What's in a digital welcome guide? A section-by-section look

Updated 16 September 2026

A Kenova welcome guide is organised into four tabs along the bottom of the phone screen: Welcome, Stay, Explore and Help. Everything below is taken from a working guide — The Old Town Loft in Dubrovnik, which is the live example Kenova shows to every host. You can open it yourself and tap through while you read.

One thing worth saying before the detail. A welcome guide is not there to stand between a host and a guest. It takes the repetitive questions — the Wi-Fi, the parking, the bins, the door code at midnight — so the host's attention is free for the parts of a stay a guest actually remembers.

What is a digital welcome guide?

A digital welcome guide is a mobile web page holding everything a guest needs during a stay: arrival details, Wi-Fi, the house manual and house rules, local recommendations and who to contact for help. It is also called a digital guidebook, a house manual or a welcome book. A Kenova welcome guide opens from a link or a QR code in whatever browser is already on the guest's phone — there is no app to download, no account to create and no password to remember. Once it has been opened, it keeps working when the signal drops, and a guest can add it to their home screen.

What does a guest see first?

Welcome tab

At the top sits the welcome itself: the property name, a line from the host, and who is hosting — "Hosted by Mark · Dubrovnik". A host or agency on the Signature or Portfolio plan can add their own name and logo here, so the guide reads "Presented by" their business. Top right, next to the language picker, is a search button — more on that below.

Then comes a section called The First Five Minutes, and it contains exactly three things: the Wi-Fi network, the Wi-Fi password and the door code. Each one has a tap-to-copy button that says "Copied" when it has worked. That is a deliberate choice — a guest standing in a lane at 11pm with a suitcase does not want to scroll, and does not want to type a password wrong three times.

The Wi-Fi password and door code are also time-limited. When a host adds booking dates — from their calendar sync or by hand — those two values only appear from two days before check-in until shortly after checkout. Before that, the guest sees a note that they appear two days before check-in — so a guide link forwarded months later does not open the door.

Underneath, a block called Find Your Way gives four routes into the rest of the guide:

• House manual — AC, kitchen, checkout
• Eat, see & do — curated by a local
• Getting around — from the airport and port
• Help & safety — host and emergency contacts

Then a Book Before You Arrive section, recommended by the host, for things worth reserving ahead — in the Dubrovnik example, a self-guided walking tour of the Old Town.

Where do the house instructions live?

Stay tab

The Stay tab is the house manual, and it is arranged in the order a guest needs it — arrival, then the stay, then departure. It answers the questions that otherwise arrive as messages.

On arrival — getting in

The full address with a directions link, the door code, the Wi-Fi network and password again (because a guest looking for them should never have to remember which tab they were on), and the nearest parking garage with a link that opens in Maps. Parking is the single most common pre-arrival question in most cities, and it is answered here without anyone having to ask.

At the property — how everything works

The specifics that are obvious to a host and invisible to a guest. From the Dubrovnik guide: "Air conditioning — white remote on the wall, press MODE then the up arrow. Give it 10 minutes." "Hot water — always on, no switch." "Rubbish — green bins at the end of the lane. Out before 8am, recycling on the right." It also carries the local things a visitor would not know, like the fact that Dubrovnik's tap water is safe to drink. That level of detail is the difference between a guide that gets used and one that gets closed.

Before you go — checking out

Late checkout policy and what to do with the keys. Short, and it prevents the checkout-morning message.

Please remember — house rules

The host's rules, written plainly: quiet hours, smoking, parties and extra guests. Having them in the guide means a guest has seen them before there is a problem, not after.

What's included — amenities

A grouped list so a guest can check rather than ask: bathroom, kitchen, bedroom and laundry, entertainment, outdoor, climate and safety. Whether there is a hair dryer, a washing machine, a balcony.

During and after the stay

For stays of two nights or more with booking dates added, the guide asks once, partway through, whether everything is OK. "Something's not right" takes the guest straight to the host's contacts while there is still time to fix it — it is a question, not a rating. After checkout, the Stay tab shows where to leave a review, using the review links the host has chosen for Airbnb, Booking.com or Google.

Can guests search the guide?

Yes. The search button at the top of every screen lets a guest type "towels", "parking" or "checkout" and jump straight to the answer. It understands all 16 guide languages at once, so a guest who types ručnik or タオル finds the towels in an English guide. It works offline too. The one thing it will never find is the Wi-Fi password or door code — searching for them cannot confirm them.

How do the local recommendations work?

Explore tab

The Explore tab is a short, curated set of places — not a directory. It is headed "Curated by a local" and split into Eat, See and Do. Each entry carries the name, what kind of place it is, a couple of sentences in a real voice, and a button that opens it in Maps.

From the Dubrovnik guide, the Eat entries read like this: "Moby Dick — family-run since 1985, tucked on Prijeko — fresh Adriatic seafood. Try the black risotto or grilled octopus." And: "Marangun Food & Bar Room — old Croatian recipes done with real care, just past the walls. Order a spread of small plates and settle in."

The restraint is the point. A guest given forty options picks none of them; a guest given three that a host would actually send a friend to goes to one that evening. The host chooses what leads, and Kenova fills the rest from places near the property's address.

Where there is more to offer locally, Explore carries it. In Dubrovnik that means a link to the Dubrovnik City Guide and a Which beach today? card, powered by Beacho, with water quality, jellyfish sightings and swim conditions for the beaches closest to the property, updated through the day.

What happens when a guest needs help?

Help tab

The Help tab opens with the address and a directions link, then covers how to get around and who to call. Getting around covers the routes into the property — the airport shuttle and what it costs, the cruise port connection, and roughly what a taxi to the door runs to.

Help & emergency starts with the host — a direct WhatsApp or Viber link with an honest note about response time ("replies within the hour, usually"), and email — then the emergency numbers. For a Croatian property that is 112 for all emergencies, plus police, fire, ambulance, sea rescue and road assistance. A guest in trouble should not be searching for a number in a second language.

Everyday essentials finishes the tab: one tap to the nearest parking garage, pharmacy, hospital or clinic, supermarket, ATM and currency exchange, each opening in Maps.

Does a welcome guide handle Croatian eVisitor registration?

No — and be wary of anything that says it does. eVisitor is Croatia's official registration portal, the legal obligation sits with the host, and the registration has to happen there. What a Kenova guide does for Croatian properties is ask each guest to fill in their details in the guide before arrival, and send them to the host by email, complete and legible — so the registration itself takes a couple of minutes instead of an evening of chasing blurry passport photos on WhatsApp. Croatian hosts have 24 hours from arrival to register every overnight guest, and fines run from €132 to €2,654 per violation — the full detail is in our eVisitor guide for hosts. Hosting in Italy? See our Alloggiati Web guide.

What languages does a welcome guide come in?

Every Kenova welcome guide comes in English. On the Signature plan it is also available in 15 other languages: Croatian, German, Italian, Slovenian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Slovak, Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. The host writes their guide once. A guest arriving from Seoul or Milan picks their language at the top of the screen and reads it in their own words, and the host never writes anything twice.

How does a guest actually open the guide?

Two ways, and hosts generally use both. The link goes into the pre-arrival message, so the guide is in the guest's thread before they travel. The QR code goes on a waterproof sticker or a printed card inside the property — on the fridge, by the door, wherever a guest will look when they have a question. Both open the same guide. Neither requires the guest to install anything.

Is there a printed version?

Yes — a printed welcome card: a laminated, two-sided card with the property at a glance, A4 or US Letter, laid out from the same details as the digital guide — arrival, Wi-Fi, the house manual and the host's Eat · See · Do picks — with a QR code that opens that property's guide. Kenova prints it, laminates it and posts it to the host. It is included on the Signature plan and available as an add-on on Stay. The host previews it from the dashboard before ordering, and the dashboard marks every field that appears on the printed sheet. The door code is never printed.

Some guests will always reach for paper first. The sheet gives them the essentials and points them to the rest.

What does the host have to write?

Less than most hosts expect. Kenova drafts the guide from the host's existing Airbnb, Vrbo or Booking.com listing, so the first version already has the property, the amenities and the basics in place. The host corrects what's wrong and adds what a listing never contains — the trick with the AC remote, the bin day, the three places they'd send a friend. If the words won't come, the host dashboard can draft a short property introduction from a few quick answers, for the host to edit and save. The finished guide is ready in under 24 hours.

The four tabs — plus search and print — at a glance

Tab	What it answers	Sections
Welcome	"I'm at the door — how do I get in?"	Welcome and host · The First Five Minutes (Wi-Fi network, Wi-Fi password, door code, tap-to-copy) · Find Your Way · Book Before You Arrive
Stay	"How does this thing work?"	On arrival — getting in · At the property — how everything works · Before you go — checking out · House rules · Amenities · Mid-stay check-in and review links
Explore	"Where should we eat tonight?"	Curated Eat / See / Do, each with category and a Maps link · local extras such as today's beaches
Help	"Something's wrong — who do I call?"	Address and directions · Getting around (airport, port, taxi) · Help & emergency (host WhatsApp or Viber, email, emergency numbers) · Everyday essentials (parking, pharmacy, hospital, supermarket, ATM, exchange)
Printed	"Is there anything on paper?"	Printed welcome card — laminated, two-sided, the property at a glance, with a QR code to the guide (Signature; add-on on Stay)
Search	"Where did it say…?"	On every screen, in all 16 languages, offline