Should you put your Airbnb guide behind a PIN? Three reasons to lock, one to leave open

The default is open. That’s deliberate.

A digital guest manual is mostly everyday information. WiFi name, kitchen tips, where the milk is, what time bins go out, where to park. None of it is sensitive. If a search engine ever lists it, that doesn’t hurt the host; in fact, it occasionally pulls a curious would-be-guest to the listing. Adding a step at the QR-scan moment costs you check-ins: every extra tap before the guest sees the WiFi password is a chance for them to give up and message you instead, which defeats the whole point of the manual.

So the right default for the overwhelming majority of properties is “open to anyone with the link or the QR”. The QR itself is the gate; it lives inside the property, only guests who are physically there see it, and an old web link to your manual does almost no harm to anyone.

Three host situations, though, do call for a 4-8 digit code.

Three cases where locking earns its keep

1. Your manual lists access codes

Lockbox combinations, gate access codes, alarm codes, garage door remotes, smart-lock backup codes: anything that lets a stranger into the property. If your manual lists any of these and the manual is on a public web page, then those codes are effectively on a public web page too. Even if no human ever stumbles on them, search engines might.

Most hosts change lockbox codes between stays (good practice), which makes this less of a worry. But if you don’t (or if your alarm code never changes because the keypad is finicky) the digital manual is now another place those codes live. Locking the manual with a code restricts that copy to confirmed guests only.

2. Gated estates with strict access policies

Some homeowners’ associations and security estates have rules about how access information for the gate, the boom, or the alarm is shared. Putting your guest manual behind a code puts you clearly within those rules: anyone you’ve given the code to gets in; anyone else can’t see the gate procedure even if they happen on the link.

It’s a small thing, but it’s an easy answer to a body corporate who notices the manual is open on the web.

3. A QR is in the wild and you’re uncomfortable about it

Sometimes a printed QR ends up somewhere it shouldn’t. A guest takes a photo of it to keep for next time; a cleaner posts a snap of the kitchen with the QR in the background; a former guest writes a blog post about the property and includes the link. Your manual still works for current guests, but you no longer know who’s reading it. Adding a code puts control back with you: every new guest needs the current code (or a fresh one, depending on how often you change it).

The code doesn’t have to change per stay to be useful here. Even one steady code per property gives you an off-switch: change it once, and every old copy of the link stops working.

The case for leaving it open

For most short-term-rental properties (apartments, suburban houses, holiday cottages without lockboxes or smart locks worth worrying about) locking the manual is a step that costs you with no clear payoff. Every extra tap a guest has to make before reading the WiFi password makes it less likely they read it at all. Self-check-in instructions work best when they’re right there at the moment of arrival.

And the privacy you gain is small. The QR is in your property; passers-by aren’t scanning it. The link is one of millions on the web that nobody finds by chance. The risk of an open manual is in theory, not in practice.

The decision usually comes down to whether your manual lists access details a stranger could use. If yes, lock it. If no, don’t bother.

How to share the code without breaking Airbnb policy

This is where most hosts get it wrong. Airbnb’s rules say hosts can’t put outside links in their listing or in the Airbnb message thread with a guest. The one exception: a guest can ask the host to chat through another channel: WhatsApp, SMS, email, and at that point sharing the link there is fine.

That means: do notpaste the access code into your Airbnb message thread before arrival. Even if the message also contains the link to your manual, that whole bundle counts as “outside link” under Airbnb’s rules.

Do this instead:

• Print the QR with a small label that says “Tap the QR for the digital guide. Ask your host for the access code on arrival.”The QR by itself is just physical signage inside the property; Airbnb’s rules don’t apply to a sticker on your kitchen counter.
• When the guest messages you on Airbnb to confirm their arrival window or ask any pre-stay question, reply on Airbnb with: “The digital guide’s access code is in your check-in instructions.” That puts the code in Airbnb’s own check-in field; Airbnb’s rules treat that as part of the platform.
• Or, once the guest has shared a phone number or asked for a quicker channel, send the code via WhatsApp, SMS, or email. “After the guest asks” is exactly the case Airbnb’s rules allow.

The share-the-code helper in your staymanual dashboard puts a sample message on your clipboard with one tap, with a visible reminder that this message goes via WhatsApp / SMS / email, never via Airbnb messages.

The thing every lock screen needs that most don’t

The single worst thing that can go wrong with a code-locked guest manual is the stuck guest. They scan the QR. They get a lock screen. They don’t have the code: maybe the host forgot to send it; maybe the email got buried; maybe the guest is at the door at 11pm and just wants in. With nothing else on the lock screen, they bounce back to Airbnb messages and you get a complaint.

Every code-locked manual needs a way for the stuck guest to reach a real person, on the lock screen itself, before they get frustrated. The Call Host list the host has already set up is the obvious answer: it already knows who’s on duty right now in the property’s local time, and it already has WhatsApp, call, and text buttons.

Showing that on the lock screen turns the worst case (“guest is locked out and angry”) into “guest taps Call, reaches the host or the night manager, gets the code, scans again.” A 90-second hiccup instead of a five-star killer.

How staymanual’s PIN lock works

Open your property’s editor and scroll to the new Private mode card. By default it’s off, so every guest can see your manual through the QR. Tap Set a code, type a 4-8 digit number (most hosts pick 6 digits, easy to share over WhatsApp without writing it down twice), optionally type a hint that’ll appear above the code box (“Ask James for the code”), save.

Now any visit to your guide hits a friendly lock screen: your property name, your cover photo if you’ve set one, your hint, and a number pad. Right code in, the guide appears as it always has. Wrong code shows a quiet little “that didn’t work” line and clears the box. After about eight wrong tries in five minutes from the same person, the page quietly stops responding for a bit: enough to slow down anyone trying to guess, not enough to bother a guest who fat-fingered.

On the same lock screen, the on-duty contact appears from your existing Call Host list. It rings the right person at the right time, in the property’s local clock, with one tap. The lock isn’t a wall; it’s a friendly gate with a doorbell.

Once a guest enters the right code, their phone remembers the unlock for 30 days, so they only have to enter the code once during the stay. The unlock is property-by-property: opening your London flat doesn’t open your Cape Town cottage. And it’s tied to your current code: change the code in your dashboard, and any phone that previously had access needs the new code on the next visit. Handy when a stay just ended and you want to rotate access without printing a new QR.

Want to remove the lock entirely? Tap Remove lock on the same card. One confirm, and the guide is open again. Off by default, off in one tap.

Free on every plan, like everything else.