35 files, filed under the 7 jobs of running a rental. 9 of them are free.
Turnovers, guest experience, messaging, money and taxes, marketing and operations. Then the cabin, lakefront and mountain packs most host kits leave out. Pick whichever one is costing you time or money this week and open that file. Already written means Word documents with [BRACKETED] blanks you overwrite once, Excel workbooks that calculate as you type, and PDFs built to print, laminate, or hand to a cleaner. The Quick-Start Signs Pack is sized for standard frames. Nothing in here is an outline you still have to write.
Written by Eric. He founded EMR Vacation Rentals in 2004 and sold his shares in 2012. For close to a decade he took a crew into Whistler each November to deep clean more than 40 rentals that had already been cleaned all year.
The categories are not topics. They are the 7 jobs that make up running a rental.
Nobody browses a template library for fun. You come here because one part of the operation is leaking time or money. So pick that part. 6 of the 7 jobs have a free file sitting in them, which means you can usually start without paying anything.
Cleaning & Turnovers
The clean is the review. A room-by-room checklist your cleaner actually works from, the 10-photo verification log they send after every turnover, a maintenance calendar so the water heater dies on your schedule instead of mid-stay, and the hiring kit for the day a same-day turnover gets cancelled on you.
Guest Experience
Guests do not open binders. They read what is in front of them. A welcome book with every section pre-written, covering arrival, Wi-Fi, appliances, checkout and emergencies. Nine printable in-home signs: Wi-Fi card, checkout steps, thermostat, trash day, parking, coffee maker, TV, hot tub, quiet hours.
Guest Messaging
Twelve copy-paste messages cover an ordinary stay. The Master Pack covers the ones you cannot wing: the refund demand over rain, the suspected party at 11pm, damage found after checkout. Plus 25 review responses, including the reply to a review that is factually wrong.
Money, Pricing & Taxes
An expense ledger with 22 categories mapped to Schedule E line items and a mileage log. A rate card you build from your own costs and comps instead of a black box. A deal analyzer that returns break-even occupancy before you make an offer. A monthly owner statement for the place you co-host.
Marketing & Listing
A 40-shot photo list with the staging pass that happens before the camera comes out. A listing audit for Airbnb and Vrbo: your title, the order of your photos, and the amenity boxes you never ticked. Those boxes are search filters. A guest filtering for one never sees a listing that left it blank. And a direct-booking sequence that starts with guests you already hosted, not with a website.
Operations & Setup
The write-it-once documents. An operations binder holding vendor numbers, door codes, the turnover routine, and what to do when the water heater quits. Someone competent could run the property for a week without calling you. Permits and layered lodging tax with renewal countdowns. Guest screening that stays inside fair-housing rules. A furnishing list with quantities. And the damage file built to what claims teams actually ask for: the incident report, the timestamped photo log, and the three guest letters, in order.
Cabin, Lakefront & Mountain
What generic host kits skip. Septic: 5 guest signs plus a pump-out schedule and service log. Hot tubs: 4 signs plus a water-chemistry log. Bear country: 6 signs plus the ordinance and fine reference. Wood stoves, private wells, and mountain winters. If your road gets snow, the winter pack covers the R1, R2 and R3 chain-control levels. A guest reads it before they leave, not at the sign.
Filter by the job, or by the 9 that cost nothing.
Every card shows its format and what is inside it. The free ones say Free forever and they mean it. No account, no email address. The file downloads when you click.
Guest Messaging 2
WORD ProGuest Messaging Master Pack
45+ templates cover the messages you have to get right: refund demands, complaints, a suspected party at 11pm, damage found after checkout, and cancellations.
WORD ProReview Response Library & 5-Star System
25 responses give you something calm to post under a glowing, lukewarm, or unfair review, plus the four in-stay touch points that head off the bad ones.
9 of the 35 files cost nothing, and they are not samples.
Two tiers, no middle one. Here is exactly what sits in each, including the part most sites would rather you did not ask about.
The free files
9 of 35 · no gate- No signup wall, no email box, no card. You click, the file downloads. That is the entire transaction.
- Whole files, not extracts. The full turnover checklist with its photo log. All 12 guest messages. The 5-phase startup sequence, permits through guest #1.
- Spread across 6 of the 7 jobs, so most operations find at least one that applies today.
- Whatever version is current is the version that downloads. Nothing expires and nothing renews.
- If the free ones cover the thing you are stuck on, stop there. That counts as a win here. I would rather you fixed the problem than paid me for something you did not need.
The All-Access Pass
$69 CAD · once- Opens the other 26 toolkits, which is every Pro file in the grid above, including the 6 cabin, lakefront and mountain packs.
- One payment. Nothing renews, and there is no per-property fee: one cabin or a whole portfolio pays the same $69 CAD.
- All 26 Pro files hold 168 written parts between them.
- There is no way to buy one file on its own here. The pass is the only way to get a Pro file, so there is no separate price on any of them and no discount to calculate.
- Files added to the library later are included, at no upgrade fee. Re-download any time.
- Does not earn its keep? Tell me and I fix the file, walk you through it, or refund the pass. No stopwatch, no "all sales final" wall.
When not to buy: if the free 9 cover the job you came here for, take them and go run your property. And if what you actually want is somebody to fill these in for you, this is not that. These are files, not a service. Coaching is a separate, single conversation, by inquiry.
The straightforward part
Free means free: no account, no email address, the file downloads. The pass is one payment of $69 CAD. Nothing renews. If you buy it and do not find real value in it, tell me and I will make it right: a fix, a walkthrough, or a refund when that is the fair answer. No stopwatch and no "all sales final" wall. The license covers your own rental business, one cabin or a whole portfolio. Edit the files, print them, use them at every property you run. What it does not cover is reselling them, reposting them, or handing them on to other hosts and businesses. The guarantee and license, in plain English.
Twelve host problems, each mapped to the file that fixes it.
Finding a cleaner, answering the same questions every stay, setting a nightly price, the permit that lapses quietly. The Host's Playbook takes each one, gives the number behind it from four named industry surveys, and points at the download.