a lovely stay are among the most willing to leave a glowing review, they just forget once they're home. A soft prompt at checkout, and a follow-up message a day later, is how you turn a good stay into public proof. There's more on this in how to get more five-star reviews.

Digital, printed, or both?

Both, and here's the split that works.

A printed welcome book in the room is right for a B&B. It suits the setting, older guests reach for it, and it sits nicely on the nightstand. But a printed book can't be sent before arrival, can't be updated without a reprint, and can't be searched at midnight from bed.

So pair it. Send a digital welcome book before check-in with the breakfast times, arrival plan, and parking, so guests turn up already knowing the essentials. Keep the printed one in the room for browsing. When your breakfast hours change or a new café opens, you update the digital version in seconds and the printed one when you next get a chance. I went deeper on the trade-offs in digital guidebook versus printed welcome book.

The digital version has a quieter benefit too. If you take any bookings directly rather than only through an OTA, a digital guidebook is a natural place to nudge past guests toward booking with you again next time, which is the whole point of turning one-time guests into repeat bookers. For B&B owners weighing up their own booking channel, why every host benefits from a direct booking website is worth a read.

A copy-paste bed and breakfast welcome book template

Lift this, fill in the brackets, and cut anything that doesn't apply.

Welcome

Hi, and welcome to [property name]. I'm [name], and I [live on site / am just next door]. [One warm line about the place or the breakfast.] Anything you need, I'm [where to find you].

Breakfast

Served: [days and times]
Where: [room]
Format: [continental / cooked to order / set menu]
Order by: [if applicable, how and when to place an order]
Dietary needs and allergies: let me know by [time] the evening before and I'll sort it. I can do [vegan / gluten-free / etc.].

Reaching me

Best way: [text / WhatsApp / knock on the (colour) door]
Number: [xxx]
I'm usually around: [mornings and evenings]
Private areas: [which doors are off-limits]

Shared spaces

Yours to use: [lounge, garden, terrace] during [hours]
Kitchen: [access or not]
Quiet hours: [times], and a heads-up that [floors are thin / stairs creak]

Your room: [room name]

[Heating quirk]
[Shower / hot water note]
[Window / light switch oddity]

Arriving and leaving

Check-in: [time]; early arrivals can [plan]
Late arrival: [key safe code / call me]
Checkout: [time]; leave keys [where], towels [where]

Around here (my picks)

Eat: [place, why]
Walk: [route, why]
Rainy day: [option]
Getting around: [parking, transport]

House rules

[Smoking, visitors, shoes, pets, front-door lock]

Safety

Fire exit: [route], assembly point: [where]
Extinguisher / first aid: [location]
Emergencies: 999; nearest A&E: [name and address]

The mistakes that show up again and again

The breakfast section as a one-liner. It's the headline feature. Give it room.

No word on host presence. Guests genuinely worry about whether they're intruding. Silence makes it worse, not better.

Copying a whole-property vacation rental template wholesale, so it talks about "the property" and "self check-in" when your guest is going to meet you at the door and eat in your dining room. The mismatch reads as careless.

And treating local tips as a formality. The recommendations are your edge over every chain hotel in town. Write them like you're telling a friend, because in a B&B, that's closer to the truth than it is anywhere else in hospitality.

Build yours this week

Your welcome book is the difference between a guest who texts you five times and one who settles in, finds breakfast, and leaves a review mentioning how easy everything was. It's the same warmth you'd give at the door, written down so it's there when you're not.

You can build a digital bed and breakfast welcome book with GuestIntro for free on a single property, so it's sitting on your guests' phones before they arrive, and upgrade to Guest Pro from $7.99 a month when you want translation, multiple rooms, or your own booking links. Start with the breakfast section. That's the one they came for.

The Bed & Breakfast Welcome Book: What to Put in Yours (With a Copy-Paste Template)