guidely

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guidely is one link you share with guests, or print as a QR code. It opens in any browser with no app to download, and guests can add it to their home screen to use it like an app, even offline. You build it once and every guest always sees the latest version.

Do my guests have to download anything?

No. The guide is a web link. On first open a guest can add it to their home screen for one-tap access, but nothing is installed and there is no app store.

How do I get started?

Sign in, add a guide, then pick a starting point: a ready-made template, a blank guide, or let AI write a first draft from your location and property type that you can then edit.

How long does setup take?

The essentials (Wi-Fi, check-in, a few recommendations) take a few minutes. A setup checklist at the top of the editor tracks what is left, and each item jumps to the right place.

Is there a free trial?

Yes. Every account starts with a 14-day free trial of the full Pro feature set, no card needed.

When do guests see my guide?

Nothing is visible until you publish. After that the same link and QR are reused forever, and publishing again updates what every guest sees instantly.

What the Hotels plan adds

The guide is free on every plan. The Hotels plan adds the operational features on top: room service billed to the room, per-room QR codes, and a what's-on calendar.

Every planHotels plan
Wi-Fi, check-in, map, recommendations
Right now (weather and time aware)
Welcome note, photo spots, sections
Extras and experiences
Pre-arrival ordering
In-room service billed to the room
Per-room QR codes
What's on calendar
What do I pay for?

The guide itself is free on every plan. The Hotels plan unlocks room service billed to the room, per-room QR codes and the what's-on calendar.

Branding and look

The Look & feel tab makes the guide yours. Everything previews live in the phone mockup beside the editor.

What can I brand?

Your logo or a photo, a cover image, your brand, card, accent and background colours (with a warning if two are too close to read), and your typeface. Custom heading fonts are a Pro feature.

Logo or photo?

Upload either. guidely also builds a transparent mono version so the logo sits cleanly over cover photos, and you can set how it appears on immersive covers.

Essentials

The things every guest asks for first: door code, Wi-Fi network and password, check-in and check-out times, and the room or cabin. Set them once in the Essentials tab.

How does the Wi-Fi QR work?

guidely turns your network and password into a scannable Wi-Fi QR, so guests join by pointing their camera instead of typing. There is also a one-tap copy for the password.

Where do check-in instructions show?

You can write step-by-step or plain instructions for arrival and departure. They appear in the guide and also feed the AI concierge, so it can answer arrival questions in your words.

Recommendations and map

Add on-property and nearby spots in Places & recommendations, grouped by category. Quick add from Google fills in the name, address, opening hours, rating, photos and map location for you.

What is a House tip?

The local secret only you know, shown as a highlighted note on a place (for example “go before 9am to beat the queue”). It is the line Google cannot crowd-source.

On-property vs nearby?

Mark each place as at the property, nearby, or auto (decided by distance). On-property picks lead the guide and appear on the map at your location.

What are best times and Explore fit?

Best times (morning/afternoon/evening/night) and a weather fit (indoor/covered/outdoor) let the Right now engine surface a place at the right moment and in the right weather.

How does the map work?

Your property shows as a pin made from your logo. Each place is a brand-coloured pin with an open or closed dot, and tapping one shows the walk time from your door. On-property spots fan out around your pin so they never hide under it, and choosing a category zooms the map to fit that type.

Right now

A weather and time-aware card that leads with what suits the moment. It steps down through open now, later today, tomorrow, then worth a visit, and always shows something.

Can it wrongly say something is open?

No. It only shows “now” for things it can trust: real opening hours, best times you set, or on-property spots you marked as available. It never guesses.

Where does it show?

The live Right now card sits on the home tab of every guide, with a plan-ahead list for tomorrow.

Experiences and extras

Sell more of the stay. Extras are add-on services, experiences are bookable things to do.

How do paid extras work?

List an add-on (airport transfer, late checkout, a bottle on arrival) with a price and an optional payment link. With a link the guest pays you directly. Blank routes to a prefilled WhatsApp request.

What makes an activity bookable?

Add a price (flat, per person or per group) plus details like duration, capacity and meeting point. A one-off date or a weekly schedule also places it on the What’s-on calendar.

What's on

Scheduled events (game drives, tastings, classes) shown on a month, week, day or list calendar. This is a Hotels-plan feature, and appears once you add scheduled activities. Without it, activities still list in the guide, just without the calendar.

AI concierge

Ask AI answers guest questions any hour, in the guest’s own language, based on your guide plus any notes and PDFs you add in the AI tab. A Pro feature.

What if it cannot answer?

It offers to pass the question to reception by email or WhatsApp, with the room and guest attached, so nothing falls through.

Can guests message reception in the guide?

Yes, for room guides. A forwarded question starts a thread you answer from your Desk Inbox, and your reply shows on the guest's phone - a two-way conversation tagged to the room, not just an email.

What if I turn AI off?

The same box is still a quick search of your places, sections and menus, so guests find things without asking.

Languages

A globe menu lets guests read the guide in any of 24 languages. When you publish, the whole guide is translated for them automatically, and the AI always replies in the guest’s language. You can also set a language for a specific room.

Food and drink ordering

On the Hotels plan you can add outlets (restaurant, cafe, bar) or room service, each with a menu, service hours, a minimum order and its own order WhatsApp. Guests browse, pick quantities, and send one prefilled WhatsApp order - or pay by card if you connect Stripe.

How do orders and totals work?

Every order arrives as a ready-made WhatsApp message. Prices you enter add up the total, and the guest chooses bill-to-room, cash, or card if you connect Stripe. There is no till to set up.

What is in-house item timing?

Each room-service item is tagged Before arrival (stock your room), During stay (room service), or Anytime. Pre-arrival stocking works for any guest. In-stay room service billed to the room needs rooms set up and the Hotels plan.

Can I upload an existing menu?

Yes. Upload a menu photo or PDF and AI extracts the sections, items and prices for you to review.

Do guests and I see order history?

A guest who has scanned their room QR code sees their own orders for the stay on any device. You get a live orders board with statuses, a running tab per room, printable bills, and a check-out that saves the stay and starts a fresh tab.

Can guests pay by card?

Yes, if you connect Stripe (under Payments in the editor). Guests can then pay by card for room service, extras, experiences and tips, straight to your account - guidely takes no cut. Leave it off and everything routes to WhatsApp and bills to the room, as before. Extras and experiences can also carry your own payment link.

Rooms and bill-to-room

How you run your place is set once by the property type in your guide (Property info), and your Desk adapts to match. A single place (home, cottage, BnB) uses one general QR or link and a shared door or lockbox code - no rooms, no check-in. Rooms (hotel, guesthouse, lodge) gives a QR or link per room, per-room codes, and check-in / check-out. Per-room guides are on the Standard plan (up to 19 rooms); the Hotels plan adds room-service ordering billed to the room and lifts the room limit.

One place or multiple rooms?

A single place (home, cottage, BnB) is one guide and one general QR or link with a shared door/lockbox code - set it once and leave it, no check-in. Multiple rooms (hotel, guesthouse, lodge) gives each room its own QR or link, its own door code, and check-in / check-out so orders and messages are tagged to the room. Hotels and lodges default to rooms and single places to one guide.

How does a guest unlock their room?

When you check a guest in, guidely gives you a short access code to hand them. Entering it once on their phone unlocks their room for the stay - their own orders and messages, on any device. A new check-in rotates the code, so the previous guest's link stops working, and a departing guest keeps read access briefly for a last-day question.

How do I run a stay?

Verify a guest with their name, language and a private staff note (allergies, VIP). A live order board tracks room service, and check-out prints the closing invoice, archives the stay to history and resets the tab.

Can I set up many rooms at once?

Yes. Paste one room per line or generate a range like 101-130, then print every room’s QR card at once, plain or branded - or just send each room its link.

Running your desk

The Desk is your operational home. Everything guests send you - room-service orders, experience and extra requests, and messages - lands in one Inbox with a single badge, so nothing is missed. You notice new work in one place and do each kind on the surface that fits it.

What is the Inbox?

One feed of every order, request and guest message across your rooms, newest first, with a single badge for what still needs you. Filter to just what needs attention, or switch to the Orders board, Requests or Messages. An order, request and message from the same room sit together with that room's context.

How do I work each type?

A message opens a thread you reply to in place. A request opens a card to Confirm or Decline, then Mark done. An order is there to be noticed - its live board (list, stations or kanban) with SLA timers and drag-to-advance is one tap away, so busy production work stays on the board rather than a row in a feed.

Can my team share the work?

Yes. Claim an order or request to put your initials on it so everyone can see who has got it, and release it if plans change. Front-desk and kitchen staff can each be given their own scoped view of the Desk.

Something is not due yet - can I hide it?

Snooze it. A snoozed order or request drops out of “needs attention” for a while and then reappears, so a request for next week does not clutter today. Snooze is host-side only - the guest never sees it.

How do I hear about new orders?

The Desk plays a sound and shows a badge the moment an order arrives, and can raise a browser notification. A volume slider beside the bell tunes it, and you can mute it entirely.

What does Today show?

A “Right now” line with how many items need you and a jump straight into the Inbox, plus the day so far - takings, in-house guests, occupancy and arrivals - as calm reference, not alarm.

Wildlife sightings

Safari lodges and camps get a live sightings board and a wildlife-first map. Rangers post what they saw from the field and guests follow it in the guide, no re-publishing needed.

What is the sightings board?

Rangers post what they saw, where and when - a leopard at the riverbed, a breeding herd at the waterhole. Guests see it live in the guide, filter by type, and open any sighting for the full photo and story.

How do rangers post a sighting?

From the Sightings tab on the front desk: what was seen, a type (big cats, elephant, birds and so on), where (tap a small map to drop a pin), and a photo. It shows to guests instantly.

Do sightings appear on a map?

Yes. When a sighting has a location it appears as a pin on the guide map. For lodges the map opens on the Sightings layer, with a card carousel and a toggle to switch to nearby places.

How do I turn it on?

Enable the sightings board for the property. It suits reserves, lodges and camps; a city hotel would simply leave it off.

Sharing, preview and publishing

Share the guest link or a QR code, preview before you go live, and publish to update.

Do I have to print a QR code?

No. Printing is optional. Every guide (and every room) also has a plain link you can text, email or drop into a booking message - it opens the same guide. Print the QR cards for the door only if you want to.

What QR options are there?

A plain code or a branded card with your headline, logo, colours and fonts. Both download as PNG or print, for the whole property or per room - and the same link works without printing anything.

How do I preview?

The editor shows a live phone preview, and tapping a card in it jumps to where you edit that card. A full-page preview lets you change the time of day and view it as an in-room guest, so you can test room ordering before you publish.

What does publishing do?

It makes your changes live and translates the guide for guests. Guests always see the latest published version on the same link.

Plans and billing

A key is one property or one room. The first key is free to try for 14 days with no card.

Hosts & Operators

$7.50/mo per key, dropping to $5 from the fourth key, up to 20 keys. Includes the branded guide, AI concierge, extras to WhatsApp, map picks, multilingual, link and QR, and usage insights.

Lodges, Boutique Hotels & Collections

$150/mo per property with unlimited rooms. Adds room service, pre-arrival ordering, sellable experiences, the What’s-on calendar, cashless tipping and per-room QR routing. An optional one-time $1,000 done-for-you build is available.

Quick answers

Do guests need to download an app?

No. It is a link that opens in any browser and can be added to the home screen.

Do I need a website?

No. The link is the whole thing.

Can I change the guide after sharing it?

Yes. Publish and every guest sees the update on the same link and QR.

Does guidely take payment?

Only if you want it to. Connect Stripe and guests can pay by card, straight to your account (guidely takes no cut). Otherwise orders route to your WhatsApp and bill to the room or cash.

Still stuck?

Email us and a real person answers. We also build your first guides for you on request.

hello@useguidely.co