Welcome book alternative
A Canva welcome book is a good-looking file, and Canva is genuinely good at making one. But nobody can find it before they book, it cannot answer a question at ten at night, and every correction means re-editing, re-exporting, re-printing and driving out to the property. chucho publishes a public page for the property with the booking on your own site, puts the same content on the guest's phone as Chucho Go, and updates everywhere the moment you change it. Every property is free.
Quick read
Direct comparison
The left column is the artefact — a Canva-designed PDF or printed binder — not Canva the design tool, which does its own job well.
| What the guest gets | Canva PDF / print binder | chucho |
|---|---|---|
| Public property page + outbound booking link | None — a file is not findable on the web | Opt-in public page per property — approved facts, general location, selected photos, one booking button pointing at your own site |
| Guide on the guest's phone | A PDF attachment the guest has to keep track of | Yes — Chucho Go opens from a link or QR, no app and no account |
| Answers from your own content | None — it answers only the questions you thought to write down | Text and voice, English and Spanish, answered from what you published |
| Local picks and services | A list of names and phone numbers, correct on the day you printed it | Your picks, plus ordering from town where delivery and booking partners are connected, with a host share |
| Conditions (weather, tides, surf) | None | Weather, tides and surf for the property's coast |
| Living guestbook | Pen on paper, if the pen is still there | A guestbook guests write during the stay, kept across stays |
| In-property tablet | None | Optional — the same guide on a tablet, $300 once or bring your own Android |
| Keeping it current | Re-edit, re-export, re-print, re-laminate, drive to the property | Change it once in the console; the public page, the phone guide and the tablet all follow |
| Price | A design subscription plus printing, per property, every time it changes | Free for every property; $39 per property/month or $399 per property/year |
01
Canva has no publish-and-update layer: once a book is exported, emailed or printed, every copy is frozen. Change the gate code, lose a restaurant, add a house rule, and each copy has to be produced again. chucho holds the property's content in one place. Edit it and the public page, the phone guide and the tablet all read the new version on their next load — including the copies already in a guest's hands.
02
Most of what guests ask repeats: where the coffee is, how the air-conditioning remote works, which switch is the pool light, what time checkout is. A binder answers only if the guest finds it, opens it, and you happened to write that page. chucho answers the question as it was asked — typed or spoken, in English or Spanish — from the content you published, and shows you what was asked so you can add what was missing.
03
The welcome book is the best writing you have about your property, and it is invisible to everyone deciding where to stay. chucho publishes an opt-in page out of the same content — bedrooms and beds, what to know, the questions earlier guests asked, selected photos, a general location, and one button that sends the booking to your own site. Never the exact address, door codes, Wi-Fi, your contact details, prices or availability. The approved facts are also served in machine-readable form for assistants answering travel questions.
04
A printed list of restaurants is a list. In towns where Rapido or WellFred are connected, a chucho guest orders dinner, groceries or an experience from inside the guide, and a share of the order goes to you. The same screen carries the day's weather, tides and surf for your coast, and a guestbook guests write during the stay rather than a page nobody signs.
Copy and paste. House rules, Wi-Fi details, arrival instructions and restaurant picks go straight into the console, and the setup assistant sorts them into the sections the public page and the guide read from. Keep printing the binder alongside it for as long as you like — they read from different places, so nothing breaks.
No. Chucho Go runs on the phone the guest already carries — a link or a QR code, no app and no account. If you want the same guide waiting on the counter, a configured tablet is $300 once, or install the kiosk app on an Android tablet you already own.
The tablet runs locked in kiosk mode — no browsing, no app installs, no personal accounts — and sits on a heavy non-slip stand. Nothing about the property lives only on the device, so a replacement is a QR scan away, and the guest's phone guide keeps working in the meantime.
It opens like a web page, because it is one: large cards for the house, the neighbourhood, food and activities, and a place to ask in plain English or Spanish, by typing or by speaking. No download, no account, no password.
Start where it's free.
Create the property, publish its public page, and send Chucho Go to your next guest. No credit card, no contract, and publishing is your choice.
Or write to us directly — [email protected]