NSW Airbnb Evacuation Diagrams: How Many and Where They Go

If you let a home in NSW as a short-term rental, on Airbnb or anywhere else, you need one evacuation diagram inside the home on or beside the entrance door, plus one inside each bedroom on or beside the bedroom door. A home with three separate bedrooms needs four diagrams, each fixed between 1200 mm and 1600 mm above the floor.

That rule comes from the NSW Short-term Rental Accommodation Fire Safety Standard, dated April 2021 and still the version NSW Planning publishes. The diagram rules barely differ between a house or town house and an apartment.

You can make every sheet yourself. No certificate is needed. This covers NSW short-term letting only.

How many evacuation diagrams do I need?

Count the separate bedrooms, even the small one that only gets used when the place is full. Then add one for the entrance door.

• 1 bedroom: 2 diagrams
• 2 bedrooms: 3 diagrams
• 3 bedrooms: 4 diagrams
• 4 bedrooms: 5 diagrams

Can I copy one plan for each room?

Not in a home with separate bedrooms. Each diagram needs a YOU ARE HERE marker for the spot where it hangs, and must be orientated to the direction of egress, the way out from that spot.

Picture one plan with YOU ARE HERE at the front door, printed four times. Stand in the back bedroom and read your copy. It says you are at the other end of the house, and the hallway running straight up the page may really run off to your left.

So each spot gets its own sheet.

Where do the diagrams go?

The Standard says affixed, so a copy in the welcome folder is only an extra.

• House entrance: inside the home, on the door or on the wall beside it.
• Apartment entrance: inside the home, on the nearest wall to the door that is not fire-rated.
• Bedrooms: inside each room, on the door or on the wall beside it. If the open door swings over the sheet, use the other side of the frame.
• Height: measure from the top of the tiles or carpet. Mark 1200 mm and 1600 mm in pencil and keep the whole sheet between them. A4 fits either way up. A3 only fits on its side.
• Finish: print in colour, laminate or frame each sheet, and fix it with screws or strong double-sided tape, but use neither on a fire door, smoke door or fire-rated wall.

An apartment entrance door is often a fire door, and the wall beside it can be fire-rated. The industry body FPA Australia advises against fixing diagrams to either unless the fixing is tested or formally assessed. The Standard's words "adjacent to" let you use the nearest wall that is not fire-rated, so ask your strata or building manager which one that is.

If the layout or equipment changes, print a fresh set with a new date of issue.

What must each evacuation diagram show?

The Standard lists 19 items, in clause 4.2.2 for houses and 5.5.2 for apartments. Run this list once per sheet. First, the sheet itself:

• Fixed 1200 mm to 1600 mm above the finished floor
• Clear, legible and durable
• At least A4
• Titled EVACUATION DIAGRAM, not Evacuation Plan
• Date of issue
• Property address
• Legend of symbols

Then the way out:

• Orientated to the direction of egress
• YOU ARE HERE marker
• Pictorial layout of the home and common areas on that storey
• Exit door from the home
• Designated exits from the storey, in green
• Path of travel to the exit, in green
• Evacuation assembly area for the building

Then the fire equipment, in red:

• Any fire hose reels
• Extinguishers in the home and any common areas on the same storey
• Fire blankets in the home

And two lines for the guest:

• The national emergency number, 000
• Advice to download the Emergency+ app

If your house has no extinguisher, fire blanket or hose reel, there is nothing to mark, on a plain reading of the Standard's word "any". An apartment without a hose reel is the same, but it must have a 2.5 kg ABE extinguisher and a fire blanket in the kitchen, so both go on its sheets.

If you start from a template, check it against this list. The date of issue, 000, the Emergency+ advice and the green and red colours are the easiest to miss.

An apartment sheet also takes in the corridor and the exits from that floor, so ask your strata or building manager where those and the assembly area are. A diagram already in the corridor does not replace the ones inside your apartment.

In a detached house, you pick the assembly area. Keep it clear of the building and easy to name. "Footpath by the letterbox" beats "out the front". In a two-storey house, the green path on an upstairs sheet leads down the stairs to the exit door.

Can I draw my own evacuation diagrams?

Yes. The Standard does not say who prepares them, so you can do it yourself. A sensible order:

• Draw one clean floor plan of the level, with every door. Hand-drawn is fine.
• Mark the exit door you choose, then draw the way out in green from each bedroom.
• Add any extinguisher, fire blanket or hose reel in red, then a legend.
• Make one version for the entrance and one for each bedroom. On each, move the YOU ARE HERE marker and turn the plan, so left on the page is left for whoever is standing there.
• Add the title, address, date of issue, assembly area, 000 and the Emergency+ line. Print at A4 or A3.
• Stand at each sheet and follow the green line on foot. If anything makes you stop and think, redraw it.

You may see AS 3745, the workplace emergency planning standard, quoted for these diagrams, but the NSW Standard does not refer to it. For workplaces, read evacuation diagram requirements in NSW.

Does this apply if I live in the home?

Yes. It applies if you stay in the home with your guests, and if you hand over the keys and leave.

What about my own room, a studio or a granny flat?

My views below are not rulings, so your local council is the place to ask.

• Your own bedroom, or any other bedroom guests do not use. Nothing in the Standard exempts them and I have found no official guidance either way. Counting them is the cautious choice.
• A studio with no separate bedroom door. One sheet at the entrance door is the natural reading, but the Standard does not say so.
• A granny flat. NSW Planning lists a granny flat as a dwelling, so if the flat is what you let, one reasonable reading is that you count its own entrance and bedrooms. I have found nothing official on that count.
• An approved bed and breakfast or serviced apartment, or a caravan or tiny home on wheels. They are outside these rules, so ask your council what fire safety duties apply.

Do I need a certificate?

No. Your home must be on the NSW short-term rental Register before it is let. You declare that it complies when you register, and no certificate is required.

That declaration is yours whoever drew the sheets, and it covers the whole Standard. A house also needs smoke alarms and, in some cases, a heat alarm in an attached private garage with durable notices saying so. An apartment also needs alarms, an entrance door that opens from inside without a key, and that kitchen extinguisher and fire blanket. Read the rest of the Standard before you declare.

What does paying someone actually change?

It saves your time and you get clean files ready to print. It does not change the 19 items, your declaration, the rest of the Standard or the job of fixing the sheets at the right height.

How much do they cost?

My price for a single-level home goes by the number of diagrams.

• Entrance plus 1, 2 or 3 bedrooms: A$280
• Entrance plus 4 bedrooms: A$350
• Entrance plus 5, 6 or 7 bedrooms: A$420

Each floor above the first that has diagrams adds A$50, so a two-storey house with the entrance downstairs and three bedrooms upstairs is A$330. A studio that needs one sheet is still A$280. The pricing page has a calculator.

How do I get a set made?

Send me any one of these. No site visit is needed.

• Any floor plan, even a phone photo of one
• A scan from the free EvacPath Scan app, on an iPhone Pro or Pro Max, 12 Pro or newer
• Phone photos walking through the home, showing each room and each outside door

Add a photo of any extinguisher or fire blanket. On a job this size, the first draft reaches you as a PDF within two business days of your files arriving. Nothing is payable until you approve the first draft, and you deal with me throughout.

The finished sheets are print-ready PDFs, drawn at A3 on their side, which is above the Standard's A4 minimum. Any local printer can print them. You can see sample sheets here, and when you are ready, send me what you have.