Why don’t your guests read your welcome guide?

The welcome guide is meant to make the stay easier, reduce guest inquiries and improve the guest experience. Yet one recurring observation is shared by many hoteliers: guests don’t read the welcome guide, or only partially.

And this isn’t necessarily a content issue. In most cases, the guide is complete, clear and sometimes even very well designed. It’s simply not consulted at the right time, nor in a format that truly fits guest behavior.

Here’s why:

The welcome guide is sent too late

This is the most common mistake.
Many essential pieces of information are sent after arrival, when guests are already:

• on the move,
• tired,
• focused on something else.

Yet guests look for certain information before they even arrive:

• how to access the property,
• whether early check-in is possible,
• available amenities,
• what there is to do nearby.

When the guide arrives too late, it becomes something to “read later”… and is often forgotten.
The right timing is not after arrival, but before the stay begins.

The format is not adapted to real guest usage

A welcome guide can be “well done” in terms of content… and still poorly designed in terms of format.

Guests:

• mostly consult information on their smartphone,
• want an answer within seconds.

Long, linear or static formats (PDFs, long scrolling documents with no structure, generic links) quickly discourage reading.
A good welcome guide is not a document to read, but an interface to use.

Guests have a question, they don’t want to “read everything”

A frequently overlooked point: most guests don’t open a welcome guide to browse it.
They open it to solve one specific problem.

Examples:

• “What’s the Wi-Fi password?”
• “How does the air conditioning work?”
• “Can we book an activity?”

If the information isn’t immediately accessible, they give up… and send a message instead.
This isn’t a lack of effort , it’s a reflex of efficiency.

The guide is static, not interactive

Today, guests are used to:

• clicking,
• asking,
• booking,
• getting an immediate answer.

A purely informational guide breaks with these habits.

On the contrary, an interactive welcome guide allows guests to:

• ask a question via a chatbot,
• pay for a service,
• book an activity,
• access dynamic content (videos, maps, geo-located recommendations).

When the guide allows action, it gets used.
When it simply asks guests to read, it gets ignored.

Too much information… or poorly structured information

Trying to say everything is often counterproductive. An effective guide guides the guest instead of overwhelming them. Information should be clearly organized into categories, easy to read, and ideally supported by photos to make navigation intuitive.

A guide that’s too dense:

• confuses the guest,
• hides important information,
• discourages navigation.

The key is not quantity, but prioritization:

• what’s essential,
• what’s useful,
• what’s optional.

The welcome guide doesn’t evolve with the stay

Finally, many welcome guides remain static, while the stay itself evolves.

Yet guest needs are not the same:

• before arrival,
• during the stay,
• before departure.

A truly useful welcome guide must live over time:

• anticipate,
• guide,
• conclude.

Conclusion

If your guests don’t read your welcome guide, it’s usually not a content quality issue, but a question of timing, format and user experience.

An effective welcome guide is not:

• a document to consult,
• nor a long list of information.

It is a living tool, designed to meet real guest needs, at the right moment, in a clear and interactive way.
Solutions like Sunver help go beyond static guides by offering a digital, mobile, multilingual and interactive welcome experience, built to be truly used, not ignored.