Logo of Flipbooks AI
Logo of Flipbooks AI
PropertyHandbookTenantsFlipbookHousing

Tenant Handbook

Turn the handbook you give tenants into an interactive flipbook they can open on a phone the moment something goes wrong, with Flipbooks AI. Repairs, bin days, parking, quiet hours and the out of hours number all sit in one link that turns like a printed booklet. Built for property managers, landlords, letting agents and housing teams. The tool is free to use, shows no ads, leaves no watermark on your building pages, and never caps the number of handbooks a portfolio can hold.

Tenant Handbook

How to Make a Tenant Handbook

1

Upload the Handbook

Upload the tenant handbook PDF you already give people at move in. Flipbooks AI accepts the usual formats and builds an interactive flipbook preview, page turns and all, within a moment or two.

2

Add Contacts and Branding

Add your agency or building logo and colours, make the maintenance number tappable, link the repair form and the rent portal, and drop in a photo of the bin store or the stopcock.

3

Publish and Hand It Over

Publish in one click. Put the link in the welcome email, print a QR code for the hallway and the move in letter, or embed the handbook on your resident portal. Tenants open it with one tap.

How to Build a Tenant Handbook Flipbook

How to Build a Tenant Handbook Flipbook

Building the handbook takes minutes and needs no design skill. Start with the PDF you already give tenants, whatever it was written in. Upload it and Flipbooks AI builds the flipbook preview straight away. Pick a page turn style, add your agency or building logo, make the maintenance number and the repair form tappable, and decide whether the handbook is open or sits behind a password. Open it on your own phone the way a tenant will, publish with one click, then paste the link into the welcome email and print the QR code for the hallway.

Create Your Tenant Handbook

What Is a Tenant Handbook?

A tenant handbook is the booklet you hand over at move in that explains how living in the building actually works. How to report a repair and what counts as an emergency. Which bin goes out on which day. Where to park and how a visitor gets in. Quiet hours, pets, smoking, the communal areas. Who to ring at two in the morning when water is coming through a ceiling. Flipbooks AI takes that handbook as a PDF and turns it into a flipbook with pages that turn like a real booklet, so a tenant finds the right page in seconds instead of hunting for the folder they were given a year ago.

Create Your Tenant Handbook
What Is a Tenant Handbook?
What Is a Tenant Handbook?
What Is a Tenant Handbook?
What Is a Tenant Handbook?

What to Put in a Tenant Handbook

Lead with what people need in a hurry. Emergency contacts and what counts as an emergency. How to report a repair and how long each kind takes. Then the everyday things: bin and recycling days, parking and visitor spaces, door codes and key policy, heating and hot water instructions, meter locations, how rent is paid, and who cleans the communal areas. Add the house rules on noise, pets, smoking and balconies. Finish with moving out: notice, the final inspection and how the deposit is returned. Keep every page short enough to read on a phone.

Create Your Tenant Handbook
What to Put in a Tenant Handbook

Trusted by Fortune 500 Companies

How This Differs From a Guest Guide or HOA Newsletter

How This Differs From a Guest Guide or HOA Newsletter

We have separate pages for both of those and they solve other problems. A guest guide is for a short stay: wifi code, checkout time, the good coffee place, all of it aimed at somebody there for three nights. An HOA newsletter goes to owners with community news, meeting dates and budget updates, and it changes every month. A tenant handbook is for somebody living in the building for a year or more, and it is about how the place runs. It has to survive being read once at move in and then searched in a panic eight months later, which is why the order and the emergency page matter so much.

Create Your Tenant Handbook
Why a Flipbook Beats a Stapled Paper Pack
Why a Flipbook Beats a Stapled Paper Pack
Why a Flipbook Beats a Stapled Paper Pack
Why a Flipbook Beats a Stapled Paper Pack

Why a Flipbook Beats a Stapled Paper Pack

The paper pack gets lost in the move, and the emailed PDF gets buried under the tenancy paperwork. Neither is open when a tenant needs it. A flipbook opens in a browser on any phone from a link, a QR code in the hallway or a bookmark. Nothing to download, nothing to install. When the waste contractor changes the collection day or the out of hours number changes, you update the handbook and every tenant sees the new version through the same link. No reprint, no round of emails, and no arguments about which version somebody was given.

Create Your Tenant Handbook

Make Reporting a Repair One Tap

Most calls to a managing agent are repairs that could have been logged in an app. Put the process on one page in plain words: what to do first, what counts as an emergency, what you can safely leave until Monday. Then make it easy. A tappable phone number, a button that opens your repair form with the property reference already filled, and a line telling the tenant what happens next and roughly how long it takes. Adding a photo of the fuse board and the stopcock saves a visit on its own.

Create Your Tenant Handbook
Make Reporting a Repair One Tap

Tenant Handbook Tool Alternatives

Canva

Canva

  • Free & Unlimited
  • No Watermarks
  • Tappable Contacts
  • Real Page Turns
  • Reading Analytics
  • Mobile Ready
  • QR Code Sharing
  • Instant Updates
  • Password Access
  • Fast Loading
Flipbooks AI

Flipbooks AI

  • Free & Unlimited
  • No Watermarks
  • Tappable Contacts
  • Real Page Turns
  • Reading Analytics
  • Mobile Ready
  • QR Code Sharing
  • Instant Updates
  • Password Access
  • Fast Loading
Flipsnack

Flipsnack

  • Free & Unlimited
  • No Watermarks
  • Tappable Contacts
  • Real Page Turns
  • Reading Analytics
  • Mobile Ready
  • QR Code Sharing
  • Instant Updates
  • Password Access
  • Fast Loading
Publuu

Publuu

  • Free & Unlimited
  • No Watermarks
  • Tappable Contacts
  • Real Page Turns
  • Reading Analytics
  • Mobile Ready
  • QR Code Sharing
  • Instant Updates
  • Password Access
  • Fast Loading
Bins, Recycling and Collection Days

Bins, Recycling and Collection Days

Bins cause more friction between neighbours than almost anything else. Give the page a simple table of which bin goes out on which day, a photo of the bin store with the doors open, and a line on what the council will not take. If collection days differ over Christmas, say so. If a fine has ever been issued to the building for contamination, explain what caused it. When the council changes the schedule, you update the page and the link everybody already has now shows the new day.

Create Your Tenant Handbook

Features Built for Property Managers

Flipbooks AI gives a handbook the things that cut your call volume. Make the maintenance number tappable and link the repair form so a report arrives with the flat number already on it. Add a short video showing where the stopcock and the fuse board are. Link the meter reading page, the rent payment portal and the recycling calendar. Add a searchable contents list so somebody can jump to parking without scrolling. Every one of those is included free, your pages carry only your branding, and there is no ceiling on how long the handbook runs.

Create Your Tenant Handbook
Features Built for Property Managers
Features Built for Property Managers
Features Built for Property Managers
Features Built for Property Managers

Parking, Visitors and Building Access

Write down what is actually allowed. How many spaces the flat has and whether they are numbered. Where visitors park and for how long. How a delivery driver or a tradesperson gets in, and what to do about the intercom. Whether bikes belong in the store or the hallway, and the rule about the fire escape route being kept clear. Add the permit process if there is one. This page prevents most of the notes left on windscreens, and it saves a manager repeating the same explanation to every new tenant.

Create Your Tenant Handbook
Parking, Visitors and Building Access
House Rules Written So People Read Them

House Rules Written So People Read Them

Rules land better when they are short and explain themselves. Quiet hours with the actual times. Whether pets need permission and how to ask. Smoking, including balconies and communal doorways. What can go on a balcony and what cannot. Where deliveries can be left. Say why a rule exists in half a sentence, because a tenant who knows the alarm is triggered by a propped fire door is more likely to stop propping it. Avoid legal wording here: the handbook is where the rules are explained, not where they are enforced.

Create Your Tenant Handbook
Fits Every Kind of Let
Fits Every Kind of Let
Fits Every Kind of Let
Fits Every Kind of Let

Fits Every Kind of Let

One flat let by a private landlord, a block of sixty apartments with a concierge, student halls, a build to rent scheme, a house in multiple occupation, a housing association estate: the handbook works the same way for all of them. A six page starter booklet is as easy to publish as a forty page manual for a serviced building. Upload the PDF you already have and it becomes a flipbook in minutes. Make a version for each building so the bin day and the door code are right for the people reading it.

Create Your Tenant Handbook

Emergency Contacts That Stay Current

This is the page that has to be right. The out of hours number, the gas emergency line, the water supplier, the lift company, the alarm monitoring firm, and who to call for a lockout. Make every number tappable so nobody is copying digits at midnight. Add what to do before help arrives: where the stopcock is, where the electrical consumer unit sits, how to open the gate if the power is out. Check this page whenever a contract changes, because an old contractor number on a wet Sunday is the single worst thing a handbook can carry.

Create Your Tenant Handbook
Emergency Contacts That Stay Current

Who Uses a Tenant Handbook

2456+

Property Managers

6

Landlords

13

Letting Agents

24

Student Housing

65

Build to Rent

9

Housing Teams

The Handbook Explains, the Agreement Decides

The Handbook Explains, the Agreement Decides

Be clear with yourself and with tenants about what this document is. A handbook explains how the building works in plain language. The tenancy agreement is the contract, and where the two ever disagree the agreement is what counts. Say that on the first page. This page is not legal advice, and neither is your handbook: rules on deposits, notice periods, access, inspections and eviction differ by country, state and city, and they change. Have a solicitor or attorney who knows your jurisdiction check anything you write about them, and keep the handbook to explanation.

Create Your Tenant Handbook

Works on a Phone at Eleven at Night

Things go wrong out of hours, and that is exactly when nobody can find the paperwork. Flipbooks AI makes sure the handbook works on whatever a tenant has in their hand. The layout reflows for phones and tablets and the page turns stay smooth. Somebody can swipe to the emergency page, pinch to zoom into the diagram showing the stopcock, tap to call the out of hours line, and tap again to open the repair form. It runs in the browser, so there is no app to install and no login standing between a worried tenant and the number they need.

Create Your Tenant Handbook
Works on a Phone at Eleven at Night
Works on a Phone at Eleven at Night
Works on a Phone at Eleven at Night
Works on a Phone at Eleven at Night

Move In and Move Out Checklists

The start and the end of a tenancy are where disputes come from, so put both in the handbook. On move in: meter readings with a photo, the inventory, how to report anything already damaged, and the deadline for doing it. On move out: how much notice, the condition the property should be in, whether professional cleaning is expected, key return, final readings and how the deposit is handled. Written down and shared on day one, this saves an argument at the end that neither side enjoys having.

Create Your Tenant Handbook
Move In and Move Out Checklists
Brand It for the Building or the Agency

Brand It for the Building or the Agency

A handbook that looks like it came from a real organisation gets treated as if it did. Flipbooks AI lets you set your own colours, put the agency logo or a photo of the building on the cover, and choose a navigation style that stays out of the way. Nothing on the page mentions us. If you manage buildings for several landlords, each handbook can carry the right identity while the whole set is built the same way, which keeps a small team consistent without a designer.

Create Your Tenant Handbook
A Free Handbook Maker With No Watermark
A Free Handbook Maker With No Watermark
A Free Handbook Maker With No Watermark
A Free Handbook Maker With No Watermark

A Free Handbook Maker With No Watermark

Flipbooks AI is completely free, and the parts you would actually use are not fenced off behind an upgrade. Other tools stamp their logo on a page carrying your agency name, cap how many documents stay live, or ask for a subscription before they will show you what tenants read. Here you get unlimited handbooks, unlimited pages, clean pages with only your own branding, and every option switched on at no cost. For a manager running eleven buildings, that is eleven handbooks and eleven links without a line item on the budget.

Create Your Tenant Handbook

One Handbook Per Building in the Portfolio

Door codes, bin days, parking and contractors are different in every building, and a single handbook covering all of them is the handbook nobody trusts. Make one per building instead. Duplicate the version you like, change the pages that differ, and publish. Each has its own link, its own QR code and its own figures on who opened it. When a policy changes across the portfolio, you update each handbook and the links stay the same, so nothing has to be reissued to tenants.

Create Your Tenant Handbook
One Handbook Per Building in the Portfolio

What Property Managers Say About the Handbook Tool

I manage nine blocks and every handover used to include a printed pack that was out of date within a month. Now each building has its own flipbook and a QR code by the post boxes. Calls about bin days have all but stopped, and when the waste contractor changed the schedule I fixed nine handbooks in an afternoon without reprinting anything.

Marketing team
Marketing team

Product catalogs

As a landlord with four flats I never bothered with a handbook because it felt like overkill. This took me an evening. The emergency page with tappable numbers has already paid for itself twice, once when a tenant found the stopcock photo before the ceiling came down.

Studio owner
Studio owner

Client lookbooks

Our student scheme turns over three hundred rooms every September. Sending one link with the welcome email, in two languages, replaced a print run and a lot of induction repetition. The reading figures showed nobody reached the laundry page, so we moved it forward and put a QR code on the machine.

School office
School office

Newsletters and programmes

The part I did not expect to value was the update. A contractor changed and the old out of hours number was in three hundred printed packs. With the flipbook I changed one page and every tenant had the right number the same evening, through the link they already had saved.

Independent designer
Independent designer

Portfolio flipbooks

Translations for the Tenants You Actually Have

Translations for the Tenants You Actually Have

In a lot of buildings English is not the first language of everyone living there, and an emergency page somebody cannot read is not doing its job. Publish the handbook in more than one language, each version on its own link, and put both QR codes on the noticeboard. Get a real translation rather than a machine one for the safety pages, since a mistranslated instruction about a gas leak is worse than none. It is a small piece of work that quietly says the building was set up with all its residents in mind.

Create Your Tenant Handbook

Hand It to Every Tenant on Move In Day

Getting the handbook to people takes seconds. Put the link in the welcome email that goes out with the keys. Print a QR code on the move in letter, on the inside of the front door of the flat, and on the noticeboard by the post boxes. Embed the flipbook on the resident portal or the agency website so it sits where tenants already look. Password protection keeps a handbook to one building when the door codes and the alarm details inside it are not for the whole portfolio.

Create Your Tenant Handbook
Hand It to Every Tenant on Move In Day
Hand It to Every Tenant on Move In Day
Hand It to Every Tenant on Move In Day
Hand It to Every Tenant on Move In Day

Loads Fast on a Weak Signal Indoors

Signal in a basement flat, a lift lobby or a thick walled Victorian conversion is often poor, and that is where somebody will be standing when they need the handbook. Flipbooks AI compresses images without making your floor plans and diagrams unreadable, and shows the first pages while the heavier ones load behind them. The handbook opens on weak mobile data as well as on office wifi, which matters more here than on almost any other document a tenant will ever be sent.

Create Your Tenant Handbook
Loads Fast on a Weak Signal Indoors

Compare Tenant Handbook Makers

ApplicationRatingUnlimited CreditsUsage RatingDescription
10/10Yes1

Flipbooks AI publishes unlimited tenant handbooks free, with no watermark, tappable maintenance numbers, embedded repair forms, QR codes for the hallway, reading analytics and pages that open fast on a phone. Built for managers running more than one building.

Buildium

5.2/10No2

Buildium is proper property management software, strong on accounting, leases and maintenance tickets, and the document library sits alongside all of that. It is a paid platform aimed at running the portfolio, so the handbook is a file to download rather than a flipbook a tenant reads on a phone.

AppFolio

7.1/10No3

AppFolio suits larger portfolios and its resident portal keeps documents next to payments and requests. It is priced for scale and works best when every tenant is enrolled, which is a big step to take for a handbook you simply want to hand somebody at move in.

Canva

8.3/10No4

Canva is a sensible place to design the handbook, with templates and easy image work for floor plans and bin store photos. Its viewing options are basic: no realistic page turns and none of the reading figures that tell you whether the repairs page is being used.

Flipsnack

6.4/10No5

Flipsnack produces polished flipbooks and has decent tracking. Free use is limited and removing its branding needs a monthly plan, which adds up quickly if you want one handbook per building rather than a single document for the whole portfolio.

Publuu

7.8/10No6

Publuu turns PDFs into clean flipbooks and its link sharing is straightforward. The detailed statistics and longer documents belong to the paid tiers, so a manager on the free plan ends up with a shorter handbook than most buildings actually need.

Google Docs

6.9/10No7

A shared Google Doc is free, editable by the whole team and always current. It reads like an office document though, permissions catch people out on a phone, and there is no cover, no page turn and nothing to print as a QR code for the noticeboard.

Issuu

8.1/10No8

Issuu has been publishing documents online for years and embeds neatly on a website. Its free tier adds Issuu branding and caps uploads, so a handbook that carries only your agency name means paying for something aimed at magazines.

Microsoft Word

6.5/10No9

Word is where most handbooks are written and it does that job well. As a way of delivering one it falls short: the file has to be downloaded, it reflows awkwardly on a phone, and once it is emailed you have no idea which version a tenant is holding.

Printed Welcome Pack

7.6/10No10

A printed pack feels solid at handover and needs no signal to read. It also gets lost in the move, goes out of date the day a contractor changes, and costs money again for every reprint and every new tenancy in the building.

What a Password Really Protects

What a Password Really Protects

A handbook often carries door codes, alarm details and contractor numbers, so keeping it to one building is sensible. Password protection does that, and you can switch downloading off as well. Be realistic about the limits though. A password stops the handbook being found and shared casually, but anyone you give it to can pass it on, and a code shared with sixty flats is not a secret. For anything genuinely sensitive, keep it out of the handbook and change door codes on a schedule instead of relying on the document.

Create Your Tenant Handbook
See Which Pages Cut the Repeat Calls
See Which Pages Cut the Repeat Calls
See Which Pages Cut the Repeat Calls
See Which Pages Cut the Repeat Calls

See Which Pages Cut the Repeat Calls

You already know which questions come in every week. Flipbooks AI shows you how many tenants opened the handbook, which pages they spent time on and where they stopped. If nobody reaches the recycling page, move it forward or put a QR code by the bin store. If the repairs page gets opened constantly and the calls keep coming anyway, the wording on that page is the problem. It is a modest thing to measure, and it turns a document you hoped people read into one you can improve on evidence.

Create Your Tenant Handbook

Accessible for Every Tenant in the Building

Some tenants use a screen reader, some cannot use a mouse, and plenty are reading in poor light with tired eyes. Flipbooks AI covers the basics without any work from you. Screen reader support means the emergency numbers and the repair steps are read aloud. Keyboard navigation moves through the pages. Readable type and honest contrast make the difference on a phone in a dark hallway. Accessibility here is not a nicety: it decides whether somebody can find the out of hours number when they need it.

Create Your Tenant Handbook
Accessible for Every Tenant in the Building

Frequently Asked
Tenant Handbook

What is a tenant handbook flipbook?

It is your tenant handbook PDF turned into an interactive booklet with realistic page turns. Flipbooks AI does this free, so tenants swipe through repairs, bins, parking and emergency contacts on any phone, with no app and no login.

Is Flipbooks AI free for property managers?

Yes. It is completely free with no watermark, no ads and no page limits. Branding, tappable contacts, password protection, sharing and analytics are all included, and you can publish a separate handbook for every building you manage.

Can tenants report a repair from the handbook?

Yes. Make the maintenance number tappable and add a button that opens your repair form with the property reference filled in. You can also embed a short video showing where the stopcock and the fuse board are.

How do tenants get the handbook at move in?

Put the link in the welcome email with the keys, print a QR code on the move in letter and the hallway noticeboard, or embed the flipbook on your resident portal. Flipbooks AI hosts it and can put it behind a password.

Can I make a different handbook for each building?

Yes, and you should. Door codes, bin days and contractors differ by building. Duplicate a handbook, change the pages that differ and publish. Each one gets its own link, its own QR code and its own reading figures.

Does the handbook replace the tenancy agreement?

No. The handbook explains how the building works in plain language. The tenancy agreement is the contract and it decides where the two disagree. This page is not legal advice, so have a professional in your jurisdiction check anything about deposits, notice or access.

Can I update bin days or contact numbers later?

Yes. Change a collection day, a contractor number or the parking rules whenever you need to and republish. Every tenant sees the new version through the link they already have, so nothing has to be reissued.

Is it safe to include door codes in the handbook?

Use a password and turn downloading off if you do, but be realistic. A password stops casual sharing rather than making the file impossible to pass on. For anything sensitive, leave it out of the handbook and change codes on a schedule.

Have more questions?

If you still have questions or want to explore more details about our features, limitations, and usage, we invite you to visit our full FAQ page.

Contact Us