How many towels do you provide for your guests?

[Karen-and-Brian0]

I thought I was doing well by providing 2 bath towels, 1 hand towel and 1 facecloth per guest for a 2 day stay. However, this past week-end I hosted 7 guests at our cabin & they used ALL 14 bath towels provided plus got into the cupboard with our family towels and used an additional 8. This is excessive, am I right?

I'm now considering adding yet another sign - this one to the effect of "We invite you to join with us to conserve water and energy by using your towels more than once". Anybody have any advice, or luck with this?

Thanks in advance, Karen

[Ana7]

So do I, as I've found out that some guests take a new towel for every hand-washing.

I was leaving all the fresh towels in a cupboard in the studio, now I'm taking them out and locking them in a private stash.

[Sheryl16]

I had the same problem xperience although now they request them !

[Elaine-and-Duane0]

Not a hard rule but I supply 1 face cloth per guest daily. Bath and hand towels, 1 per guest to use for about 3 days. However, guests that are accustomed to hotels tend to use more. I just keep my eye on it. I figure providing fresh linens as needed is part of hosting.  We usually host 1-2 people and I leave out 6 bath and hand towels plus 18 face clothes. We live in our rental and it is easy to keep an eye on usage and refresh as needed. I would not expect a guest to reuse a face cloth( ugh). So many variables on towel usage - I just go with the flow. Happy hosting! Sounds like your guests were extreme. It will probably balance out. 

[Julia66]

Hi @Karen-and-Brian0 - yes that sounds excessive but unusual.

I wonder if folk in a group in an apartment forget which towel they have used, especially if all the towels are white, and take a new one.  Then they probably don't hang them up to dry, and always take a new dry one.

I let private rooms, and provide a bath towel and a hand towel and one  bath mat per shower-room, but give each guest in a room a different-coloured set so that they know which towel is theirs.  Not so easy in an apartment, of course.  We also have heated towel rails in this chilly country, so they always have a warm dry towel. 

I tell the guests to ask if they need any more of anything (meaning towels, pillows, toiletries, stapler - yes, I've been asked for that!)

However, I hadn't thought of providing wash-cloths (face flannels).  I'll certainly get some and provide them.  Thanks for that.  They must all have thought I was gross. 

[Niki0]

I leave a mountain of towels regardless of length of duration (10 bath towels, 8 hand towels & 5 face cloths), despite knowing that generally, they are at least going to be 50% used/thrown around the room/goodness knows what!

They are washable and there is a fresh stash waiting to take their place even on the odd occasion they have used/stolen them.

All part of the hosting experience, I do wish for my guests to feel as though in some respects they are staying in a hotel.

[Monica4]

@Karen-and-Brian0 If your towels are all the same color and each guest does not have their own towel bar, how can they possibly remember which towel is theirs to use more than once? I have 12 complete towel sets, each set a different color, and have them all stacked in the bathroom. The guests use what they need and often it is only one set per person. They will re-use their towels if nobody but themselves has used them. Who wants to use other people's towels....yuk!

[Karen-and-Brian0]

Great suggestions here, thanks everyone!

@Monica4 Each guest room does have their own towel bar, otherwise, yes, that would be yuk. I wouldn't expect them to play russian roulette with guessing which towel is theirs on a communal towel bar. I think @Lyndsey2 nailed it - people are used to hotels, and don't adjust their mindset for a BNB experience, even though hotels urge towel reuse, there are guests who call up for additional towels all the time. My last guests would definitely be in that category. 

@Jane148 Yes, every hotel does have a reuse your towels sign & I think its a great idea too! - would it work I wonder? I know what you mean - you'd think people interested in staying at our listings would be of an eco-friendly/conservation mindset knowing the kind of places they are, but that doesn't seem to be the case. They expect hotel amenities and use water like there's no tomorrow. 

Julia, none of the hotels in the UK I've ever stayed at supplied facecloths, so your North American guests will be very pleasantly surprised that you provide them!

[Lyndsey2]

That does seem like an unusual number of towels used! I give each guest one bath towel, one washcloth, and one hand towel. I tell them there are extra linens in the dresser (one set per guest). I've only had two sets of guests use the extras, but then, I've also never had a guest stay longer than 3 nights. 

I once stayed in a bed and breakfast after traveling through a number of hotels. At that point, leaving the towels in a pile on the ground to indicate I wanted fresh towels had become habit and I did it at the B&B without considering that they may function differently. I had to go and ask the owner for a new set of towels after I had left mine on the ground and felt like a real putz. I wonder if it's possible these folks made the same mistake. Or could they have used the extras as swim/beach/gym towels? It has never happened to me but I've seen other hosts mention it happening on here.

[Ange2]

@Karen-and-Brian0   I think there is nothing wrong and everything right about leaving a note about conservation of resources: water, energy etc. I have come across it in pricey hotels.

[Andy8]

I always hang 2 towels a smaller towel and a wash cloth in the bathroom and there is always 2 extra towels in the closet with more cloths.

I used to leave all my towels 14 nicely rolled up but found it encouraged excessive use. I now have a locking closet that I store the extra towels and linens and dispurse them upon request.

[Rosalind9]

Hello.  I am a newbie and on my 2nd AirBnB guest.  This second guest had my whole beach house to herself.    I'm looking for advice because I want to be fair to my guests but at the same time I want to avoid anger and resentment towards them.  My guest just wrapped up 18 nights at the house and when I arrived to clean up, the house was just disgusting.  The garbage had never been thrown out and had worms.  But I digress.  She had access to the linen closet...all new towels and good quality.  In 18 days she used 18 towels plus about 7 beach towels and a number of hand and facecloths.   Apparently, the white towels were used to clean up whatever from the floors and are stained; she wouldn't use the mops available.  When I arrived I found a mountain of towels on the laundry room floor.  I find the number of towels entirely excessive and I wanted someone else's opinion.  How do I calculate the number of towels to leave in the linen closet because now I'm want to leave only the towels necessary. 

[Annette33]

Hi @Rosalind9 , welcome to hosting, what a great place your parents left you! It's probably a good thing that this happened at the beginning, so you can adjust your house rules and your overall approach. 

Obviously, it's a difference if you have 12 people at the house (your max) or just one person. I would suggest to have a new set of towels per person available after two days. Best is to adjust it to how many days and how many people you will be having, and do the math. A lot also depends if you expect the guests to do the laundry for themselves or if you will take care of it.

the longer the stay, the clearer you need to be in what you expect guests to participate in, such as taking out the trash, changing the linens after 4 or 5 days, keeping the kitchen clean, etc.  Best is actually to have your go to person come in every 4 or 5 days and do a general cleaning. - That way you will know what is going on and can stay on top of it.

Bottomline is that you need to spell out everything and be very clear about it, not necessarily in your house rules, but have it posted in the house, in the kitchen, bathroom, wherever. Don't rely on people to share your ideas of what is "reasonable", u tomyou tomdefine it for them.

While you are rethinking all that, I would also go back into your listings and define clearly what is available and what is not, like your two listings look exactly the same, but one is max 12 people, one (room only) for 2 people. The link to a website you put in the second listing (room only) for space description doesn't work - you cannot put any links to other sites into your listing. so do 2 people who rent the room have the run of the whole house?Lots to clarify....

Also, I see you have a cancellation as your first "review": read up on what cancellations mean to hosts - you don't ever want to do that, unless absolutely necessary.

[Mairi3]

I just tell people now that there is one hand and one bath provided take additional if needed, even before this a lot of my guests took their own if staying more than one night.  I had young people who trashed my house once and sneaked in extra guests, 9 in total and they used about 30 towels and 19 duvet sets over 2 nights.  Pissed on floors so dried it up with my freshly laundered sheets.  I no longer keep the spares in the house as this extra laundry and time meant I made no money.  I do have a heated rail, tumble dryer and outside drying line.  I have had 8 towels pinched since Feb of this year, ordering new ones today so I think I will supply wash cloths too.  Never seen them here in Scotland, I would always bring my own but this made me think...

[Casita-By-The-Texas-Bay0]

Oh what a messy guest!

Our house is a beach house too, and we go over towels like running water...guest leaving our towels by the community pool, etc...

I just buy a couple more every time I go by my property because personally I love a good towel.

[Lucy129]

Personally, at home I use a clean towel al most every day. But I've been on many trips and then I just use the standard set of one larger towel and maybe a smaller towel and I'm fine.

However, I was wondering, since you mentioned it was a group of 7, were they all the same towels? I've been on group trips in airbnbs too, and sometimes people get confused about what towel was theirs, especially when there is not enough space to hang them up. In group settings, I always take mine out of the bathroom and hang them at a specific place that I know is my towel, but I'm usually the only one to do that. But people do not like using someone else's towel, especially when it's not a spouse or partner. 

I think this may also have been part of the reason why so many towels were used.