House rules protect the property without making the stay feel supervised. This Airbnb house rules template keeps every rule to one line, written as a fact rather than a warning — copy it, change the brackets, and use the same wording in your listing and your digital guest instructions.
The template
- Quiet hours: [10:00 pm – 8:00 am]. Please keep conversations indoors on the balcony after [10:00 pm].
- No parties or events. The flat is in a residential building.
- Smoking: [not allowed anywhere indoors / allowed on the balcony, please use the ashtray].
- Pets: [not allowed / welcome, please let us know in advance].
- Maximum occupancy: [x] guests. No additional overnight visitors.
- Shoes: [please leave them at the entrance].
- Please do not use: [the fireplace, the locked storage room].
- Damage: accidents happen — just message us so we can fix it before the next guests.
Three rules for writing rules
Explain once, briefly. "Quiet hours from 10 pm" works. Three paragraphs about the neighbours does not.
Give the reason when it helps. Guests follow a rule they understand: "the building has thin floors" earns more compliance than "be quiet".
Never bury a rule. If it matters, it belongs in the listing, in the pre-arrival message and in the guidebook — identical wording in all three places.
Rules that cause disputes when missing
- Occupancy and visitors, especially for larger flats.
- Parking: which space, and what happens if it is taken.
- Bins and recycling days, in buildings with strict collections.
- Check-out time, and whether late check-out is possible and at what price.
Keep the rules editable
Rules change: a new building policy, a pet-friendly trial, a stricter noise curfew in summer. In a printed booklet each change means reprinting. In a digital guidebook you edit once and every guest sees the current version — see the full Airbnb welcome book template for the rest of the sections.