Why arrival on Curaçao is its own thing
Most flights from Amsterdam land in the late afternoon or the evening. By the time a guest clears customs, picks up the rental car and drives out of Hato, it is dark. They are driving on roads they do not know, towards a resort gate that looks like every other gate, with the arrival instructions somewhere in an email thread they can no longer find.
That is the moment a single link earns its keep. Not a folder in the house, which they reach only after they are already inside, but a page on their phone that they opened before they boarded.
The island questions worth answering in advance
Every host here answers the same handful, so write them once:
- The water. Curaçao makes its drinking water from sea water, and it comes out of the tap safe to drink. Guests who are used to buying bottled water in the Caribbean do not assume that.
- The sockets. 127 volt, with the flat pins you see in the United States. European chargers need an adapter, and some appliances do not like the lower voltage.
- The car. You drive on the right. Say where the car goes at the house and whether there is a second gate code for the car park.
- The bins. Which day, where the container stands, and what happens if they miss it.
- The beaches. Some bays charge an entrance fee per car or per person, others are free. Guests arrive with cash for the first one and are glad you told them.
- Sunday. Which supermarket is open, and which of your favourite places are closed.
None of this is in a guidebook in the form a guest needs it: what applies to your house, in the order they will need it.
One page, several languages
Your guests are a mix. A Dutch family in the high season, Americans on a long weekend, Colombians or Venezuelans crossing for a few days. The page carries whatever you write, so you can keep it in English and add a Dutch version for guests from the Netherlands, or write it in Papiamentu for the people who live here and rent for a weekend.
Our own site is available in Papiamentu as well, at guestporta.com/pap.
For owners and for managers
If you rent out one apartment next to your own house, a page takes an evening to fill in and then runs itself. If you manage a handful of properties for owners who live abroad, the gain is in the repetition: the same structure for every home, with only the gate code, the bins and the beach nearby swapped out. That is the case the property managers page covers in more detail.