Free baby sample boxes are a win-win for consumers who want to test out product samples. I ended up getting every free baby box available.

I did skip the sample baby box from Babylist for now since they charge $10 for shipping fees. That’s a bit steep for baby samples that I likely already have from my Amazon/Walmart/Target boxes.

By the unboxing of these 3 boxes, I was up to my neck in a repetition of free baby samples So let’s get started – see what’s inside of all the boxes, and step by step of how I got all of them for free!

Recommended Reads:

• 51 Healthy Frugal Dinner Recipes You Can Make for Under $2
• 25 Simple 5-Ingredient Meals for Under $5 to Feed a Whole Family
• 35 Scrumptious Meals You Can Cook Under 20 Minutes (20 Minute Recipes)

What’s The Amazon Baby Registry? 

Amazon Baby Registry is a site feature that allows expecting parents to register items they want or need for the baby’s arrival. Parents can include major items like cribs to smaller ones like thermometers and milk bottles. They can share the list with anyone (family, friends, etc). Whoever wants to buy the items for the baby can buy it easily through the registry. Here are the other benefits you can get in opting for this product.

• 20% discount on diapers for the first year (for $500+ worth of purchases through the registry)
• 15% discount on unfulfilled items from the registry
• A free welcome baby box (“$35 value”)

Is The Amazon Baby Box Totally Free?

Creating an Amazon Registry is totally free of charge. In addition to the shopping convenience of a registry, you can also get a free $35 value* Amazon baby welcome box once you create the registry.

The box typically contains baby sample products such as bottles, diapers, wipes, and lotion. Once you or someone else purchased $10 worth of items in your registry, you can get the box for free. 

Eligibility Checklist

You can make an Amazon Baby Registry profile without being a Prime member. But if you’re still interested in the baby box content, the only option is to buy Prime for a month -OR- sign up for an Amazon Prime account trial for 30 days. Just make sure you order the box before your Prime trial ends.*

• Active Prime Account (trial Prime accounts count too)
• Amazon Baby Registry Profile
• At least $10 worth of purchase (excluding tax or shipping cost)
• Shipping address must not be within US, Alaska, and Hawaii, or with APO addresses

*NOTE: The Amazon welcome baby box runs out of stock sometimes, especially towards the end of the month. It comes in stock by mid-next month once it’s out of stock. So watch your timing if you are using the Amazon Prime Trial to get the sample box.

Step-By-Step: How To Get An Amazon Baby Registry Box

Getting a free Amazon Baby Box is easy and takes 20 minutes or so. Follow the steps below to get your free Amazon Box to save on your purchases for baby items.

1. Sign Up For Amazon Prime: If you’re not a member of Amazon Prime, get the 30-day free trial. Look for the Amazon logo on the webpage and click on “Try Prime.” After that, follow the straightforward instructions from the site.

2. Create Your Own Baby Register: Once you’re officially an Amazon Prime member, its time to create your baby registry profile. You can create your baby registry here. Common questions such as expected arrival date, address, and registry visibility are included in the FAQ. 

3. Add Items For Your Registry: Once your registry is up and running, you’re good to go. The items would be up to your preferences, but products such as bottles, baby clothing, strollers, diapers, and wipes are great choices. I added a bunch of suggested baby items to my registry just superficially – took about 5 minutes.

4. Purchase $10 Worth Of Goods*: Any category of good added to your registry that’s over $10 and sold by Amazon.com. And it doesn’t matter who pays for the expenses in the registry. Yourself, your family, or your friends can purchase anything from the checklist. As long as the official seller is “Amazon.com” and the item is preloaded on your registry.

We needed more dog treats so we simply added our dog’s treats to the baby register and checked out. That opened up our Amazon welcome baby box redemption. On the checkout page, it will say item from ____’s registry. Once you spent $10 you will be able to claim your box.

5. Claim Your Free Amazon Baby Registry Box: Amazon will unlock the “Claim Now” button once all the requirements are fulfilled. The items will automatically be added to your cart. A $35 promotional credit is used upon checkout.

“That’s Interesting!“

• Panhandling: How Much Money Do Panhandlers REALLY Make?
• How To Make Money As An Instagram Influencer (Internet Fame That Pays?)
• 39 People Who Got Richer AFTER Quitting Their Day Jobs
• Can Being a “Friend-For-Rent” Really Make Extra Money?

1st Amazon Baby Welcome Box

2nd Amazon Baby Welcome Box

Item count: 7-10 products

Diversity: 3/5

Summary: 3/5

Ehhh, a $35 value is a stretch for both boxes. I hope no one goes out and buys a box for $35. That would be a silly waste of money. The retail value for the contents of my 2nd Amazon baby box is $15ish. The 1st box…worth less than $10.

There’s a big discrepancy between our Amazon baby boxes so your miles may vary. We ended up with 2 boxes because our parents had a Prime account and I took advantage for comparison sake. I couldn’t believe how bad my first box was.

Either way, out of all the baby boxes, my Amazon ones were lackluster especially considering you had to spend $10 on the registry and have a Prime membership to get it. But getting that 15% discount off (x2) from any baby registry items made getting the Amazon registry set up worth it.

Related Reads:

• 11+ Companies Offering Free (or Seriously Discounted) Internet At Home
• 40 Everyday Household Items You Should Buy Secondhand Instead of New

What Is The Walmart Baby Box? 

Walmart Registry is a program that lets soon-to-be-parents create a checklist of essential products such as diapers and wipes for their baby. This checklist is shareable and can be viewed by people with permission. Anyone who wants to give a gift to the baby can do so by buying an item to the list. If the list is worth $50 or more, Walmart gives free shipping. 

Step-By-Step: Redeeming Your Free Walmart Baby Box

Creating Your Own Walmart Baby Registry

1. To opt in for a free box, you need to create or login to your Walmart account.

2. Next, create your own baby registry using this link. Start by filling up a profile (which would ask for your information and expected date for baby’s arrival). You can manage the registry by using the Walmart app too but it’s not required. 

3. Share the link with your family and friends. Take note of your registry’s URL link, which is needed for redeeming your box below.

Redeeming Your Free Walmart Registry Box

1. Go to this Walmart link. 

2. Paste your baby registry URL in the form provided. 

3. Answer the other questions regarding your information. Submit the form once you’re done.

4. Wait for your free welcome baby box. The package usually arrives 4-6 weeks

Inside My Walmart Baby Box

There is no in-store pickup option – Walmart’s baby box is shipped to you totally free. You don’t have to jump through as many hoops to get your free baby box from Walmart as Amazon and Target makes you.

No purchase required at all, they just need just an account and an address. It’s the easiest box to get your hands on out of all 3.

I had low expectations for the Walmart baby box but the box arrived chalked full of stuff. It was definitely heavier than Amazon’s baby boxes in terms of weight. Here are the internal contents of the box:

Item count: 11-13 products

Diversity: 3.5/5

Summary: 4/5

My favorite thing from this box is the baby milestone cards. They are thick deck of index cards (sort of like makeshift belly stickers) with each month and common baby milestone printed on it. It’s a really sweet and personal touch, something I didn’t expect from Walmart.

Considering how easy it was to get this box (took 3 minutes max; no hoops to jump through; totally free) – this is a pretty good value. There were 2 full-sized items (Dr. Brown bottle and pacifier), the rest were samples. Shipping is totally free and my box arrived within 4-5 weeks.

There is 2 packets of baby (cold?) medicine, that was unexpected. It’s not something I’ve gotten in other boxes. But it might be something really handy to have it around though, so thank you Walmart for an unexpectedly solid free baby box.

 Relevant Reads:

• 23 Ways Ladies Can Score Free Makeup Samples ? (2019)
• 23 Inexpensive Diet Tricks To Shed Those Vanity Pounds ?
• StitchFix Too Expensive? Meet ThredUP’s Goody Box Alternative ?

What Is Target Baby Registry?

Target offers a platform where expecting parents can list gifts that they want to receive for the baby. Family and friends can “gift” the items listed in the registry. Besides this perk, parents can get numerous other benefits:

Target Baby Registry Benefits

• 15% discount (x2) on everything listed in the registry eight weeks before the baby’s listed expected arrival. It’s 15% online, and another 15% in stores
• A platform that lets you create a checklist of essential items
• A Target free baby welcome kit*
• Easy returns & exchanges up to a year after your arrival date
• Group gifting (guests can contribute toward larger items) and gift tracking (managing thank you notes)

*You need to create a baby registry in order to be qualified for a welcome kit. This kit has free sample products, coupons, and reusable bags. Parents can create their registry either online or in Target’s physical stores.

Step-By-Step: Redeeming Your Target Welcome Baby Kit

Creating a Target Account

1. Sign in or make a Target account here. 

2. Next, create your own baby registry. Head on to this page and fill up your profile.

3. Add any random baby item to your registry. It’s pretty straightforward. You will be guided by prompts that will help you create a balanced registry.

4. Save your list and share the link to eager gifters.

For Target app users: create a list using the app. Follow the instructions from the prompt or customize your list based on your preferences.

5. You will receive an email (check your spam) after you created your registry letting you know your registry perks. Part of the registry perk is being able to get a barcode to claim your Target welcome kit inside your Target account.

Redeeming Your Target baby Box

1. The interface can be different for both desktop and mobile apps. First, you need to go to your registry and select Manage your Registries & Lists.

*NOTE on Redemption: If you are on mobile and using the mobile version of Target on your web browser then you will not see the barcode. You have to request the desktop version on your mobile browser of Target’s website in order to find the barcode. You can download the barcode image in advance just in case to skip the mobile/desktop fuss.

2. Use the Get Barcode option (save the barcode or screenshoot the code on your phone)

3. Go to a Target store, pick up your gift at Member Guest Services (usually next to the refund counter) with the barcode and claim your box. There is no free shipping. The Target baby box is pick up in-store only.

4. Here’s a link to Target General Registery FAQ if you have further questions.

 Recommended Reads:

• How To Make Money as a Notary Public
• 45+ Legit Ways to Make Quick Money Before Pay Day
• 105 Ridiculously Easy Crafts to Make & Sell for Money

Inside My Target Baby Box

Target Baby Coupon’s Book

Item count: 13-17 products

Diversity: 4/5

Summary: 4/5

I scanned the Target coupon book above just for kicks. Of course, the coupon book changes so your discounts will vary – I just wanted to show that there is product diversity in there. There’s even a 50% off Starbucks coupon.

Everybody says the Target baby registry kit (more of a cheap synthetic tote bag) is the best among all 3 boxes. I can see why people would say that. It’s the heaviest and one that comes loaded with tons of samples from all various brands. The best perk if you shop with Target regularly is having the 15% off anything* registry coupon (for both online and in-store transactions.)

Conclusion

These boxes are all free so there’s no reason why you can’t claim all of them. If you want non-sample products (like onesies and blankets) go with Amazon. Amazon’s the only box that came with swaddles and onesies. The rest of the samples in the Amazon baby box are tamed.

If you didn’t want a repetition of samples or waste your time, the most goodie loaded box is Target’s baby welcome kit — especially if you are interested in using the $80 value* bonus coupon book included. The only downside is you have to go to a Target store and pick it up in person (which cost us money in the end because we spent money shopping while there. Their sinister plan worked!)

If you want to skip the work Amazon & Target makes you go through and simply get a free baby sample box shipped to you, Walmart’s baby box is your best bet. I love the milestone cards and how easy it was to get it. All I had to do was put in my expected due date and shipping address. The Walmart baby box just showed up on my doorstep one day, a few weeks later, easy peasy!

We have been using our old Google Docs spreadsheet for over a year now and slowly improved some of its features as we tweaked this and that. We also received some feedback on suggestions to improve. My husband implemented all the reader suggestions in this current revision.

Download the revised budget version here.

I’m not going to pretend I understand any of my husband’s coding gibberish.

 Related Reads:

• How Much Money Does Our Frugality Save? (Spoiler: $56,000+/Year)
• Eat Ugly, Save Money? Imperfect Produce Review (+ FREE COUPON)
• Everything ‘Married…With Children’ Did That Kept Them Poor

Revisions to The Frugal Gene’s Budget Sheet

*Combined the separate monthly summary pages into one single page in a single selectable month. It makes things less cluttered looking.

*Split out income and expenses to separate tabs. Before they were on one page and there was a lot of scrolling back and forth on the page. Plus, when you used the search function, it searched both expenses and income which was unnecessary. Now it’s on a separate sheet for ease.

*Added accounts tracking. Previously, it was done by payment method but now it tracks balances on accounts so you can confirm that everything has been entered correctly. You can also track the balance on accounts.

*Before we didn’t have any tracking on paying off credit card and now there is tracking between transfers to demonstrate that. It tries to track account balance which is more accurate.

*Removed the starting balance and ending balance because it was terribly confusing before. Now it is simply called “Net Saves” (Green Box).

*The ability to rename months without breaking the sheet if you prefer to look at them in non-English languages such as French or Spanish.

*Introduction of “smart average” which ignores months before you started tracking or that is not yet tracked in order to give you a more accurate average of your spending than just the regular average. The regular average is simply divisible by 12 (months a year total) which isn’t accurate if you were, say only in the month of June.

Download the revised budget version here.

Sample Budget Categories

It was my gig to use it and check for any parts that would be confusing or unnecessary. After we finalized and uploaded, I realized we were missing sample budget categories. We were editing on our master sheet which was full of data and forgot that the working template itself was set to blank.

For a functioning budget, the categories of where your money will be registered going to are critical. It’s not as easy as jotting down food, transportation, rent, child care, etc. In order to jump start on a strong foot, you need accompanying categories that work for your budget.

Everyone has different urgencies for categories so I thought it might be even better without a pre-populated list. I decided to include a suggested categories post instead for more customization. There is no rule on organization but it would be good to place the higher expenses near the top and go down from there.

~

Master List of Basic Personal Finance Budget Categories

Housing & Shelter

Housing is easily the biggest expense in most of our budgets and for a very necessary reason. I don’t like nature that much. You can cut down on housing costs if you house hack.

*Mortgage

*Rent

*Property Taxes

*HOA Dues

*Home Maintenance

*Renter’s Insurance

*Homeowner’s Insurance

*Household Repairs

Transportation

If it was responsible for getting you from point A to point B then it goes under transportation. This is usually the 2nd highest budgeted category in an average American’s budget. (Although, me = El Cheapo, thinks it should never be.) A general rule of thumb….if the thing goes ‘vrooom vrooooom!!’ then it’s probably under transportation (except husbands).

*Auto Insurance

*Parking Tickets

*Car Maintenance & Repairs (Oil change etc.)

*Gas

*Tires (Tire chains, etc.)

*DMV Fees & Licensing

*Airfare/Public Transit

*Things (Car deordizers, leather seats upgrades, windshield wipers.)

Food & Dining Out

If it goes in your mouth and tastes good, then it’s probably food. I’m on the fence about cigarettes and pot under groceries but it’s really a personal call.

*Restaurants

*Groceries

*Beverages (Redbull, alochol, etc.) 

*Pet Food

*Recreational

Utilities

This is the category that I personally detest the most. Depending on where you live, these little utilities and recurring bills could really eat away at the bottom line. Always pay extra attention to these!

*Electricity

*Water

*Heating

*A/C

*Sewage & Waste Management

Personal Care

If it touches your body and makes you feel beautiful then it goes in personal care (except husbands). If it trims something ugly and unholy off you then it goes in personal care too.

*Children Clothing

*Adult Clothing

*Makeup

*Skincare

*Gym

*Salon

*Shoes

*Bath Goods

Medical & Health Care

May you never have to deal with most of this on the list but it’s good to come prepared with a category anyway. Always set aside some rainy day money because most of these below are EXPEN$$IVE.

*Emergency Urgent Care

*First Aid

*Survival Kits

*Health Insurance

*Primary Care

*Dental Care

*Misc. Care – (podiatrist, optometrists, etc.)

*Medicine

*Disability Insurance

*Medical Devices

*Pet Insurance

*Long-Term Care

Household Staples

We personally don’t separate toiletries from groceries because it’s an inconvenience but if you want to flush and curb food costs, it would be wise to take these out.

*Toiletries (Napkins, kitchen towels)

*Laundry Detergent

*Dishwasher Soap

*Cleaning Supplies (Trashcan liner, compost bags, etc.)

*Mechanic Tools

*Small Appliances

Entertainment

The level of spending could possibly push some of these sub-categories into areas that pertain more towards fun money depending on each specific person’s financial situation but in general, entertainment includes (at least in our case) new computers, headphones, and board games.

*Phones

*Cable TV

*Home Internet

*Outings

*Concerts

*New Computers

Fun Spending

There is no definition of free money besides the amount you allot for yourself and whatever you want to do with it. Nothing wrong with having some “extra” money to blow off steam if you can afford it. The keyword is ‘afford.’

*New Car Fund

*Goat Pellets

*Vacation

*Games

*Spas

*Cable/Netflix

*Extracurricular Activities

*Anything

Charity Giving

Giving doesn’t have to come with a plan, make room in your budget for spontaneous giving as well as donations, tithing, and supporting your beloved content creators.

*Donations

*Tithing

*Patreon

*Holiday & Birthday Occasions

Family

Having a family comes with a set of costs too and this category is a less commonly discus during the budget set up the process but it’s necessary to track these expenses if you have them.

*Life Insurance

*Child Care

*Alimony

*Senior Care

*Pet Care

Education

I sometimes catch myself concerned with the overall education quality of public schools, especially in cities with poverty and funding issues. No one can deny that kids are indeed very expensive

*Private School

*Private Lessons

*College

*School Supplies

*Books

*Subscriptions

*Day Care/Babysitting

Gifting

Sometimes special occasions like Valentine’s Day sneaks up on you so tracking this category will give you a better idea what will eventually happen again. (Not sure if everyone knows this but Christmas and New Years happens every year. Around the same time too!)

*Holidays & Birthdays

*Wedding

*Anniversary

*Special Occasions

*Christmas & New Years

Financial

*Income

*Retirement

*Consumer Debt

*Emergency Fund

*Savings

Miscellaneous

*Everything else (identity theft protection, that time I had to buy a rope because it’s generally good to have a rope around, fridge magnets, clips for chip bags etc.)

Note: Woop! That was a lot of categories and things to consider. No wonder saving money might not come easy, look at the number of things tugging at your dollar for attention! This is more reason why everyone needs a budget so download the revised budget version here or get started going traditional with a pen and paper. They’re both good as long as you’re tracking where your money is going.

~

Adding More Categories

You can insert some new lines by right-clicking on the row numbers to the left and inserting a new line.

If you insert new lines on the setup page somewhere in between the first mauve row and the last mauve row, the functions that make the other pages work will find it correctly.  Note that if you insert a new line just after the last mauve row, it may look correct, but the values for it won’t update on the other sheets.

If you’re adding more lines, you may also need to insert new lines in the appropriate sections of the monthly and annual summary pages.  If the calculations don’t work for any of the new lines, you should be able to copy paste from one of the working rows in the same section without needing to make any additional changes.

~

There is an updated budget for 2018. The new version is up with improved features and it’s still free. Full details here.

Hey everyone! I wanted to release our budget template because it’s perfect for beginners to start, a lot of features are automated, there is no need for pen or paper and it’s totally free. It’s a useful budget for anyone looking to start tracking their expenses.

We have used this budget for over a year now. It is available for download and I configured it for you to use however you’d like. It is absolutely free under the freebies tab.

DOWNLOAD TEMPLATE IN THE FREEBIES PAGE

GENERAL INFO

For the past couple years, I’ve been in charge of managing the backend of the budget for my family. Apart from picking up some 9-volts and maybe a screw set from Home Depot, my wife has done the majority of the shopping to keep our family clothed and fed. She likes the budget and suggested I should share it with everyone – so we are!

We’re hoping our budget template is as helpful for you as it has been helpful for us.

• Leave a comment below or tweet us at @thefrugalgene and I’ll be able to answer any questions you may have. There are features I have added to this budget and there are features I haven’t thought of adding so don’t be shy.

Free Google Sheets Budget Template Preview

• TFG’s budget automatically generates monthly & annual summaries for your convenience if you scroll to the far right of the bottom bar (after the months).
• TFG’s budget is flexible. It’s designed for singles, married couples, people with multiple income streams, people who own property etcetera.
• TFG’s budget is color coded to keep you on track. Red for negative, green for positive.
• Your savings will be represented in a simple bar graph with one bar representing your starting balance and the other bar as your end balance.
• There is also two yearly graphs of your overall spending vs saving that is scored on a month to month basis.
• The TFG budget does allow rollovers from the previous month but you can also toggle off that feature.
• TFG budget is available in $ dollars (US or Canadian).
• There are some features that are locked-in. Detailed instructions will be INSIDE the sheet itself and that will explain the rest.

CATEGORIES

This is more art than science. You’ll want to strike a balance between grouping like expenses and splitting them up. For example, our family chooses not to own a car so our transportation budget is only $50 a month. However, a family of 8 would probably need at least two sedans. So take a couple of weeks to practice this template and learn about your own spending & saving habits.

Our categories are:

Food, Transportation, Personal Care, Medical, Entertainment, Vacation, Pets, Misc, Home Maintenance, Cell Phone, Internet, Gas, Electricity, W.S.T. (Water, Sewage, Trash), M.I.T. (Mortgage, Insurance, Property Tax)

It’s much easier to combine expenses into a single category after the fact that it is to split up a category into two, so I recommend erring on the side of being more granular and combining like categories later if you think it’d be better to track them together.

Wifey and I originally had separate categories for ‘groceries’ and ‘eating out’, but after nearly a year we decided we preferred to have a single category for just food We do not, however, include non food related expenses into food, so if we pick up a bottle of hand soap at the grocery store, we split the cost out into a separate entry. This is annoying to do because we run an AirBnB so it’s understandable if you choose to do it differently.

I recommend avoiding catchalls as much as possible.  That said, astute readers may notice we do have a miscellaneous category on our budget for small, irregular expenses that don’t really fit in any of our defined categories.

Free Google Sheets Budget Template Preview

TO ROLL OVER OR NOT TO ROLLOVER…

An important question is what happens at the end of the month.  Suppose you went $10 dollars over in your food budget, does that get rolled over into the next month, or does it simply reset?

For us, the answer is it the remaining value always gets rolled over.  The reason for this is that we want to budget based on our average expenses.  By carrying over the values, we have a reminder that we’ve been spending more or less than we’re expecting.  If we’re rolling over larger and larger values, it tells us one of two things.  Either we should adjust our expectations about how much we’ll spend in that category, or we have money reserved for an upcoming expense, such as a house/car repair or vacation.

Not everyone agrees with this approach, so I’ve made it configurable.

INPUTTING EXPENSES

This can be the real tedious part of budgeting.  I make a habit of going through our credit card and banking transactions every week to add them.  This works for us because we very rarely have cash transactions. Credit card rewards are great if you can trust yourself not to spend beyond your means, in addition, it’s easy for us to track expenses after the fact.

There are alternatives available to do this part for you. I haven’t tried any, because I’m personally not comfortable giving my financial passwords to third-party services, but I hear good things about Tiller (a paid service).

For cash transactions, if you have a smartphone, you can create a Google Form that submits to the spreadsheet so you can easily enter transactions on the go.  Then you just copy paste them into transactions sheet the next time you’re updating the budget.  Alternatively, get receipts for cash purchases when you can and enter them later. ?

DOWNLOAD TEMPLATE IN THE FREEBIES PAGE

~

Top $ Resources That I Use

Below are my recommendations for saving, earning, and investing money instantly.

Personal Capital: Sign up and use their net worth calculator for FREE. They are a free financial service platform that helps you analyze your portfolio, retirement, and financial health all on one simple & secure account.

Ibotta: I thought this app was overrated before trying it myself. The “any item” promos instantly save you money after scanning your grocery receipt. Ibotta also hosts promos and contests for your team to save more by working together. One of the guys on my Ibotta team list has earned and saved over $100,000 using Ibotta. You can get $10 if you sign up through my link.

Dosh: Dosh is a unique cashback app similar to high reward credit cards except you don’t have to bother getting one. Simply link your current cards to the app and get cash back! No need to scan receipts, no turnaround wait time for cashback – Dosh is nothing but instant cash back! Get a free $5 bonus upon signup and linking your credit card.

Update: There is a better, updated version as well with more scripts: thank yous, parking details etc.

 Related Reads:

• All You Need to Know About Becoming an Amazon Flex Driver (Starting $18 to $30/hr)
• 7+ Companies That Will Pay You To Lose Weight (Really!)
• How To Work From Home Creating a Profitable Doggy Day Care

~ This is an installment of my Airbnb series. Browse all my Airbnb content here. ~

Airbnb is a revolutionary online lodging & hospitality platform that boast a registry total of 150 million users. The phenomenal of Airbnb is a great representative of the modern man. It represents our acceptance to alternatives and our thirst for experiences! …..um, OK, it’s not so sentimental. About 99% of the time, I just get travelers who need a comfy place to rest their weary head and not break the bank

My occupancy rate as a Superhost hovers over 99%. I have hosted over 400 different trips with over 1000+ people. I have done this full-time for 2 years now. A lot of hosting is repetitive so to streamline the check-in process I began reusing my Airbnb sample letters to cut down on time. Thanks to those sample letters I was able to cut guest confusion and save myself a lot of work too.

Tip:

On the Airbnb app (and I highly suggest all hosts get the Airbnb app) you can save a whole bunch of sample letters to answer any common Q&A! Use this amazing Airbnb feature to save yourself some time.

Remember to remove all the brackets and put in the names of your guests. It’s the more sensible thing to do. You could garner better feedback which will propagate more Airbnb clientele.

Sample Airbnb Template

These are just 3 very common questions and templates that I submit on the daily basis. Use the instructions above to copy and paste it into your Airbnb internal template saver.

Welcome Greeting Template

Hi [Guest Name]!

Thank you for booking with us. I will send over the full check-in information for your stay on the date of your arrival around [time to [time] via the Airbnb inbox. Please feel free to shoot me any questions you may have in the meantime. Please gloss over the property listing and our house manual to make sure we are a good fit for your stay. Do you have an estimated time of arrival? Can’t wait to host you [both/all/name etc.]

Thank you for reading,

[Your Name]

Finding The Address Template

Quite often new users do not know how to use Airbnb at all. It is not always the guest’s fault. Airbnb has a tendency to hide private information as a security measure to protect the guest. Phone numbers, emails, and addresses are not recommended to be sent over the main inbox. Use the template below to direct all guests to the correct tab inside Airbnb’s interface for your address instead of giving yourself a security headache later on.

Hi [Guest Name]!

Great question! The address is actually already inside your Airbnb itinerary under Your Reservation / Your Trips section. Airbnb automatically censors addresses for security purposes so your only option is to look inside your Airbnb reservation tab. Airbnb provides the full information and a map snippet as well. If you have any more issue or need further direction shoot me a quick text or call us at #-###-#### [your number].

See you soon!

[Name]

Check-In Checklist

This is critical. I notice a lot of hosts simply do not spend the time to offer good check in directions. These are your guests; this is your business. You are representing your city, your neighborhood, Airbnb and yourself. Hosts will get more questions and concerns from guests if the listings themselves are not as detailed as it should be.

Remember to address the following in an effective manner, if the content is too long, some guest might not read at all. Guest will just shoot you a question asking about their main concern and skip over all the other things they should know (that they didn’t think they would need to know.)

These things seem obvious but it took me a few tries to get a hang of hosting on Airbnb without any minor hiccups. You will get your share of easy-going guests and you will also get your share of finicky ones that demand way more than what is fair for the price they paid. It’s all part of being a host.

House Rules & House Manuals

Over 70% of Airbnb guests will probably not bother to read the house manual or house rules hosts set before them. It is a good idea to have a laminated print out of your house rules and house manual to greet them. I recommend to gently place them on their bed or pillow. Printouts greatly reduce the odds of them accidentally breaching your instructions. A lot of the time, I find that my guests are simply unaware (traveling is distracting!) and they never infringe out of malice. I designed 2 sets of printables for Airbnb’s house rules and manuals in both a colorized version and a B/W version.

That’s all for now. Remember, this is part of my Airbnb series, if you want more in-depth information – check out my full Airbnb content or start at part one of my main Q&A.

You can also submit any questions in the comments or contact me directly in the top bar.

If you’re not a host on Airbnb, sign up here to BECOME A HOST.

? Related Reads:

• The Hefty Financials Costs Behind Owning a McMansion
• The Confessions of a Houseporn Addict
• 30 Tried-and-True Hacks To Lower Your Electricity Bill

Top $ Resources That I Use

Below are my recommendations for saving, earning, and investing money instantly.

Survey Junkie: Survey Junkie is one of the few survey companies that is actually 100% legitimate, user-friendly, and great for actually making extra money. Payout to PayPal is available. Earn up to $1,000 a month doing surveys online.

Personal Capital: Sign up and use their net worth calculator for FREE. They are a free financial service platform that helps you analyze your portfolio, retirement, and financial health all on one simple & secure account.

Ibotta: I thought this app was overrated before trying it myself. The “any item” promos instantly save you money after scanning your grocery receipt. Ibotta also hosts promos and contests for your team to save more by working together. One of the guys on my Ibotta team list has earned and saved over $100,000 using Ibotta. You can get $10 if you sign up through my link.