A guest arrives at your bell tent after a two-hour drive. Phone battery at 14%. One bar of signal, then none. They can't find the light switch because there isn't one, the tap runs for six seconds and stops, and the toilet is a composting loo they've never used. Now they're texting you. At 9pm. In the rain.

A good glamping guest guide stops all of that before it starts. Not a generic welcome book copied from a city flat, but a guide built for a place with no mains power, patchy signal, and a set of quirks your guests have genuinely never met before. Off-grid stays run on information, and the host who hands over the right information at the right moment gets fewer messages, calmer guests, and better reviews.

Glamping sits inside a category that keeps growing. Unusual and outdoor stays are pulling bookings away from standard listings, and hosts who lean into it are doing well out of it (more on that in our piece on how unusual stays are booming and how hosts can cash in). But a yurt, a safari tent or a shepherd's hut asks more of the guest than a hotel room does. The guide is where you close that gap.

Here's what to put in one, section by section, plus the one thing most glamping hosts get wrong.

What should a glamping guest guide include?

A glamping guest guide should cover: how to find and access the site, how the power and lighting work, where water comes from and how to conserve it, how to use the toilet and shower, fire and heating instructions, what phone signal to expect, safety and emergency contacts, and local food and activities. Off-grid specifics come first. Local tips come last.

That order matters, and it's the reverse of what most welcome books do. A standard guidebook opens with brunch spots. A glamping guide opens with "here's how the loo works," because that's the question that generates the panicked message.

Why a glamping guide isn't just a prettier welcome book

Most welcome-book templates assume mains electricity, a flushing toilet, hot water on tap and four bars of 5G. Strip those four assumptions away and half the template stops making sense.

Think about what changes. Power isn't unlimited, so a guest can't leave every light on and charge three devices at once. Water might come from a tank that holds enough for two careful days, not an endless supply. The toilet has rules. The heat comes from a wood burner that needs actual skill to light. And the guide itself has to survive with no signal, which means it can't be a link that only loads when they've got data.

That last point is the big one, so it gets its own section.

If you're starting from a general framework, our guide on what to include in your guidebook covers the bones. This piece is about the off-grid muscle you bolt onto it.

Get the guide onto their phone before the signal dies

Here's the mistake. You build a lovely digital guide, you send the link, and your guest opens it once at home, skims it, and forgets it. Then they arrive on site, lose signal, and the guide is gone. Now they're stuck with the exact problem the guide was meant to solve.

The fix is two parts. First, use a guide that works offline once it's been opened, so the content is cached on the phone rather than pulled fresh from the network every time. A digital guide that loads offline beats a printed booklet that gets rained on and beats a PDF nobody can find in their downloads folder. We compared the trade-offs in digital guidebook vs printed welcome book, and for glamping the digital option wins as long as it caches properly.

Second, tell them to open it before they leave home. One line in your pre-arrival message: "Open your guide now while you've got signal, then it'll work at the site even with no bars." That single instruction saves more support messages than any other sentence in your whole setup.

A QR code pinned inside the tent helps too, as a backup for guests who arrive without having opened anything. Put it somewhere obvious. On the welcome table, not tucked behind the door.

The sections every glamping guide needs

Now the meat. Each of these is a section guests will actually open, in the order they'll need it.

Finding the site and getting to the unit

Sat-nav lies in the countryside. It'll send people down a farm track, drop them at the wrong gate, or give up entirely a mile out. So spell out the last part of the journey yourself.

Give the final approach in plain words: which turning off the main road, what the gate looks like, whether there's a code, where to park. A what3words reference or a dropped pin for the exact parking spot beats a postcode every time. Then tell them how to get from the car to the unit, because at a glamping site those are often not the same place. "Park by the barn, then it's a 200-metre walk across the field to your tent. Bring a torch after dark and wear something on your feet you don't mind getting muddy." Guests forgive a walk. They don't forgive a surprise walk in the dark carrying a cool box.

What goes wrong: hosts describe the site as they know it, using landmarks only a local recognises. Write it for someone who has never been within ten miles of the place. This is your self check-in moment, so give it the same care you'd give self check-in instructions any guest can follow.

Power: what actually runs, and what doesn't

This is where expectations get set or broken. Say clearly what the power source is: mains, leisure battery, solar, or a mix. Then say what it will and won't run.

Be specific. "There's a USB point by the bed and a single socket by the door. They'll charge phones, a camera, a small speaker. Please don't plug in hairdryers, travel kettles or electric heaters, they'll drain the battery for everyone." If the solar setup means power is tighter after a cloudy day, say so. If lights are 12-volt and dimmer than a guest expects, say that too, and mention where the spare torch or lantern lives.

Guests aren't annoyed by limits. They're annoyed by hitting a limit they didn't know existed. Tell them the ceiling and they'll happily stay under it.

Water: where it comes from and how to make it last

If water is limited, this is a real section, not a footnote. Explain the source (tank, standpipe, jerry cans) and roughly how much there is. Give two or three concrete conservation habits rather than a vague "please save water." Something like: "The tank holds about two days for two people. Short showers, tap off while brushing teeth, and let us know if it's running low so we can refill before you're stuck."

Cover the hot water separately if it works differently. A gas califont, a solar shower bag, a kettle on the burner: each needs its own two lines. And say whether the water is drinkable or whether you provide bottles or a filter.

The toilet talk

Be blunt here. Guests would rather read one honest paragraph than guess and get it wrong.

If it's a composting toilet, explain the mechanics simply: what to do after use, what the sawdust or bran is for, and the hard rule of what must never go in (usually nothing but the obvious and the toilet paper you provide, no wipes, no sanitary products, no chemicals). If it's a chemical or cassette loo, say how it's emptied and whether that's your job or theirs. If the shower and toilet are a shared block a short walk away, map it and mention lighting at night.

This section prevents both the awkward messages and the genuinely grim clean-ups. It earns its place.

Fire, wood burners and staying warm

A wood burner or fire pit is half the reason people book a glamping stay. It's also the fastest way for a nervous first-timer to smoke themselves out or, worse, cause a real problem.

Walk through lighting the burner step by step: where the kindling and logs are, how to set the air vents, how to get it going without filling the tent with smoke, and how to leave it safe overnight. For a fire pit, cover where it can be lit, what the wind rules are, and where the water or extinguisher sits. Wildfire risk is real in dry spells, so if you ever need to suspend fire use, this is the section where guests will look. Clear house rules around fire belong here rather than buried elsewhere, and our house rules template shows how to word them so they land without nagging.

Cooking and what's in the kitchen

Glamping kitchens vary wildly, from a full outdoor setup to a single gas ring and a cool box. Say exactly what's provided: hob, gas bottle, pots, plates, kettle, cool box or fridge. Say what runs out and how to swap a gas bottle if that's on the guest. Then say what's not there, so nobody arrives expecting an oven and a microwave that were never coming.

If you sell firewood, breakfast hampers, or a local veg box, this is a natural spot to mention it. Guests genuinely appreciate an easy add-on when the nearest shop is 20 minutes away.

Signal, connection and how to reach you

Tell the truth about signal. If it's one network only, and only by the gate, say which network and where. If there's no wifi, say so plainly rather than letting a guest discover it at 11pm.

Then give them a way to reach you that doesn't depend on signal they don't have. That might be a landline number for the farmhouse, a specific spot where a text will send, or a physical bell. Guests relax enormously once they know there's a way to get hold of a human if something goes wrong.

Safety, weather and wildlife

Keep this practical. Nearest hospital and pharmacy with rough drive times. Where the first-aid kit and fire blanket are. What the weather can do to the site and what to do about it, whether that's pegging down in wind or which path floods after heavy rain. And a friendly word on wildlife: what they might hear at night (it's usually an owl or a sheep, not a monster), whether to store food securely, and not to feed anything.

None of this needs to be alarming. A few calm, specific lines make guests feel looked after rather than scared.

Local food and things to do, adjusted for off-grid

Local recommendations still matter, but write them for someone who might not have a car handy and definitely doesn't have reliable maps. Give walking distances and rough directions, not just a name to Google. Flag which pub does food and until when, which farm shop is worth the trip, and which walk starts from the gate. A printed or cached map earns its keep here, more so than anywhere with reliable data, where guests just pull up their phone.

What to send before they arrive

Half the value of a glamping guide comes from timing. Send it early, not on arrival day.

Three or four days out, send a short pre-arrival message that links the guide and pulls out the two or three things they need to prepare: what to pack that they might not think of (a torch or head-torch, sturdy footwear, layers, a power bank), the offline instruction, and the parking and walk-in note. Our complete timeline for guest communication lays out when each message should land, and the glamping version just leans earlier because guests have more to prepare. The pre-arrival details every host should cover apply here too, with the off-grid extras layered on top.

A guest who arrives with a head-torch, a power bank and the guide already on their phone is a guest who won't message you all weekend.

How do you give directions to an off-grid site?

Give the final approach in words, not just a postcode. Name the turning off the main road, describe the gate or entrance, share a what3words reference or dropped pin for the exact parking spot, and then describe the walk from car to unit including surface, distance and whether a torch is needed after dark. Sat-nav gets people near. Your words get them to the door.

Turn the guide into fewer messages and better reviews

A glamping guide isn't admin. It's the thing that decides whether your weekend is quiet or a stream of texts, and whether the review says "magical" or "we were confused the whole time."

The pattern is simple. Guests who know how everything works relax, and relaxed guests write warmer reviews. Clear off-grid instructions show up directly in five-star write-ups, because the guest never had the bad moment that would've cost you a star. If reviews are what you're chasing, the mechanics in how to get more five-star reviews all start from the same root: guests feeling looked after before they had to ask.

There's a booking angle too. Guests who had a smooth, well-briefed stay are the ones who come back, and a guide with your details in it makes it easy for them to book you again next year instead of scrolling a listings site. That's the quiet route to turning one-time guests into repeat bookers.

Build the guide once, keep it on the guest's phone, and let it work while you don't. For a glamping site, it's the closest thing you'll get to being in two places at once.

You can put all of this into a digital guide guests open on their phone and keep offline, with a free plan for your first property and Guest Pro from $7.99 a month when you're ready for more. That's what GuestIntro is built for: the off-grid stay that runs itself once the guide's in their pocket. If you'd rather work from a framework, our step-by-step house manual guide walks through building one.

The Glamping Guest Guide: What to Put in It (and What Guests Actually Read)