Every welcome book I use today is made in Canva. The ones for my twelve villas in Portugal back when I was running alojamento local near Lisbon, the ones for my apartments in Qatar during the World Cup, and the ones for the apartments I manage today in Casablanca. Not because I'm a designer (I'm not), but because it's the tool that lets me create a book that looks professional, update it in five minutes when a Wi-Fi password changes, and do all of it with a free account.
In this guide, I'll show you how to make a welcome book in Canva from start to finish: which format to choose, which pages to plan, the layout, the digital version and the PDF export. Whether you rent out a studio on Airbnb, a guesthouse or a B&B room, the method is the same.
Why Canva for a welcome book
I started, like most hosts, with a Word document. It did the job, but it looked like an administrative form, and a clumsy welcome book quietly undermines an otherwise beautiful listing. Canva fixed that for three reasons:
- It's free. Everything you need for a welcome book (pages, photos, fonts, PDF export) is included in the free account. You don't need the Pro version.
- It's editable in minutes. The café you recommend closes, the key box code changes, you install an induction hob: you open your design, fix it, re-export. A welcome book is a living document, and Canva is built for that.
- The result looks professional. Clean layout, well-framed photos, consistent fonts. Your guests judge the quality of your welcome through these details too.
If you're still wondering what a welcome book should actually contain (and what's better left out), I've written a complete guide to the Airbnb welcome book that covers the content in detail. Here, we focus on building it in Canva.
Before you open Canva: gather your content
The classic mistake is to open Canva first and think second. You'll spend two hours dragging half-empty blocks around. Do the opposite: prepare your content in a plain document, then lay it out. Here's the list I use for every property:
- The Wi-Fi network name and password (and where the router lives).
- Check-in and check-out times, and departure instructions.
- Access: parking, building code, floor, key box.
- How the essentials work: heating, air conditioning, hot water, hob, coffee machine, washing machine.
- Your house rules, said kindly.
- Your local recommendations: three or four honest addresses, not twenty.
- Safety: fuse box, water shut-off, fire extinguisher, first aid kit, emergency numbers.
- A welcome note of two or three sentences, in your own words.
Once that material is ready, the layout becomes assembly, not creation. Expect ten to fifteen pages in total.
Step 1: Create the document in the right format
Create a free Canva account if you don't have one, then create a new design. For a welcome book, I recommend the A4 portrait format (or US Letter if that's your local standard). It's the format that prints anywhere without surprises, reads comfortably as a PDF on a phone, and slips into a folder or a document stand on the kitchen counter.
A5 is an option if you want a small bound booklet, but it complicates home printing. Stick with A4 for your first book: simple, readable, standard.
Step 2: Order your pages around the guest's stay
The best page order isn't the order of your topics, it's the order of your guest's questions. In Canva, create your pages in this sequence:
1. Cover: a great photo of the home, the property name, "Welcome Book". 2. Welcome note: two or three warm sentences, who you are, how to reach you. 3. The first ten minutes: Wi-Fi large and first, arrival, access, parking. The most read page in the entire book. 4. The home: a page on how the equipment works, one short entry per appliance with a personality. 5. House rules: said once, kindly. 6. Your recommendations: coffee, restaurants (one affordable, one for a special evening), grocery store, pharmacy, and the one experience not to miss. 7. Getting around: taxis, public transport, what a fair price looks like. 8. Safety: fuse box, water shut-off, emergencies. The page you hope stays unread and which, on the wrong day, is the most important one in the book. 9. Departure: time, instructions, where to leave the keys, and an invitation to leave a review.
I refined this structure across dozens of very different properties, and it holds up everywhere. On every page, keep one rule in mind: if the information can't be found in ten seconds, it's in the wrong place.
Step 3: The layout, without being a designer
This is where Canva makes the difference, as long as you keep it restrained:
- Two fonts maximum. One for headings, one for body text. Canva offers ready-made pairings if you're unsure.
- Two or three colours maximum, ideally pulled from the photos of your home. An elegant beige and white book will always age better than a rainbow.
- Real photos of your property. A photo of the coffee machine beats ten lines of explanation. Photograph the router, the key box, the fuse box: these images answer questions before they arrive.
- White space. Guests skim, they don't study. Clear headings, short lists, room to breathe. A wall of text won't be read, however good it is.
Duplicate a page you like instead of starting from scratch each time: it's the simplest way to keep the whole book consistent.
Step 4: The digital welcome book
The printed book lives in the home. The digital version works before arrival: it's the one you send with your confirmation message, so your guests find the building, understand the parking and land already oriented.
With Canva, two options complement each other:
- The PDF: export your book and attach it to your check-in message. Simple, universal, readable offline.
- The share link: Canva lets you share your design as view-only via a simple link. The advantage: the link always shows the latest version, without resending a file.
My favourite trick: generate a QR code that points to your digital version and place it on the first page of the printed book. Guests photograph it once and carry your recommendations around the city. During the World Cup in Qatar, sending the book before arrival was the single change that most reduced my message volume.
Step 5: Export and print
For printing, export as PDF Print in Canva (higher quality, made for paper). Print it yourself on slightly heavier paper, or use an online print shop for a bound finish if you want to make it an object. Slip the pages into plastic sleeves if the book lives in a kitchen: it will survive jam-covered fingers.
For the version you send, PDF Standard is enough and gives you a lighter file.
Canva welcome book template or start from scratch?
You can build everything above page by page, and if you have the time, it's an excellent exercise. But if you want the result without losing a weekend, start from a Canva welcome book template that's already structured, and spend your energy on the content: your addresses, your tone, your photos.
That's exactly what I do today: I start from an editable welcome book template, 16 pages already in place and fully editable in a free Canva account, and I swap in the photos, the Wi-Fi details and the recommendations for each property. If you host international guests, the template in five languages covers English, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese with the same layout. And for customising the template inside Canva, click by click, I've written a step-by-step Canva tutorial that picks up where this guide leaves off.
If you're kitting out a whole property, the complete host toolkit bundle adds the tools that always end up missing: a cleaning checklist, printable posters and social media templates.
Questions hosts ask me about Canva and welcome books
Is Canva really free for making a welcome book?
Yes. The free account is enough to create, edit and export your book as a PDF, and to use a purchased editable template. Some graphic elements in the Canva library are reserved for the Pro version, but you don't need them: your own photos do a better job.
Can I edit my welcome book later?
That's the whole point. Your design stays in your Canva account: when something changes in the home, you fix it and re-export the PDF in two minutes. Reread your book after every guest question it failed to answer: each of those questions is a page to improve.
Does a Canva welcome book work for a B&B or guesthouse too?
Yes, the structure is the same and only a few additions change: breakfast hours, the services you offer, how the shared spaces work. Guests' questions barely change from one type of accommodation to another.
Your welcome book doesn't need to be perfect to start working for you. Create the nine pages, put the Wi-Fi first, send the PDF before every arrival, and you'll see the difference within the next few stays: fewer messages, calmer guests, and reviews that mention "everything was explained". That's the sentence that sells your next ten bookings.
