Airbnb. Just drop the soap! Please

[David6]

Have noticed several guests are saying ‘soap’ is missing in my listings. Young and older guests. 

We provide several bottles of shower gel & shampoo - different fragrances. 

At the sinks we provide liquid soap. I despise bar soap. I don’t wish to provide it, it’s a waste of money and after each guest - we have lots of 1 nights stays - it get tossed in the bin. All that waste of packaging too, day after day. Liquid soap can be topped up & I just find it so much easier.

But hey, it isn’t about me (as Airbnb policies reinforce every day) But ALL about my guests!? 🙂 

Any thoughts on this? 

[Marie82]

@David6  many guests have hotel amenities in minds. When I 1st start hosting I used to provide small size soap + 1-litre shower gel in diff fragrance. After a while, i stopped providing it as not many were using it. But now I keep few normal size soap in the storage room in case a weekly guest ask as I get many for 10 days to 15 days business trip guests. 

[David6]

Good point @Marie82 

Surprisingly it’s never the business guests, but a few younger guests and the retired.

I’ll just need to get over myself and leave a few small bars in the bathroom and they can use if they wish. 

I just wish Airbnb would stop setting hosts up for a fall though. Everything about the review process focuses on negativity. ‘What was missing.’ Etc, etc 

[Anonymous]

Has anyone ever met someone who actually likes those tiny little bars of cheap hotel soap? For me, one use of those things feels like a cruel but well-deserved punishment for forgetting to pack my own toiletries.

[David6]

@Anonymous 

I had flight delay to Bucharest and arrived late, tired and just wanting a quick shower. A drip drip water supply  and a tiny bar -seemingly triple wrapped - greeted me. No shampoo. 5 minutes to open the stupid package with wet slippery hands! How I cursed. And how could I have forgotten to bring my own 🙂 

[Anonymous]

@David6  "Soap" could mean anything - from personal bottles of designer shower gel to a moldy bar of communal soap flecked with pubic hair to a splatter of washing-up liquid - so making it a requirement is bound to backfire. 

[David6]

Exactly @Anonymous 

It’s the usual, let’s tell hosts they must get 5* reviews, but throw down a few bananas skins in the review process so they will struggle to achieve.  

As soon as you ask a guest ‘what’s missing’ and prompt then, their mind is then automatically focusing on ‘what was bad.’ No wonder we often get all 5* reviews but overall 4*  because ‘yes there was soap, but  not every kind of soap, I can’t possibly give a 5!’ 

[Helen350]

@David6 ...and what's even more slippery than "a few banana skins".......?

[Chris232]

I was chatting to a local host who admiitedto buying empy Molton Brown Soap bottles, and then buying smilar fragrant bottled soap from Lidl.

She always gets praise for supplying expensive soap. .... obviously its the bottle that counts not the soap

🙂

[Julie143 · Accepted solution]

There are so many reviews with guests complaining about soap. I decided that soap is not the hill I want to die on.

You want soap? you get soap!

I provide shower gel, hand soap in the bathrooms, special “kitchen hand soap,” dish soap and, reluctantly bar soap. See the photo. It comes in cardboard boxes, which are recycleable- no plastic wrap. As far as *@#***** little bar soap goes, it’s OK. I personally don’t care for the fragrance and don’t use it myself.

It’s surprising how many guests do use it, though

[David6]

@Julie143  Fantastic! I can get finally get over myself and supply ‘proper’ soap!! I’m so sick of the comments in the reviews.  #soapgate 

[Mark116]

@David6 #soapgate.Hilarious.  We do supply bar soap [as well as hand soap and shower gel], mosts guests don't use it or take it, but some do, those who use it and leave it, we just use it ourselves in the kitchen as an adidtion to the soft soap, so at the end of the day, nothing gets wasted.  It does look nice sitting on the rolled up towels though and makes for good presentation.

[David6]

@Mark116  

Haha Mark. Ok, you’ve convinced me. #soapgate has well and truly been solved ! 

Think it was visualising your rolled up towels with the mini soap perched on top. I mean hey, us hosts got to keep those standards 🙂

[Yolanda8]

yes; don't die on the soap hill............  -I'm dying on the stupidity hill; 4 years ago when I started with AirBnb the calibre of Guest was pretty high... they read all the info in the "House Rules" and were respectful.... -lately; they read nothing, just "Instant Book" & show up early then call for help with the Door Code because they havn't downloaded the AirBnb app onto their mobile so don't have the "Itinerary" with the "Access Instructions".....  -Guests expect me to be available 24/7 to answer STUPID questions that have already been outlined in the "House Rules" -as I'm not in the Hotel business; I've learned from the travel industry that it's best to NEVER say "No"..... -just set a $$ charge for EVERYTHING.....

$25 "Technical Support" fee applied [for help with digital lock]

$150 "Emergency 2nd Person in Accommodation" fee [this is 3X the 1st person rate for this "One Adult per room; NO VISITORS"]

$50 "Early Check-In" / "Late Check-Out" fee applied [video at entrance provides AirBnb proof of arrival & departure times

$250 Towing Fee applied for parking overnight in Host driveway [blocking Host vehicle in garage]

[Ann489]

@David6  I am totally with you, David.  I provide exactly the same as you--minus the dang soap bar.   It's one thing to use them in your own home, for your family, but I would not want to see a soap bar, previously used by someone else, in an Airbnb I stay in.  I wish, Airbnb would just drop it.  😛