Property Prep Guide: Get Every Home Shoot-Ready
Send every client a property prep checklist automatically. Write it in Spatiko or link a PDF, and it goes out with booking emails and a shareable page.
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Half the reshoots in real estate photography start with a car in the driveway or a bathroom counter full of toiletries. A property prep guide fixes that before you arrive: you write one short checklist, and Spatiko sends it to every client who books a shoot. It lands in their confirmation email and the reminder the day before, and it lives on a page they can forward to the homeowner, tick off, or print.
The prep guide is available on every plan. It lives in Settings → Documents next to your booking terms, but it isn’t a legal document: clients never have to accept it, and it never blocks a booking.
Turn on your prep guide
Go to Settings → Documents. The page has two groups: Booking terms (your Terms of Service, Cancellation Policy, and Privacy Policy) and Client guides, which holds the Property Prep Guide. Click its row to open it.
- Turn on Add to booking emails — “Goes into the booking confirmation and the reminder sent the day before each shoot.”
- Choose Write to type the guide in Spatiko, or Link to point at one you already have (see below).
- In Write mode, click Start from our template to drop in a ready-made checklist: lights on and blinds open, cars off the driveway and the street, bins and hoses away, counters cleared, beds made, pet bowls and litter boxes hidden, ceiling fans and TVs off. Edit it to match how you work. The button shows while the text box is empty.
- Click Save.
The guide can be up to 1,500 characters, and the counter under the text box keeps track. Spatiko’s own hint says it best: “Keep it short: a checklist gets read, a manual doesn’t.” Preview shows how it looks in the email, under the heading Before the shoot.
Only the business owner and team members with the business-settings permission (admins, by default) can edit documents.
Write or link
Write keeps everything in Spatiko, and a few formatting habits carry through to the client’s checklist page:
- Lines that start with a bullet (•, -, or *) or a number (1., 2.) become tick boxes.
- A short line ending in a colon, right above a list, becomes that list’s heading, like “Outside:” or “Kitchen:”.
- Any other line stays a normal paragraph.
- Links you paste become clickable in the email and on the page.
Link is for a guide you’ve already designed. Paste a full link starting with https:// — Spatiko’s hint suggests “a PDF, a Canva design or a page on your site.” Clients get a short line in their emails, “Here’s how to get the property ready for the photos.”, with an Open the prep guide link. Your shareable prep guide page then forwards visitors to your link.
Where clients get it
Once the guide is on, Spatiko adds it in four places, with nothing to remember on your side:
- The booking confirmation email. A Before the shoot block with your guide, plus an Open or share this guide link to the checklist page. It’s included when the order has a scheduled shoot, including confirmations you send yourself from an order. Quote requests don’t get it, because nothing is booked yet.
- The day-before reminder. The reminder clients get about a day before each shoot carries the same block, so the checklist is fresh when it matters. More on automatic reminders in managing shoots.
- The booking success page. Right after booking, clients see a Get the property ready card, “Share this guide with the homeowner before the shoot.”, with Open the guide and Copy link. The card replaces the generic “Make sure the property is ready” tip in the page’s next steps.
- The calendar event. Both the calendar invite attached to the confirmation email and the success page’s Add to Calendar event include a “Prep guide:” link in the event details.
The shareable checklist page
Every guide also lives on its own page at your booking address, ending in /book/prep-guide. For Pro Media Team that’s https://book.promediateam.com/book/prep-guide. The Shareable page row in the dialog shows your link with Copy link and Open, once the guide is saved and switched on.
The page carries your logo and colors, and in Write mode it turns your guide into a checklist titled Get the property ready:
- Tick items off. Each bullet becomes a round tick box, and a progress line counts them, like “3 of 8 done”. When everything’s ticked, the page says “All set — the home is ready for its close-up.” Progress is saved on that device only, so the agent and the homeowner each keep their own. Uncheck all starts over.
- Print / Save PDF prints a clean copy with your logo and contact details at the top, which suits a homeowner who likes paper or an agent who wants to leave it on the counter.
- Share opens the device’s share menu where there is one, and otherwise copies the link.
- Questions about the shoot? sits at the bottom, with your phone, email, and website.
In Link mode, the page simply forwards to your link. If no guide is switched on, visitors see “No prep guide here yet.”
The agent who books is rarely the person who moves the cars. That’s what the page is for: the agent taps Copy link on the success page or forwards the email link, and the homeowner gets a checklist they can work through on their phone. You can also paste the link into your own texts and emails, or add it to your website.
A French version (optional)
If you offer French (see offering your booking page in French), the dialog gains an English | Français switch. Write a French guide on the Français tab, or click Start from our template there for a ready-made French checklist. The dialog shows “Optional. Clients whose language is Français get the English version until you add one.”
French-speaking clients then get the French guide in their emails, and their page links open the French checklist. Until you add one, the row in Settings → Documents shows a grey FR missing pill, and those clients see your default-language version. Unlike your terms and policies, the prep guide never stops you from offering French.
Turning it off
Open the guide and switch off Add to booking emails. Emails stop carrying it, the success-page card disappears, and the shareable page shows “No prep guide here yet.” Your text is kept, and the row shows Off, so switching it back on later restores it as you left it.
Tips for a guide that gets read
- Lead with what costs you shots. Cars in the driveway, lights off, and open toilet lids can’t be fixed in the edit without extra work. Put them first.
- One line per task. Short bullets turn into tick boxes; long paragraphs don’t.
- Leave access details to your booking questions. Lockbox codes and gate codes change per property, so ask for them on the form with booking questions rather than in the guide.
- Link to more if you need it. A line like “Twilight shoot? See https://yourstudio.com/twilight” becomes a clickable link.
Go deeper
- Real estate photography prep checklist — a room-by-room list to copy into your guide, plus what editing can and can’t fix.
- Business profile, branding, and documents — the rest of Settings → Documents, including the terms clients accept at booking.
- Order forms — the booking flow that ends on the success page with your prep guide card.
- Managing shoots on your calendar — rescheduling and the automatic reminders that carry your guide.
- The client portal — where your agents follow up on their bookings after the shoot is set.
Frequently asked questions
Does the prep guide go out with every booking?
With every booking that has a scheduled shoot. It's added to the booking confirmation email and to the reminder sent the day before each shoot. A quote request or an order with nothing scheduled yet gets no prep block in its confirmation, and the guide only goes out while it's switched on in Settings → Documents.
Can I use my own PDF or Canva checklist instead of typing one in Spatiko?
Yes. Switch the guide to Link and paste a full link starting with https:// — a PDF, a Canva design, or a page on your website. Emails then carry an Open the prep guide link, and your shareable prep guide page sends visitors straight to that link.
Does the homeowner need an account to use the checklist?
No. The prep guide page is public on your booking address, so anyone with the link can open it, tick items off, print it, or share it. Ticked items are remembered on that device only, so a homeowner and an agent each keep their own progress.
Do I need a French version of my prep guide?
No, it's optional. If you offer French and haven't written a French guide, French-speaking clients get your default-language version. Unlike your terms and policies, a missing French prep guide never stops you from turning on French.