Writing clear check-in and arrival messages with AI

An arrival message works when a tired guest standing outside at night can follow it with one hand on a suitcase. The tool can tidy your words. It can't know where your door is.

What you need

• Your steps, written in the order a guest meets them: street, building entry, door, key or code, light switches, wifi.
• The exact spelling of any street name, unit number and lockbox position.
• A place to store codes that isn't the chat tool.
• A phone number for problems on the day.

Keep the codes out

Leave door codes and personal details out of the prompt and add them to the final message by hand. Put "[CODE]" where the code goes.

Two reasons. Australia's privacy regulator advises organisations not to put personal information into public chatbots.¹ And a pasted code in a chat history is just another place for it to leak from.

Steps

1. Write your arrival route as rough notes. Short phrases are fine.
2. Paste the notes and ask for a numbered list, one action per line, plain words, no extra advice.
3. Tell it to add nothing you didn't write. No "enjoy the stunning view", no "the nearest shop is".
4. Ask for a short opening line with the check-in time and a last line with the problem phone number. Fill in both from your own records.
5. Read every line against your notes.
6. Walk the route, or have someone who's never been there follow the text. Note every place they hesitate.

What goes wrong in drafts

Drafts can sound sure of themselves and still be off. The same regulator warns of outputs that are "inaccurate but appear credible".¹ Wikipedia calls it hallucination, where a chatbot states made-up things as fact.²

For arrival messages that shows up as:

• A changed left or right turn.
• A lockbox moved to a different spot.
• A made-up step, such as "press the buzzer", when you have none.
• A time that no longer matches your listing.
• Wifi details swapped or invented.

Keep it short

The same principle applies to any checklist. Wikipedia says a good checklist should be easily readable and "as short as reasonably practicable".³ A numbered arrival message is a small checklist for the guest, so cut anything they don't need at the door.

Move extras, like bin days or appliance notes, into a second message the next morning. See house rules messages for how to word those.

A prompt to adapt

Rewrite these arrival notes as a numbered list for a guest. One action per line. Plain words. Don't add any detail I didn't write. Leave the code and phone placeholders as they are. Notes: (paste them).

Save the final version as your template. Next time, change only what's changed, and check it once more.